I focussed on chopping my vegetables, pretending it didn’t mean a thing. “What did you say?”
“What do you think I said?” Glen challenged me with a laugh. She loved to keep me on the edge. Me? I hated when she did that. Barely tolerated it.
“Knowing you, Glen, it could have been just about anything. Something scandalous?”
“I would never!” Glen basically shouted. Drixie stretched on my feet, gave her an annoyed look, then trotted out of the kitchen.
When I turned around, Glen had her palm against her heart as if I’d given her the utmost insult. “I said nothing. I figured if he was truly interested, he’d better work for it. There ain’t no shortcuts in love.”
“Well, he was uncharacteristically quiet after he said I’m gorgeous, until I called him out on it. You saw how I looked, his claim was ludicrous. And then he introduced himself. That was all.”
“You’re always gorgeous, Hallie. You are your own, worst critic.”
I cringed. “No, that’s my mum.”
“Don’t let her ruin this for you. I feel like Luke could do you some good. Are you sure he said his name is Luke? Because he really did say his last name is Ombrello. He seemed amused about you calling him Mr Umbrella. Like very amused.”
“I’m ninety percent certain he said Luke.”
The vegetables were frying away on the pan, and I followed the recipe with my finger, smearing oil on the printout page as I did so. Add white wine? Ugh. Oh... I suppose we can skip this step. What’s next?
“Luke Ombrello,” Glen mumbled, typing it into her phone and going through the search results. “If that’s his name he’s a ghost.”
“At least he’s not an influencer. I don’t think I can go through that again.” I flinched the moment those words left my lips. Maybe I wasn’t ready for anything. With anybody. Thinking about love was one thing, but actually putting myself out there?
I wanted to, but the walls had to come down for that. Walls I’d worked so hard to build. The ones that kept my heart safe, kept me from doing something stupid. You know, those walls. Without them, I was exposed and vulnerable. Would Mr Umbrella be worth the risk? I just didn’t know.?
Desire, shame and pure fury
IWAS SITTING BEHINDthe ?PC in my living room, connected to the servers of Lewis & Walker Law Group as I created backups for each and every case that had come through the agency, then buried them behind several firewalls. That was better than cursing myself for the way my latest run in with Red Cheeks had gone. I hadn’t even dared to ask her out after I blurted out the greeting. What a fool!
It would be for the best if I forgot about the little flame that sparked within me every time I saw her. I was leaving in a month. I shouldn’t put myself—and Haylee—in a position where heartbreak became an actual possibility. I was getting to her, though. I was certainly getting to her. She’d been checking me out, and I’d let her, because it had excited me. And then I went and made her uncomfortable and adorably flustered. What was I going to do about that? Nothing at all?Dio mi aiuti.
I focussed on the screen sorting through file after file, hoping to distract the yearning settling deep in my chest. It was all nonsense to me. Random names, dates and locations, sometimes accompanied by the accused crime or claim, sometimes not. A few search words helped me organize the endless information under different topics, or crimes levels if you please. My program also separated all files according to other filled-in information that I’d rather not get into. Just know that in the end, Lewis & Walker Law Group would be better off for it and I’d be back in Colorado where I belonged.
In the blur of the program doing its thing, a name caught my eye as it was sorted under cyber bullying. I pressed pause on reflex, and the folder in question stopped dead on my screen, baiting me to open it. I shouldn’t go snooping around other people’s case files, let alone ones that were classified and hidden behind passwords by none other than Lisa Walker herself, but my curiosity got the better of me. The file in question was named ‘Haylee.’ No other specification, just that one name. A name that already rolled around in my head relentlessly without the added help from my PC.
