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“Yeah, that’s what I mean.” His tone came across as disgruntled. “I can’t use it if you’re working remotely.”
“You said yourself that you weren’t finding anything.” She wasn’t going to apologize for wanting to keep her job and to stay busy. “I can’t keep burning vacation time, Steele. I’ll need every day possible for time off after I deliver my baby.”
He sighed and nodded. “Okay, fine. I have my phone. Go ahead and do your thing.”
She quickly logged on to the computer. At first, she was worried the hotel internet wouldn’t work, but the connection went through. Within minutes, she was in her email.
There were dozens of unread messages, as always. Many were just informational, but she quickly went through them, weeding through those that could be dealt with later and answering any that were urgent.
It felt good to be useful, to do something constructive. She should have thought of this earlier. Yet even as that idea flitted through her mind, she realized that up until the past twenty-four hours, she hadn’t been safe in one place long enough to do anything. Much less work.
When she’d finished her emails, she pulled up the billable hours spreadsheet that the lawyers kept updated for her. She began collating the data, not surprised to note Neil Otterson had the most billable hours for the past two weeks.
As they were prepping for his upcoming trial, she knew that number was likely to grow exponentially. One thing Trent Gibson never skimped on was trial prep with witnesses. Especially if there was a possibility of Neil himself testifying in his own defense.
Normally, that was only done as a last resort. Yet Trent always wanted his clients to be prepared in case they had to switch up their trial strategy.
Steele crossed behind her to get more coffee, then paused to glance over her shoulder. She instinctively minimized the screen.
“Wow, you’re quite the spreadsheet guru,” he said with admiration. “I can barely manage reports in Word.”
“Only because I taught myself, practicing during the evening hours,” she admitted. “I knew it was a requirement for this job.”
“What are you working on?”
“Ah, billing stuff.” She twisted in her seat to glance up at him. “I’m sorry, Steele, but this is confidential. You know, attorney-client privilege.”
“I didn’t think billable hours counted in attorney-client privilege,” Steele replied.
“It’s still confidential.” Maybe it did, and maybe it didn’t. Either way, she didn’t feel right letting him see. “Please, Steele.”
“Of course.” He moved on, returning to the living room sofa. “Let me know when you’re ready for dinner.”
As she worked, she frowned when she saw what appeared to be duplicate billing hours for Neil Otterson. A mistake? Most likely. Especially since she’d been gone for a few days.
She straightened out the data and then created an invoice. Once that was ready, she sent it to Trent for approval. The dollar amount was huge, but she was used to seeing the outrageous prices the attorneys charged for their services. Again, she considered herself fortunate to work for a successful attorney that could afford to pay her a decent salary.
After a moment’s hesitation, she went back to the prior month’s billing. That amount seemed higher too. She sat back in her seat, wondering if the double billing was done on purpose. Sometimes, if both Trent Gibson and his partner Earl Roberts worked together on a case, they did bill for both attorneys’ services. But usually there was a note indicating that. There wasn’t any note in the current spreadsheet.
She decided to leave the current invoice she sent to Trent alone. If it was wrong, he’d tell her. Trent was good about double-checking things. Especially when it came to the firm’s bottom line.
“Harper?” Steele clicked on a light, making her blink. She was so engrossed in her work she hadn’t realized how many hours had passed. Darkness had fallen outside. “You really need to eat. You barely ate half your salad at lunch.”
“Okay.” She couldn’t deny feeling hungry. “Place our order while I finish this up, will you?”
He pushed the menu toward her. As if she didn’t have it memorized already. The options were limited.
“I’ll have the grilled chicken sandwich, thanks.” She listened to Steele place the order as she finished updating the file she was working on. As she logged off, she felt a sense of accomplishment. Not only had she saved herself four hours of vacation time, she’d gotten caught up on her emails.
“You were pretty intense,” Steele said with a wry smile. “You like all that legal stuff, huh?”
“It’s interesting.” She flushed at the idea of him watching her. She closed the computer and pushed it out of the way. “I like to keep busy.”
“Me too.” He sighed. “It goes against the grain to sit here doing nothing while the rest of the team is working the case.”
“I can imagine.” Obviously, Steele was a man of action. Not prone to sitting around all day like she was. “Maybe meeting with Jake will shake something loose.”
“I doubt it.” He frowned, and just like that, the camaraderie between them fizzled out. “I still think it’s a bad idea.”
