A Case for Love (26 page)

Forbes finished tying his shoe, then dropped his foot back to the floor, dislodging Evelyn’s hand from his knee. He leaned against the high back of the chair, rested his elbows on the armrests, and clasped his hands in front of him. “They have a funny way of showing it. Last time I tried to contact them, tried to see if we could reconcile this, they had their lawyer call me back and demand I cease trying to contact them.”

“About the case, yes. But they’re still your parents, Forbes. If you went to them as their son, not as the lawyer for the other side, things would be different.” Evelyn crossed her legs, and her skirt, too short to begin with, rode up even higher.

Forbes cleared his throat and ignored the way the surface of his skin tingled at the flash of thigh he caught before he averted his gaze.

“I find it interesting that you, who has what could be described at best an adversarial relationship with your father, are here advising me in parental matters.”

“It’s because I have such a bad relationship with my father that I’m here, Forbes. I don’t want to see happen to you what’s happened to me—I don’t want to see this case come between you and your parents. I’ll admit it straight out: I’m insanely jealous of the relationship that you—and your sister—have with your parents. It amazes me that Meredith can work so closely with them every single day and still have a close enough relationship with them that the three of them have lunch together, alone, at least once a week.”

Forbes let out a small huff. Those lunches had been his idea—a time for Meredith to be able to share her concerns and problems with her parental bosses instead of bottling it all up inside and putting up with their running roughshod over her and her department. “Things are not always as they appear.”

“No, but that’s true in your situation as well. They’re not mad at you, Forbes. They understand you felt like your conscience was telling you to take this case. I think they respect that about you. Now they want to reestablish their relationship with their son.” She leaned forward, clasping her hands around her knee. Had she intentionally pressed her upper arms close into her sides?

He surged out of the chair and paced the perimeter of the room, coming to a stop at the window that overlooked the cul-de-sac in front of the house. “If they’re so eager to reestablish our relationship, why haven’t they contacted me? They know how to get in touch with me. They know where I live—obviously, because they told you how to get here.”

“Actually, that was Meredith.” Frustration laced Evelyn’s voice. “They haven’t contacted you directly because they aren’t sure if you would accept a direct line of contact from them. Why do you think I’m here?”

He turned, crossed his arms, and leaned his hip against the windowsill. “You want me to believe that my parents sent you here as their emissary? You—an outsider? Someone who knows next to nothing about our family, about how we relate with each other?”

“Who better than a neutral party?”

Answering a question with a question. His guard rose even higher. “Did my parents send you?”

“Forbes, why else would I be here?” She pushed herself out of the chair and stalked toward him.

He stopped her with the look he usually reserved for hostile—or otherwise uncooperative—witnesses “Yes or no. Did my parents ask you to come to my house and talk to me about a reconciliation?”

The sweet seductiveness left Evelyn’s expression. “Not exactly, no.” She closed the space between them until she stood almost toe-to-toe with him. She ran her index finger down his sternum. “I came because I’m worried about you, Forbes, because in the time we spent together earlier this summer, I came to ... care for you.”

Forbes tried to take a step back, but he’d made the mistake of allowing her to trap him in the corner. “Don’t do this.”

She ran her hands up his arms to his shoulders and leaned forward until her body pressed up against his. “We all want you to come back. Your family needs you. And you need them.”

He took hold of her upper arms to try to push her away as gently as he could. Last thing he needed was for Evelyn to bring an assault charge against him.

Stronger than she appeared, she hooked one hand behind his head. With neck and shoulder muscles already sore, he found it hard to resist the pressure of her hand.

Suddenly, her lips crushed against his.

He pushed harder against her upper arms and finally broke the kiss.

The rasp of a throat clearing blasted across the quiet room. Evelyn jumped back; Forbes wiped his mouth on the back of his hand.

Alaine stood in the doorway, her expression inscrutable. “The garage door was open, so I let myself in.”

Alaine willed her knees to stay solid beneath her. When Forbes hadn’t shown up by seven thirty, she’d figured she’d save him the hassle of picking her up by meeting him here. But at least now she knew the truth behind why he’d wanted to push their date back an hour.

Past experience with boyfriends who’d cheated on her screamed for her to leave the house—slamming every door behind her as she went—and never speak to Forbes again. But she stood her ground. When she first walked in, Forbes and Evelyn—
Evelyn Mackenzie
of all people—appeared to be entwined in a passionate embrace. But when Evelyn showed herself to be the aggressor and kissed Forbes, the reasonable part of Alaine’s brain kicked in and told her not to believe what she thought she saw.

Alaine raised her eyebrows and looked at Forbes, trying to keep every trace of accusation out of her expression. “Don’t we have dinner reservations?”

Forbes’s posture went limp for a split second; then he composed himself. “Yes. Seven forty-five, which means we’d better go or we’re going to be late.” He walked past Evelyn and joined Alaine at the door. His blue gray eyes decidedly worried, he leaned over and kissed her cheek. “This wasn’t what it looked like.” His breath tickled her ear.

“You can explain over crawfish-stuffed fried ravioli.”

“I guess I should be going then.” Evelyn grabbed a bundle of clothes and a pair of hideous stiletto sandals from the floor beside the chair Alaine usually occupied in this room—that would change as of now.

Alaine gave her a tight-lipped smile. “Yes, that would be a good idea.”
And never come back!
she wanted to scream. With pressure from her shoulder, Alaine positioned Forbes so she was between him and the hussy when Evelyn passed them to exit. “Be careful driving in the rain.”

Evelyn stopped by the stairs. “Oh, Forbes, your shirt.” She reached behind her back and started undoing the wad of fabric, as if she was going to take it off right then and there in front of God and everybody.

He closed his eyes and held up a hand. “Keep it. I was never going to wear it.”

Alaine trailed the woman and stood at the top of the half flight of stairs leading down to the front door. Evelyn turned around and looked before opening the door. Alaine smiled and waved. “Nice to see you again. B’bye.”

Okay, so maybe catty wasn’t the most Christian way to go. But she couldn’t help herself. She’d barely started to turn around when Forbes pulled her into an overwhelming hug.

“Thank you so much for showing up when you did.” His voice sounded muffled in her hair.

“Yeah, well, I’m hungry, and I was tired of waiting. So”—after a few seconds’ struggle, she succeeded in pulling away—“let’s go. I had to park behind you because the other side of the driveway was occupied, so I’ll drive.” She softened slightly at his hangdog expression. “Anyway, I know how much you hate driving in the rain.”

She made a mad dash to the Mazda while Forbes, with his giant umbrella, closed the garage door using the security keypad outside. As always, once he got into the car, he fought with stowing the oversized umbrella without sprinkling them both with water.

Alaine pulled out of the driveway. “So ... Evelyn Mackenzie paid you a visit tonight.”

Forbes rubbed the right side of his neck. She softened a little bit more—but no, he had a ways to go to get out of this doghouse. “She was standing at the front door when I got home from Russ’s. Said she needed to talk to me. I told her I only had a few minutes.”

“And the T-shirt?” Alaine rolled to a stop at the light leading out of the complex and cast him a sidelong glance.

“It was either give her something to change into or try not to look at her sitting there in a soaked white silk blouse. You’d think she’d have learned to carry an umbrella with her by now.”

The light turned green. “Uh-huh. So what was it she wanted to talk to you about?”

“My parents.”

“Your—” She stole a look at him, alarmed. “Are they okay?”

He nodded, and she turned her attention back to the road.

“That was my first reaction as well. She came under the pretense of telling me that my parents miss me and they want to reconcile with me. That she’s worried about them and what this estrangement is doing to them.”

“That’s ironic, coming from her—at least what you’ve told me about her.” Alaine checked her mirrors, then looked over her shoulder before changing lanes.

“I said that to her, too. That’s when she tried the ...
other
tactic.”

“The old ‘if you can’t beat ’em, seduce ’em’ tactic? The hussy.” If Alaine didn’t think spitting were disgusting, she’d spit. “Coming on to my man like that.”

He squeezed her shoulder. “So ... you believe me, then? That it was all her? That I didn’t want to have anything to do with it?”

“Forbes, one thing I’ve learned in almost two months of dating you is that if you wanted to kiss her, she wouldn’t have had to practically strangle you to make it happen.” She pulled into the parking lot at Palermo’s. “Ooh, look, someone saved us the best parking space.” She whipped into the space just a few feet from the covered walkway leading to the restaurant’s front door.

Though utterly silly, she sat in the car and waited until Forbes came around and opened the door for her. Sometimes, she enjoyed his old-fashioned ways. Other times, they made her feel ridiculous. But that was something she could deal with for now.

He didn’t let go of her hand once she exited the car, but kissed it several times over. “Have I told you recently how crazy I am about you?”

“Or just plain crazy.” She laughed, but deep down, the fact that, after all this time, he still hadn’t used the
L
-word bothered her. They were going to the same church; he had Sunday dinner with her family every week; he even called her his girlfriend in front of other people. So why couldn’t he bring himself to declare his love?

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the supercouple of Bonneterre.”

Alaine and Forbes both turned at the familiar voice. “Hey, Shon.” Alaine hugged Forbes’s neighbor and client. “What brings you out tonight? Don’t tell me you have a date!” She winked at him.

He glowered back at her. “No, as a matter of fact I’m working. Let’s Do Coffee is hosting a mixer tonight—it’s something new I’m trying. I’ve invited a select group of clients to come in for an informal meet and greet. Afterward, each one will fill out comment cards, and I’ll match them up for coffee dates from there.” He moved past them and opened the door. “I’d ask y’all to join us, but since you’re both off the market, it would defeat the purpose. Although...” He eyed them. “I could bring you in as an LDC success story.”

Forbes let out a barking laugh. “Yes, but would that be truth in advertising? I mean, seeing as how you set us up with Riley and Zebra Woman, not with each other.”

Shon’s dark eyes glittered, reflecting the multiple bulbs in the chandelier above them. “
Au contraire,
monsieur. I may have sent other people to the coffee shop at the same time you were there and implied those were the people I wanted you to meet, but I knew they weren’t right for you.” He pulled them aside so other customers entering could get to the hostess stand unimpeded. “Forbes, why do you think I gave you a free, three-month membership?”

Forbes glanced at Alaine. She shrugged, and both looked back at Shon.

He sighed. “Because Alaine had just signed up for a membership. And I knew from the first time I met her that even if you hadn’t had an eighth-grade-level crush on her for a couple of years, she was the right woman for you. But when I took her registration money, I was committed to setting her up with someone I felt was a good fit for her.”

“Thanks for refunding that money, by the way.” Alaine squeezed Shon’s wrist.

Shon ducked his head. “Well ... after your ‘dates,’ even though it did get the two of you together as I’d hoped, I felt guilty about how I’d set you up.” He turned on his heel and marched over to the hostess stand.

“Yes, Mr. Murphy, we have you set up in the Milan Room in the back.” The hostess called someone over her headset, then looked up questioningly at Forbes.

“We’ll be with you momentarily,” he told the girl, then pulled Shon away with what looked like a painful grip on the upper arm. “What do you mean, how you set us up?”

Shon cleared his throat and glanced around as if to make sure no one could hear him. “Riley and Zebra Lady aren’t actually LDC clients. They ... well, Zebra Lady, as you call her, is one of our coordinators—her name is Laura. And I play basketball with Riley twice a week down at the YMCA. Oh, and Forbes—Laura told me about the whole age thing.”

Now it was Forbes’s turn to duck his head in embarrassment. “Yeah, tell her again how sorry I am.”

“She got a huge laugh out of it. We threw a surprise party at work last week for her fiftieth birthday.”

Forbes didn’t have the energy to look at the caller ID on the phone when it rang. A few seconds later, the intercom buzzed. “Forbes, she wants you upstairs.”

Suppressing the desire to sleep for a week, he hit the button. “Thanks, Sam.” Feeling like one of the living dead, he trudged to the elevator.

While he’d enjoyed the two hours he’d lingered over dinner with Alaine last night, it had meant staying up until two o’clock in the morning, reading all the new motions and briefs. Then he’d woken up at five o’clock with stabbing pain in his shoulder and neck. Since none of the over-the-counter pain relievers he had at home seemed to be doing any good, he got up, got dressed, and came into the office to get some work for his other clients out of the way so he could get out of here early this afternoon and try to get in to see his doctor.

Straightening his tie and jacket—but he couldn’t do anything about the dark circles under his eyes—he stalked past Mary’s vacant desk and into Sandra’s office.

He drew up short just inside the door. At the conference table under the bank of windows, sat managing partner Sandra Landreneau, partner emeritus—and city councilwoman—Tess Folse, and partner Hayden Maier. Mary watched him owlishly from the opposite end of the long table, a stenographer’s notebook in front of her. His bowels twisted into a knot.

“Come in and shut the door, Forbes.”

He was getting really sick of hearing Sandra say that. He took the seat directly across from her—beside Hayden—and took a slow, deep breath.

“Mary, please start taking notes,” Sandra directed. “This is an emergency meeting of the partners of Folse, Landreneau, Maier, and Guidry, Attorneys at Law, LLC. It has become increasingly apparent that an amendment to the partnership agreement is needed.” She handed a piece of paper to each of them to read. “In short, the amendment states that no partner shall take a case against an existing client of the firm; to knowingly do so will be grounds for demotion or separation. This amendment is retroactive.”

Forbes’s skin went clammy. Amendments to the agreement only needed a majority, not a unanimous, vote. Stepping outside of his own situation, he could see the merit of the amendment in protecting the partners and the firm from accusations of conflict of interest.

“The floor is open for discussion.”

“It seems very well laid out to me,” Tess looked over her reading glasses. “No questions or comments. Hayden?”

The youngest of the three women—only seven years older than Forbes—looked up from her copy. “It’s in the best interest of the firm. Forbes?”

God, why is this happening to me, now?
Hearing that the other three were in favor of the change—probably discussed and drafted between the three of them without his input—what would be the point in arguing? “No comments or questions.”

They all gaped at him for a long moment. Sandra shook herself out of it first. “Very well, then. All in favor of amending the partnership agreement thusly, raise your right hand.”

Sandra, Tess, and Hayden all raised their hands. Big surprise there.

“Opposed, by same sign.”

Forbes raised his right hand.

“Amendment is approved and goes into effect immediately.” Sandra reached for another folder, which she opened, then turned and laid in front of Forbes. “Pursuant to Amendment 16, paragraph (c), as you are the signatory counsel for the case of
Moreaux Mills v. Boudreaux-Guidry Enterprises,
this is your one-week notice. You have seven days from today to decide between leaving the firm or resigning from the Mills case. If you decide to leave the firm, you will have fourteen days from the date of your decision to contact your book of business to inform them you’re leaving. If you resign from the Mills case, no further action will be taken against you nor will this situation reflect negatively on you.

“Your answer must be made to the other three partners in writing by”—she looked at her watch—“nine o’clock next Friday morning.” She pulled the folder to her and wrote the date and time in the appropriate blanks, then slid it back toward him. “Please sign and date at the bottom indicating that you understand the reason you’ve been given this letter and that you will abide by it.”

He did so—surprised that blue ink instead of blood flowed out of his pen.

“Do you have any questions?” Sandra’s reading glasses swung on their beaded chain as she retrieved the folder.

“No, ma’am.” He pushed his chair back a little. “Now, if that’s all, I have a very busy day today.”

“Mary will make a copy of this for you.” Sandra held up the file. The gray-haired secretary scuttled over and snatched the folder.

Forbes stood and gave a little half bow. “Good morning, ladies.” He followed Mary from the office but hung back when she went to the photocopier. No sense in getting too near the bear in her den.

“Here.” She thrust the copies at him, then craned her neck to look around him toward Sandra’s door. “And off the record”—she lowered her voice—“I think it’s horrible that they’re doing this to you. I think it’s a right noble thing you’re doing for the people down in the Mills. I grew up down there, you know. My daddy was a foreman in the lumberyard before the paper mill shut down.”

Forbes could have sat down in the middle of the floor and laughed—or cried. He settled for kissing the irascible woman’s cheek instead. “Thanks, Mary. And your secret is safe with me.”