“I’m just trying to help,” he said, staring down at her.
She swallowed and looked up. She had no other choice; (1) he was taller than her and (2) she’d be damned if she let him know just how much his proximity affected her.
“I didn’t ask for your help.”
He nodded. And still smiled, that amenable smile that always came across as too attractive to really be condescending. Damn, she didn’t like this man. Or at least, she didn’twantto like him.
“You didn’t. But I like to look out for my colleagues and my friends.”
“We’re not friends,” she snapped.
He shrugged. “We could’ve been.”
If she weren’t such a bitch. He didn’t say it but the words were clear in his eyes. It was okay, she could take it. What she couldn’t take was what a man like him could do to her in the long run.
“This is my floor,” she said when the elevator doors opened. Then, because she wasn’t totally oblivious to what he was trying to do and how much sense his words had actually made, she paused, looked over her shoulder and said, “I’ll call theadministrative office to see about having a spokesperson on hand during the trial.”
He didn’t say another word, which he could have, and she actually expected. He simply nodded. When she walked away and heard the elevator doors close behind her, she thought about his smile and how it made her feel like forgetting all the promises she’d made to herself to protect her heart at all costs.
Chapter 6
Naomi
Tonight, was bingo night for Naomi Lashley. Sure, she lived in Las Vegas, had lived there all her life, so there were definitely more lucrative games she could play for money. But bingo was fun and it was affordable. She didn’t have much and had learned to deal with less after Porter’s death. But she was content and that was all that mattered. She wished she could say the same about her only child.
Victoria was even more beautiful today at thirty-three years old than she had been when she was three minutes old. And she was just as stubborn as she’d been when she was three and sat at the kitchen table for the better part of six hours refusing to eat okra.
“I’m not going to play bingo,” Victoria said with exasperation.
Just a few moments ago, she’d come into the dining room—which she kept impeccably clean along with the rest of the house—with a plate of grilled tilapia and macaroni and cheese. She took a seat at the table and blessed her food, obviously prepared to eat. Which meant, she had no plans to leave the house tonight.
“I have briefs to read and motions to review,” Victoria continued. “I don’t have time to sit with you and Bobby Witkee while you battle it out at bingo.”
“Bobby never beats me,” Naomi replied holding her head high and reaching over to pinch off a piece of fish. Sticking it into her mouth she moaned. “You’re getting better, this is good. And Bobby cheats, the lying fart.”
“Really, Mama? You were a teacher for thirty years, that’s the best insult you could come up with while I’m eating?”
“I wanted to say something else but I thought I was being tactful. You work too much,” Naomi said with a wave of her hand.
“There’s no such thing,” Victoria replied. “When you have a job, you do it. Remember you told me that.”
Naomi nodded. She had told her daughter that, the day she graduated from law school. “You also have a life you need to lead and so far, you’re not doing that. What you’re doing is sitting in this house buying shoes like there’s no tomorrow and getting older every day.”
“Mama!” Victoria frowned. “That’s a little rude. Do I remind you how old you are?”
“No. Because no matter how old I am, I’m still your mother. I’ve also had sex in the last century, what about you?”
Victoria
Victoria groaned. Her mother’s candor was unlike any other she’d ever known. Whatever Naomi Lashley thought, she said. Depending on who she was speaking to she would adjust her tone and wording accordingly, but whoever it was would surely get Naomi’s honest opinion.
“Sex is not the answer to everything,” Victoria said with a sigh. She was fairly certain she was correct in that assessment, but she did remember sex as being enjoyable. Sort of. At any rate, she wasn’t going to discuss this with her mother.
Nor was she going to think about how deliberately picky she was about the men in her life because none of them could compare to her father.
Porter Lashley had been everything to not only Victoria, but his wife as well. The love Victoria had witnessed between her parents was the blueprint for what she wanted in her life. A soul-searing union, a deep respect and reverence for one another, trust, admiration, loyalty. She wanted all those things, and so far, she had yet to find a man who could give them to her.
“Maybe not but it’s great recreation,” Naomi said, pulling Victoria from her thoughts. “Why do you think I keep playing bingo with Bobby when I know he cheats?”
