Carina laughed, and William flashed her a warning look. “I’m sorry.” Carina’s softened Puerto Rican accent pulled the words into a lingering melody. “Your father has been doing that schtick for twenty-five years. It shouldn’t surprise you.”
“For a man who is always worried to death about the firm’sreputation,” Whitney air-quoted the word, “I wonder why he thought faking his hair color and hiding wrinkles would show integrity. It seems a little insincere to me.”
“If one of us did something like that, he’d flip his lid.” William straightened, then marched around the room impersonating the speech they all knew too well. “We must adhere to a higher set of moral standards and practice with integrity. We owe that to our predecessors and our clients.” William tugged on the lapel of his jacket for dramatic flair.
Carina folded her arms across her chest. “Be thankful he didn’t putyourface on that billboard.”
William spun toward her with a finger in the air but withheld whatever was about to roll off his lips.
Whitney jumped in before he could. “I guess we weren’t as convincing as we thought. You might as well laugh, William. It’s not like we can do anything about it.” Even as far back as their college days, before they began practicing law at the firm, they’d begged their father to pull those horrible billboards down.
“Where’s the billboard?” Whitney almost hated to ask, but a little piece of her prayed for poor placement.
The sarcastic crook in William’s smile said it all. “On top of the new condos, coming into the city, right where traffic crawls to a stop. Everyone will see it.”
“Dad may not have the right approach, but he knows a good location. All we can do now is start practicing the grin and bear it face in response to all the ribbing we’ll get over this one.” Whitney pushed her hair behind her ear, plastered a fake smile on her face, and recited the well-practiced phrase she hadn’t needed to use in a couple of years. “Dad is such a hoot. Gotta love him. You can do that kind of thing when you’re the best in the field.” She tossed her hair and laughed, lifting her shoulders to make it look genuine. She’d mastered it over the years. “See. Still works.”
William finally lightened up, even laughing with them for a moment.
It was true. Dad was over the top when it came to how focused he was about people recognizing them as the best traditional law firm.
William dropped into one of the leather chairs opposite Whitney’s desk.
Carina stepped behind him and rubbed his shoulders. “Look. We knew when we all decided to practice law in the family firm, there were going to be some hurdles.” Always the voice of reason, Carina didn’t let emotional things like this ruin her perspective. “It won’t hurt business. Not saying it’ll help, but we’re just going to have to do like Whitney said. Play it off.”
“I’ve got three new tech companies onboarding,” William said. “All my talk about being up-to-date and eager to earn new and innovative clients is going to look really out of place next to marketing like this.” He pointed at the phone and pulled the trigger on his right hand, pretending to blow up his phone.
Whitney felt bad for him. He was tied closer to Dad on the business side of the firm. At least with she and Carina on the much smaller family law side, there was clear separation. “They are hiringyou, not the billboard, and you’re everything you’ve sold them,” Whitney reminded him. “Dad’s billboard may not be hip, but the legacy of our firm is still a selling point for Barron, Winters & Wall.” Whitney walked back over to her chair.
“So I guess you don’t think I should try to get Mom to talk sense into him?” William looked hopeful.
Carina and Whitney stood shoulder-to-shoulder, heads shaking in perfect unison. “Not a chance.”
Whitney continued, “Dad can do whatever he thinks is best for the firm. We don’t get to play the family card when it comes to business. Case closed.”
“I hate it when you’re right,” William said.
“I know.” Whitney patted his cheek as she walked by on her way back to her desk. “But being right brings me great pleasure. You’d think I’d be used to it by now.”
The intercom on Whitney’s desk phone buzzed. She pressed the button. “What do you have, Olivia?”
“Jen Proctor on line three.”
“Perfect. I’ll take it.”
William got up. “It hit me wrong when I saw that thing. Thanks for talking me down.” He pecked Carina on the cheek. “Sorry I didn’t listen to you in the car. I know I was a pain.”
“You were a?—”
“I know. Thanks for putting up with me.” He turned to Whitney. “I have the best wife in the world.”
“I know you do. So don’t be a jerk on the commute.” Thank goodness he was laughing when he walked out of her office. She looked over at Carina. She had the patience of a saint, and as William’s sister, Whitney knew he wasn’t always the easiest to deal with. “I bet that was a miserable drive to the office.”
“The worst.” Carina ran her fingers through her jet black hair and blew out a breath. “He makes me crazy when he gets like that. I feel like I need to go home and start my day all over.”
“You can.”
“No. I’m fine. Besides, while he was huffing and puffing in the car, I did see something pretty amazing on the way in.”
