by Elaina John
****
R.J. adjusted his tie as he walked down the hall at a brisk pace to meet his latest client. It was a case handed down to him at the last minute. He hadn’t had a chance to look over anything.
Denise turned out to be right. He ended up being late for work but couldn’t find it in himself to feel remorseful about their morning romp.
Never in his wildest dreams did he ever imagine the green eyed, dark haired woman he met while serving her a drink at a bar would someday become his wife. He couldn’t wait until the day she officially became his and took his last name. Denise McHansen. It had a certain ring to it.
He wanted their wedding day to be everything she ever wrote about in her diary as a kid and more. R.J. sought to make Denise happy. She brought a richness to his life that he’d never felt with another. Besides being beautiful, she was strong, caring, and sweet. He didn’t know what he and Barkley would do without her.
He pushed open the door to the conference room. “Sorry I’m late. I…” R.J. trailed off when he saw who the client was that sat at the long conference table.
“Oh my goodness. R.J. R.J. McHansen.”
R.J. cursed the day he decided to become an estate attorney instead of a criminal defense lawyer. If he had done the latter, he would not be standing there gawking at his college girlfriend, May Navarro, like a tongue-tied idiot.
Six, maybe seven years ago was the last time he saw her. The years only seemed to add to her beauty instead of diminish it.
Her olive toned skin was flawless, her lips painted an enticing red. Brown hair fell in waves past her shoulders. As she stood to greet him, R.J. couldn’t help but admired how the black material of the dress she wore hugged her petite yet curvy body.
“May Navarro.” Her name sounded like a croak as it left his lips.
She wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. R.J.’s limbs hung limply at his side. They didn’t seem to be getting the signal from his brain to hug her back.
He shook his head. Get it together, R.J. Be professional.
“What a surprise seeing you here.” She released him. Her brown eyes danced with delight.
“Is it really?” he mumbled. May wasn’t a “by chance” sort of girl.
“I supposed not. You always said you’d be a lawyer.”
“Yep. Here I am. I didn’t get a chance to read over your case. What is it that you need?” He gestured for her to sit down.
She tsked. “All work. You used to be fun.”
R.J. almost laughed out loud. Denise thought he wasn’t serious enough. “I’m still fun.”
“Yeah, right,” she countered, while taking her seat. “Why haven’t we had any contact since college?”
“Life, I suppose.” They simply drifted apart, so thankfully there was no bad blood between them. That would have made this meeting even more awkward.
May released an exaggerated breath of air. “Yes. Life. How have you been?”
“Good. I can’t complain. Things have been great for me over the last year or so.” So good that he felt if he kept talking about it he might jinx it. “What has May Navarro been up to?”
“Oh, you know, the usual. Work. Brief marriage. Divorce.”
R.J. nodded on that note. Her relationship drama wasn’t his business. “I see you’ve been busy. How about you tell me what I can do for you.”
“Yes. I guess I should since I came here for a reason. I requested you to represent me, you know.”
“Is that right?” As he suspected, not a by chance meeting.
“When I found out you worked here, I requested you. I’m not well versed in the law stuff. Whether you were what I needed I wasn’t sure. But I figured you’d steer me in the right direction. I know I’m a last minute addition to your probably teeming workload, so I apologize for that.”
“It’s fine, but you still aren’t telling me anything.”
May rolled her eyes. “Patience, R.J., patience.” She took a deep breath. “My father passed away.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Mr. Navarro was a good man.” His sympathy was sincere. Mr. Navarro had been nothing but kind to R.J. during the time he and May dated. He couldn’t say the same about Denise’s father. Mr. Gasteaux scared him a little.
“He always liked you,” May said. “Within the last four years he got sick, really sick. A nurse had to be hired to care for him fulltime. Little did I know she was evil. Hiring her led to my father practically disowning me. She told him horrible, untrue things about me.
“He married her. I wasn’t allowed to see him. As a matter of fact, they moved and didn’t tell me where.” Her eyes filled with tears. R.J. plucked his handkerchief from his suit pocket and offered it to her.
“Thank you.” She dabbed her eyes. “He passed away about a month ago. My father had a large estate. I was left out of it when I know I was in it previously. I’m his only child. I believe she influenced him into changing his will.”
“That’s a big claim.”
“It’s true! I know it is.”
Because R.J. knew May and knew the relationship she had with her father, he was inclined to believe her. However, he couldn’t allow old sentiments to sway his judgment. He had to look at the facts. He could not build a solid case based on feelings.
She sniffed and wiped at her eyes again. “You have to help me.”
“We’re looking at a case of undue influence. Which I’m not going to lie to you, May, is difficult to prove.”
“Why? You’re a lawyer. You should be able to prove anything.”
He smiled. It felt good to have someone believe you could do anything. “Well, we have to prove that your father’s wife exerted a great deal of pressure on him to cause him to succumb to her influence. However, we have a start. She isolated him from his family and friends, right?”
May nodded. “I’m sure I can get others to come forth as well.”
“That’s good. I’ll put your case at the top of my caseload. I’m going to try to help you, but I can’t make any promises.”
“I understand. To have you in my corner means a lot.”
“I’ll look things over and give you a call.” R.J. stood.
“Thank you. Here’s you handkerchief back.” She held the cloth limply between her fingers. Yeah, he wasn’t stuffing that back in his pocket.
“You can keep it.”
She smiled in understanding. “I’ll wash it and return it.”
May sauntered around the table toward him. R.J. tried to stop himself from watching her hips as they swayed seductively from side to side. It was too hard a temptation to resist.
When he realized what he was doing, he mentally scolded himself. He was engaged. He loved Denise. R.J. kept repeating that in his head in case his friend downstairs decided to get any ideas.
“It was wonderful seeing you today,” she stated. “I often wondered how you turned out. Other than getting boring, you’re still the same.”
“I’m not boring.” He scoffed. Then he said the dumbest thing to defend himself. “I was a bartender for years. I saw and did it all.” Of course, she knew that. She helped him get his first bartending job.
May smirked. “Then you’d be up for meeting me for drinks tonight.”
He rocked back on his heels. R.J. wasn’t expecting that one. Leave it to May to surprise him. “We’re going to keep this professional, May.”
She licked her lips, pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “It would be professional. No one said we couldn’t discuss me contesting my father’s will.”
“I’m still going to have to say no.”
He was getting married in a month. Common sense said if he wanted to get married and stay married, it was best if he avoided enticements like May when necessary. She was certainly an unneeded distraction. However, he wanted to help her out.
She shrugged. “Your loss. Would it be professional if I gave an old friend a hug? One where he actually hugs me back.”
“Come here.”<
br />
R.J. opened his arms. May stepped into them. She smelled like a heady mixture of sweetness and spice. His mind involuntarily took him back to his college years when he held May, kissed her, loved her. He always thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. That was, until he found Denise.
He stepped back to the present, feeling her soft, lush body in his arms. It felt nice but not quite right. She wasn’t tall enough, wasn’t lean or toned enough. She wasn’t R.J.’s fiancée.
May’s lips pressed against his neck for longer than was probably necessary. She whispered, “I look forward to hearing from you, handsome.”
She was going to be trouble. He just knew it. And he wasn’t going to tell Denise about any of this.