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I studied her face. Her expression was serious and almost a little afraid, as if she was worried I’d tell her no.
She didn’t need to worry.
“You got yourself a deal.”
“We’ll go to my firm today, and I will find someone to help your brother with his criminal case and someone to help you get custody of Spencer since your mom is in the hospital. Do you think you’ll be visiting her today?”
“I’d rather not.”
“Think about it. If she doesn’t make it, you might regret not saying good-bye.”
Footsteps sounded behind us, and Vivian and I both turned to see Gina walking into the kitchen as she rubbed her eyes.
“What are you still doing home, Dom? Don’t you need to get to work?” She dropped her arms and blinked at Vivian. “What are you doing here so early?”
Vivian immediately let go of my hand and stepped back as all the color drained from her face. “Oh.” She tried to smile, but it was fake and weak. “I didn’t realize you were here.” Her eyes darted around, as if she didn’t know what to do, before finally meeting mine. “I’ll see myself out.”
She set down the coffee mug and fled.
“What’s her problem?” Gina said.
27
Vivian
I racedtoward the front door. My car wasn’t close enough.
“Vivian,” Dominick called.
Shit, shit, shit. His brother.
I slowed my pace but didn’t stop. “I have to go home and shower,” I called over my shoulder in a surprisingly steady voice. “Just call me when you’re ready.”Or better yet…“Or Gina can bring you down to the firm later.”
I resumed my previous speed and didn’t wait for him to answer. I had to get out of there as fast as I could, before I did something embarrassing, like cry.
Thankfully, I made it to my car, got it started without any problems, and zoomed out of the driveway and down the street to go home.
I couldn’t believe it. After all this time, I still had feelings for Dominick. And when he’d asked for my help, I’d foolishly believed he had feelings for me too.
And everything had been going so well until last night.
But I couldn’t blame Spencer. He had done the right thing, calling me. Or having the police call me. He was in big trouble, and he needed help to get out of it.
He had explained to me that he’d been mad at his mother, so he and a friend spray-painted her car. So, he’d admitted to me about the vandalism, but he’d sworn he didn’t start the fire that burned down his mom’s trailer.
After he and his friend had tagged the car, they left and went to the friend’s house. When he got back home, he discovered the fire. He was the one who called 911, but it seemed like the cops had seen a poor kid and assumed he was guilty. They didn’t even have any evidence, just assumptions. And my fear was that if he admitted to the spray-painting, they wouldn’t believe he hadn’t had anything to do with the fire.
The whole thing was a mess, and the lawyer in me was ready to go to bat for the kid, but I thought that a part of me wanted to help because of Dominick. And that was not a good way to go into a case. The client came first. If I was going to help him, I would need to think about Spencer more than his older brother, which was why I’d told Dominick I couldn’t be Spencer’s lawyer.
And now, I was thankful I had told him that before I saw Gina. I would still help Dominick, but if I wasn’t anyone’s lawyer, I could take a step back and separate myself. Because it was going to be hard to be around him so much.
The minute he had opened the door this morning, everything I’d thought I had gotten over was back. And with his brother and mom situation, I had wanted to throw my arms around him and hug him tight.
I wanted to feel his body close to mine again for more than just comfort.
“You’re ridiculous,” I told myself as I skipped the elevator and used the stairs to get up to my floor instead.
Once in my apartment, I made coffee and headed to my bedroom to take a shower before the day officially got started. My bed was still unmade from leaving the house earlier, but it would have to wait.
