I don’t miss the slight smile that curves her mouth before her eyes close again. For a moment I just watch her fingers stroke back and forth through Purrgood’s fur, glancing at him and catching him blinking at me lazily. He’s completely abandoned me at this point, considering Dani as a more desirable object of his affections, and I can’t even say I blame the guy.

“Mm. Keep doing that,” she murmurs.

“Bossy,” I tut.

“How was your meeting today? Was Alexander insufferable?”

I pause for a moment, knowing I can’t actually tell her the fine details, not that she expects me to, but there is a brief urge to do so anyway. For a moment, I really want to unburden myself to her. I resume the slow stroking of her foot, deciding against it. We don’t need to complicate things between us any more than they already are by breaking any more rules.

“As much as usual,” I tell her. “Sometimes when he talks, I like to fantasize about something very large and heavy falling out of the sky and crushing him.”

“Like a piano,” Dani laughs.

My lips curl. “Or a small meteor.”

“It’s a nice dream,” she muses.

She continues to watch me as I relinquish her foot just to give my attention to the other, her brow furrowing in thought.

“What?”

She bites her lip. “I don’t want you to think I overstepped, but…”

“What is it?”

“I was looking into some old case examples on broken conservatorships today.”

I go still, my breath catching. “You were?”

“There was a case in California where the family was able to transfer the conservatorship from a father to an aunt when they found out he’d changed the parameters to her will without her consent.”

“Alexander would raise all sorts of hell if I were to go digging through my mom’s legal profile.”

“Would he have to know? Where do you think he keeps those records?”

“In his office at home, most likely. He keeps it locked up tight when he’s not using it.”

She frowns, thinking. “There was another case where a sister was able to establish via medical records that their condition had gotten better. That they no longer needed the conservatorship.”

“I’ve looked into it,” I tell her, “but my mother really hasn’t gotten any better. There’s no doubt that she needs care…just not Alexander’s.”

“Could you convince her to testify that you would be a better conservator for her?”

“We’ve talked about it,” I admit. “She always stresses that she doesn’t want to be a burden on me. Without her cooperation, it would be almost impossible.”

Dani looks frustrated, the corners of her mouth turning down and her eyes far away in thought. I can see her brain working ninety miles an hour, and I know without a doubt that it’s not something she’s likely to give up on. Dani is nothing if not tenacious.

“We’ll think of something,” she says determinedly. “I’ll keep looking.”

My chest feels too tight at the resolution in her eyes, and I have a swelling feeling inside that makes it just a little harder to breathe. Dani keeps talking, looking at Purrgood with concentration as she draws patterns into his belly, but her words are harder to make out with the sudden thumping of my pulse, which sounds deafening in my ears.

If you had asked me all those months ago if I ever thought I would be here with her like this, that she would be casually enjoying my touch and my space while doing her best to help me, to reassure me, I would have told you that you were crazy. I can’t even pinpoint a direct path to how we got here, but I’m suddenly struck with the realization that there is absolutely nowhere I would rather be. That this prickly woman with her hidden smile and her fierce demeanor has somehow become the reason I get out of bed in the morning, the person I think about just before I go to sleep. She’s become everything.

And I’m completely, irrevocably in love with her.

She keeps rambling about old court cases, talking to herself like it’s a problem she can work around and arrive at a solution all on her own, completely oblivious to the revelation I’m having only a few feet away. What would Dani do if she knew? Would she run away? Would she hide? Could she ever feel the same about me?

I know it’s too soon to tell her. That Dani’s walls are more fragile now but by no means broken down, and I urge my racing heart to calm, begging my heavy tongue to stay silent. Because I can wait, I tell myself. Until she’s ready to hear it. I’ll wait as long as it takes for her.

Because I meant it, what I told her all those weeks ago. That she’s absolutely worth staying for.

And that’s exactly what I intend to do.

OceanofPDF.com

Twenty-Six

“Now, when he calls you to the stand, don’t give them any emotion,” I remind Bianca as we settle into our seats at the front of the courtroom.

Bianca gives me an imperious look. “When have I struck you as emotional, Danica?”

“Fair,” I sigh. “I just know they’re going to throw everything they have at you today.”

“I am prepared for what this man wants to say about me,” she says with a cluck of her tongue. “I do not fear a man just because he wears a suit.”

I grin, shaking my head as I jot something down. “Just remember what we talked about,” I encourage. “Stick to what we rehearsed. No more surprises.”

“You must let things go, Danica,” Bianca huffs. “Your long memory will give you wrinkles if you are not careful.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I chuckle. I really do sort of love this woman.

I hear the chair opposite our table scraping across the floor, turning my head as Ezra settles into his seat. I’ve gotten very good at keeping my expression neutral when we’re in court; the last thing I need is for someone to catch me ogling him, as he puts it, but I have to admit that he looks…utterly delicious in his three-piece navy suit. He flashes me a smile from his seat, and I have to bite my lip not to return it, allowing myself only a few seconds to appreciate the way his suit jacket hugs his broad shoulders perfectly before giving my attention back to my notepad in front of me.

Still my mind wanders to the night before—a quiet, easy night of Thai food in my living room while Ezra told me stories about his first disastrous mock trial in second year. I almost smile at the memory; his animated recounting of forgetting all the precedents he’d memorized the moment he approached the stand had me laughing at an embarrassing decibel. He’d slept over, and I have to admit, waking up with his warm body wrapped around me hadn’t been the worst thing in the world.

Not that I’ll ever admit that to him.

“I see Lorenzo’s puttana is now attending,” Bianca mutters.

I turn to see Lorenzo’s mistress sitting in the seats on their side of the courtroom, my eyes widening. That’s a bold fucking move. Especially since it’s barely been a week since she fucked up on the stand and forgot her imaginary diagnosis. What the hell are they playing at?

“You can’t say ‘whore’ in court,” I hiss back.

“It is fine if no one knows I say it,” she says, waving me off.

“All rise,” the bailiff announces, quieting the ripple of low conversation throughout the room. The bailiff introduces the session, then the judge. “The Honorable Judge Harding is presiding.”

We all remain standing while Judge Harding enters the room and gets settled in her chair, only taking our seats when she gives us permission to do so.