Chapter
Seven
Saturday morning, Whitney drove over to pick up Carina for yoga. She passed the card key they’d given her through the proximity reader at the entrance to the gated community. The houses in this neighborhood were huge.
Whitney’s condo wasn’t even half the size of the first floor of her brother and sister-in-law’s home, but it was plenty. She didn't need much room for just her and one goldfish, who was also single, but not by choice.
William walked out the front door with Chloe on his hip, just as Whitney pulled into the driveway.
Chloe flapped her wrist, blowing kisses to Whitney through a fit of giggles at William’s coaxing.
As she walked up the steps, Chloe reached for her, and Whitney’s heart did a cartwheel.
William set Chloe down, and she rushed into Whitney’s arms. Chloe’s soft hair hung below her shoulders in long ringlets tied back in a ribbon, just like Mom used to fix hers when she was that age. This little girl had brought magic into the entire family.
Whitney took in a breath of that sweet smell and nuzzled her nose to nose. “Funny nose kisses for me and you.”
Chloe giggled and tossed her head, trying to accomplish the silly nose rubs, but really she looked more like a chicken after cracked corn.
“How are you, big brother?”
“Good. I have to warn you,” William said. “Carina’s at it again. Marie and Brad were talking about a friend of theirs at dinner last night, and I swear I saw a battle plan forming in Carina’s head to match you two up while she ate dessert.”
“We’re just going to yoga this morning. I don’t think she’s going to do a lot of matchmaking while we’re sweating in pretzel positions with a room full of others doing the same.”
“Says you. You know how tenacious my bride is. She’ll know who has a single brother or a new friend in town before you even get to the downward dog.”
“I’m on to her ways. I won’t be tricked.” Carina’s tenacity was one of the attributes that made their portfolio so lucrative. “It’ll be good for us to get some exercise. I’m up for life balance, but I’ll be on the alert for any cupid tricks.”
“Good luck with the whole life balance thing. I haven’t figured it out.” William shook his head. “I feel like the more I do, the more I need to do.”
“I know what you mean. I’m still a work-in-progress on that too. Hey, speaking of balance, I’ve been asking Carina for ideas for Chloe’s birthday gift. And Mom has been no help either. I want to do something really memorable for her second birthday. I’m running out of time. You’ve got to help me.”
“We’ve pretty sufficiently spoiled her already.”
“That didn’t get past me either. She’s got you wrapped around her little finger, but honestly, that has to be the best feeling in the world.”
“It is.” He looked down at his daughter, who was looking at him with those same blue Winters eyes. “Yeah. It’s pretty amazing. You know you can make one of these too. Look ather. If that’s not incentive to settle down, I don’t know what is.” He took Chloe’s hand. “My life is better than I could’ve ever imagined with this little one in it.”
She believed him, and he was the one who had never wanted children.
“We’ve got some serious swinging to do.” He took Chloe by the hand and let her tug him toward the backyard.
It was so sweet to see William as a husband and father. Still, in her heart, he was just her goober brother, and it always tickled her to realize he was a man now.
She let herself in the house with a quick, “Hey, gal. You ready?”
Carina sat at the dining room table with her laptop and charts spread out in front of her.
“I guess we’re still doing our Saturday morning review too. I didn’t think we’d have time before class.” Whitney dropped her purse into a chair and sat in the other. “How are we looking?”
“I got up early. It’s all done.” Carina’s face lit up. “Not a worry in the world. Our numbers are up again.” She shuffled through some papers. “I feel like I'm missing something, though. This past month, our numbers have really jumped. It seems too significant to not have been triggered by something. We didn’t run any ads or have any meetings last month. It’s just sort of odd.”
“Our reputation is good. We’ve put in the hard work, and it’s paying off. It’s not impossible, right?” Whitney held her hand up for a high five from her sister-in-law. “I’m so proud of us. Building out the team of paralegals under Olivia has been the positive impact. We can handle so much more now.”
Carina looked pleased. “The most important part is that we’re proving we can make the divorce and family law arm of the practice as lucrative as the business side. We’re doing it over and over every month.”
“If it hadn’t been for Mom talking Dad into letting us try to revive family law at the firm, we wouldn’t even have had the chance. It really hurt my feelings that he was so against it. I knew we could do it but proving it to him is so important to me.”
