28 - Shay
28
Shay
“I’m heading out early,” I told Julie while packing up my bag. “I’m looking at condos down on the river.”
“With that woman you saved in court last week?” Julie asked, raising an eyebrow.
It was Monday afternoon, and I had spent the entire weekend thinking about Haley Mercer. How unbelievably low the odds were of the two of us running into each other in court. As someone who believed in fate, that was the equivalent of the universe putting up a big neon sign.
“Yep,” I said.
Julie put down her pen and leaned back in her chair, smiling at me.
“What?” I asked.
“You’ve had this nervous, excited energy all day,” she said. “Now I know why.”
“I’ll be even more excited if I can buy a unit in this condo before they begin public showings.”
“Uh huh,” Julie said. “She seemed nice. Haley, was that her name?”
I shouldered my bag. “Say what you really think.”
I liked Julie because we had the kind of relationship where we could be totally, completely honest with each other. Even when the information might be hard to hear.
“I mean it. She seems really nice. Attractive, too.”
“But…”
“But,” Julie said, “she’s a single mom. Is that the kind of woman you’re interested in?”
It was a good question. If I was being honest with myself, I wasn’t really sure. I had been too focused on my career to think about children, but I thought I wanted to start a family someday. That was different than getting involved with a woman who already had a son, though.
“I don’t know,” I answered.
She shrugged. “Fair enough. As long as you’re thinking about it.”
“I am now.” I pointed at her desk. “You finished the prep-work for the Ashton case, right?”
She nodded. “I was just about to start writing our request for dismissal for the Jackson brief.”
“That can wait until tomorrow. Why don’t you take the rest of the afternoon off?”
She perked up. “Seriously? I should call you out on your dating habits more often.”
“We’re not dating. She’s just showing me a condo,” I insisted. “You’d better get out of here before I change my mind.”
Julie grinned and began packing up.
As I drove to the condo development, I thought about what Julie had said. Was I so excited to see Haley that it was noticeable? I’d been tempering my expectations, but I was still hopeful. It was the same feeling as when I walked into court with a very winnable case, yet didn’t want to get my hopes up.
But when I parked on the street and saw Haley standing in front of the development, wearing a form-fitting summer dress with a blazer over the top, I couldn’t deny it.
My excitement had little to do with the building we were about to enter.
“Obviously it’s still not completed,” she said as I approached. “That area over there, where the cement mixer is? That will be a dog park. Do you have a dog?”
Her eyes cut over to me, and I felt my pulse quicken. “I don’t, but that’s not relevant. This would be an investment property that I would rent out.”
“I’m glad you said so!” she replied. “Let me shift my mindset about this place.”
She used a keycard on the door, then held the door open for me with her body. My arm brushed against hers as I squeezed by, and it felt like a jolt of sexual electricity passed between us.
It was impossible to forget the night of sweaty fun we had shared together.
“The place Lucas is living in is your investment property too. Right?” she asked. “Is there a reason you’re buying another property in a different building? There are several condos available in the other one, which might make management easier.”
“The building association doesn’t allow anyone to own more than one unit,” I explained.
“Ah,” Haley said, stepping into the elevator. “A lot of buildings have those restrictions. Fortunately, this one does not. You could buy two if you wanted!”
“Easy, now,” I said with a smile. “Let’s focus on one, first.”
“Can’t blame me for trying,” she said with a wink.
I felt a thrill of attraction as the elevator smoothly carried us to the top floor.
“We’re going to look at the penthouse suite first,” she explained. “It has the best south-facing views. After that, we can check on two smaller units on the seventh floor. Sound like a plan?”
“Sounds great,” I said, deliberately trying not to look at the tops of Haley’s breasts. She was showing a delicious amount of cleavage today.
I wondered if that was on purpose. If she was looking extra nice because she knew she was meeting me today.
“Seriously though, we can look at whatever you want. Just let me know,” she said while we left the elevator and entered a small anteroom with three doors branching off. “I can’t thank you enough for your help in court last week.”
“It was nothing,” I said.
Haley gave me a face. “Maybe to you. But it meant a lot to me. I owe you.” She smiled at me for a moment, then turned toward one of the doors. “This is the unit we’re looking at.”
It was a breathtaking double-unit, with a spiral staircase leading to a lofted second floor. But what immediately drew our attention were the massive windows facing south toward downtown Portland, across the river in Oregon.
“Look at that,” I said.
“You’re paying a premium for the view, but it’s worth it,” Haley explained. “As you can see, the balcony extends the entire length of the apartment, and curves around to another sliding glass door into the primary bedroom.”
“I like the open, airy feel,” I said.
“Also at a premium. I don’t know what your price range is, so feel free to stop me if anything is outside your budget.”
I knew that she needed to know my income level to do her job, but I didn’t like talking about money. At least not with someone who wasn’t a close friend.
“I’ll let you know,” was all I said.
We walked around and examined the condo in silence for a bit.
“What kind of law do you practice?” she asked.
“I work for a nonprofit firm that focuses on exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals,” I said. “We also pick up the occasional pro-bono case when we have the time. That’s why I was in court last week. My client was a deaf woman who didn’t understand why she was being arrested.”
“Oh, wow! That’s incredible,” she said.
“You can ask the next question you’re wondering.”
“What do you mean?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “How can I afford investment properties if I work for a nonprofit?”
“I really wasn’t wondering it,” she said with a laugh. “But now I am.”
“I started off in corporate litigation,” I explained. By now, I had my backstory down to a well-rehearsed speech. “I hated it, but our firm won a massive settlement two years after I started working. Like, so massive that I was able to hit the eject button and take a job working for an activist practice.”
“That’s great!” she said. She wasn’t exactly swooning , but it was close. Most women did after hearing my career path. It was a nice validation that I was doing the right thing.
And of course, the female attention never hurt.
“What about you?” I asked, eager to learn more about this woman. “What made you want to become a real estate agent?”
“I was motivated by the simple fact that I didn’t need a college degree,” she said with a self-deprecating chuckle. “I got pregnant in college and had to drop out. Once my son was born, I needed to start a career quickly. My sister had a friend who helped me get my license, then a job at her agency. Not exactly an inspiring story, I know.”
“There are worse ways to choose a career,” I said.
She led me into the primary bedroom, gazing over her shoulder. “Want to hear something really ironic? I don’t even own a house. I stay in the apartment above my sister’s garage.”
“That is ironic. Like a butcher who doesn’t eat meat.”
“Exactly. Fortunately, none of my clients ask where I live. Here’s that balcony extension,” Haley gestured. “Obviously the unit would look larger if it were staged, but you can imagine the layout. Bed against this wall, dresser and television over here.”
I opened the screen door and took a quick look outside. “Are you waiting until your son is older? I imagine school districts factor into where you want to buy a house. How old is he?”
I felt bad for asking her so casually, like she was a hostile witness I was cross-examining. Trying to catch in a trap. But there was one piece of information that had been bothering me since seeing Haley in court, a fact which didn’t line up with something else she’d said.
“Bran is… four,” she said while climbing the stairs. “But hopefully his school district will be irrelevant. I’ve applied for him to go to the Worthington Academy.”
In court, she’d told the judge that her son was five. But she’d told Lucas—and now me—that her son was four.
Hmm.
The spiral staircase was steep, and I was extremely aware that Haley’s ass—which looked perfect in her dress—was currently at face level. I had a momentary intrusive thought of grabbing her by the hips and burying my face in those round orbs.
Instead, I kept my eyes glued to the steps and said, “That’s a prestigious school. I hear they’re very selective with their admissions process.”
“Oh, they are,” she said wryly. “If I’m being totally honest with myself, there’s approximately a zero percent chance Bran will get in. But I have to try.” She reached the top of the steps and whirled around. “And if he doesn’t get in and has to go to public school? I’ll use the money I saved up for a down payment on a house.”
“Silver lining,” I said. The Worthington Academy . Like finding a break in a case, I tucked that information away to pursue later.
“Lofted second floor,” Haley announced, sweeping her hand around the space. “A second living room that opens up to the downstairs, which would be perfect for an office. The second and third bedrooms are this way.”
I gazed around the space, imagining the layout for a few moments. But I was also giving myself a moment to get Haley’s intoxicating scent out of my nose. I was already half-hard just from being around her for a few minutes.
She had disappeared into one of the bedrooms, so I hurried in that direction. I poked my head in one bedroom, which was empty, then turned and walked into the next one…
Haley came around the corner and ran into my chest in the doorway. Both of us grunted, and she began to stumble backward, but then I snatched her arm and yanked her toward me. She bumped against my chest again, softer this time, before regaining her balance.
“Sorry,” she said, face immediately turning red. “I thought you’d gone somewhere else…”
“No, it was my fault,” I replied.
Suddenly, I realized our faces were very close. I could see the pale blonde eyelashes that framed her impossibly blue eyes.
The last time we were this close…
Her blush deepened, but she didn’t move away. Neither of us wanted to leave the wonderful proximity of our bodies.
Why did this feel so good?
As an attorney, I was cautious by nature. I had to be that way.
But sometimes, I wanted to throw caution to the wind and do what felt right . She had pounced on me the night we kissed on Lucas’s couch, and I’d loved her eagerness.
Standing in the penthouse loft, staring down at Haley’s heart-shaped face, I couldn’t hold back any longer. It was my turn to show her how eager I was.
I shoved Haley up against the wall and crushed my lips against hers. She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me back hard , like she’d been thinking about it since we rode the elevator up together. My body throbbed with need as I inhaled her orange scent again.
So much for willpower.