LITMIR.BIZ

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apparently, none of the parties involved had much in the way of resources to pay for legal representation.

      The uncle had the law behind him. If the investigating parties had it wrong, then the aunt had the welfare of the boy on her side.

      Another pro bono case. A worthy case. What she wanted to do was to go speak with the uncle herself, but she knew that could lay her and the firm open for a harassment claim.

      She’d have to chat with the officers and see what she could find out on behalf of the boy.

      She called Carol and asked her to come up and then quickly unlocked the door to her office. Locking it was silly anyway.

      A short minute later, Carol appeared.

      “Hey, Carol, nice glasses,” Delainey said as they each took a seat. Carol bought glasses the way some people bought shoes. She had some snazzy purple-and-green ones on today.

      “So we’ve all been wondering what the scoop is about Shamus and Hunter.”

      “Did you ask either of them?”

      “Both of them. But neither of them gave even a hint.” Carol looked at her hopefully. “I thought you would know something.”

      Delainey laughed. “You give me far too much credit. I don’t have very much information these days.”

      “Didn’t you know Hunter when he lived here?”

      “I did. We went to school together.” Delainey had no intention of giving even the slightest hint that she and Hunter had had a brief time when they were more than friends. She barely liked to admit the oh-so-short and ill-fated affair to herself. But she threw Carol a meatless bone. “He was every bit as good-looking when he was in high school. Not as well built but cute. All the girls liked him.”

      Carol beamed. “Do we know anyone who went out with him?”

      “You’ll have to ask him.”

      Now Carol blushed and Delainey felt a little silly for being up-front.

      “The case involving the Anning boy.”

      “Yes, Shirley and I set up Stevie’s file, but that was before...”

      “Before what?”

      “Before we got told we do too many pro bono cases.”

      “Told by Mr. Morrison?”

      Carol nodded.

      “He says we all need our jobs and if we don’t choose these cases based on true need—including the need of the Morrison and Morrison employees, we are going to give away too much business and end up having to cut back on staff.”

      This wasn’t anything Delainey was not aware of, but Shamus always made things work somehow. “This one seems to have merit even considering all those things.”

      Carol sighed in relief. “That’s what I thought. You see, it’s my sister’s best friend who filed the complaints in the first place.”

      “Okay. I’ll see what I can do about it.”

      “Thank you so much. Thank you.” Carol had already leaped from her chair and was hurrying out the door.

      Delainey spent the rest of the morning and all of the afternoon reviewing cases, updating files that needed info added and placing phone calls to clients and prospective clients. She finished up her notes and closed the book on another day at the office.

      When she did, she found herself hoping Stevie Anning was safe for the night.

      An hour later, nervous but determined to be open and honest with Hunter, Delainey pulled into the Murphys’ long gravel driveway. She stopped outside the house to consider if she should go up the sweeping front steps to fetch Hunter. Her hands trembled, and she was glad she’d changed her mind about going to the diner.

      When she got home from work, she had found a bag on her kitchen table from Christina. “A thank-you dinner for two. Christina,” the note had said. Delainey had snatched out the bottle of wine and put in a thermos of hot tea. She’d collected a couple blankets so they could eat and talk in the car. Whatever Hunter had to say to her, she was sure she would be able to take it better without an audience of any kind.

      The front door to the house opened and Hunter emerged, so she could breathe a sigh of relief that she didn’t have to get out and test whether her legs could hold her up.

      Instead of getting in the passenger door, Hunter came around to the driver’s side. He was going to chicken out. Good—she didn’t want to do this, either. She opened the window.

      “Hunter?”

      Hunter leaned down until Delainey could see his face. He was close enough that she could have reached out and cupped the strong angle of his jaw with the palm of her hand. He was close enough that she could smell his shaving cream and soap, smooth with an edge of spice.

      Too close. She leaned her head back against the headrest, hoping the feelings stirring in her would go away. She didn’t want to feel anything for him. Even friendship would be dangerous.

      “The Murphys have offered their living room to us. They’ve also invited you to dine with us,” he said, his breath coming out in puffs of steam.

      All she could do was stare at him, panic-stricken. She could not let this thing grow bigger. She needed to get this, whatever it was between Hunter and her, settled. He would work in the Morrison and Morrison office and she would work alongside him if she got the chance.

      One thing she knew for sure, she was not going in there to talk about her personal life. She loved Shamus, but she didn’t want to bare her secrets to him.

      “I thanked him and Connie and assured them we’d be fine. I did tell them I’d ask you before I refused for both of us.”

      “Thank you.” She put both hands on the steering wheel and squeezed hard. “I mean, I was trying to figure out how to diplomatically refuse that offer.”

      Hunter straightened and sprinted in his familiar long-legged stride back to the house and up the steps. Connie met him at the door and waved to Delainey. Connie looked her usual lustrous self. She might not be the reason Shamus quit, but there was probably little to be gleaned from a glimpse so far away.

      Shamus, what’s wrong? she wondered as Hunter strode back to her car and climbed in the passenger side.

      “The diner it is,” he said as he pulled the door closed.

      “We don’t have to go there, either. I brought food. I thought we could go someplace private and talk in the car.”

      He looked over his shoulder to the blankets in the backseat where Brianna’s booster would have been if she hadn’t left it with Christina.

      “Little Cove Park?” Little Cove Park was a small inlet where the waves often washed in quietly. There wasn’t a beach, only rocky shoreline and shallow caves, dangerous when the tide was in. A lighthouse stood on the right side of the cove on a point of land reaching out into the ocean.

      Many a picnic had been had at the small park by people of all kinds, especially high schoolers, sometimes with groups as big as twenty or thirty. Kids would pair off and disappear out into the darkness around them, but never Hunter and her. They used to joke that they were the fire tenders and the whole group would fall apart without their help.

      There would be no one at the cove today.

      Ten minutes later she pulled into the deserted parking area, where the snow of the weekend lay plowed in small mounds. In a moment she would be alone in a parked car with Hunter Morrison.

      She shut off the engine.

      Suddenly, she had no idea why she’d thought she could do this at all. Two days ago her life was on track. Today she felt as if she had no anchor and she definitely could not just sit there and start talking. She got out of the car and Hunter did the same.

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