Chapter 3 #2
Anna took one, wiped her face, and gripped my hand again.
“The three of us had a great summer together. And no, maybe we didn’t make it the whole ninety days, but it wasn’t a failure.
Not by a long shot.” Her words were picking up speed, growing a little too intense.
I squeezed her hand. She paused and blew out her breath.
“The only thing Silas and Lemon are guilty of is falling crazy, madly, and completely in love with each other.” Her free hand curled into a fist against the wooden podium.
“Exactly how my momma wanted them to. She knew they belonged together. She knew neither of them would be happy until they found their way back to each other. And she was right.” She thrusted her arm toward Silas and Lemon.
“Look at them. Look at the way they look at each other.” She pointed at them again, urging the judge with her eyes.
Judge Franklin did as Anna requested. We all did. Anna held all the cards at that moment.
It actually hurt to watch Silas and Lemon right then, gazing at each other, like they had everything they could ever want between them—except for Anna, of course. I would never have that. I rubbed at a knot in the center of my chest.
Anna pointed at them one last time. “I want a love like that someday.”
I was done for. I wiped my eyes on the shoulder of my shirt, not even trying to hide the fact that I, a grown man and a lawyer, was crying in a courtroom because of a teenage girl.
Anna pressed on. “My mom knew. She knew about them and, your honor, she knew about me. She knew who I should be with. Who would love me and raise me the way she wanted me to be raised. And whose love would be powerful enough to pull me out of the darkness of her passing. ” She sobbed.
“I long to be with them. Granny and Gramps are everything to me. They always will be. But it’s with Silas and Lemon that I belong.
And I am asking you to let me be with them. Please.”
Everything in the room was pin-drop quiet for five seconds. Somebody sniffled. Mom or Lemon, I couldn’t tell.
“Do you have anything you’d like to add, Mr. Dupree?”
It took a second to realize the judge was talking to me since she was a blur.
My throat was clogged. I wiped my eyes and studied her face for a moment.
I shook my head. There was no need. In all my cases, I’d never given a closing statement as eloquent as Anna’s.
“No, ma’am. I don’t think I can top that. ”
Anna led me back to our seats. I pulled her under my arm and pressed a kiss to her temple.
“Dang, girl. You should be a lawyer someday.” She smiled and handed me one of the tissues.
If this didn’t go her way, it had nothing to do with the Duprees and everything to do with Judge Franklin. And I would make sure Anna knew that.
“Well. I feel chastened,” Judge Franklin admitted.
“I think the way is clear, here.” She leaned forward on her elbows once more and picked up her gavel.
“Annaleise Nicole Dupree, I hereby grant Silas Dean Dupree and Clementine Laura Dupree to be your legal guardians.” Then she smacked the gavel against the sound block.
It was over so fast, I sat there stunned. Anna jumped up. I thought she’d go straight to Silas and Lemon, but she didn’t. She dove right between Mom and Dad, pulling them into a tight hug.
I shook my head, filled with wonder.
And a little child shall lead them.
Just then Jedd Pruitt caught my eye in the back of the room.
His gaze was locked on me. He tossed his chin up and I reciprocated, grinning.
I owed that man everything when it came to my law career.
To this day, I was convinced it was his letter of recommendation that had landed me a spot in the law program at the University of Virginia. He tipped his head for me to join him.
Anna’s words were like a cure-all antidote emitted into the air because right then Silas, my normally tough, unemotional brother, made a beeline for me, wet-cheeked.
I held up a finger to Jedd and he nodded.
I was hardly to a full stand before Silas tackled me in a rib-cracking hug.
I laughed and hugged him back even harder. It’s what I’d hoped for.
“Thank you, man.” He pounded me hard, almost breathless. “Thank you.”
“I hardly did anything.” I smiled as we stepped back. “It was all her.” I gestured to Anna who had pulled Lemon into a four-way celebration. My mom ran a hand over Lemon’s hair and they shared a smile. All was right in the world once again.
Silas wiped his cheeks, nostrils flaring with a silent laugh. “You were here when we needed you. You came for this.”
I gripped his shoulder, narrowing my gaze. “And I would’ve been here for your wedding if I could’ve been.”
He nodded. “I know, I know. I was just giving you a hard time. Taking it out on you. Stressed out of my mind over this. Sorry, dude.”
“It’s fine. I get it.” I tilted my head.
“Are we okay?” Maybe I should’ve been more eloquent like Anna.
Said something like, “Sorry you have to have a brother who’s such an out-of-control headcase that he has to put his lips on every pretty girl he meets, even your ex.
” But Silas was a man of few words and I was confident he knew what I meant.
He nodded, understanding in his eyes. “Yeah. We’re good.” A smile lit up his face and he glanced over at Anna, bursting with pride. “We got our girl. Everything is fantastic.”
“Yeah, you did.”
Just then, Lemon motioned at Silas to leave. He grinned and held up a finger to indicate he needed a second. “We were thinking of heading to Lucy’s to celebrate. We’d love for you to come.”
Lucy’s Italiano was one of three restaurants in town, and the only one that was any good. I didn’t love going into public in Seddledowne, but there was no way I was missing this celebration. “Heck yeah. Just let me catch up with Jedd real quick. I’ll meet you there.”
He squeezed my shoulder one more time before hurrying toward Anna, Lemon, and our parents.
I walked the other way, to my old mentor. Since the last time I’d seen him, his hair had gone white. But he still wore his corduroy slacks and sock ties just like always.
“Man, what’s up?” I offered my hand and he gripped it, crushing my bones.
Jedd was in his early sixties, but he’d always made me feel like his equal, even when I was a hot-headed teenager who thought I knew everything.
“Same old,” he said. “The question is, what are you up to?” His eyes sparkled like a proud father.
“You don’t need to tell me. I follow every case you’re on.
” He bomb-whistled. “But Bromhorst. Dupree, you have guts.”
I blew out my breath in an O. “Wasn’t my first pick of cases. But the older guys were already tangled up, so I took it.” And most days I wished I hadn’t. “What about you? Any interesting cases you’re working on?”
He snorted. “Interesting? A literal time suck would be more like it?”
I crinkled my brow.
He expounded. “Last week, I saw an eviction case on a woman who had twenty-seven cats in her apartment. She was allowed two. The owner brought in pictures. I can’t even tell you.
Crap, literally, everywhere. Carpets were ruined and I can only imagine the smell.
But for two hours we had to look at the lady’s pictures of every single cat and listen to everything she’d done to take care of them as if somehow that overrode her rental agreement.
” He shuddered. “And taxpayers are paying my salary for this?”
“Sounds mind-numbing.”
He chortled. “Things are really good. That one was just…something else.” He cocked his head. “Look, I wanted to talk to you for a minute. Bounce something off of you.”
I leaned against the wall. “Shoot.”
He ran a hand over his mouth, brows raised. “Denise’s been hounding me to retire. She wants to snowbird in Florida for the winters. Her arthritis is getting pretty bad.”
I nodded. Denise had had achy joints as long as I’d known Jedd.
He cocked his head and pressed his hands together like he was about to pray. “Thing is, I don’t want to step down as D.A. until I know there’s someone solid to take my place.” All ten of his fingers slowly lowered until they were pointing at me. “Your name is the one I keep coming back to.”
I looked at him for a second. “Jedd. I’m in DC—”
“But you could be here. You grew up here. People like you. Dupree is a well-respected name in this town.”
I shook my head. “You and I both know there are plenty of people that don’t feel that way. And I’d have to win an election.”
“Holden.” His head bobbled confidently. “Those people are fewer than you think. And the ones who do are simpletons and anyone with any sense knows it. The naysayers will be exponentially outnumbered by people with good old-fashioned common sense.”
My mouth opened, closed, and opened again. “I mean, yeah, but…I just…I wasn’t planning to come back here.”
He scoffed. “That’s all you used to talk about. You used to rib me about how, as soon as you took the bar exam, you were going to come put me out of a job.”
My hands flew out. “That was before…”
His gaze pinned me and I could feel it coming.
The lecture about how I couldn’t let the past dictate my entire future.
He’d given it to me many times. So had my parents.
But coming back to Seddledowne wasn’t in the cards for me.
Visiting for the weekend was one thing, but living here?
Running into people from high school? To this day, I wouldn’t go into Food Lion to get my mom a gallon of milk, for fear I might see certain individuals.
One individual, really. A lifetime of that? No thanks.
He cuffed my shoulder. “Just think about it, please. DC lawyers are a dime a dozen. I know you, you have to hate the traffic up there. You’re a cowboy in your heart.
Don’t tell me you’re happy with your quarter-acre yard.
” It wasn’t even a quarter of an acre, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.
And yeah, having no land made me crazy. It’s one of the reasons I went to the gym so much.
He held his hands up when I started to protest. “Fact is, I’m retiring one way or another and Seddledowne is going to need a good D.A.” He smiled. “Bet your momma would like to have you closer.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “I’ll think about it.” I would. But I already knew what my answer would be. No way would I make as much money here as I would in DC. But that wasn’t even the real reason. I simply didn’t belong in Seddledowne anymore.
We shook hands and pulled each other into a bro hug, complete with a back slap.
Then I walked to my car, ready for some hot, buttery, garlic-slathered breadsticks, a big plate of Lucy’s lasagna, and some family merrymaking like this town had never seen. I pulled my phone out to send my order to Anna so I wouldn’t slow them down.
But I stopped dead, in the middle of the sidewalk, in front of the building where all my lawyer dreams had begun. Because there, on my phone, was a text that felt like the end of my dreams.
Wellington Sipsby: You screwed up majorly by not being here.
Your schizo, space-cadet intern completely offended Bromhorst and he fired us.
We just lost millions of dollars because you left that lunatic in charge.
You’re done here, Dupree. Pick up your crap ASAP and leave your key on the counter at the front desk.
My hand shoved into the front of my hair, tugging. “No, no, no, no, no.” I speed-dialed Trixie, certain Sipsby was confused. There must’ve been some kind of misunderstanding. Even if Bromhorst had taken his business elsewhere, this wasn’t my fault. I’d covered my butt.
But ten minutes later, it was verified. Trixie had come down with a stomach bug the night before the big meeting.
She’d told Audrey to call me. But Audrey, taking me literally, had been too terrified to reach out, and she decided to head up the meeting herself.
And she’d bombed it spectacularly. In fact, the meeting never happened.
While waiting for Bromhorst and his wife to arrive, Audrey had left the boardroom door wide open while chatting on the phone with her cousin.
The Bromhorsts distinctly overheard her say, verbatim, “That man would hump anything on two legs and some things on four. I wouldn’t let him near my dog.
I could write his next election slogan, ‘Bromhorst’s office: Where the men are men and the sheep are scared. ’”
Just, wow.
Yup. There was no coming back from that.
Audrey had been let go immediately. And I was kicking myself for being too kindhearted to have not fired her months ago.
I called Sipsby, but he wouldn’t answer.
Only sent another nasty text telling me not to bother.
And not to bother with the other partners either. They were unanimous in their decision.
I shakily lowered myself to the top of a waist-high red-brick wall. My head dropped into my hands and I forced myself to breathe. If I wasn’t Holden Matthew Dupree, Esquire, Associate Attorney at Caldwell, Caldwell, Sipsby, and Anderson, then who was I?
Welp.
Son of a gun.
It looked like I had nothing but time on my hands to figure it out.