Acts of Desperation (6 page)

****

During my commute the next day, I decided a quick call to Sarah was warranted since it had been a few days since we’d spoke. It was early enough, and I could likely catch her before her students got to school.

“Hey, how
’s everything?” I asked after only a couple rings.

“Awful.” She groaned.

“What now?”

“The kids had a rough
night. They went out to dinner with Anders, and I’m not sure what he was saying to them, but they came home complete messes. I took them to my bed and they ended up crying themselves to sleep. Then Sam had an accident at four this morning. Nothing like washing five layers of pee-soaked bedding in the middle of the night.” She sighed.

“That
doesn’t sound like fun,” I said. “I take it you didn’t get much sleep?”

“No, not much.
”

“Did they say anything this morning about why they were so upset?”

“No, I didn’t ask. I didn’t want them to get worked up before school. Besides, they were joking around with each other and giggling. I’ll tackle it later when I get home I guess.” There was a brief pause, and she sneezed.

“Finally caught that cold, huh?” I said.

“Yeah, an added bonus from sharing my pillows every night…not that I really care. I’m downing some coffee and getting my lesson plans in order for next week right now. How’s everything going with you?”

“Good. There’s a new cute lawyer at my office
that I’ve got my eye on.”

“Now,
that
sounds exciting. I’ll have to live vicariously through you. You’ll have to tell me more about that later. That should help John become a faded memory.”

“Yeah
, if he’d stop being weird. He keeps calling and texting me a lot. Hopefully he’ll give it up soon. It’s getting old.” I pulled into the firm’s parking lot. “Oh, by the way, I checked the Clerk of Courts website last night before I left work, and there still wasn’t anything posted on your ruling yet.”

“Thanks for checking,” she said.

“It’s no problem. I’ll let you know if I see anything.”

When I got to my office, I half shut my door and plugged in my phone. I did a quick, obsessive check on the Clerk of Courts site, but there still wasn’t a ruling posted on Sarah’s case yet. As soon as I started my work on the Bellamy’s file, I heard Jax’s voice in the hallway. I looked up and made out his broad shoulders through the crack in my door. He was speaking with June, another associate at the firm. She was exceptionally beautiful with long auburn hair, pouty red lips, and skin like porcelain. I could have disliked her on that principle alone, but right after I introduced myself for the first time, she said, “I hope you’re smart honey because you’re not going to get by on just your looks around here.” Then, she gave me a once over and faked a smile. After that, I maintained a professional and polite relationship but kept my distance.

As they stood outside my door, I eavesdropped on their conversation. I
could only assume they were talking about a case June was working on judging by her tone and the snippets of the conversation I picked up. She asked him a few questions and, after he responded, she said things like,
Oh my
gosh, I never thought of that! You’re sooo smart
.
You’ll have to teach me your techniques,
followed by little throaty giggles.

I rolled my eyes and looked back at my forms, fighting bitter tinges of jealousy.
If he was going to go for a girl like that then that would speak volumes about the kind of person he was. I mumbled quietly under my breath. “Oh Jax you’re sooo smart. You’re sooo handsome. I bet you have an enooormous penis,
pleeease
show me your enormous penis.” Subtlety was
not
her thing.

“What was that?”
I heard and my heart stopped. When I looked up, I saw Jax’s smiling face as he leaned into my office. I had no idea how much of my mockery he’d heard, but I hoped it wasn’t as much as I thought.

“
What?” I said, blankly staring while I racked my brain to come up with something rational. The best I could come up with was, “I…I’m hungry, and I was making a mental note that I need to stock
peanuts
in my desk.
Peanuts
are protein. Helps keep you full and from snacking on junk all day.” I knew my cheeks were bright red and giving me away completely.

“Ok, if you say so,” he chuckled. “You got a sec?”

I perked up. “Sure.”

He walked in and shut the door behind himself. “
Speaking of hunger, how’s lunch sound today?”

“Oh,” I said, acting nonchalant
while internally doing cartwheels. “That sounds nice.”

“Good.” He smil
ed. “I’ll come by around twelve.”

I thought for a second. “
Make it twelve thirty? I have kind of a busy morning,” I said with a smile. He didn’t need to know that this morning was no busier than any other. But, my mom always said it was good to make a guy wait a little. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I supposed.

“
Sure. No problem.” He grinned, and before I knew it, he was out of sight.

I went through my morning and tried to keep my head out of the clouds as the minutes ticked away until lunch. In true Sember fashion though, I plowed through my morning then had to invent things to do to fill my time until twelve thirty. I did some pre-date primping—brushing my hair and touching up my lip gloss.
Just as I was putting everything back into my purse, there were a few light taps on my door.

“Ready?” he asked.

“I am,” I said, admiring his long, deep gray wool coat and matching Burberry scarf. “I just need to grab my coat.” I walked around to the front of my desk and as soon as I turned around, he was at my back and grabbing my coat from the chair. He held it open as I slipped my arms into the sleeves. His hands lingered on my shoulders, and the warmth of his breath washed over my ear, lighting a fire under my skin. “Thanks,” I said.

W
e took a crowded elevator ride down to the lobby, and, as we walked toward the glass doors leading outside, I saw a black Lincoln Town Car with tinted windows waiting at the curb.

“That’s
ours,” he said with a nod of his head.

“
Oh,” I said. I wasn’t raised in a cave or anything, but having a driver take me somewhere was far from an everyday occurrence. “I thought we would take a cab or your car, but that works too.”

“No. I hate cabs,” he said, holding the door open for me
. When we stepped out into the cold, the crisp breeze froze my cheeks. Cars were angrily voicing their annoyance by honking their horns and swerving around our vehicle whose hazard lights were steadily blinking. As we approached the car, a stalky, gray haired man got out of the driver’s seat, wearing a long black trench coat.

“Mr. Alexander, nice to see again,
sir
,” the driver said with his head tipped down.

“Fritz?” Jax laughed. “What’s with this Mr. Alexander stuff? Knock it off old man!” he said, giving him a friendly slap to the shoulder.

Fritz laughed and shook Jax’s hand. “You caught that, huh?” He winked. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you, I didn’t know if that uptight New York attitude had grabbed a hold of you completely yet.”

He rolled his eyes and sighed.
“Oh no, not you too. Bernie’s given me enough grief about that. I’m here to stay now.”

“Good.” He chuckled. “So, how you doin’?” he said, mocking a New York accent.

“I’m well,” Jax said, laughing at Fritz’s imitation. “How are you? How’s Maria?”

“I’m
great and Maria’s on cloud nine. The grandchildren are visiting all the time, and she’s loving’ every minute of it. Sophie just had her second back in November, bouncing baby boy,” he said, beaming with pride.

“How many does that make it now?” Jax asked. “Bernie’s given me updates over the years, but I’ve lost count.”

“Between our four girls, we’re up to nine grandchildren now. But…” He shook his head. “That’s enough about me, who’s this pretty young lady?” he asked.

I smiled while Jax made his introduction.

“Sember, nice to meet you,” I said, shaking his hand.

“Nice to meet you, too. Now, let’s get you two inside this car before you catch your deaths out here.” He opened the door and motioned us inside as a warm gust of air rushed out of the vehicle.

I scooted across the seat in my most lady-like way, considering I was wearing my blue fluted skirt that showed a little more leg than my collection of pencil skirts. I got into position and crossed my ankles then the heat inside the cabin instantly melted away the cold, thawing my frozen cheeks. When Jax slid in, the smell of something woodsy and crisp was carried in the air. If it was cologne, it was nothing I’d smelled before. If it was just him, it was magnificent. He leaned in to clear the closing door then looked at me, locking his eyes on mine. We sat, staring at each other and my heart started to pound again. He drew in a breath and just as his lips parted to speak, Fritz lowered the privacy glass.

“Where to?” he asked.

Jax broke his gaze and turned toward the front. “Palomino’s please,” he said.

“Right away,” he said and raised the glass.

“So, it sounds like you and Fritz go way back,” I said. The car pulled out into traffic, and I heard a faint horn honk then gripped the seat as my weight shifted unexpectedly. I accidentally bumped my shoulder into Jax. “Sorry,” I said and righted myself.

“Any time.” He smiled. “We do go way back. I used to visit here a lot in the summers when I was younger. Whenever my grandma wanted
to get me out of her hair, she would send me to work with Bernie. Fritz is the company driver, and they’ve known each other forever.”

“Why do you call him Bernie and not grandfather, or grandpa?”
I asked.

“I do when we’re together as a family, but in professional setting it can
give off the wrong impression,” he said.

“That makes sense,” I agreed. “
So, would Bernie put you to work when you visited when you were a kid?”

“No
, not really, he just liked to keep me busy,” he said with a shrug. “He’d send Fritz and me on errands for the firm. I was a little bit of a handful growing up.”

“The harde
st part is admitting it, I hear,” I said, smiling.

He laughe
d. “I’ve come to terms with it, but I bet you were an angel.”

“
Were
,” I said. “More like
am
—I left my halo back at the office. It does give off the wrong impression.”

“I bet. You’ll have to show it to
me sometime,” he said.

I only laughed. “
So, Fritz kept you in line then?” I asked.

“He did, but don’t let the old man exterior fool you, he’s just a big kid at heart. There were plenty of times where we’d goof off together when we were supposed to be doing something legitimate. We used to go down to the edge of the river, and he’d bring his handmade slingshots. We’d sit
on the bank and try to shoot fish with rocks we collected,” he said through a laugh.

“Ever get anything good?” I asked.

“No. There were only ever logs and debris floating in the river, never any fish—not that I would have eaten them anyway coming from that funky water.” The Ohio River is far from the cleanest water source, and I certainly never would have eaten anything that came out of it. “But he’d always try to tell me scary stories. Something about bodies floating downstream and how they were always found right where we were standing. I knew he made them up on the spot while we fired away, but he relentlessly tried to spook me.”

“Did he ever succeed?”

“Are you kidding?” He laughed. “No, his stories were ridiculous but very entertaining.”

“Sounds like he was fun to hang out with. Bernie must have trusted him a lot to send him out with you,” I said.

“They were in Vietnam together—old war buddies. Bernie trusts him with his life. He’s always said if you ever need someone to get your back, you’ll never meet a more loyal person than Fritz.”

“
He seems like a really nice guy. Sounds like it’s been awhile since you’ve been back here,” I said.

“Yes, t
oo long,” he said. Then the car unexpectedly swerved, and Fritz slammed on the brakes. Jax shot his arm out against my chest and caught me from flying forward. The outside offender was rewarded by a string of muffled obscenities from Fritz.

“Pardon my French,” Fritz said, lowering the glass. “You ok back there?”

“We’re fine—all limbs are intact,” Jax said, and he lowered his hand to my bare thigh.

“Sorry, about that.” Fritz said. “The cab drivers in this city get worse and worse every year. They will cut you off without any warning. It’s a wonder how some of them even get their licenses. It should only be a few more minutes then you
’ll be done risking your lives.” He chuckled at himself then raised the glass back up.

I looked down at Jax’s hand
on my thigh then up to meet his eyes. There may have been a hint of a smile in them initially, but as I held his stare, I saw something wild lying within. Then my vision drifted downward to his plump bottom lip. When he leaned in, I froze in place, unable to move and my breath caught in my throat.