by Isabel North
“You are so sexy.”
“Lila.”
“Sorry. It’s all the clenching fists and the red face and the growling.” She patted his bicep. “You have a good point. Once Jenny makes up her mind, that woman is tough to move. I’m not going to hide things from her if she asks me outright, but listen, this is your private business. Sure, I may have stumbled across it and an argument could be made that the code of sisterhood requires that I inform her at once, but…”
“But?”
“As well as being too sexy for your own good, Derek Tate, you’re a good man. You make her happy. I can keep my lips zipped until you get it sorted. Also, I have a great surprise face. What?” She held up her hands, looking from one side to the other. “I never knew! Whaaat? No idea!”
He squinted at her.
Lila sagged. “The sisterhood is going to expel me for my egregious betrayal. I’m not fooling myself here. I am a terrible person. But I’m an awesome friend. I refuse to stand by while my bestie lives her life as a spinster in her little house in the woods until her daughter grows up and leaves the nest. Because we both know that’s a very real possibility. In fact, Derek, I think you’re the only man she’d ever take a chance on. Lucky for Jenny, I have her best interests at heart. You gonna let me go after Lassiter?”
“Can I stop you?”
“Nope.”
“Then take him out. And I’ll work on Rawlings.”
* * * *
After Dean left, Jenny worked hard throughout the afternoon, preparing the ground for the community center’s new patio. She threw herself into it, using the intense physical labor of whacking her shovel and, on occasion, pickaxe, into the dirt as a way to burn through her frustration with Dean.
The odd thing was, she wasn’t as frustrated with him as she’d expected to be. She was irritated as hell because Dean, as always, was underestimating her and overestimating himself.
Schooling him was going to take time she would rather spend doing basically anything other than interacting with a man who wanted to take advantage of someone he perceived as weaker, and sugarcoated it as wanting to protect them.
Perceived being the key word.
Dean didn’t know who he was messing with. He didn’t know her anymore, if he ever had.
Jenny might not have the money to throw around on a new custody case, but she had something better.
Enough intelligence to know how to de-escalate a situation.
And friends who could help her do it.
She turned her plan over during the rest of her work day, packed up her tools, and sat in the shade of a small maple as she placed a call.
The phone rang three times before he answered. “Hi, Jenny.”
“Hi.” She stalled. Wow. That was quick. Jenny scowled at the grass.
Okay, she had the intelligence to come up with a great plan and she was blessed with a friend who could help her do it, but her independent nature wasn’t ever going to be happy asking for help.
“What’s up?” Gabe Sterling asked.
At the same time, Jenny said, “How are things in San Francisco? How are Nora and the baby?”
“Miracles sent from on high.”
He wasn’t even being flippant. The man adored his wife and unborn child.
“Jenny?”
She realized she’d missed what else Gabe had said. “Yes?”
“I asked what’s up?”
“I can’t call to chat?”
“You regularly call to chat. You never call with that tone of voice.”
Jenny wrestled her pride into submission and cleared her throat. “I, uh…kind of need you. Well, not you personally. I need to borrow an asset of yours.”
“Name it.”
“I need a lawyer.”
“Are you in trouble?” he demanded, going from lazy and amused to sharp and alert.
“No.” Jenny heaved a sigh. “I am having an ex-husband situation. It’s nothing major.”
“Dean, huh? Not a problem. I’ll destroy him. What are we thinking? You want me to put him in prison? Make him leave the country? I can do anything but kill him. That, I can arrange. I’ll contract it out to my brother.”
“For God’s sake, Gabe, you have to stop telling people your brother is a contract killer. He’s in the Navy.”
“Whatever. Choose Hansen’s future, and I’ll fix your problem.”
“No! I don’t need you to fix it for me. I don’t need people to fix things for me, I’m fixing it myself. I have a plan. I know your company is based in San Francisco, but do you have any lawyers who are licensed to practice in Washington?”
“One of my companies is based in San Francisco, and I have lawyers who are licensed to practice everywhere.”
“Great. All I need is to borrow the meanest lawyer you have. I need a scarecrow.”
“I’m hoping that’s an analogy or a metaphor. If I order my best lawyer to stand in a field and scare birds, he’ll make me give him an obscene bonus.”
“It’s an analogy. I can’t actually afford a lawyer. All I need is for it to look like I can.”
“You don’t have to afford a lawyer. I’ll afford it for you.”
“The whole point of my plan is to avoid anyone having to afford anything. I’m bluffing.”
“Is Hansen threatening you?” Gabe’s voice crackled with suppressed anger.
“Yes, but it’s nothing to worry about. I’ve got this, Gabe. He made the foolish decision to gamble with my life. I’m going to play him at his own game, and I am going to shut him down.”
“I’m coming to Emerson.”
“No! That isn’t necessary.” She didn’t even want Gabe in the same state as Derek.
“I want to have a chat with Dean Hansen. I think I want that chat face to face.”
“I think that’s a terrible idea.”
“Pity. I’m coming.”
“Gabe, I don’t want you to come here. I’ve got it under control. I want to do this my way.”
Silence.
“Please don’t make me regret calling you. I don’t want to start a whole legal nightmare over Kate. I will not have her be the prize in a tug of war. Hence my plan. He’s bluffing. I’m bluffing. Dean will blink, I promise you, and we can avoid all legal proceedings. He thinks I can’t afford a lawyer. If I make him think that not only do I have one, I have one who can crush his, he’ll back down.”
“Hmm.”
“C’mon. My way’s best. Little bit of smoke and mirrors, little bit of attitude and front, Dean realizes he can’t mess with me, boom. Problem solved.”
“I like it. All right. I’ll send someone.”
“Weren’t you listening? You don’t have to send anyone. Get with the plan, Gabe. Smoke and mirrors. All I need from you is a lawyer who’s briefed so that when they get a call from Dean or his lawyer to check up on me, they don’t say, ‘Who the hell is Jenny Finley?’, they say, ‘Of course, we are handling her case, and did you know I eat small-town lawyers for breakfast, lunch and dinner?’ See? This is elegant. I end his stupid play with a five-minute phone call.”
“That is elegant.”
“So, yes?”
“Are you sure you don’t want to do it for real? Say the word and I can make Hansen go away for good.”
“Do not have him killed. Don’t have him thrown in prison. I just want him…schooled.”
“I’m honored you asked me, Jenny.”
“You were the obvious choice.”
“You didn’t think about asking Alex? He’d throw down for you in a second.”
“For a smart guy, you sure are missing the point. I’m not asking you because I need a big strong man to throw down for me. I’m asking you because you have a legal department I can borrow. I know Alex is loaded, what with being Mr. Rock star Sculptor and all, but he doesn’t already have his very own lawyer I can pretend is mine, getting him involved would lead to spending actual money, aaaaand we circle back to the me-affording-it problem.
&nbs
p; “Besides, if I ask Alex, he’d tell Elle, she’d go after Dean, and then it’s all a big thing. Or he might not tell Elle, but he’d go after Dean himself. Once again, it’s all a big thing. You, Gabe, are the one I can trust to be logical.”
“You have failed to take into consideration how pissed off I am to hear that Hansen is threatening you.”
“Yeah, well, unlike Alex and Elle, you can’t do anything rash because you’re in San Francisco—”
“I’m in Seattle right now.”
“—and you’re a smart guy.”
“I’m a genius.”
“—and, again, unlike Alex and Elle, you can set aside emotion for long enough to run through the various outcomes and realize that my way is the best way to do it.”
“All right. I like your plan. Not all of it, but most of it. Go ahead and give them Bill’s name.”
“Bill? As in Anderson?” she squeaked in alarm. “Bill Anderson?” He was Gabe’s CEO, and top contender, as far as Jenny was concerned, for most intimidating man on the planet.
“The very same. He’s with me in Seattle.”
“You don’t have to bother Bill with this, Gabe. Seriously. Any lawyer will do.”
“Bill’s the best. He will scare the shit out of any crows that need scaring.”
Bill could vaporize any crows that needed scaring with nothing more than a steely glare. “I say again, any old lawyer will do. Any old lawyer would be better. No one will believe the CEO of your billion-dollar company would be interested in my case. It’s overreaching.”
“Bill’s the best. You’re having Bill. As for believing it, they won’t have a choice when he confirms it in person.”
“It’s over the top. I’m trying to avoid drama. I don’t need a dry ice machine and a light show.”
“Oh, Bill hates drama. Also, oddly enough, dry ice machines and light shows. He had a bad experience at a Cher concert back in the day. Ask him about it some time. Get him drunk first. As for Dean, Bill will shut this shit down surgically. No fuss. No screaming.”
“Okaay.”
“I’ll brief him and he’ll be ready to take the call. Before I go, though, I have a question.”
“Shoot.”
“I get why you didn’t want to loop Alex or Elle in on this, but why ask me? Why didn’t you ask Tate? Didn’t think he’d step up?”
“For the last time, don’t need a man. Need a prop. And, are you kidding me? Derek would freak out even harder than Alex or Elle… Wait. Why are we talking about Derek?”
“I saw the cutest little photo of him and Kate on her first day of kindergarten. You have my approval, Jenny. Proceed with happily ever after.”
That photo! Why had she taken it? “You hacked Elle’s phone, didn’t you?” Jenny demanded.
“Don’t be ridiculous, I didn’t hack it. I cloned it.”
“Why would you even do that?” She knew why. He had a God complex.
“You know why,” Gabe said. “I have a God complex.”
Jenny growled. “Do you have any idea how creepy that is? Cloning the cell phone of your best friend’s girlfriend?”
“Creepy is regrettable, but unavoidable. It’s necessary. I like to keep an eye on Alex. It’s a habit. And he never uses his own phone.”
For a long time, Gabe had watched over Alex—whether Alex liked it or not—seeing it as his best-friend duty to balance out Alex’s temperamental artistic nature with his own practical, if somewhat atypical, common sense.
Since Elle had come into Alex’s life, Gabe had learned to let Alex go. Mostly because Elle could out-practical Gabe without breaking a sweat.
Even knowing his temperamental buddy was in safe hands, however, Gabe would never stop looking out for him.
“By the way,” Gabe said, “I have to ask. Does Elle think she’s being funny with all the sexts?”
“Yep.”
“And the weird photos?”
“Supposed to confuse you.”
“How is her bent arm confusing?”
“You’re supposed to think it’s her butt.”
“Huh.”
Jenny directed the conversation away from her sister’s goofy sense of humor and back on track. “Aside from being creepy, I can’t begin to tell you the gross violation of privacy that surveilling her phone constitutes.”
“Jenny. I gave Elle the phone. She knows I’ll hack anything if I’m bored, or curious, or have five minutes’ downtime. It’s not a violation of privacy. It’s our own special way of communicating. If I was hacking someone who didn’t know me all that well, someone like, say, Derek Tate as a random example, then that would be appalling behavior.”
Jenny sucked in a breath. “You haven’t hacked Derek.”
“I haven’t?”
“Gabe.”
“That would be so very illegal.”
“Don’t hack Derek.”
“…”
“Promise me right now that you’ll leave him alone.”
“…”
“Don’t you dare hack Derek. I am serious. There will be consequences.”
“Fine. I’ll stop looking into him.”
“You’ll stop? Are you telling me that you have been looking into him?”
“Need I remind you of the cute photo? I had to look into him.”
“Gross violation! Privacy!”
“Do I have to go over this again? If it’s on the Internet, it’s up for grabs.”
“It wasn’t on the Internet.”
“You took the photo on your phone, you sent it to Elle, it exists in cyberspace, therefore it belongs to me—”
“Gabe, stop. I have to go and pick Kate up. Leave Derek alone. And thank you.”
“My pleasure, kid.”
“Love to Nora and the spawn.”
“Say hi to Derek for me.”
“Sure. Wait—”
But Gabe had disconnected on a laugh.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Derek swept Jenny’s hair back over her shoulders and framed her face with his hands. She was lying on top of him, in her pajamas, her muscles soft and warm despite the long day.
After getting home from work she’d taken a quick shower, cooked spaghetti for dinner, and Derek had come over to eat with them.
Kate had chattered at him happily throughout the entire meal. Jenny had barely said a word, content with watching them.
She’d had the strangest feeling in her chest. It was a feeling she’d recognized, even though she hadn’t felt it for a long time. Possibly since her early twenties.
It was hope.
Naturally, this made Jenny cautious.
She’d been thinking about telling Kate that she and Derek were seeing each other. Jenny had no doubt that Kate would be thrilled. Not just because Kate had always liked Derek, but because Kate could tell he made Jenny happy. And her baby girl had spent long enough worrying about Jenny being happy.
It wasn’t the right time, though. Yet.
While her heart was all in, her brain told her there was no harm in taking it slowly. It had only been two weeks since they’d made love.
She was pretty sure that was what had happened. Her booty call for some impromptu sex had in fact been making love. On her side? She heaved a gusty sigh. Yeah, she’d been making love. On Derek’s? She couldn’t swear to it, but she was almost convinced he’d said I love you. He’d covered quickly. But he’d said it.
She thought.
Unless she was thinking it because she wanted him to have said it.
The fierceness with which she wanted him to have said it, I love you, was…unsettling. Jenny couldn’t remember wanting anything that badly from another person in her life.
It was another reason to be cautious.
She’d wait to tell Kate. Until she got a handle on her emotions. Until she’d fixed the Dean situation.
Jenny registered Derek’s grin. “What?” she asked.
“I can feel your brain working.” Derek squeezed his hands together ligh
tly. “It’s humming.”
“That’s not the part of me that’s humming right now,” she told him.
His eyes darkened. “Cruel woman.”
She traced his smile with a fingertip. “I’m torturing myself as much as you. Maybe more.”
Derek had stayed over two other nights, and he was staying tonight. It felt as if he’d always been here, in her bed. They hadn’t done anything when he stayed. It didn’t sit right with her. To sneak him in for sex when Kate was in bed felt wrong for Kate; to have sex with him then shove him out in the morning before Kate was up felt wrong for Derek.
But falling asleep in his arms felt like the most perfect thing in the world, and she wasn’t going to miss a second of it.
Except tonight. Unless she was very much mistaken, Derek was about to push her off.
She enclosed his strong wrists with her fingers and pulled his hands from her face, pressing them to the pillow either side of his head. His pupils, already wide with a combination of low light and desire, dilated.
“What are you doing, Jenny?” he said, voice husky.
“I’m restraining you.”
“Are you, now?”
She nodded, tightening her grip. “You’re not leaving.”
“I need to leave.”
“No.” She clamped her thighs around his narrow hips and leaned some weight into her hands.
His wrists flexed under her fingers then he arched up and kissed her. It was a whisper of a kiss, a soft stroke of his mouth over hers. He was gentling her.
Jenny nipped him.
Derek dropped his head back to the pillow and groaned. “Stop tormenting me.”
She soothed the spot she’d bitten with another kiss. “I’m not tormenting you,” she murmured against him.
Derek flexed again. “You are. This isn’t going anywhere tonight. There’s only so much I can take.”
She kissed the corner of his mouth. “You can’t take—” she kissed the other corner, “—a tiny bit more?”
Derek’s lips parted. “No,” he whispered.