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“First, I want to be clear,” he said, drawing his gaze from the computer screen to look at her. “Under no circumstances are you ever to accept a case on my behalf without my explicit permission. Do you understand?”
She forced herself not to roll her eyes. She wasn’t five. Of course she understood.
Although, she liked to think, in the right circumstances, there might be a time when she might weigh the pros and cons of a potential case and decide that she had no choice but to step in, provided Reynolds wasn’t around. But arguing with him was not going to help her case if she wanted to work here.
She smiled instead and nodded her agreement. “Yes. Definitely.”
He side-eyed her, as if surprised by her ready acceptance.
“Was there anything else?” she asked brightly, relieved to hear she hadn’t been fired.
He returned his attention to his computer screen. “None of your ex-husband’s posse have accepted my friend request. I think it’s time we make things more interesting.” He clicked something and then typed. “I just changed my profile to say that I’m in a relationship. With you.”
He what? She tried to understand this. “Wh-why would you do that?”
“Because people are curious by nature. Seeing you involved with someone months after Spencer flew the nest will have them all curious to know more about your beau.”
He obviously didn’t know the crowd Spencer hung out with or how she fit into it.
Or rather didn’t fit into it.
It wasn’t like any of them had been openly mean to her face, at least not after she and Spencer were married, but it had always felt like Spencer’s friends, including their wives, who she’d known from their sorority days, had merely tolerated her. So when it came to forging real friendships with any of them, she was the odd man out. Just as she’d been among the women of the club that she and Spencer joined.
To be honest, she’d felt that way from the moment she arrived at her dad’s door.
“What’s that look for?” Reynolds asked.
She shrugged. “No look. I just hope it works.”
He studied her another moment. “Go update your profile. Then bring me back a couple of those cookies when you return. Please.”
So he hadn’t fired her. That was a good thing. But he was also making her wade into the deep waters of social media again. Something she’d always hated doing.
Seeing all the endless photos of people’s fabulous lives, their amazing getaway vacations, adorable pets, and even more adorable kids. She never had that. Never had the fabulous life, the kids, or the pets to share on her own account.
Well, that wasn’t quite true anymore. She had Mouse now. And probably a good two hundred photos and counting to choose from.
At her desk, she grabbed her phone and two of the cookies then returned to his office.
He’d already consumed most of his coffee, she noted.
“Want me to top that off?” she asked, handing him the cookies.
“No, I’m good. Have you done it?”
“I’m just about to.”
She took a seat again and pulled up the app on her phone. She confirmed the relationship then waited for someone to reply, Liar, liar, pants on fire.
“There.” She looked up to see him finishing off an entire cookie in two bites. It was strangely satisfying to see the guy enjoying something she’d made with her own hands. Almost…intimate.
She felt her face flush unexpectedly.
Strangely, seeing Spencer enjoy her baking had never felt so satisfying. Not that she’d baked very much in the years they were married. Fitting into a size-two dress size didn’t usually permit the carbs, sugar, and fat content contained in one of those cookies.
But now that she no longer was starving herself to be the perfect wife and daughter, she’d gotten back to baking anything and everything and enjoying herself and the fruit of her labor. Good thing she had her mom’s talent for sewing as much as she did baking. How else would she have made the adjustments to the clothes she’d bought at the store in addition to working on a few new things of her own?
It had become almost therapeutic these past few nights, making pretty dresses out of the lovely array of fabrics she’d bought from the money earned selling some of her pricier designer outfits on eBay. She didn’t need to feel that sick terror at the prospect of going into a store to find something that she both loved and that fit her.
