Five Ways to Fall (28 page)

So, all in all, it was a relatively innocent night for me. I feel like no matter what I say now, though, I’m still gonna look like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. So I settle on, “Good.”

Jack’s chair bops back and forth as he shifts his body. And then he starts to chuckle. “Sometimes I forget what it was like to be your age.”

I choose to keep my mouth shut and see where this conversation takes us. Hopefully it’s not to a pink slip.

“I remember the day Reese’s mother, Annabelle, strolled into my office, looking for a divorce from her first husband. I was taken by her right away. A mesmerizingly beautiful woman. When she started flirting with me, I was dumbstruck. A woman who look like that, interested in
this
?” He gestures at himself. “But she seemed to be and we married a year later.” A derisive snort escapes Jack as he stands and starts pacing, absently spinning a globe as he passes. “Obviously things didn’t work out for us. I came back from a business trip early and swung by here to collect some paperwork, only to find my partner with her.” He nods toward the impressive desk in front of me. “On
there
.”

Sitting up straighter, I find myself looking at the desk under a whole new light. “And you still use it?”

“Five generations of Warners have sat at this desk,” he mutters, walking over to rap his knuckles against the smooth, polished mahogany wood as if to make a point. “I wasn’t going to let that she-devil ruin that. She ruined almost everything else.” He exhales heavily, as if just talking about it tires him out. “We divorced immediately after that. Barry had helped me double the size of the Warner clientele list since joining, and I had to put everything up as collateral to buy out his share.” He shakes his head. “My father warned me not to take on an equity partner, even if Barry and I had been best friends since we were two. I should have listened.”

Sitting back down, he continues. “As painful as that whole experience was, the only thing I regret was letting Annabelle cut Reese out of my life when the girl was twelve. My first wife and I always wanted a daughter but after Mason, she kept miscarrying. Then she died. I had all but given up until Reese came along. I’ve known that girl since she was six years old. I thought of her often, but . . .” He shakes his head. “I lost a lot in the divorce, but the biggest thing by far was losing touch with that girl.”

This is the kind of shit I don’t ever want to deal with. When you avoid making commitments involving signatures and precious metal and mixed DNA, there’s no collateral damage.

But why is Jack telling me all of this? Is this is the part where he tells me that I’m getting canned for trying to defile the stepdaughter he finally reconnected with and loves so much; where three years of law school goes down the toilet because I let my dick do all my thinking for me?

“You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you all of this.”

I answer with a shrug that says “kind of,” and a simultaneous stomach clench.

He starts chuckling lightly. “I’m not going to pretend that Reese is a sweet little girl. She was a holy terror when she was six and she’s still wild, though she seems to have settled down quite a bit since I brought her down from Jacksonville.”

Not that much, based on last night’s pool incident.
“She does love red paint,” I dare to bring up.

His chuckle deepens. “You should have seen her, splattered head to toe like some scene out of
Dexter
, sitting in the police station interrogation room. I’m glad she called me when she did, even if it was to bail her out. Surprised, actually. I called Barry on the way up to Jacksonville because I couldn’t believe Annabelle hadn’t forced him to help keep her reputation from getting smeared by a daughter with a criminal record. That’s when I found out that they divorced two years ago. We had a good talk.” Jack’s eyes drift off out the window, as if catching up with the past. “Anyway, I saw my trip to Jacksonville as my chance to make amends.” A frown zigzags across his forehead. “Reese is shrewd. So is her mother. She can also be quite selfish and spiteful. Again, like Annabelle. She’s passionate, and that gets her into trouble more often than not. I’ve spent a lot of time talking to her about accountability and control and consequences, while trying to treat her like a responsible adult. Hence the Harley.” There’s a pause. “Her dad rode a bike; did she tell you that?”

I shake my head.

“She always talked about getting one, just like him. Even as young as six.”

Huh . . .
The mystery that is Reese is starting to unfold. “Daddy’s little girl?”

Jack snorts. “Through and through. It sounds like she spent
a lot
of time with him before he left her. Broke that little girl’s heart when he did.” He heaves a sigh. “She was still asking where Daddy was every night a year later, when they moved in with me. When he’d come back. Why he didn’t come back for her. That broke
my
heart.”

“Yeah, she mentioned something about him the other day.”

Jack turns to regard me with an arched brow for a long moment. “Really? She doesn’t normally.”

“What ever happened to him?”

Jack shrugs. “He dumped her in a diner and took off. He had a record. I guess he didn’t want to go to jail for kidnapping. As far as I know, he never tried to get in contact with Annabelle again, but she was pretty tight-lipped about anything to do with her first marriage.” He pauses for a moment. “Whatever happened, I don’t think Annabelle ever recovered from it, and it has made her a bitter woman. When I heard what happened to Reese, warning bells went off inside my head. I don’t want her to end up like her mother, breaking some poor shmuck’s heart because some idiot first broke hers. That’s how people get into trouble.”

“She sure does like trouble,” I agree softly.

Twisting his mouth, he adds, “And I don’t doubt that you were no match for whatever she was up to last night that made you dare drop her off on my doorstep at six in the morning.”

The sudden change in topic startles me. It brings with it the memory of Reese’s svelte, naked silhouette and I have to duck my head, for fear of Jack reading the vulgar thoughts coursing through my mind.

“Look. You know my policy here on interoffice relationships. I have them in place for a good reason. I’ve lost more than one good employee due to emotional messes. I told you all of this to help you understand that Reese is a passionate, emotional young woman who’s finally on the right track. I won’t let her fall apart because of a soured romance with one of my lawyers.”

“I’m not looking for a relationship,” I promise him, hands held up in surrender.

That earns me a stern glare. “Well, I can guarantee you that I don’t approve of what
else
you may be looking for, Ben. I can only imagine the kind of workplace experiences you’ve become accustomed to, given your previous employment.”

I open my mouth to deny his assumptions, to explain that Cain would have fired my ass and crippled me had he heard I screwed around with his dancers while working there, but Jack puts his hand up to silence me. “Your position at Warner is safe. For now. Reese says you two are just friends and I have no reason to believe otherwise. Yet.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And Mason has even corroborated it. We both know how much of a stickler he is on following the rules.”

“Yup. He sure is.” The guy’s like a programmed robot. He gets all flustered when he has to function outside of them.

Giving the stubble on his cheek a rub, Jack muses, “I liken Reese to a wild horse that’s become accustomed to humans. She’ll tolerate you, she may even come close to you, she’ll certainly bewitch you, but you never know exactly what she’s going to do next. She has trust issues that run deep.”

“She trusted a guy enough to marry him,” I remind him.

“After six weeks . . . and look where that got the crazy girl,” he mutters. “That wasn’t about trust. That was about needing to feel loved. About someone choosing
her
, making
her
come first. Everyone who was supposed to make her the priority had failed, leaving her lying on the ground to figure out how to pick herself back up. Her father, Annabelle, me . . . and then that joker she married.”

I wonder if Jack knows that said joker is now living in Miami and Reese is on a mission for revenge. Based on the fake boyfriend deal she cornered me into, I don’t think she’s gotten enough payback. Whatever else she has planned, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know.

“The poor girl has felt rejection over and over again.” Taking a seat once again, Jack steeples his fingers in front of his face and says in a calm, cautionary tone, “If anything were to happen between the two of you and then fall apart, I will choose her. I don’t care how good of a lawyer or friend to Mason you are. She will be my priority. Am I clear?”

“Got it.” He’ll fire my ass if I hurt her in any way, shape, or form. Luckily, she seems to be interested in me for only one thing and it’s the kind of thing I can readily give her.

With a slight nod, he leans back in his chair. “I’d like this little conversation to stay between the two of us, if you don’t mind. Reese doesn’t take well to being told she can’t do something and I don’t want to give her a reason to feel she needs to start rebelling against me.”

“It won’t ever come up.”

“Good. Now get out of here.”

With a quick salute, I jump up, gladly accepting my get-out-of-jail-free card.

Chapter 21

REESE

He doesn’t notice me leaning against the frame of his door, he’s so intent on a file folder spread out on his desk. And so I simply stand there and watch him for a moment. Ben may not take two steps without having that charming little smirk on his lips, but when he’s concentrating on something, his brow is usually furrowed and his mouth is ever so slightly downturned. It’s another very handsome side to him. I almost don’t want to interrupt him.

“I finished these for you.”

Blue eyes shoot up to take me in, flickering downward over my body before returning to my face, as if it’s impossible not to check all of me out. For Ben, I think it may be. Then again, now that I’ve gotten a good glimpse of everything beneath his clothes, I’ve been taking
every
opportunity to check him out as he passes by my office, too. It usually ends with my heart rate quickening and me losing focus. Ben has become incredibly damaging to my concentration.

Setting his pen down, he leans back and heaves a sigh. “Hey, Reese.” The smirk is there, but there’s an edge of something to go with it. The same something that’s been lingering every time I’ve crossed paths with him this week. I think it’s wariness.

If I had to guess, Jack said something to him about dropping me off on Sunday morning. When I texted Ben about it, though, he denied that any conversation had ever taken place. And then he asked me what I was wearing.

Walking in, I place the folder on his desk. “Pages are all marked. I’ve also prepared the additional paperwork for your client to sign.”

“You’ve been busy.” The words that would normally be flirtatious from Ben seem almost clipped now. I want playful Ben back. I also think I want him to kiss me again. “Tired?”

“Yeah. This work just never ends.”

I slink into his spare chair and put my feet up on his desk. “How can I help?”

I don’t miss his quick glance out toward the left, where Jack’s office is. He leans forward and lowers his voice to a low crackle just above a whisper, because I don’t think Ben is capable of whispering. “Look, I’ve seen you completely naked twice now. Having you in here is giving me a raging hard-on that I won’t be able to hide if I get called into a meeting, which is about to happen. You need to get your cute ass out of here now so I can focus.”

I let my legs slide off and drop to the floor noisily. “Suit yourself.” A strange mixture of excitement and disappointment sweeps through me with his words.

Jack totally threatened him.

It’s my own fault. I should have had Ben drop me off down the street. Jack is always up that early and I knew there was a chance that he’d be on his treadmill, the one in the room above the garage that overlooks the driveway.

Standing, I head toward the door. As my hand grasps the doorknob, Ben’s heavy sigh fills the air. “Look, I just can’t risk losing my job over this.”

I pause to look over at him. “Over what? We’re just friends, right?”

The pen in his hand flicks back and forth as he regards me for a moment. And then he smiles. “Yup, just friends.”

I hold up a finger. “But don’t forget, fake boyfriend, we still have a deal.” I haven’t talked to Jared since that day at the café, more than a week ago. I hear that little voice screaming inside my head, the words “let him go” on repeat, but a part of me—the part that makes me open up Facebook and type in his name as soon as I wake up in the morning—isn’t ready yet. I just can’t figure out exactly why. Is it for the sake of pride? The promise of retribution? Or is it because I know all is not well in Caroline’s stolen paradise? Because I want
my
paradise back?