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“I didn’t have any trouble until you came back in my life.”
“As I recall, Barn, you stepped into mine.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and kept his distance.
“I suppose you’re right.” I wanted to reach for him, to ask him for comfort I didn’t have the right to get from him.
As we stared at each other, I didn’t hide my weariness, my weakness, my need.
He closed the distance and sank down beside me. He stretched his long legs out. “If we sit here too long, we’ll have to call someone to help me up. I’m not as young as I used to be.”
I put my hand on his thigh.
Penelope giggled. “You’re old.”
“I can’t wait until you are,” he muttered. “See how funny it is then.”
I kissed his cheek. “You’re not that old.”
He sulked. “I’m going to have to dump all my clients to have time to work on our legal woes,” he sighed. “But I can’t give them up because someone has to pay for all our attorneys.”
“You’re our attorney,” I reminded him.
“I know.” He touched my knee and grimaced. “I can’t take your money, so I’ll have to take someone else’s.”
“I signed an agreement to your ungodly wages. I’ll pay.” I patted his thigh.
“Things are different now.”
“How?” Penelope asked.
“I didn’t know you were my daughter when I drew up that retainer,” he said.
“But you could still bill Mom.”
He leaned his head back against the door and stared at the ceiling. “No. I can’t.”
“Why?”
Our daughter could voice all the things I couldn’t.
“Because I can never repay her for the amazing job she did raising you.”
A lump formed in my throat.
Penelope’s fingers dug into my shoulder.
This man . . . he turned me completely upside down and inside out.
I found my voice. “I still haven’t paid your invoice from when you bailed me out of jail.”
He squeezed my knee. “Your money’s no good here.”
“You’re not as stingy as you try to make out to be,” I said.
“I never should’ve taken you to Nancy’s,” he groaned.
“You did the right thing, helping her son.”
“His family tried to pay me, but I couldn’t take it. I guess . . . I saw myself in Joe. What I could’ve turned into.” He spoke quietly, honestly.
