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Rene sighed when he didn’t reply. “Tell me you asked her and didn’t order her.”
“I would love to be able to tell you I took that rational course,” he admitted. “But I did not. I did tell her she wasn’t going to work for him and then I pretty much ordered her to turn over the contracts to me. I was going to go shove them in my brother’s face. In my defense, I had just had to deal with my mother, who wanted me to be the one to handle mybrother’s numerous problems. She showed up this afternoon, and I didn’t realize she’d done it so Paul could get a shot at Jayna.”
“I thought she didn’t want Jayna around.” Rene seemed confused.
So was he, but he knew one thing was true. “She’s got a plan. In a way, she wins no matter what. If Jayna turns Paul down, Paul tells everyone what a bitch she is. If she takes him up on the offer, I’ll be upset with her and the whole situation causes a rift between us. I guess I walked right into that one.”
“There’s a third option,” Sylvie offered. “You could let her do the job and trust her to know when she’s being used. I’ve worked with her. She’s one tough cookie. She’s very sensible. I don’t think she’s going to allow Paul to drag her into something bad.”
“I think that’s iffy.” Rene backed him up. Likely because he was the one who knew exactly how bad things had gotten with Paul. After all, Rene had been the one to fly out to California with him a couple of years before when Paul had hit rock bottom. Rene had been with him when he’d bailed his brother out of jail and taken him straight to rehab. “Paul can get into trouble with some dangerous people. If I were Quaid, I would be worried.”
“Then watch her carefully. Or offer to help her.” Sylvie’s pretty face had turned serious. “Look, Quaid, you know I adore you, but I want Jayna to stay in town and become the city’s lead attorney. I’ve got plans for us, plans that require a lawyer with four rows of sharp teeth she’s willing to use.”
He was a bit wounded at the thought. “Since when do I not do what you need?”
“Your heart isn’t in this and you know it,” Rene replied, his voice tinged with sympathy. “I know you’re good at yourjob, but you want to be writing. You told me you’ve gotten to write more with Jayna here.”
“That’s not why I’m crazy about her.” He enjoyed the time she’d been able to give him, but he didn’t like the thought that he’d been using her.
“I think that’s a perfectly good reason to be crazy about her,” Sylvie countered.
“I’m not using her so I can write,” Quaid insisted.
“No, but you’re writing because she’s here. You’re writing because she’s inspired you, because she’s supported you and unlocked that part of you that’s been buried for a couple of years now,” Rene replied. “Tell me you’re not excited about it again.”
“I can’t. I had gotten to a point where I was ready to quit. I was sick of getting rejected, and the whole ‘I write for myself and don’t need an audience’ thing was starting to feel like a lie I told myself.” Jayna had changed that simply by reading what he’d written and then challenging him to do better. He was suddenly thinking about his characters again, and that was all because of her.
“She’s good for you.” Sylvie smiled, a bright expression, before sending him her “I’m the mayor and I will get things done” frown. “She’s good for all of us, so you should do what you need to do to keep that woman here.”
“Offer her a job.” Quaid knew it probably wouldn’t work. “But you should know she’s overqualified.”
Sylvie sat back, a satisfied smile on her face. “Aren’t we all. And I’m putting together a proposal that would offer her a permanent position as the city’s attorney. I’m working with a couple of the small towns in the parish. If we pool our resources, we might be able to offer her enough to make it tempting. But she’s used to city life. She needs more than a job to stay. She needs someone she wants to stay with. That’syou. So step it up, Havery. I don’t want to lose this resource. We need her.”
Because she was better than him when it came to the hard-core legal work. He would have thought the insinuation would bug him, but it didn’t. He was proud of how smart she was, how hard she worked for her clients even when they were paying her in gas and chips and gumbo that never actually got made.
If she’d fumbled the way he had this afternoon, he would have listened to her. He would have shoved aside the pain and tried to understand her. He would have given her a second chance.
Damn it. He was in love with Jayna Cardet.
“Is he okay?” Sylvie asked in a whisper.
“That’s his thinking face,” Rene replied smoothly. “He’s working some stuff out in his head. He’s going to come up with a plan, and then she won’t stand a chance.”
He wasn’t so sure about that. The more he thought about it, the more... angry wasn’t the word. Irritated. Unsure. Vulnerable.
He was in love with her, and she’d walked away from him. The smart play would be to protect himself.
He didn’t want to be smart. He didn’t want to protect himself. He didn’t want the world to view him as some manly man who didn’t take crap off anyone.
He wanted her.
Her eyes widened as she caught sight of him, and she quickly turned back to her sister.
If she thought she was going to run, she was in for a surprise.
“Okay, now you’ve got some crazy eyes going.” Rene sounded worried for the first time. “Maybe we should talk about this.”
Jayna stood, and Sienna leaned over and said somethingto her before she turned and carefully schooled her expression. He knew what she was doing because he’d watched her do it in court. She put on that bland, professional countenance when she was going to make a logical point.
