Page 6 of Ask for Moore
Going with my gut had paid off. Over the past year, she had proven to be a quick study, a hard worker, and a loyal employee. “He could definitely learn more than a few things from you.”
“As if.” She laughed and shook her head. “I bet he has a law degree from a fancy university while I barely got my associates from a school only the locals have ever heard of.”
“Yet you’re the better person.”
Her cheeks turned pink, and she ducked her head. “Aw, if you wanted me to go get you a treat from Leaves & Pages, all you had to do was ask. That’s what you pay me the big bucks for. No flattery needed.”
“Take the compliment as it was meant…just the plain old truth.” I stood, grabbed my wallet, and shoved it into my pants pocket. “Although now that you mention it, I could do with a treat. And I wouldn’t mind some fresh air before I meet with Marty. Want me to bring anything back?”
She beamed a smile at me as I walked past. “I wouldn’t turn down a cookie.”
“One chocolate chip coming right up.”
Skylar’s tea and book shop was only a few blocks from my office, but it took me almost twenty minutes to walk there because I stopped to chat with several people along the way. The bell above the door chimed as I swung it open and flashed a smile at Simon. The teenager worked in his mom’s shop during the week whenever he didn’t have baseball after school. Although tryouts weren’t until the end of next week, they’d been getting the boys ready for the season since December.
Skylar could more than afford to hire more help for the store since she was married to my billionaire cousin, but Simon knew how much the place meant to his mom and wanted to pitch in while he still could.
“The usual?” he called as I strode over to the counter.
“Yes, please.”
I pulled out a twenty and tucked it into the tip jar while he made me a cup of black tea that almost had as much caffeine as coffee. I’d never expected to be a tea drinker, but Skylar had done a good job of finding varieties for me to try until I found one that didn’t make me grimace.
“I also need a chocolate chip cookie for Ivy.”
His blue eyes lit up. “I’ll put two in a bag for her.”
“I’m sure she’ll appreciate it,” I murmured, shaking my head when he carefully selected the biggest ones in the display case. “Although she might like a shot of Rigden’s rum more than an extra cookie since she has to deal with me all day.”
He wagged his brows. “I get that she’s too old for me now. But maybe she’ll want to rob the cradle someday, like Dean did with Vienna.”
Although my cousin was fourteen years older than his girlfriend—soon-to-be fiancée if all went well with his proposal after they returned from the Netherlands—their relationship was appropriate in a way that a seventeen-year-old boy dating a woman who was twenty-one wasn’t. But when he graduated from college, the situation would be different. “Stranger things have happened.”
“Like my mom turning you into a tea drinker.” He laughed as he set the bag with Ivy’s cookies next to my to-go cup of tea on the counter. Then he grabbed another and popped a slice of lemon loaf and a chocolate muffin into it before handing it to me. “That’ll be twelve fifty.”
I handed him another twenty. “Keep the change.”
His gaze darting toward the tip jar, Simon’s lips curved into a grin. “You should come in more often. I wouldn’t have to worry about spending money when I’m in South Bend.”
“I highly doubt Baxter will let you starve while you’re there.” I tapped my wallet against the counter before sliding it back into my pocket.
The bell above the door jingled as he joked, “Yeah, but I’m not sure how he’d feel about me using his bread to buy the sauce before I turn twenty-one. I figure I should probably secure the bag for questionable expenses myself.”
“Your stepdad is a billionaire, kiddo. He can more than afford any trouble you get into while you’re at Notre Dame. The bars near campus aren’t too picky about checking IDs. If you’re going to hit the sauce while you’re up there, you might as well get yourself a fake one,” I teased.
The customer who had come in behind me didn’t gasp, but she must have thought I was being serious because she handed Simon a business card. “If you get yourself into trouble, feel free to give me a call. I don’t usually handle criminal cases, but my firm has people who can help if I can’t.”
I turned to explain that I was joking, but my words caught in my throat when I took in the woman standing behind me. More than a foot shorter than me, she was what my mom would call dainty. I had the unexpected urge to pull her into my arms and protect her from the world.
With her long, straight blond hair, pale skin, and plump lips, she was undeniably beautiful. But it was the intelligence shining from her ice-blue eyes that captured my attention. For as small as this woman was, she packed one hell of a punch.
There was the briefest flash of humor in those pretty eyes as she pulled another card out of her purse and held it out to me. “And if you go around urging teenage boys to break the law, you’ll probably need this, too.”
Taking the card from her, I wanted to groan when I glanced down and saw the name printed in black, raised lettering.Waverly Duncan.
There was one thing Mike had gotten right—my opposing counsel was drop-dead gorgeous.
I shouldn’t be surprised, considering I’d never seen her before. Plus, she was dressed for the city in a high-waisted pencil skirt that hugged her slim hips and thighs, a tailored blazer that nipped in at her tiny waist, a crisp white blouse with a scoop neck that only gave the barest hint of cleavage, and three-inch, black heels. She looked as though she was ready to appear in court in Chicago, even though I knew damn well she wasn’t going in front of a judge for the cases that brought her to Mooreville anytime soon. Not when she hadn’t filed suit against Marty or the planning commission yet.
