Chapter 30
RYDER
“Just relax,” I told Michael as we stood outside the courtroom, waiting for the final decision. “It’ll be okay.”
“You don’t know that,” he sighed. “Those lawyers presented a pretty damning case.”
“So did Marie. She was damn good in that courtroom. You have a real shot of this going your way.”
Blake pulled him into her arms, trying to reassure him while we waited for our turn in the courtroom. The week since the hearing had been hell, but it was the perfect distraction from the mess of my non-relationship with Ellie. Trying to prepare for the hearing was the only thing that kept me sane.
Then I spent the past week with Marie, working out appeals in case things didn’t go our way. She had some great contacts that gave us advice on how to proceed, and we were prepared in case things didn’t go our way.
But in the end, it wasn’t my life on the line.
Not right now, anyway.
The moment they called us into the courtroom, my focus was one hundred percent on my clients. Marie handled everything like a pro, keeping Blake and Michael calm as the judge asked us to stand.
“I’ve spent the better part of a week going over all the documentation of this case. After reviewing all the evidence, my initial gut feeling is to return Wesley to his grandparents.”
Blake’s shoulders fell and Michael looked like he was about to storm the bench. I squeezed his shoulder. This wasn’t over yet.
“But upon further contemplation, I couldn’t help wonder why it took so long for Mr. and Mrs. Simmons to intervene when their grandchild had been so clearly neglected.
I admit that Mr. and Mrs. Parker have their flaws.
Involving a minor in a case, whether by accident or on purpose, was not a smart idea,” the judge said, eyeing Blake and Parker with harsh criticism.
“However, since that time, it seems Wesley is well cared for, has been attending school regularly, holding down an after-school job, and hasn’t had a single incident with anyone in town since he’s been in the Parkers’ care.”
The judge sighed, looking at both parties again.
“As much as I would like to grant custody to the grandparents, I feel the best interest of the child is to stay where he is. Case dismissed.”
The bang of the gavel rattled through me in a way that I had never felt when I was working as a criminal lawyer. This meant something. A child had been placed in the proper care, and my friends wouldn’t look so depressed anymore.
If they had lost custody of Wesley, I’m not sure what they would have done. Thankfully, I didn’t have to think about that now.
Michael turned to me, pulling me in for a hug that I didn’t really deserve. “Hey, this is all because of Marie. Thank her.”
He slapped my back, shaking his head as the enormity of the situation washed over him. “I can’t believe it. I really thought we were going to lose him.”
“But you didn’t. Go home and thank your lucky stars that the judge was on your side.”
I turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm. “Hey, really, I can’t thank you enough for everything.”
“No problem.”
I nodded to Marie and headed for the door, thankful that was over.
Normally, there was a sense of pride when a case was finished.
A criminal had escaped penalty or prison, and it was because of me.
But this time, there was just an overwhelming sense of relief.
And whether that was because I knew the Parkers or because justice was served, I really didn’t know.
But I had a feeling this wouldn’t be the last case I dealt with in family law. For the first time in a long time, I had the overwhelming desire to tell someone all about my victory, even if it wasn’t technically mine.
And there was only one person I could think of. My smile quickly slipped as I realized that Ellie probably wouldn’t care at all if we won the case. Sure, she’d be glad Wes was safe where he was, but would she care at all for what I was feeling?
Most likely not.
Still, I slipped into my car and headed away from the courthouse toward the woman who didn’t want a thing to do with me. She was my friend, even if we did have a falling out, and this was the kind of news you shared with a friend.
I just wasn’t exactly sure how to tell her since she wanted nothing to do with me.
“Ellie, I have some great news…” Grinning to myself, I figured that was a pretty good opening, but then I remembered the way she yelled at me for following her into town the other day.
Okay, maybe a better opening line was needed.
“Don’t hit me.”
Yeah, start with reminding her that violence was never a good option. I rolled my eyes at the ridiculousness of what my legal brain was coming up with.
Tightening my grip on the steering wheel, I spouted off a half a dozen opening lines, each one worse than the last.
“I won my case!”
“Ellie, you’re never going to believe what I just did.”
“I just saved a kid from being sent off to his evil grandparents.”
“Hey, baby!”
“How would you like to spend the night in the arms of a legal genius?”
And my personal favorite…
“How you doin’?”
Even though I thought I did a great impersonation of Joey Tribbiani, I doubted she would find the humor in that after the last fight we had.
I stopped in front of her shop, staring in the front window as she rearranged a mannequin in her display. God, she was so beautiful. Everything about this woman, from the way her blonde curls fell in her face to the way she smiled when no one was around.
That was when she was most beautiful. She didn’t even realize she was driving me insane because she was just being her natural self.
“Fuck, Ryder,” I grumbled, scrubbing a hand over my face. “You sound like a fucking woman.”
“Nope, you sound like a man in love.”
I jumped, nearly letting out a scream at the voice that suddenly appeared next to me. Mav leaned against my car, picking apart pistachios and tossing the shells on the ground as he watched Ellie through the window.
“What the hell are you doing?” I snapped.
“Watching you watch her. It’s quite entertaining, actually. See, you had this lovestruck look on your face, and even though you didn’t say a word out loud, I could read the thoughts as if a voiceover was playing in the background.”
“Yeah? What was it saying?”
He shrugged, brushing the remaining dust from his hands. “Something like…”
He cleared his throat and got down on one knee right outside my car door. Glancing around, I prayed no one was watching this.
“I’m such a fool to have walked away from you. You’re the most amazing person in the world, and I’d be lucky to have you in my life. Please stay!”
His dramatics had me rolling my eyes and shoving my door open, knocking him over. I wasn’t even the least bit sorry. He deserved it for his terrible performance.
“Don’t quit your day job. Broadway isn’t knocking anytime soon.”
Flicking the brim of his hat up, he got to his feet and stalked toward me. “I resent that. I put on a helluva good performance. Maybe you should think about that the next time you need to work through scenarios in your head.”
How the hell did he know what I was doing?
“Right, I’ll keep you in mind,” I scoffed, pretending that wasn’t at all what I had been doing the whole drive here.
“So, you’re going in, right?” he called out as I approached the door.
“What does it look like I’m doing?”
“Not sure yet. Don’t worry! I’ll get it all on camera so you can watch the replay!” he shouted, pulling out his phone. “Remember to project your voice!”
I flipped him off just as I yanked the door open and stepped inside. Her bright smile turned on me until she realized it was not a customer, but her ex-fling, whom she currently hated.
“What are you doing here?”
I opened my mouth to tell her about the case, about how excited I was, but the words died on my lips.
“Uh…”
She rolled her eyes, walking away from me. “Ryder, some of us have work to do, so if all you came here to do was grunt, then please leave.”
I couldn’t let her go that quickly. It had been days since I last heard her voice, and I was beginning to feel needy.
The realization struck me harder than it should have, and I panicked, shouting out the first thing I could think of.
“Jeff thinks you should put in a section for kilts!”
That got her to stop in her tracks. Very slowly, she turned and eyed me like a strange four-headed dog.
“I’m sorry, did you just come here to tell me that Jeff wants me to put kilts in my store?”
“Yeah,” I croaked.
“Kilts.”
I nodded.
“And how exactly would kilts go with anything in this boutique?”
I didn’t have the answers, but I also didn’t want her to stop talking. The sound of her voice was soothing, and I hadn’t realized how badly I wanted to hear it until right this minute.
“He says it’s a new trend that will easily take over the town.”
A small smirk played across her lips as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Really? And would this be something you’d be interested in wearing?”
I nodded. I didn’t know why. Kilts were not something I ever wanted to wear, but if it extended this conversation, I’d put on a kilt every fucking day of the week.
For her eyes only.
“And where exactly would you wear a kilt?”
My brain scrambled for any ideas that might sound even half decent right now. And the only thing I could come up with slipped out before I could think it all the way through.
“Highland games!”
A huff of laughter left her lips as she stared at me. “Are you serious?”
“Tourist attraction,” I added, just running with it. “My family is part Scottish, and I know others have a similar heritage.”
“Yeah, probably half the people in the United States could claim they’re part Scottish. I don’t see them running around wearing kilts.”
“No, but…”
Quick! Think, dammit!
“But we could host the Highland games here, and it would bring in more business to the town. And with that popular book series, it would increase foot traffic to the bookshop.”
“While we’re at it, how about we open a Scottish restaurant, too?”