Chapter 26
“How’d the interview go with Crandall Thorne?
” Janie asked the next afternoon when she met Daniela for lunch at the Espuma Coffee and Tea Emporium located in the King William District.
The quaint little café had been converted from an old house and featured cozy rooms decorated with the works of local artists.
Daniela took a sip of her iced Vietnamese coffee, a signature menu item at the Espuma. “The interview, if you can call it that, went well.”
Janie eyed her curiously. “What do you mean, ‘if you can call it that’?”
“Well, the actual interview itself lasted all of five minutes. He asked me a few questions, and then it was time for dinner. For dinner we were joined by his housekeeper, private nurse and, of course, Caleb. So there really wasn’t much opportunity for Crandall to continue the interview.”
“Hmm,” Janie murmured, nodding slowly. “Interesting.”
Daniela could see the wheels spinning in her sister-in-law’s mind. “What are you thinking?”
“Really wanna know?” At Daniela’s exasperated look, Janie grinned. “Okay, here’s what I think. I think the interview was less about ascertaining your qualifications as an intern, and more about determining your potential as a future daughter-in-law.”
“What?” At Daniela’s loud exclamation, curious heads swung in her direction. She gave the other diners a sheepish look before returning her attention to Janie. “What are you talking about?”
Janie’s grin widened. “Think about it, El. How often would you guess Caleb Thorne takes first-year law students home to meet his father?”
Daniela frowned, remembering the conclusion she’d reached about Caleb’s nonexistent affairs with his students. “Probably not very often,” she admitted.
“I’d venture to say he’s never brought home a student.
So you can imagine his father’s surprise when, barely two weeks into the semester, Caleb comes to him about a student who should be considered for an internship at the firm.
A first-year student without a law background and no legal experience whatsoever.
Now tell me. What do you think went through Crandall Thorne’s mind? ”
“That his son believes I’m exceptionally brilliant?” Daniela suggested, but without much conviction.
Janie chuckled. “While that may be true,” she said wryly, “somehow I don’t believe that’s the case here. I think by the time Caleb finished telling his father all about you, Crandall realized that you must be pretty special to his son. Special enough to bring home for a personal introduction.”
Daniela grew silent, recalling the first words out of Crandall’s mouth when he met her. You must be the young woman my son’s been raving about.
Had Caleb really raved about her? She felt a thrill of guilty pleasure at the thought.
Janie was watching her, a speculative gleam in her eyes. “Which makes me wonder…Exactly how close have you and Caleb gotten?”
Heat crawled up Daniela’s neck. In the time it took her to drop her gaze and become absorbed in an examination of her half-eaten vegetable pita, Janie’s eyes widened in shock. “Oh my God! Have you slept with him?”
“Must you be so loud?” Daniela hissed, glancing self-consciously around the busy restaurant. Thankfully no curious gazes met hers this time—although she did notice more than a few averted grins.
She scowled at her amused lunch companion. “Thanks for broadcasting my personal business to a roomful of complete strangers.”
Mischief glimmered in Janie’s eyes. “When were you going to tell me about you and Mr. Sexy Law Professor?”
“I don’t know…Never, maybe?”
Janie laughed. “Oh, come on, El. I’m an old married woman. You know I have to live vicariously through you. Not that Kenny and I aren’t—”
Grimacing, Daniela held up a hand. “Please. I don’t even want to think about what you and my brother are—or aren’t—doing behind closed doors.” She shuddered at the thought, drawing another laugh from Janie.
“All right, girl. Out with it. When did you and Professor Thorne begin your private tutoring sessions?”
Daniela was no recently deflowered virgin, but she suddenly felt like one as she reluctantly met Janie’s gaze across the table. “He showed up unexpectedly at my house on Monday night,” she began.
“Seriously?”
Daniela nodded. “He wanted to know why I’d missed class that day. I told him I had the flu, invited him inside and…”
“And?” Janie prompted, leaning forward in her chair with an expression of rapt absorption.
Knowing that her sister-in-law would settle for nothing less than a detailed account, Daniela found herself telling Janie everything about the first night she and Caleb made love. By the time she’d finished, Janie was grinning from ear to ear.
“Wow,” she marveled, staring at Daniela. “Sounds pretty amazing.”
“It was,” Daniela agreed, somewhat wistfully. “He’s amazing.”
Janie leered. “Clearly.”
Daniela flushed. “I don’t just mean in the bedroom.
He’s amazing in the classroom, the way he effortlessly commands the attention of his students—even the slackers.
You can hear the passion in his voice when he talks about the law, and civil procedure, in a way that lets you know teaching isn’t just a job to him.
He can be hella stern and intimidating one moment, unbelievably sweet and funny the next.
And he has this intense way of zeroing in on my face when I’m talking, like whatever I’m saying is super important to him. ”
“That’s probably because it is,” Janie observed with a gentle smile. “Sounds to me like Caleb Thorne is pretty crazy about you, El.”
Her words filled Daniela with a mixture of pleasure and despair, two emotions she’d been vacillating between since last night, when she’d made the difficult decision not to invite Caleb into her home.
After their incredibly romantic slow dance under the stars, followed by a sexually charged ride back to her house, she’d wanted nothing more than to finish what they started at the ranch.
But she’d turned him away, telling him they needed to slow things down.
It was one of the hardest things she’d ever had to do in her life, and it damn near killed her to watch him leave. But it had been necessary.
If she was to make things right between them, she had to begin the process of letting him go. Because once he learned the truth about her, there’d be no gradual weaning. She’d have to go cold turkey without him.
Caleb—hurt and enraged—would give her no other option.
“Something tells me,” Janie said, watching Daniela carefully, “that Caleb’s feelings aren’t one-sided.”
Daniela hesitated, then shook her head with a deep, heavy sigh. “No, they’re not.” She paused, swallowing past the lump in her throat before quietly confessing, “I’m in love with him, Janie.”
“Oh, honey…” The gentle compassion in Janie’s gaze nearly brought Daniela to tears. “What’re you going to do?”
“What else can I do? I have to tell him the truth.”
“What about the investigation?”
“I don’t know,” Daniela said miserably. “I’m not even sure that Crandall Thorne is guilty of anything other than making really bad decisions in his choice of clientele.
And even if he is shady, who says it’s my place to prove it?
Hoyt Philbin? For all we know, Philbin may have one or two skeletons in his own closet! ”
“Don’t say that too loudly,” Janie drawled with wry humor. “Hoyt Philbin can do no wrong in this town. I mean, there’s a reason most people wanted him to run for another term even though he wasn’t eligible.”
“I know, I know,” Daniela mumbled. “Kenny thinks the man walks on water because of all the good things he did for the city, particularly for black folks.”
“His record does speak for itself,” Janie pointed out. “The fact that he’s married to a sista gives him even more cred.”
“I know. But the point is, he obviously has an ax to grind with Crandall Thorne, and none of us really know the whole story, or his true motivation for wanting to bring Thorne down.” She shook her head wistfully.
“I’m such a fool for getting myself into this, for not anticipating the possibility that…
that…” She couldn’t even bring herself to utter the heartrending words again. But she didn’t have to. Janie knew.
“I can’t keep deceiving Caleb like this,” Daniela finished, her voice husky with emotion.
Janie nodded sympathetically. “Talk to Noah first,” she suggested. “He’ll understand, and maybe he can come up with some ideas to salvage the situation. And don’t forget your exit strategy.”
Of course, Daniela thought bitterly. How could I forget my exit strategy?
According to the original plan devised by her brothers, after getting the goods on Crandall Thorne, she was supposed to quietly withdraw from law school and disappear from Caleb’s life. If anyone asked, she was to say she’d had a change of heart about pursuing a law degree, and leave it at that.
It had all seemed so plausible in the beginning, so straightforward and easy.
Now the idea of walking out of Caleb’s life sent unimaginable pain knifing through her heart.
Janie glanced at her watch and frowned. “I have to pick up the twins from school,” she said regretfully. She signaled the waiter for the check, and a moment later he bustled over to drop the bill on their table.
As Daniela reached inside her purse for money, Janie said quickly, “Don’t worry about it. Lunch is on me.”
Daniela gave her a wan smile. “You don’t have to buy me lunch just because you feel sorry for me.”
“Of course I do. But that’s not the reason I’m buying.” Her eyes glowed with warmth. “Kenny told me you talked him into offering me the secretary position. I owe you big time, El.”
Daniela waved off the gratitude. “Don’t mention it. Remember, you’re doing us a favor as well. You’re rescuing us from the incompetence of people who have no business calling themselves administrative professionals.”
Janie smiled. “And you’re helping me save my marriage. If there’s ever anything I can do for you, Daniela, just name it.”
Unless Janie possessed the ability to turn back time, Daniela doubted there was much anyone could do to help her out of the mess she’d made of her life.