Game On (Entwined Hearts)

by Sheryl Nantus

Angela fought to keep her voice stable, a flash of fear racing through her veins at the mention of her old firm. “Excuse me?”

  He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. I guess I should lay it out a bit clearer.” He smiled at her. “You’ll have to forgive me. Usually we send someone else to make contact like this, someone local who’s familiar with the area and the people.” Gordon glanced out the window as snow fell, fogging up the view of the street. “But I was curious about what drew you back to your hometown and out of the big city. Now that I’ve been here overnight, I can see the appeal.”

  “You came in last night?” she asked.

  “Yes, drove in yesterday after finishing up work and got a room at the Touchstone Hotel. It came highly recommended by one of our clients.” He laughed. “I’ll admit I dropped a few coins at the slot machines before I drove out this morning.”

  She nodded, trying hard not to think about what came to mind when she remembered that particular hotel.

  “I can see why you came home after leaving Philadelphia. Glen Barrow is a charming little town. But I’m curious why you decided to open up your own business.” He arched an eyebrow. “Your clientele would seem to be very different from what you were used to dealing with at Bentley and Forsythe.”

  It took only a few seconds to compose her answer. She wasn’t worried about impressing this man.

  “I saw a niche that needed to be filled.” She pointed at the front window and the street outside. “People here had to travel out of town to find a lawyer, and most of the time, they’d end up being overcharged and underserved because of a lack of local connections. Here, I know the judge, the prosecutor, the man working the parking booth. It makes it easier to get work done when all sides know and respect each other.” Angela smiled. “People know me or know of me, so they trust me to do what’s right by them. They know I’ll get the best deal I can and do what’s right for all involved. And I won’t charge them an arm and a leg for it. At times I’ve accepted casseroles as partial payment for my services.” She rapped her knuckles on the table. “Here, I serve the little guy, take them through a system that’s sometimes hard to understand and difficult to navigate. Justice is for everyone and should be accessible by everyone, no matter if you’re rich or poor.” She caught herself, embarrassed by her long speech. “Excuse me. I tend to ramble on at times.”

  Gordon chuckled. “No, no. It’s in line with what we heard about you, about your personality.” He cleared his throat. “Did you know your ex-fiancé has been fired?”

  She blinked, taken aback by the mention of Eric. “No. No, I did not.”

  “It seems he chose the wrong woman to have a liaison with—the senior partner’s daughter. Once his indiscretions became known, he was immediately let go. However, I’m not here to discuss his broken reputation.” He withdrew a blue file folder from his briefcase and placed it on the desk. “I’m here to offer you a job.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Gordon entwined his fingers and placed them on one knee. “Miss Kenzie, my brothers and I have been watching you since you passed the bar near the top of your class. We considered making you an offer, but we wanted to see how you handled yourself in the real world, away from the academics.” He waved one hand in the air. “People have different levels of social skills. They can be excellent when it comes to research but unable to articulate a case in front of a jury, maybe able to do an excellent job at cross-examination but awful when it comes to relating to the client. This doesn’t mean they’re bad lawyers, but it does restrict where and how they can fit into our firm. The best way, we’ve found, is to sit and watch as someone’s career progresses and their strengths develop, overshadowing any flaws or correcting them. You—” He looked at the file. “You were good from the start. Before we could prepare an offer, you disappeared, went off our radar and everyone else’s in Philadelphia. It was as if you hadn’t existed. Your firm covered up your departure with some weak excuse about you coming back to take care of your sick mother.”

  Angela worked hard to contain the blaze of anger surging through her veins. “My mother was, and is, healthy and fine.” She clenched her jaws, forcing herself to stay calm. “I left due to personal issues.”

  “Yes. We know.” He locked eyes with her, keeping her in place. “We did our research on you and your current situation. You’ve done an excellent job for your clients. You care about your people and you do what you can to the best of your abilities despite being hampered by”—he gestured at the nearby walls—“your resources.” Gordon held his hand up before she could reply. “It’s not meant as an insult.”

  She placed her hand on the blue file folder to keep her fingers from trembling. “You said you wanted to offer me a job.”

  “Yes. In Baltimore. One of our people is retiring, and we’re looking for some fresh blood, someone who gets right back up after being knocked down. A person who doesn’t mind working on the cases that aren’t going to generate sound bites, get their pictures on the daily news feed. A person who puts their clients ahead of their personal needs. And we think that person is you.”

  He stood up, and Angela instinctively did the same.

  “We’d like you to start in January. That’s six weeks from now, depending on how long it takes you to wrap up your current caseload. If you need more time, we can discuss an extension.” He gestured at the folder, which was still under her palm. “All the details are inside. I’ll be staying at the Touchstone Hotel for the next two days before returning to Baltimore. We’d like a decision within the week. If you have any questions or need clarification on the details, please call me.” Gordon turned and strode to the door. He stopped and looked back. “We hope you’ll take us up on the offer. Our firm would greatly benefit from a woman as strong and as determined as you are.”

  She gave him a polite nod before he walked out, leaving her confused and bewildered. Angela opened the folder and looked at the typewritten pages. She blinked, her mind fogging up like a bathroom mirror during a hot shower.

  I can’t—

  This is—

  She closed the folder and forced herself to breathe as slowly as she could. A car engine started nearby, and Angela knew it was Gordon’s, the rental car taking him back to the hotel and out of Glen Barrow.

  But not out of her life.

  She looked around the small office, sensing the walls closing in on her. A year ago, this would have been a glorious offer, a dream job. Now—

  Now she had a choice to make.

  Angela knew one thing: This wasn’t a decision to be made lightly. Or alone.

  It took a few minutes to close her laptop, turn off the coffee machine, place a fast phone call to Jenny, and tell her not to come in today, feigning illness as the reason.

  She didn’t want to try to explain this to her enthusiastic protégée. Not before she talked it over with Jake and Hunter and figured out a course of action.

  She flicked the lights off and locked up the office with trembling fingers, the blue folder safely tucked inside her briefcase.

  It was hard not to think of Eric and enjoy the news about his firing. Angela couldn’t help laughing as she made her way to the car, imagining the smug bastard’s face as he cleaned out his desk and was shoved out into the street, all his worldly possessions in a cardboard box.

  Sometimes you do get to see karma kick someone in the nuts.

  The momentary glee disappeared as she returned to the decision at hand.

  Angela went to her car and swept her arm across the snow-covered top, not caring if she soaked her coat sleeve. The chill on her skin helped throw things into a sharp focus, keeping her grounded for the time being.

  “Holy—” Hunter looked up at her, the pages spread out in front of him on the desk. “Is this serious? For real?”

  Angela had gone straight to his office, breezing past Sally to interrupt Hunter’s meeting with an assistant coach. One look at her face, and he’d sent the man away without her having to say a word, telling
Sally to hold all his calls.

  “This is—” Hunter waved a hand over the pages, his eyes skimming the details again. He let out a low whistle. “—a whole lot of money. More than you’ll make here, taking care of drunk drivers and the odd drug-possession charge.”

  “I know.” Angela paced around the room, bouncing from one wall to the other with short, skipping steps. She couldn’t stop moving, the meeting with Gordon sending her nerves into overdrive. “But it means giving up everything I’ve worked for here in Glen Barrow.”

  “Not everything,” Hunter said. “It’s the hard work you did here that got them interested in you. Don’t forget that.”

  She pulled a stray strand of hair from her mouth. “True. I just can’t believe they came looking for me.”

  “I can.” He stood up and walked around the desk to take her hands in his. “You’re a damned good lawyer, Angie. What you do here in town is important, and it’s good that it’s been noticed by the big boys.” Hunter squeezed her hands. “What’s Jake got to say?”

  “He’s on patrol until six this evening, remember?” Angela let go of his hands. She continued to orbit around his desk. “I thought about calling him, but I didn’t want to interrupt him and take his mind off work. You know as soon as he heard about this, he’d be distracted for the rest of his shift. I figure it’s better if we can talk about it in person.” She drew a sharp breath. “But you’re here, and I can bug the hell out of you without feeling guilty. What do you think?”

  Hunter returned to his chair. He leaned back, the chair letting out a shrill creak as the hinges protested his position. “I think I want to know what you think.” He gestured at the pages. “This is what you went to Penn State for. What you went to Philly for. To make a difference.”

  “Yes.” She continued her orbit around the office. “But now I’m here and with you two. I’m happy where I am, doing what I’m doing.” Angela shook her head. “I’m—I don’t know what I want anymore.”

  “Sure you do. You have to be quiet and the answer will come to you. Remember how we used to go out to the Point?”

  Angela threw him a naughty wink. “And make out like rabbits? Of course I do.”

  “Well, yeah. That, too.” Hunter stood up. “You used to talk about helping people, making your mark in the world by doing good. You hungered to get out there and right the wrongs we saw around us. The law appealed to you back then and carried you all the way through Penn State.” Hunter closed the folder. He walked around the desk and handed it back to her. “Go talk to your mother, go home and take a bubble bath and relax. Don’t worry about dinner. I’ll pick up Chinese—extra egg rolls, and I’ll get the large container of wonton soup. When Jake comes home, we’ll talk it over.”

  Angela stood up, her mind whirling. “Do you want me to go to Baltimore?” It was hard to keep her voice down.

  “No. And yes. I can’t and won’t tell you what to do. It’s not my call.” He escorted her to the door, his hand on the small of her back. Hunter turned her and cupped her face in his hands before delivering a delicate, gentle kiss. “I’ve got some work here to finish up. I’ll be home soon, and so will Jake. You don’t need to decide in the next ten minutes. Like you said, he’s in town for two days and the offer’s good for a week, if not longer. We don’t have to rush into anything.” He opened the door and nodded to Sally. “I’ll be right back.”

  Angela let him walk her out to her car, clutching the folder to her chest like it was a pacemaker, keeping her alive.

  It’s what I want.

  She waved at Hunter as he headed back into the building. He lifted his hand and returned it, blowing her a kiss before going in.

  Isn’t it?

  Angela drove to her mother’s house, carefully picking her way through the falling snow. If she had Mary-Ann’s schedule right, she’d be home, preparing to go in to work at the library later in the afternoon for her part-time shift.

  She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, trying to wrap her mind around Gordon’s offer.

  It was a good offer. Good, not great. Enough to warrant the time and cost of moving to Baltimore and, God willing, another step up to New York City in a year or two.

  Mentally Angela ran over her files, searching for what would have brought Kittnany, Kittnany & Brown to her office that morning.

  None of her cases had been blockbusters, none worthy of even a note in the local paper beyond being mentioned in the crime listings. She’d slogged through some of the most mundane cases in her life, doing the best she could for her clients. For one young college student, a close call had sent him to Alcoholics Anonymous to head off a possible addiction; for her most recent victory, she’d forced a grumpy father to double his child support.

  Nothing that would justify time and space on the local news feed, nothing that would matter to anyone other than those involved.

  And yet—

  As she pulled up into the driveway, tires crunching on the snow, she realized it wasn’t any one single case that had brought Gordon Kittnany to Glen Barrow.

  It had been all of them.

  “That’s wonderful!” Mary-Ann exclaimed as she pulled an apple pie out of the refrigerator. “I always said you were destined for big things.”

  Angela eyed the massive slice now being placed on her plate, the thin crust trying and failing to contain the thick pieces of apple, the cinnamon scent filling her nose. “I thought you were happy about me being here, being back home.”

  “I was and still am.” She gestured Angela to sit as she put the two loaded plates on the table. “Isn’t this what you wanted? A chance at the big leagues, as you used to call them? Not that there was anything wrong with the firm you were with, but I know you saw it as a stepping-stone to something bigger.”

  “Yes.” She cut through the light brown pastry with ease, loading up her fork. “It’s such a surprise.”

  “That someone found out you’re a damned good lawyer? What’s surprising about that?”

  Angela laughed through the mouthful of pie, putting her hand up to keep from spitting it out. “Mom.”

  “Now is no time to be modest. You’re good at what you do, and it’s about time someone noticed.” She pointed her fork at herself. “I’m your mother. You should know by now I’m going to support you whenever and however I can.” Mary-Ann picked at the plate. “I’m not thrilled about you leaving again, but it’s not like you’re going to Mars.” She eyed Angela. “What do Jake and Hunter say?”

  “I’ve told Hunter. He told me to come and see you and relax, I don’t have to make a decision in the next two hours.”

  Her mother snorted. “Man’s got some common sense.”

  Angela held back a smile, thinking of Hunter’s last culinary attempt to serve them breakfast in bed.

  Those sheets would never get clean again.

  “Jake’s working, so we’ll discuss it over dinner.” Angela took her time, dissecting the sweet treat. “I don’t want to distract him during work. And this is something we need to sit and discuss, not send texts back and forth while juggling basketballs or criminals or legal paperwork.”

  “True. It’s still good news.” Mary-Ann let out a pleased sigh as she ate. “And it’s good to hear about Eric. Son of a bitch had it coming.”

  “Mom!” Angela choked again on her mouthful of pie.

  “What? Don’t tell me you’re not glad to hear his dick finally got into the wrong place and got bent out of shape.” She made a chopping motion with her free hand. “Be better if it got whacked off, but this is almost as good.”

  Angela gasped, taken aback by the ferocity in her mother’s words.

  Mary-Ann smiled. “Be sure to pass my comment on to your boys verbatim. Help keep them in line.” She paused and focused on Angela. “Are you going to go?”

  Angela sighed, all levity gone from her mind. “I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do. If I had gotten this offer six months ago—” She looked at the slice of pie, which she had d
issected into a dozen smaller pieces. “I don’t know.”

  Her mother reached over and touched her cheek. “You’ll make the right decision. You’ve got good instincts—listen to them. They’ve gotten you this far, and they’ll take you wherever you’re meant to go.”

  Jake pulled into the driveway and cut the engine, grumbling at seeing the inch or so of snow that had accumulated on the driveway.

  We’ll have to talk. I don’t mind shoveling snow, but I’d rather pay some neighborhood kid to do it for us.

  A blast of hot air hit Jake’s face as he opened the front door. He had to admit, the past few months since he’d moved in with Hunter had been nice. The apartment over the bakery hadn’t felt right after Mags left, becoming a lonely wood-framed box filled with sad memories. Now he always came home to a friendly face, be it Hunter’s or Angela’s.

  And they had their own memories, wonderful and loving. He couldn’t ask for a better place to be in, mentally and physically.

  When he worked the night shift, he came home and slept in his own room, letting Hunter and Angela have the run of the house without worrying about waking him up. Angie owned the master bedroom and could shut the door when she wanted a little privacy. Hunter had turned his old bedroom into a study, the walls festooned with Badger posters and signs, fighting with Jake’s and Angela’s Penn State banners for the rest of the house. A small single bed was there for when the basketball coach wanted to be alone, although that was rare.

  The master bedroom was where the three of them spent most nights.

  Jake smiled, fond memories of the past few months rushing to the forefront of his mind. Between their activities in the bedroom and the bathroom with the new renovations, he was surprised they all weren’t drinking energy drinks nonstop.

  And, speaking of the bathroom . . .

  He’d been dreaming all day about a long hot shower with Angie pinned up against the shower tiles, gasping and mewing as he—

  Jake swallowed hard and stepped in, shutting the door as quickly as he could.