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“Wow, really?” I question, finding myself completely intrigued by this woman while trying to mask the way the topic of delivering babies makes my chest ache. Despite my hang-ups about childbirth, there’s no denying that this woman is impressive.
“Yeah, I love it,” she tells me, her eyes lighting up like Christmas morning. “Helping a baby come into the world is just so . . . I don’t know. I want to say rewarding, but I feel that doesn’t do it justice.”
“I get it,” I tell her, thinking of Georgie and how overwhelmed by love I was the day she was born . . . you know, before that was overshadowed by my wife’s death. “It sounds incredible. Only a handful of people would have the guts to be able to do a job like that.”
“Yeah, I guess,” she says proudly. “What about you? What keeps you busy?”
“Apart from Georgie?” I grin, exhausted just thinking about how much work she can be. “I’m a criminal lawyer. I’ve got my own firm.”
“Woah,” she says with wide eyes, side-eyeing me as if impressed. “I don’t think I’ve met anyone as badass as you.”
“Bullshit,” I grunt, trying not to let that go to my head. I mean, sure. I might already be the top attorney in the country, but I don’t need the ego that comes along with it. “I’m sure you’ve had your fair share of badasses come through the hospital doors.”
“True,” she tells me. “We had a stab victim come in on Monday night.”
Crap, this sounds awfully familiar to me, right now. “It wasn’t a blonde dude with tattoos, was it?”
“Yeah?” she asks.
Shit.
Glancing back at her, I catch her eyes. “You didn’t work on him by any chance, did you?”
Say no. Say no. Say no. Please, say no. On second thought, perhaps this would be easier if she said yes.
Gigi shakes her head. “No, I wanted to, though,” she says with a heavy sigh, clearly irritated by whatever went down that night. “Why?”
Oh, thank God.
“Conflict of interest, is all,” I explain. “He’s not a good guy. I’m defending the man he shot two minutes before. Had you worked on him, it wouldn’t be right for me to be spending time with you.”
“Seriously?” she questions, her brows arched. “Sounds like you really know what you’re talking about.”
I laugh and nod. “I hope so. Otherwise, there’s a bunch of really shitty people I’ve locked up who are gonna come for my throat.”
“Stoooop,” she says, wide-eyed again as she swivels in her seat, trying to face me front on. “You’re out here locking people up? So, you’re doing the real criminal stuff, not just petty things like stealing a car?”
“That’s right.”
She looks at me with a smile in her eyes. “You any good?” she teases.
I can’t help the cocky smirk that stretches across my face. So much for the fucking ego. “The best,” I confirm, not a hint of deceit in my tone. “Why? You go and get yourself in trouble?”
Her cheeks flush and something tells me she’s in more trouble right now than she can handle. “I’ll have you know that I’m a law-abiding citizen. It’s my best friend I’m worried about. Maybe it’ll be handy to know a criminal lawyer. Who knows what kind of trouble she’ll get herself into one day,” she laughs before narrowing her gaze at me. “Hold up. When you say you’re the best, is that your ego talking?”
“No, really,” I laugh, forcing myself to look back at the road. “I’ve got the highest conviction rate in the country.”
“My daddy is a wockstar,” Georgie boasts from the backseat.
A wide grin stretches across my face, and I glance back at my little girl, holding out my fist and watching as she beams back at me, bumping her fist with mine. “Damn straight, Georgie Girl!”
Gigi gapes at me, clearly realizing she’s in the presence of a courtroom God. “Holy shit,” she gasps, a slow smile spreading across her face. “That’s . . . wow. I’m impressed.”
“Thanks,” I say proudly, glad my years at law school and the killer hours I put in are able to impress someone. My brothers and Cassie think it’s cool, of course, but impressive? I’m not sure they’d go that far. They stopped being impressed with my ability to argue a point when we were kids. Georgie on the other hand thinks it’s fucking incredible. And hell, so do I.
Veering off the road, I turn into the vacant acreage my brothers and I own and start down the long dirt road. Gigi sits forward in her seat, her brows furrowed as she peers out at the property. “Uhhhhmmm . . . please tell me you haven’t brought me out here to, you know,” she says with a cringe before dragging her thumb across her throat.
A laugh rumbles through my chest as I glance out at the big, empty property. It’s clear to see why she might think that. After all, we’re complete strangers. She doesn’t know a damn thing about me or my family. Hell, on second thought, what woman in her right mind would have accepted Logan’s invitation?
