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“When I win, please note the bonus funds due.” He pointed to the clause without looking as if he were so familiar with the document he didn’t need to. “And if there are emergency hours required, the rate doubles.”
“Let me guess? This right now counts as emergency hours.” I lifted my eyes to the ceiling.
“Do you have any idea how much a good attorney costs? I’m going through a nasty divorce and mine is charging highway robbery.”
I tried and failed not to smile. He could be charming, especially when he was laughing at his own expense. If he stayed like this, maybe we could survive.
“I’m beginning to get the picture of just how expensive a lawyer is.”
The ones we used for Earth Warriors were nowhere near this much.
“I’m happy to go over this again with Penelope... preferably at the emergency rate.”
Was he joking? He made the statement come off as if he were, but then again, he seemed serious.
“She’s a lawyer, so she should understand it,” I said.
“A lawyer? You mean she’s in law school? She can’t be more than twenty—”
“She’s twenty-one, and she graduated high school at fifteen. Went to Harvard for undergrad, then Yale Law for post-grad.”
“Wow . . . that’s impressive.”
“She is,” I whispered.
“But I can’t stand lawyers,” he groaned. “And she’s young. She’s going to think she knows more than I do.” He snatched the paper from my hands. “I need to up my rate.”
I grabbed the pen poised to slash through his rates. “You don’t even know her.”
He leveled me a look. “And whose fault is that?”
That familiar swirl of guilt wound through me. Maybe I hadn’t wanted my daughter influenced by Kane, but I’d kept her from all of her family far more than I should have. I’d wanted her to see life differently than through my mother and sister’s eyes, which meant sacrificing time with my grandparents and father. They’d been willing to come to us for the most part, but that wasn’t the same as the regular interactions Penelope could’ve had if we’d based in New York. We’d had to settle for meetups once or twice a year, and that was painful.
I’d made a conscious choice to keep her away from the coldness of my mother, who wanted nothing to do with her anyway. She was angry I’d tainted the reputation of the family. I supposed she’d made a conscious choice to keep away from us too.
And after all Alma had said about Kane, it was best my daughter was nowhere near either of them.
I took the papers back before he could amend them. “Do you have a digital copy? I’ll send them to her now to look over.” I might not have updated to a cellphone, but I did have email. And I could use Grandma Josephine’s computer . . . a little.
“I saidshe’syoung. Not me. Of course I don’t have a digital copy.” He patted his massive briefcase.
“Seems I’m not the only one out of touch with technology.” Somehow that gave me satisfaction. Made me not feel so alone.
“You can personally deliver the signed agreement tomorrow.”
Those cells inside me that he seemed to be master of went off in a frenzy. Hiring him meant we’d have to spend time together. I hadn’t exactly thought that through. Now that we’d settled in, I was doing okay. My temper was even back to a moderate level, which felt like an accomplishment in itself.
He pulled another sheet of paper from the folder. A single one. “And here’s your bill for bailing you out of jail. You can bring the check for that with you tomorrow.”
I let out a stifled scream.The bastard.
So much for my moderate temper.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
KANE
Too easy.
