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“Sure—”
She interrupted me again. “Are you familiar with the phrase?” She arched one eyebrow in a way that made me feel two inches tall despite having a good eight on her.
This might be the least pleasant person I’ve ever met, beautiful body and stunning smile be damned.“I am,” I gritted out. “If I could just get your card.”
The door to the anteroom pushed open, and Penny slipped out. “RJ. Thank God. I was about to send out a search party. You’re never actually late.” She glanced between us. “And you met Lear,” she said to her with a sideways glance at me. “He’s just starting out with me. Lear, RJ Brooks is the officiant.”
Oh, shit.
I noted the binder RJ held, the one she’d clutched to her chest outside. The officiant for this wedding. That made sense and was somuch worse for me. “It’s nice to formally meet you,” I said, holding out a hand again.
She raised that eyebrow again and then turned away from me, a fast-moving polar vortex taking over the space where she’d stood. “I ran into something unpleasant on the way in. Sorry. I’m ready.” She flashed a smile to my cousin and didn’t give me a second glance.
Penny flicked her eyes to me in a way I knew meantWhat the hell did you do?
My first day was off to a great start.
Chapter 3
RJ
ERIC POPPED HIShead into my office. “Lunch? I need to get out of here.”
I glanced at my watch. It was three fifteen, and I had eaten nothing since a bagel at nine that morning. “I have a ton of work to do,” I said, unconvincingly nudging the pile of folders on my desk.
“I’ll rephrase. This is a senior associate telling a junior associate to leave her office for thirty minutes.”
I grabbed my purse from my desk drawer because I was hungry. “Does your husband know you’re this annoying?”
“As a matter of fact, he does.” Eric leaned against the door frame. “But my charm and good looks more than make up for any shortcomings.”
We walked down the hall, side by side. Streaks of afternoon sunlight flowed from open doors into the hallway. “I know that’s not true,” I said with a laugh. I liked Eric. He and his husband had become fast friends of mine when I moved to North Carolina. “I seem to remember him definitively disliking your brief but memorable obsession with fur-lined Crocs.”
“We don’t speak of that period in our relationship,” he said, pushing open the door. “And I thank you not to bring it up.”
We laughed as we stepped out into the sunshine. The deli downthe street was a frequent stop, though lately I’d been ordering in more than leaving the building.
Eric rolled the sleeves on his shirt as we walked. “Did you talk to Gretchen yet?”
“We met a few days ago, and she agreed to be my mentor.”
“And you’re... happy about this? You look like she agreed to be yourtormentor.”
“No, I’m excited.” I’d been nervous as hell to tell Gretchen she had the career I wanted and to ask her to mentor me. She’d grilled me about my goals and plans in a way that made every job interview I’d ever had feel like practice runs. “I admire the hell out of her, but you know she’s terrifying. It was like asking the goddess of war for a favor.”
Eric chuckled. “She does have afewAthena qualities, but I don’t think she’s quite as intimidating as you assume.”
I leveled him with a stare.
“Fine. She is, but she’s a person. She’s got flaws and skeletons, just like everyone else, and, believe it or not, she has a soft side, too.”
“Well, as long as she can help me have the career she’s had, I don’t need to see her soft side.” I didn’t know the full story, but Eric and Gretchen had known each other socially. He’d mentioned casually once that Gretchen had introduced him to Tyson years earlier. Still, I didn’t really believe she shed her veneer of power and poise when she left the office, which was part of what I admired. “She hates this wedding thing.”
“That’s not shocking,” he said, pushing through the door into the space crowded with other professionals who had forgotten to take lunch on time. “What’s going on with that? I was out on parental leave when it happened, and everything after that is a little blurry. You performed this wedding in the park and it turned out he was a client of ours?”
The smells of the deli made my mouth water and I made amental note to order an extra sandwich to have for dinner later in my office. “A big client with the LA branch. After it went viral, they were interviewed constantly, and every time, they talked about the ceremony I wrote for them on the fly, how it was original and beautiful. Add to that, he told some friends who told other friends, and suddenly...” I paused as we stepped forward.
“Suddenly you’re a divorce attorney who performs weddings.” Eric shook his head. “Why did you get ordained in the first place?”
