“Yes.” How was that even a question?
“I’ll look forward to seeing you later.” She gave a curt nod and sauntered toward the exit.
“Sadie?” he called, standing.
She turned.
“Can I ask a favor?” he asked.
She nodded cautiously.
He flicked the coin so it flew through the air toward her.
She reached out and caught it with one hand.
“Make that wish when you’re ready.” He tilted his head toward the surface of the water in the fountain.
Sadie stared at the penny a beat, stuck it in her own pocket, and left.
Roman knew a lot of things. He knew he cared for a girl who he’d only spent two weekends with. He knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. And he knew that she wanted to make that wish, but something was stopping her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“I’m not interested in moving back.” Sadie was on a call with one of the partners from her old firm. He was no longer with that firm—he didn’t care for their philosophies. He’d joined forces with attorneys from a couple other firms to create his vision of utopia.
“We’re bringing on the best. That’s you. I told the others about that time you wrung every cent out of that video producer after he stepped out on his wife. That was inspired.”
Sadie’s client had deserved everything she had managed to get for her.
“When you come on board, we’ll set up a direct path to partnership for you. We guarantee that you’ll be on the track to partner within the next five years.”
That was great, but Sadie was already a partner. Did it count as being a partner if it was in a firm of one? She was going to go with yes. Yes, it did.
“I am flattered you reached out.” She glanced up as Marlee knocked softly on the door jamb with Mom close behind holding Luke. Lothario sat at Marlee’s feet.
“What’s the number?” Brad asked. “Tell me how much it’ll take to bring you back and I’ll see what I can swing.”
“There’s no number.” She couldn’t go back to Chicago. Because Chicago didn’t have Roman.
They’d already used up their one chance, so everything was now borrowed time. But it was borrowed time she was enjoying the hell out of and she didn’t want it to end.
But then Brad went and named a number that made Sadie sit up straight.
“You cannot be serious,” she said on a gasp. So much for keeping her cool in negotiations.
“You’ve also shown interest and promise with defense work,” Brad went on. “I’ll pair you up with Bernice. She’s heading that department. You can build your client list there, if that’s what you’d prefer.”
Well, he was just sweetening the pot all over, wasn’t he?
Except this was Chicago.
She’d been there, done that, and came home.
This deal though? It could be perfection.
Perfection without Roman.
Which wasn’t perfection at all.
“Don’t say no yet,” Brad said when she didn’t respond. “Take some time. Think about it.”
Sadie gnawed at the inside of her cheek. “I’ll think about it.”
Brad ended the call, leaving Sadie staring at the receiver.
“Nice goldfish.” Marlee admired Wasabi and Sushi swimming in their bowl. Lothario curled up in the bean bag chair while Mom snuggled Luke.
“They were a gift from the receptionist who won’t leave.” Sadie stood, moved toward Luke, and cooed at him. “She’s brought her friend with her to work, too.”
“Things aren’t so great in paradise?” Marlee dropped to the sofa. Motherhood suited her. She’d never looked so happy—or so tired.
“I’ve fired Babushka and Etta every single day.” Sadie heaved a sigh. “They are like a headache I can’t shake.”
“But deep down you love having them here?” Marlee asked.
“Deep down, I think I should maybe move back to Chicago.” How could she turn away from an offer as promising as Brad’s?
The elderly women answering and not answering her phones might have to find another way to spend their days.
“Sadie, honey.” Mom’s eyes got watery, which was a really bad sign.
“You’re not actually thinking of going back, are you? Not when things with Rome are so good,” Marlee asked, the thin lines between her eyebrows more prominent.
Sadie had thought the first weekend she’d spent with Roman had been amazing, but it was nothing compared to the two weeks they’d just had. They were like Wasabi and Sushi—they weren’t planned, but they just fit together and worked.
“And your practice is doing so well,” Mom said, her tone hopeful.
“One of the Chicago law firms reached out with feelers about me coming to work there.” Sadie gulped. Saying it out loud made it real. Really real.
“You hated it there.” Marlee sounded as unconvinced as Sadie felt about a potential move back to Chicago.
“I hated it at my old firm. This is a new place. They know my work, and the offer they presented looks better than anything I could ever hope for.” She’d only have to give up on her hope for her own successful practice and Roman.
“You really want to leave?” Marlee asked.
“No.”
“Then why are you even considering it?” Mom asked.
Sadie studied the little nose on her nephew, his pink cheeks, brown eyes…
Sadie’s glance moved away from her nephew’s chubby cheeks to Marlee’s intense stare down.
“You can’t leave, Sadie. You just came home. I’ve got my best friend back.” Marlee stood, pacing the floor of the small office space. “If you need your practice to grow more quickly, let me invest in your firm, hire a marketing person, help you out.” Marlee was the epitome of hope. “It’s what friends do. We help each other out. Like you always help me.”
“I’m not making any decisions yet. I’m just figuring things out.”
Waiting for things to end.
“Have you told Roman?”
“I literally just found out.”
If she told him, then he’d make it his personal mission to show her why Denver was the place to be.
“Don’t you think you should tell him?” Marlee asked.
“I’ll tell him when there’s something to tell. There’s nothing right now.”
“You have a job offer.” Marlee bugged her eyes out like she did when she was trying to make a good point about something.
“And I haven’t taken it.” Sadie bugged her eyes out the same way.
“Talk to Roman,” her mother said.
Sadie heaved a breath. “We’re not at that stage of our relationship. The part where we make plans for the future. We’re barely a few weeks in.”
“Ten years and a few weeks,” Marlee said.
“That’s not how this works,” Sadie countered.
“Sadie?” Etta’s voice came through the intercom. There was quite a lot of noise, a clunk, and then Etta was back. “Roman is here to see you.”
“You can send him back,” Sadie replied.
Lothario grunted and rolled on his back, falling from the beanbag chair. Seeming to sense that she was having an internal crisis, he stood, did a full body shake, and wandered toward her.
He eyeballed her right foot in that way he did before starting an affair with leather pumps.
“Don’t even think about it,” Sadie said.
Lothario sat next to her foot instead, draping himself over it.
“Good boy. Always go for foreplay first.” She scrubbed at her cheeks with her palms.
Sadie was in a full life-changing-decisions crisis and there was a chihuahua seducing her shoes.
“Everything okay?” Roman asked, leaning against the doorjamb.
“Fine,” Sadie replied, putting on her very best fine expression. The one that involved a hearty smile and burying her feelings.
“That’s not your fine face, sweetie.” Mom
moved her attention from Luke to Sadie. “Anyone can see that.”
“I got a job offer from a firm in Chicago,” Sadie said, specifically avoiding Roman’s gaze.
The mood shifted, a new vibe coming from him that Sadie hadn’t felt before. Intense heat that wasn’t about intimacy.
“There’s a Chicago job?” he asked.
“What’s in Chicago that you can’t have here?” Mom asked. “There’s lots here that you can’t have in Chicago.”
“Vhat you need is more business. Hire one of those men on the corner with the arrows pointing to the building.” Babushka pushed past Roman, inserting herself right into the situation. “It vill bring lots of clients.”
“They’re making me an amazing offer…” Sadie’s words trailed off as her gaze lifted to Roman.
“So you’re giving up on this?” He gestured around the room, but she was pretty sure he meant to add himself in there, too.
“Just reassessing,” she said, her voice sounding stronger than she felt. “New opportunity means changing course.”
“Sadie, why don’t we all grab a coffee?” Mom asked.
Sadie shook her head. “Roman and I have an early dinner date with one of his friends.”
“Then why don’t you two talk for a little bit before that?” Marlee suggested.
Marlee took Luke and they left quickly, Lothario on her heels as Mom shut the door behind them.
“Should we go?” Sadie asked, grabbing her purse.
Roman caught Sadie’s arm as she moved by. “There’s an answer here, milaya.”
Sadie moved closer to him, dropping her forehead against his shoulder.
“Is that another fancy Russian way of calling me a hooker?” she asked.
“No.” Roman chuckled. “This one I can say in front of my grandmother.”
“What does it mean?” she asked, searching his face.
She wasn’t totally sure she was ready to hear what it meant. Not yet.
“I’ll tell you later.” He leaned forward and pressed a light kiss against her lips.
She nodded and continued to move through the door. He walked along with her, looping his arm through hers.
“We’ll talk after dinner,” he said.
She had a sinking feeling in her stomach that conversation wasn’t going to go in favor of either of them.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Eli’s restaurant?” Sadie asked.
“I thought it might be a nice treat,” Roman replied, opening the door to Eats Grille.
They were meeting with Roman’s new friend and his wife for an early dinner before they all went to some Broadway revival at the Buell Theater downtown. Then, she and Roman would have the Chicago talk. She’d done her best to push it to the back of her mind, but it lodged at the forefront of her thoughts the whole way over.
Roman was now on a personal mission to prove to her that a couple could come back from the brink and still be in love. Still make it work.
That’s what it seemed like anyway.
“Rex hasn’t been here before. I figured two birds, one stone.”
“Rex?” Sadie asked, her stomach starting to clench. “Your friend’s name is Rex?”
Little warning chimes were dinging in her skull while the low hum of the restaurant filled the air around her. Tonya’s not-so-ex-husband’s name was Rex.
How many men in Denver had that name?
Every time they’d talked about him, Roman had always referred to him as his buddy or the bar guy. Sadie had never asked his real name and hadn’t had a reason to. Until now.
Dread snaked through Sadie like she’d entered a real house of horror as Roman strode across the busy restaurant and shook hands with the man standing to Tonya’s left.
Tonya.
With a guy named Rex.
That snake of dread cinched tight.
Tonya and Rex followed Roman’s finger point to where it ended on Sadie. Two sets of round orbs settled on her. Rex’s expression darkened as one might expect when the woman who showed up for a friendly dinner represented his wife in what had become a fairly nasty custody dispute over aquatic children.
Tonya said something to Roman, and he froze, not even blinking.
Sadie started what felt oddly like a walk of shame toward them.
Tonya said something to the guys and broke away, hurrying toward Sadie.
“Hi…” Tonya didn’t sound like herself. More distant.
“Is everything all right?” Sadie asked, staying as neutral as she could and refusing to show any kind of surprise.
Come to think of it, she’d gone three full business days without any panicked calls from Tonya. Tucked tight with Roman, she’d lost her focus. Hadn’t realized what was happening until—
“Actually, everything is great.” Tonya tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
Great was good. Sadie loved it when her clients were great.
“Rex and I…we decided to try again.”
Or perhaps, Sadie hadn’t done her job. The ax was falling quickly on Denver.
“He’s making a huge effort.” Tonya waved for Rex to join them.
He shook his head.
Roman spoke to him, but Rex didn’t seem even the remotest bit interested in socializing with Sadie.
She got it, she did.
“You know I never stopped loving him,” Tonya continued, but she didn’t need to continue. Sadie got the point. The tightening in her chest was simply direction. Nothing more. As soon as she followed the arrow, it’d loosen up.
“We had a huge talk, and he loves me, too. Roman helped him see some of the things I needed in our marriage. A lot of what was missing.”
Someone seemed to have pushed pause on reality.
“Roger is already perking up now that Rex is back full time.”
“Okay.” It took every ounce of personal willpower for Sadie to keep her voice even. “If this is what you want, I support you.”
She did. Of course, she did.
“I don’t think your husband is interested in dining with your divorce attorney, so I’m going to excuse myself. If you ever need me, give me a call.” Sadie forced a smile to show in her voice. “You should enjoy your dinner and go see the show.”
Sadie’s feet remained planted as Tonya walked back to her husband.
A waiter in the standard black-and-white Eats Grille ensemble moved around a nearby table, refilling the water glasses.
“Is Eli here?” Sadie asked him.
“Chef’s in the kitchen tonight,” the waiter said. “Can I give him a message?”
“No, thank you.” Sadie did not go to Roman and Tonya and Rex. Instead, she hurried through the busy restaurant, down the hallway leading to the kitchen, and past Eli’s office until the sounds of a commercial kitchen and her brother barking orders took over.
Eli had a bandana tied around his hair and his chef jacket on. He was vigorously stirring the contents of a bowl in front of him.
“Eli?” she asked.
He glanced up, clearly surprised to see his little sister in his kitchen.
“Sadie,” Roman said from behind. “I didn’t know who they were.”
Eli looked between the two of them and then passed the bowl to one of the sous-chefs. He gave some direction before striding toward Sadie.
“What’s going on, sis?” he asked.
“I…”
Roman and Eli both waited.
Sadie started again. “We came for dinner…”
“Dinner is good. We serve that here.” Eli was the kind of guy who didn’t say much, but he was intuitive as all heck.
“She was your client.” Roman said what Sadie already knew. “I didn’t know that when I asked you to come meet them.”
That wasn’t the part that Sadie was struggling with. “You convinced Rex and Tonya to stay together?”
“Who are Rex and Tonya?” Eli asked.
“My client and her was-going-to-be ex.”
“Oh shit.” El
i’s gaze slashed to Roman. “You didn’t bring Babushka in on this one, too, did you?”
Roman tensed. “Rex and Tonya decided to stay together all on their own.”
“With help from you and your grandmother?” Sadie needed to know the answer to that.
“Yeah,” he admitted.
All that time she’d spent… Wasted. The undermining that had happened right at her feet stung worse than Oliver’s law school betrayal. Because this time it was Roman. This time she’d hoped it’d be different.
Sadie heaved a breath. The tightening from before didn’t release, but the loss of feeling in all of her extremities radiated into her chest. She welcomed the detachment—it didn’t hurt.
It also wouldn’t last forever.
The arrows were pointing in a direction she didn’t want to go, but she now understood it was the only way to keep moving forward. Roman had told her to keep moving forward when he’d left. That’s what she’d done, all this time.
Holy crap, crap, crap.
This was law school internships and Chicago law all over again—everything falling apart because some guy thought he knew best and got involved where he didn’t belong. He thought he was doing a favor for a friend. She understood that. He didn’t get it though. They’d end up with that divorce anyway—they always did—and this time it’d be worse for everyone. The wounds would be fresh. There would be more anger.
And the worst thing of it all? If she couldn’t help Tonya avoid further heartbreak, what was she even doing with her job? Maybe there was something more to the first-case curse than she’d realized.
“Do you two want to talk in my office?” Eli asked, gesturing to the door. “We’re plugging traffic here.”
Sure enough, the kitchen staff was working around their bottleneck, but the trio was clearly in the middle of the action and disrupting flow.
“I don’t think there’s anything to talk about.” She pressed at her eyelids.
Roman said something, but she couldn’t quite hear him.
Eli guided her to his office, and she didn’t have to look to know that Roman was trailing.
Then Roman’s hands were on her shoulders, his thumbs rubbing small circles along her upper back. They were gentle, like she remembered. Like she loved. Like she craved.
Do Me a Favor: A second chance, hilarious rom com! (Mile High Matched Book 4) Page 23