by Sara Evans
“Yeah, nothing we can’t work out over drinks.” Clarence displayed his capped smile as he walked to the back of his desk. “Bradford’s got a couple of stockholders giving him some trouble.”
“Brad isn’t used to trouble. His way or the highway.”
“He does have a way of getting what he wants.” Clarence sat down and leaned back in his seat. “Firm’s doing great, Max. Profits per partner were up another 2 percent. The associates . . .”
He prattled. Max listened. Mostly he picked through his conflicting feelings. Being in the office felt like home. He was in familiar territory. He was good at the law. He knew the law.
But there was an opportunity . . . a wild, crazy opportunity that he found himself considering more and more. Would Jade go for it? Could he even do the job? It was one thing to head up junior football; it was another to take on a high school team.
“. . . which brings me to you.”
“Me?” Max sat forward, a blip of somethin’s-up on his radar.
“I’m putting you on probation,” Clarence said without hesitation.
“Probation?” Max slid to the edge of his seat, the fine threads of his Armani slacks gripping around his knees. The fabric felt odd against his skin. He’d grown accustomed to the tough rub of denim. “What are you talking about?”
“The executive partners and I think you need time to prove yourself. After all, we’ve seen the results of your rehab before.” He got up and walked around to the front of the desk. “It didn’t stick.”
“Executive partners? I’m an executive partner.” Max stood. “What are you up to, Clarence?”
“Guarding this firm. You’re an executive partner on hiatus, off to rehab. The rest of us—Don, Seamus, Larry, and I—decided it was best for the firm if you had a probationary period. We’re not willing to risk our careers again for your habit.”
“Clarence, I’ve been on probation. Self-imposed. What do you think the Outpost trek was about? To get free. To figure out why I popped pills. I’m not going to go down that road again.” The execs had tried and condemned him without a chance to plead his case.
“Maybe you did well out in the middle of nowhere, miles from anyone, experts watching over you. But you’re home. Back on familiar territory with all your drug suppliers a mere phone call away.”
“You do know Dad and I can outvote the partners.”
“You used to, yes. But with Rebel on the state supreme court, divested of all his interest, and you on leave, the execs pull rank. You know that, Max.”
Yeah, he did. Funny, he’d anticipated resistance from Jade, but not from Clarence and Benson Law.
“If you were in my shoes, Max, you’d do the same thing. Besides, every time you fall off the wagon, the rest of us have to scramble. I had to placate some of the partners this time. If you don’t stay clean, the firm will suffer. Can’t have resentful partners. I’m not going to let you loose in this firm until I’m convinced you’re not shopping docs and popping pills.”
So it boiled down to this. He’d put his life on hold—career, marriage, and fatherhood—to confront his demons, enduring hard days and lonely nights with only the stench of cow manure and his own soul to keep him company.
Axel had warned him. Restitution came with a heavy price tag.
“Never known you to be silent in a fight, Max.” Clarence’s low laugh didn’t disguise his callous tone.
“Just thinking,” Max said. “I wrote the Code of Conduct policy. Wrote the partner agreement and I’ve violated my own rules. Forging prescriptions is a class D felony. Grounds for dismissal.”
“I wanted Reb to put you on probation years ago.” Clarence crossed his ankles in a relaxed manner. He’d bested the boss’s son. “Fire you, even. You broke the law, Max, and when the heir to the firm screws up, the whole firm is implicated. Reb stood for it because you were his son.”
Max waited for Clarence to end his speech with, “There’s a new sheriff in town and I’m cleaning up this place.”
“It’s a little late to pull the ace out of your sleeve, Clarence. If you wanted me out of the way, you should’ve done it when I was addicted and actually forging prescriptions.”
“I’m looking out for this firm, its tradition, and its reputation.”
“How long is probation?” Max made his way to the door.
“Ninety days. Three short months. You can still come to work, help research, advise the associates. Some clients have missed you on the golf course.”
“I’ll see you in ninety days, Clarence.”
“Suit yourself.”
At the elevator, Max punched the Down button, glancing back at Clarence’s office. What was he supposed to do with this? He fumed at Clarence’s arrogance. But he was right, Max would’ve done the same thing. Dad should’ve fired or suspended him on his first offense. But he didn’t, and all roads led to where Max stood now.
The elevator doors opened and Max stepped in. The only question he had about this journey was which direction to take now.
Six
“Yes, may I speak to Taylor Branch, please?” Jade doodled on the sticky note where she’d jotted Taylor’s work number.
Between the shock of Taylor’s news and being in a hurry to pick up Asa that day, Jade had forgotten to get the woman’s number. So this morning she’d Googled Rice’s obituary for the name of her California firm.
“This is Taylor Branch.”
“Taylor, it’s Jade Benson.” Silence. “Hello?”
“Why’d you call me?” she whispered tight and low into the phone.
“Because I need proof. Your word is not enough.”
Taylor exhaled. “I don’t have any proof, Jade. Just what I know. Trust me, it’s true.”
“Trust you? I don’t even know you. I need proof that Rice actually told you this, or better yet, proof of who Asa’s father really is. I can’t go to Max with, ‘Hey, a friend of Rice’s said so.’ ”
“Look, I don’t care if you tell your husband. I just wanted someone else to know.”
“What about the biological father? Where’s he?”
“I told you, he lives in Denver. Rice met him skiing and they had a longdistance thing for six months.”
“You’re sure he wanted nothing to do with Asa?”
“When Rice first got pregnant, he walked. I didn’t know her then, but she told me all of this after she had Asa. We’d become pretty good friends and I think she needed someone to talk to, you know?”
“So, the father doesn’t know that Rice . . . passed away?”
“I don’t know. He came around after Asa was born, got all mushy for a day or two, took a paternity test to prove his devotion to Rice and Asa, but he didn’t stick around long enough for the results. Rice said there was no way she was letting that deadbeat’s name go on her son’s birth certificate, so she named Max as the father. Rice checked the paternity results a few months later and sure enough, deadbeat was the dad. But by then he was long gone. She called him and told him Max was the father and that was that.”
Jade pressed her fingers against her forehead. She didn’t need a headache today. “So the father—what’s his name?”
“Landon.”
“He never requested the lab results?”
“I have no idea, Jade. When Rice told him Max was on the birth certificate, she said he was relieved. Glad to be off the hook. Landon was young, like twenty-six, good-looking, cocky, just starting a career in finance. Traveled a lot. He wasn’t ready to move to California and be Asa’s daddy.”
“So where are the paternity results? Do you have the name of the lab?” Jade reached for a pen and her yellow sticky pad.
“No, I don’t know, maybe . . .” Taylor sighed. “Even if I knew the lab, they’re not going to give the results to you. But Rice’s parents asked me to go through her things after the funeral. I have a file cabinet of bills and receipts, tax forms, stuff like that. I thought Asa might like to have them some day. A part of his mom’s lif
e he’ll never know otherwise. I haven’t gone through them but I can.”
“Taylor, you have to look for me. You brought me this bomb, now tell me how or if I should use it. I’m not going to tell Max Rice lied without proof. It’d break his heart. So, until I know more, it’s not true. Max is the father. Rice said he was, he believed her, signed the birth certificate, and there is no other man.”
“But there is, Jade. Landon Harcourt. I’ll find the paternity results.”
Jade ended the call and dropped her forehead to her desk. Why, why, why? She did not want this burden. Why had Taylor chosen to unburden herself to Jade? Rice’s parents lived just up on the ridge. What about Landon? Or Max even?
Lillabeth came in the office wrapping her mass of blond locks in a ponytail. “Well, how was your weekend?” She wiggled her eyebrows.
Jade grinned. “Stop wiggling your eyebrows. It wasn’t that kind of weekend. We’re taking things slow. But we did decide to have fun, forget all the gunk. We went to the park and the Tennessee Aquarium. Asa had a blast. Max and I have some hard conversations ahead of us, but this weekend it was about fun.”
“You look happy.”
Jade buttoned her lips. Except for Taylor . . . “I am.” She wrinkled her nose. “It almost feels too easy. I can’t trust him, Lillabeth. I can’t.”
“Yet.”
“We’ll see. I hope it’s just a matter of time.”
Jade walked Lillabeth through the shop, gave her an update on business, and talked about how to balance their schedules—Jade’s as mom, Lillabeth’s as UT Chattanooga student.
Then she collected Asa from school, sped through The Market for lasagna fixings, brownie mix, and ice cream. Max must have mentioned lasagna and brownies three or four times this weekend. Jade figured building a bridge of trust between them began at both ends.
By the time she pulled into the garage behind the house, rain clouds capped Whisper Hollow’s Appalachian peaks. Jade loved the idea of a good, soaking rain. The Hollow needed refreshing. She needed refreshing.
In his car seat on the passenger side of the truck, Asa dozed. Krista said he’d played hard at school today. Even he had changed since Max came home. He was . . . confident. She smiled at the thought of Asa needing more confidence for his twenty-two-month-old self.
Looping her hand through the grocery bags on the floorboard, Jade balanced her load before hoisting Asa out of his seat and cradling him on her shoulder.
Asa wove his fingers through her hair. He’d been doing that since the first night he crawled into her arms.
“You need a nap, buddy.”
“I not tired.” His wee voice bloomed a large love in her heart.
Jade made her way up the back walk to the house, but stopped with a jitter as a booming thwack ricocheted across the yard. She whirled toward the wooded area just beyond the garage and squinted into the leafy green shade. The sound resounded and hovered again.
Then a rain-scented breeze parted the branches, exposing a glint of steel and a tan, broad back, bare and glistening.
“Max?” Jade cut across the lawn as he brought down the ax again. “What are you doing?” The muscles in his back rolled as he took another swing at a thick block of cut-up tree. “Max!”
He spun around. “Hey, sorry, I didn’t hear you.” He pulled out a pair of ear buds. “Chopping to some Jesus Culture.” Wedging the ax in a stump, Max shoved through the branches and kissed his tired, sleepy boy. “Here, give me the groceries.”
Ah, relief. Jade shook the blood flow back to her arms. “Where’s your car? It’s not in the garage. And why are you chopping wood? Is this some Outpost therapy?”
“Not exactly. But it’s one way to deal with stress. I’ve been wanting to cut up those pieces for firewood since we moved in, and today seemed like a good day. I parked my car out front.”
Jade regarded him. “What happened today?” She walked with him to the house.
“Clarence put me on probation. Says I’m not trustworthy. I need to prove myself.”
“What have you been doing if not proving yourself?” Jade shoved the kitchen door closed with her foot, covering Asa’s back with her hand.
“That’s what I said. But the Outpost wasn’t real-world enough for Clarence. He got the partners to side with him and I’m on extended vacay.” Disappointment played on his face. Jade figured this to be his first setback. “Truth is, I’m not sure I blame him.”
“So you came home to chop wood?” Was he stressed already?
“I came home to think and pray. I was going to go for a run when I saw the wood.”
Jade wanted to talk this through with Max, but Asa was heavy. “I’ll be right back.” She carried him around the corner into the media room, took Max’s Duke blanket from the couch, and spread it on the floor. What a blessing that Asa slept well anywhere.
Back in the kitchen, she started unloading the groceries. Max leaned against the sink with a large glass of water.
“I can’t know for sure, but I think Clarence has an ulterior motive. He’s always wanted Benson Law. Man, by the time I get back, I’ll be gone from the firm six months. It has an impact on our finances. My cut from the profits will be significantly less.”
“We already have more money than most people earn in a lifetime.” Jade retrieved a skillet from the drawer under the stove.
“Clients will lose confidence in me.” Max reached around Jade to refill his water from the fridge dispenser. Jade bent beneath him to retrieve an onion.
Max paced to the other side of the island and as Jade chopped the onion, she peeked at him. He was shirtless, lean, and chiseled. His shorts bagged around his hips. Chop, chop, chop. Focus on the onion, Jade. Don’t leap too soon. Max was just now facing his first test. His pride, his identity, his career, and finances were being threatened.
“What will you do in the meantime?” she asked.
“Clarence wants me to play golf and be an advisor to the associates. Do research—which is being an associate. It’s like he wants to knock me down a few pegs.”
“So what? How’s that going to change your life, Max? At the end of the day, Benson Law still belongs to you.” Jade dumped the onions into the skillet. They sizzled on the hot surface.
“Funny thing, I’m not sure I care.”
She whirled around. “What?”
He shrugged. “Just doesn’t mean as much to me as it used to.”
She unwrapped the hamburger meat and crumbled it into the skillet with the onions. Max not caring about Benson Law? His confession, his tone, rattled her core. For all his flaws, she counted on Max to be Max. Rooted. Stable. Safe.
“So, you don’t want to be a lawyer?”
“Yeah, I do, Jade. I’m just—” He stared out the back door’s window. “Restless.” He opened the door. “I’m going to clean up the mess out back. Do you have more groceries in the truck?”
“No. I’m making lasagna for dinner. It’ll be ready in an hour or so.”
“Lasagna?” Max paused with his hand on the door. “You heard me? I thought I was talking to myself.”
“Out loud?” Jade said, smiling.
“New thing I picked up in Texas. Cows don’t really care if you talk about lasagna or not.”
“Max, is being restless good or bad?” She had to ask. The notion started sinking deeper and taunting her fear.
“Hey, babe.” Max walked over to her and swept her into his arms. “It’s not a bad thing. Just a thing. Makes me go to God to figure out what’s next. He didn’t bring me this far to put me on the bench.”
She relaxed against him. “You’ll tell me if you start feeling pain or cravings, right?”
“Yes, but I’m not going there again, Jade. I don’t know that guy. He’s a foreigner to me now.” Max lifted his chin from her head. Without a word, he bent to kiss her. First her forehead, then her cheek.
Jade submitted to his soft caress, eyes closed, heart peeking out from behind the curtain.
“M
y stars.” The screen door slammed. “Max, it’s true. You’re home.” June Benson barged in on the intimate husband and wife moment.
Max looked sideways at his mother. “Hey, Mom.”
Jade ran her tongue over her lips. She was so thirsty. “Afternoon, June. How are you?”
“I’m right as rain except my son is home from Texas and I didn’t know. Why didn’t you call? And what in the world? You’re a sweaty mess—oh goodness, I didn’t interrupt anything, did I?”
“He was out back chopping wood,” Jade said. And yes, you interrupted. Probably for the best.
“Well, get cleaned up. Rebel’s on his way and we’re going out for a celebration dinner.” June wore a navy blouse and white slacks with low-heeled sandals. The blunt ends of her bottle-blond hair aligned with the lean edge of her jaw. She looked like she’d stepped out of a spa—tanned and refreshed.
“June, I’ve got lasagna started,” Jade said.
“Mom, how’d you find out I was home?”
“Gina called.” June shifted her Birkin bag from one arm to the other. “Naturally, I pretended I knew all about your homecoming, but land sakes, my heart was bottomed out like a Florida sinkhole by the time I hung up. Why did you go into Benson Law without telling me you were home?”
“I wanted time with Jade and Asa before all of Whisper Hollow knew, Mom.”
“What are you saying—I have a big mouth?” Even she couldn’t keep a straight face.
“I’m saying you’re proud of your son and you’d want people to know he was home.”
“Can you blame me? That’s why I want to celebrate. Jade, you can make lasagna anytime. Now, where’s my grandson?” June peered out of the kitchen. All of the downstairs room orbited the large foyer. “Asa?”
“He’s asleep, June.”
“Mom,” Max said. “Jade’s making lasagna. We can go to dinner another night.”
“Nonsense. She’s been working all day. A nice dinner out is every mother’s dream. Besides, your dad and I want to see you, catch up on the news.”
“Mom, Jade is cooking here tonight.” Max remained resolute.