Page 49 of Something True


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Now, he was smiling, too. "Always."

We spent the rest of the day in and out of bed, making up for lost time. Maybe we were crazy, but I couldn't bring myself to care. Without him, I'd been lost, and here he was, almost like he'd never left.

In spite of the frigid weather, everything around me felt warm and wonderful. When darkness fell, I grabbed my favorite quilt out of the closet and carried it out to the lower balcony. Together, Joel and I sank onto an oversized lounge chair and lay there, snuggled under the quilt, gazing up at the stars and listening to the waves crashing below the bluff.

In all the fun of getting reacquainted, we hadn't done a lot of talking, at least not about anything serious. But now, the questions were piling up, and I almost didn't know where to begin.

"I'm curious," I said. "What have you been doing over the past two weeks?"

His arms closed tighter around me. "Other than missing you?"

"Yes." I smiled in the darkness. "Other than that."

"The truth?" he said. "I've been racking up some favors."

"What kind of favors?"

"The legal kind."

I wasn't following. "You mean related to your suspended sentence?"

"No. Something else."

"Really?" I said. "What?"

In what felt like a change of topic, he said, "I know this guy in Troy. Utterly ruthless."

"Oh. What does he do?"

"He's a lawyer."

Of course.The legal kind.I should've guessed that. "You mean like a criminal lawyer?"

"No." Joel gave a low laugh. "And yes."

"Okay, now I’m really confused."

"He's an estate lawyer." Joel paused. "And let's just say some of his clients are on the shady side."

"How shady?" I asked.

"As shady as they get, which means that sometimes, this guy's gotta get creative."

"But you said he's anestatelawyer?" I paused. "Wait a minute. Are you thinking ofmyestate?"

In a tone filled with humor, Joel said, "Well,Isure as hell don't have one."

"So what are you saying? You talked to him about my situation?"

"You might say that."

"And?"

"Like I said, the guy owes me."

"For what?" I asked.

"Trust me. You don't wanna know."