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“It is a new client for me. Look, we’ll go over a little more about how the office runs and my expectations after my meeting. But for now I’m going to get to reading. Are you okay on your own?”
“Of course. I’ll let you know when your appointment is here.”
With a nod, he turned and headed to his office.
“Um, sorry. Mr. Cavanaugh?”
He stopped but didn’t turn around. “It’s Reynolds.”
“Okay, Reynolds. I hope you don’t mind my saying but…”
He turned around, his impatience clear. “Yes? Just say it.”
“You seem to have a wad of toilet paper stuck—” She motioned to the area just to the right of her chin.
If he was embarrassed, he didn’t show it as he nodded and kept striding to his office. “Right. Thanks for telling me.”
His office door closed a second later.
He sure was a warm ray of sunshine, wasn’t he?
It didn’t matter. She was happy and optimistic enough for them both.
* * *
Reynolds sat in his office with the door shut long after his morning appointment left. He wasn’t hiding out exactly. But he was keeping a distance from Ms. Sunshine in the other room. A woman who’d just told him how much more of a disaster her life was than he’d first thought and seemed pretty happy about it.
Living in the old Morris complex? He didn’t know how the place had even passed its last building inspection, it was so bad. The last time he’d been there was last year when he was looking into a lead on a guy who broke bond and might have been holing up there. He hadn’t been. But Reynolds remembered thinking at the time, just as a two-inch cockroach crawled past his foot, that it was probably because the place was even too horrible for a convicted felon.
And Waverley Abbott lived there.
He was not going to feel bad for her. He wouldn’t. No one was making her change her entire life like she had. She could jump through whatever hoops her father wanted from her and be back in his good graces in no time and living in a penthouse in downtown Denver if she wanted.
Still…you had to respect a woman who was trying to stand up on her own and not rely on her family to bail her out. Who would drain her nest egg to help some woman who she didn’t owe anything legally to. She could have used that money to buy herself a decent car or at least rent a place that was something more than a roach motel.
He traced his fingers over the lid of the coffee cup that she’d handed him earlier. Another nice gesture, thoughtful.
Was it an act or was it real? Had it taken a moment of crisis for her to find the strength she needed for a new and better life?
Because as crappy as it sounded like her life was to him, she still had never looked better.
Today’s outfit, a long navy dress with some sort of flower pattern on it, was simple, graceful, and perfectly fitted to glide over her curves, curves that she rightfully wasn’t shy about showing.
It showed confidence that, even when she’d worn a size minus whatever, she hadn’t had a fraction of. She was wearing her hair different, too. No formal buns or expensive blowouts at the salon for her, and her once light platinum hair that had channeled the likes of Grace Kelly or Tippy Hedron was gone. Instead she wore it in a softer, sexier style, all waves that fell around her shoulders in gold and honey that gave him the crazy urge to reach out and glide his fingers through it.
Meaning…he was certifiably insane. Another reason why he should hide in his office whenever possible. The less time they spent together, the better off everyone would be.
Even better, the sooner he found her ex-husband and turned him into the authorities, the sooner Waverley Abbott would have access to the money Spencer stole from her and his sister’s trust and would be out of here.
He tapped the space button to wake up his computer and entered his password before going into one of his alias Facebook accounts. He hadn’t told Waverley yet, but he might have a lead on how to track down Spencer. Having spent over a week doing surveillance and a background search on the guy last summer, Reynolds had learned a few things about Spencer’s habits, his friends, his confidants, his weaknesses…
Which was where Facebook was coming in handy, even if it was something he never would use in his personal life.
He had just finished making his last friend requests when there was a knock on the door. “Come in.”
The door creaked open and Waverley peered in. “Sorry to bug you. I just had a couple of messages to give you. Is now a good time?”
“It’s fine.”
