Return to You
Page 29
“Thanks!”
“Hannah? Are you there?”
A beat of silence, while Hannah weighed her daughter’s need for a second hot dog against six months of practicing law in a specialty Hannah loathed, dreaded, and despised.
“I accept the job, Gail, though be warned I will transfer to corporate law as soon as I can.”
“You haven’t met Trent. You’re going to love him.”
No, Hannah would not.
Gail went on to explain details—starting day, parking sticker, county bar identification badge—and all the while, Hannah watched her hot dog disappear and knew she was making a terrible mistake.
* * *
“Trent Knightley is a fine man, and his people love him,” Gail said, passing Hannah’s signing bonus check across the desk. “The only folks who don’t like to see him coming are opposing counsel, and even they respect him.”
“He sounds like an ideal first boss.”
What kind of fine man wanted to spend his days breaking up families and needed the head of HR singing his praises at every turn?
The entire first morning was spent with Gail, filling out forms—and leaving some spaces on those forms blank. Gail took Hannah to lunch, calling it de rigueur for a new hire.
“In fact,” Gail said between bites of a chicken Caesar, “you will likely be taken out to lunch by each of the three partners, though Mac tends to be less social than his brothers. You ordering dessert?”
People who could afford gym memberships ordered dessert.
“I’d like to get back to work if you don’t mind, Gail. I have yet to meet the elusive Trent Knightley, and if he should appear in the office this afternoon, I don’t want to be accused of stretching lunch on my first day.”
Not on any day. If Hannah had learned anything temping for the Baltimore firms, it was that law firms were OCD about time sheets and billable hours.
“Hannah, you are not bagging groceries. No one, and I mean no one, will watch your time as long as your work is getting done, your time sheet is accurate, and most of your clients aren’t complaining. Get over the convenience-store galley slave mentality.”
Gail paid the bill with a corporate card, and no doubt the cost of lunch would have bought many packages of fancy 100 percent beef wieners.
“Don’t sweat the occasional long lunch,” Gail said as they drove back to the office. “Trent takes as many as anyone else, and the way he eats, he’d better.”
Gail’s comment had Hannah picturing Mr. Wonderful Boss, Esq., as a pudgy middle-aged fellow who put nervous clients at ease and probably used a cart and a caddy when he played golf with the judges.
Thank you for reading!
We hope you enjoyed Return to You by Samantha Chase.
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The book you’ve just finished is Book 4 in the Montgomery Brothers series. Book 5, Meant for You will be available in April 2015. In case you missed them, previous books in the series are Wait for Me, Trust in Me, and Stay with Me. If you loved Return to You, check out our mailing list for updates on new releases and access to exclusive content.
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About the Author
New York Times and USA Today bestseller Samantha Chase released her debut novel, Jordan’s Return, in November 2011. Although she waited until she was in her forties to publish for the first time, writing has been a lifelong passion. Teaching creative writing to students from elementary through high school and encouraging those students to follow their writing dreams motivated Samantha to take that step as well. Stay With Me (Montgomery Brothers book 3) hit the USA Today bestseller list upon its debut. Catering to the CEO was included in the romance bundle Loving the CEO, a five-book package that made the New York Times and the USA Today bestseller lists. In March 2013, The Christmas Cottage was nominated for two Indie Romance Convention Awards: Best Indie Romance Novella and Best Indie Contemporary Romance, while Samantha was nominated for Indie Author of the Year. When she’s not working on a new story, she spends her time reading contemporary romances, blogging, playing Scrabble on Facebook, and spending time with her husband of more than twenty years and their two sons in North Carolina.
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