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Jonah leans over and grabs a purple plastic pony with wings and a unicorn horn from underneath a large cat tree in the corner. “Uh-oh.”
Megan lowers her fist. “What?”
“Looks like your pony got kidnapped by the giant tiger.”
Oliver lowers himself gratefully on the couch, setting down the teacups as his daughter giggles and drops to her knees in front of Jonah. “Marshmallow isn’t a giant tiger.”
“Oh, I dunno.” He dances the pony up her knee. “I think every cat is a giant tiger if you’re as tiny as Miss, uh…”
“That one’s Princess Twilight.” It just comes out before I can think about it.
Thelookon his face when he turns around. I raise my eyebrows at him. He manages to scrape his jaw off the floor when Megan taps his shoulder. “Where’s your hand?”
“Megan,” Oliver reprimands, but Jonah shakes his head.
“It’s okay. You know why I’m an expert on giant tigers?”
“Atigerate it?”
He just grins at her, open and easy and full of mischief. When she grabs his fingers to drag him toward her dollhouse in the corner, he shoots me a guilty glance. “I’ll listen,” he mouths, but I wave him off. He would just stress me out here, getting more and more restless the harder he tries to sit still.
As Oliver and I work through my list of questions, I can hear the two of them quietly arguing about the dollhouse’s interior decor. There’s something achingly tender and good-humored in his smile as she hands him dolls to play with, then immediately gets jealous and takes them away again. He gives her toys silly voices and accents until she’s crying with laughter and begging him to stop. I’ll have to listen to this in the background every time I go through the recording.
When I turn back, I realize Oliver’s watching me with a small smile. “Your intern seems like a good guy.”
“He has a lot to learn.”
He shrugs. “I don’t know.”
Jonah’s stretched out on his stomach, covering his suit in cat hair. “If Twilight and her friend can’t learn to share the Barbie car, then—” He studies the plastic pony indignantly. “Wait a second, this one has wings. What does she need a Barbie car for?” Megan watches him reverently, worshiping his every word.
I pry my eyes off them. “I think we’re ready, Oliver. You’re going to be under enormous pressure to settle, but you shouldn’t agree to anything or speak to anyone without me present. It will be tough going, but we’ll take it one day at a time.”
“Am I doing the right thing, Gray? Should I be letting this go? It’s not helping me, it’s putting stress on Megan, and it’s sure as hell not helping Jackson.”
“I can’t tell you what to do. But I know you want them to take responsibility, so this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.”
He nods. “And I want to use the money toward Megan’s future.”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “We’ll get through this.” I’ll give him everything I have, everything I am, because I need to win this for him and for Victor and for myself.
Jonah gets up, avoiding my eyes as he says goodbye to Megan and shakes Oliver’s hand. He follows me outside and stands quietly next to the car, picking bits of carpet fiber off his shirt. “What’s the matter?” I ask when I can’t take it anymore.
“I wasn’t professional,” he mutters.
“Not particularly. But you were helpful. Thank you.”
He perks up. “Yeah?”
“I’m not going to repeat myself.”
Sunlight flickers across his grin as the wind rustles through the yellow trees overhead. “So? So?” He bounces on his toes, then scrambles to catch the keys when I toss them to him. “Yes!” I roll my eyes at his victory dance as I slide into the passenger seat.
For all his celebrating, his hand starts shaking as soon as he turns on the car. I put a firm grip on his knee before he can hit the accelerator. “Are you going to come apart in the middle of the road?”
He shakes his head rapidly. “I’m fine,” he croaks.
“It’s just a DB11, not a Bugatti.”
