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Ignore.
Finley had no interest in holidays.
She didn’t care that others—like Nita—did; she just didn’t. Not anymore. For her, holidays no longer carried the luster they once had.
He’s been dead for almost eighteen months ... time to fully immerse back into the land of the living, Finley.
She kicked the voice out of her head. Like moving on was so easy. She loved her work. For that matter, she was back to actually liking herlife ... but not all things could be embraced at once. Not all the little pieces of a shattered existence fell back into place at the same time.
Finley stretched her back, then her neck. She had stopped caring about much after her husband’s murder. Her own injuries from that night had taken months to heal. As if that horrifying event hadn’t been devastating enough, she’d suffered a very public crash and burn in her position as an assistant district attorney in the Davidson County DA’s office. Her downfall had been the most talked-about news around town for days and days. No biggie, right? Particularly since she’d decided ending it all would be the best route to go anyway. Why hang around and deal with all the damage?
Except she hadn’t been able to check out without first getting the guys who had killed her husband and ruined her life. The police certainly hadn’t managed the feat. Really, who could let something like that go? Definitely not Finley O’Sullivan.
“This looks good here, don’t you think?”
Finley shook off the thoughts and stared at the sparkling angel Nita had perched on the table between the two chairs facing Finley’s desk.
“Sure.” She flashed a fake smile at the lady. “I think that’ll do it in here. It’s a small office. Don’t want to overwhelm clients.”
Nita lifted an eyebrow and shot Finley a look that was oddly daring or maybe ferocious. “I have covered for you in various ways and on numerous occasions since Jack brought you on board last January, have I not?”
Wow. That was not the response Finley had anticipated. She forced a more realistic smile and nodded. “You have. Several times.”
Who knew the woman would get so bent out of shape over a few decorations?
“Which means you owe me,” Nita pointed out.
“I do,” Finley confessed, smile fading as she recognized where the older woman was going with this.
“I like Christmas,” Nita said. “I like decorating for Christmas. It’s important to me. This”—she gestured to the decorations she had added—“is how you repay me. You let me do what I want, okay?”
Finley nodded, deciding this particular holiday was some sort of trigger for Nita. “Absolutely.”
“Good.” She executed an about-face and exited the office.
Finley stared at the angel. As long as Nita didn’t show up at Finley’s house with a box of decorations, she could get through the holiday season with whatever the woman opted to do around here.
Maybe it was time to get over her minor aversion to celebrating anyway. Truth was, if there had ever been a time to celebrate, it was now. Seventeen months and a couple of weeks afterthatnight, and Finley was okay. Really okay. She’d learned all the little truths about the man she’d married and the reason he’d been murdered. She’d forgiven him—Derrick, the husband she had loved with all her heart—and she’d forgiven herself for her part in what had happened to him—to them both. And, to some degree, she had moved on.
Work was great. Her personal life was getting there. She and her mother, the Judge, were making an effort to have a more normal relationship. She and Matt were a couple now. A smile tugged at her lips. Matthew Quinn had been her best friend since they were little kids. He had seen her through everything, from her rebellion against pink at age ten to surviving the brutal invasion that had taken her husband’s life. Matt had been there for her while she struggled to heal from her own physical injuries and then while she fought to find the truth and to see that justice was done. She wasn’t sure either of them had anticipated their relationship moving to this level, but so far, so good.
Told you he was in love with you.
Finley savored the memory of her husband’s voice before setting the remembered words aside. Derrick had told her this on more than one occasion. Apparently, he had been right. Maybe he had also known that she had always been a little bit in love with Matt too.
Matt was a big part of the reason she had been able to move on with her life at all.
She liked where things were going now. Liked her life.
A rap on her door drew Finley’s attention there. Jack gave her a nod. “Got a new client. You want to join us in my office?”
Jack Finnegan, her godfather, owned this law firm. He was one of the top criminal defense attorneys—if notthetop—in the Southeast. New clients called and burst through the doors every day. Every. Single. Day. Most of whom Jack passed off to other firms he trusted. He only took on a few cases each month. After all, he was only one man, and he certainly didn’t need the money. The few cases he accepted were ones, he had explained to Finley, that felt right. Clients who needed his special brand of lawyering. To stand in her doorway and say they had a new client, as if the event was a rarity rather than an everyday occurrence, meant only one thing.
“What kind of favor do you owe this one?” Finley asked as she rose from her chair. She grabbed her suit jacket and tugged it on.
Jack stepped into her office and closed the door behind himself. He made a face she knew well—one that said he was about to tell her a story that wasn’t entirely complete or at least not the whole truth. Knowing the complete story would not be in her—meaning his—best interest, of course, so he would only pass along the truly relevant parts.
“Actually, it’s his father I owe a debt of gratitude.”
