Elliot
Trying to Get Some Answers
“Fuck me. Now.”
“Uh, yeah?”
“If you don’t leave now, you’re going to be late for your appointment with…”
Glancing at the clock, I realize I’ve been staring off into space for the past thirty minutes, warring with regret over how I left things with Dilynne. I didn’t say half the shit that was on my mind because I could tell she isn’t ready to hear it, and now I’m not sure how to even bring it up.
“Crap. Yeah, thank you for reminding me.”
She smiles at me before leaving. “No problem.”
I start to gather my keys, wallet, and sunglasses so I can leave, but my father steps into my office before I get the chance.
“Where are you off to?” he asks, an accusatory pinch in his brow.
“Why do you care?”
“I’m allowed to ask where my son goes when he’s supposed to be working.”
Shoving my hands in my pockets, I shrug. “I have a meeting.”
“With whom?”
“A potential client.”
We stand there in a stare-off for a few seconds before he speaks again. “Will you be returning?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I need your assistance this evening.”
My curiosity is piqued, but the last thing I want to do is spend more time with my father than necessary, especially when the meeting I’m headed to should shed some light on what he’s been hiding.
“I can’t stay late tonight. I have plans.”
His left eyebrow arches. “With Dilynne?”
“Not that it should matter, but yes, with Dilynne.”
“Have you two decided on a wedding date yet?”
“Like we told you the other night, we’re waiting until after her car show. Which, by the way, I’ll be taking off a week for.”
“And you’re just now telling me this?”
I take a step toward him and rest my hand on his shoulder, patting him a few times. “You’ll manage. After all, you’re the boss.”
His eyes narrow. “That I am.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t have any active cases that need to be managed while I’m gone. I don’t go to trial again for a few weeks, and I’ll be back by then, ready to make the firm more money,” I say with a placating smile. “It’s not like we’re hurting for money, though. Right, Dad?”
That eyebrow of his lifts again. “No, son.”
“Good.” I release his shoulder and walk out of my office, waiting for him to follow me before shutting the door and locking it behind him. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I don’t want to keep the person I’m meeting with waiting.”
My smile falls as I walk down the hallway toward the front of the practice, bracing myself to walk past Tori.
“Where are you off to?” she asks just as I reach for the door handle.
I take a deep breath and turn around slowly. “None of your business, Tori. Not sure how many more times I have to tell you that.”
She pushes back from her desk and stands. “I’m just trying to be friendly, Elliot.”
“Well, which is it? Because the other night at the winery you wanted my sympathy, then you alluded to disbelief in my new relationship, and now you want to be friends?” I fold my arms across my chest. “The whiplash is reminiscent of the feeling I had the day we were supposed to get married.”
She walks over to me. “The conversation you heard between me and your dad,” she whispers. “It’s not what you think.”
“You know what? The reality is, I probably won’t be able to believe anything you tell me anyway since I don’t trust you and never will again.”
“There’s just…a lot you don’t know, Elliot.” Her hand lands on my arm, but I brush it off. “I’ve been trying to explain it to you, but…”
I glance down at my watch. “You sound like a broken record, Tori. Maybe it’s time to find a new tune to sing. And I need to go or I’m going to be late.”
“Elliot!” she calls after me, but I don’t turn around. I need answers, and until I get them, I’m not wasting any more time.
Besides, focusing on this thing with my dad is going to help take my mind off of Dilynne and her perfect fucking body until she’s ready to talk, and I need all the help I can get with that right now.
***
“I really appreciate you meeting with me, Greg.” I squeeze the wedge of lemon into my iced tea as he pours sugar into his coffee.
“Nonsense. You made it seem pretty serious, and you know I’ll always have time for you, Elliot.”
I’m in a coffee shop halfway between Blossom Peak and Charlotte, sitting across from Greg Turner, my dad’s friend I did my internship with in law school.
Greg is like a second father to me. He’s been a constant since I was a child, which means more to me now as I’m realizing that my own father has been deceiving me for quite some time.
Greg is also one of my father’s oldest and closest friends. If anyone might know something, it’s him. Whether he’ll tell me remains to be seen.
“That means a lot, Greg. But I’m not sure you’re going to like the subject matter that I need to discuss with you.”
His brows pinch together. “What’s going on?”
Blowing out a breath, I lean closer to him over the table. “I think someone close to me is lying to me.”
“Okay…”
“And it involves a will.”
Realization passes over his face. Shifting in his seat, he clears his throat. “And what makes you think that?”
“I’m pretty sure I saw a different version of this will with my own two eyes, Greg.”
His eyes move to his coffee as he picks it up, bringing the cup to his mouth. “Are you sure, Elliot?”
“I’m almost positive.” I wait for him to meet my eyes again. “And, as executor of my grandfather’s estate, I would hope you would know if there were two wills. I guess I could just use some help making sense of this.”
His throat bobs as he swallows roughly, setting his cup back down while contemplating his answer. When he finally smiles at me again, something tells me that I went to the wrong source. “Elliot, it’s not uncommon for people to have multiple copies of a will. As an attorney yourself, you know that.”
For a second, I debate mentioning my father’s financial issues that I’m aware of as well, but at this point, I already think I’ve said too much.
If I push further, Greg might run back to my father and this could blow up before I’ve put the pieces together, and I just need more time.
“Yeah, you’re right. Maybe I was wrong like you said.
I guess seeing it just made me think the worst, you know? ”
Greg smiles. “You miss your grandfather. Grief can make us believe in something that isn’t even there.”
“It can also make people act uncharacteristically,” I add.
Greg nods. “Absolutely. But I assure you, everything with your grandfather’s estate was managed with the utmost care.”
Sure, Greg. Whatever you say.
I blow out a breath like I’m relieved, even though I’m far from it. “Thank you…for assuring me that I’m probably reading too much into this. And you’re right. I do miss him, more so than I realized.”
He nods. “Of course. You know you can always talk to me, Elliot. Now, is there anything else I can ease your mind about, or can we discuss something else?” He lifts his coffee to his mouth again.
“I mean, I heard the Fletcher Adams is thinking of retiring soon. Do you happen to know anything about that?”
We spend the next twenty minutes discussing football, once it’s clear I’m not getting anything else out of him, we part ways.
On my drive back to Blossom Peak, I call Rhonan.
“Elliot?”
“Hey, Rho. Did I catch you at a bad time?”
Voices ring out in the background, but they begin to fade. “Just at the station. What’s up?”
Sighing, I adjust my grip on my steering wheel. “I need your help.”
“All right…”
“I need you to run a background check on Tori again, but something more thorough than the one you ran last year. I need the dirty stuff—shit you’re not going to find in your system at work.”
He lowers his voice. “Everything okay?”
“Let’s just say, my intuition was correct. My dad and Tori are hiding something, which means I need you to dig up some dirt on him too.”
“You sure you want to do this, Elliot? I mean…”
“I know what I saw, Rhonan. That will…it’s not just an old version.
My grandfather wasn’t the type of man to waver on his decisions.
Hell, he proposed to my grandmother on their second date.
When he decided on something, that was it, which means my father must have done something to the will, and Greg Turner fucking helped him. ”
“Wait. Greg Turner? Isn’t he the guy you interned with?”
“Yep. I just met with him and tried to casually ask him about the will, but he blew me off, told me I was worried for nothing. There’s more to this entire thing, and I need some fucking answers before I can make a move.”
Rhonan clears his throat through the line. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do. I have a guy, but it might take a week, maybe two.”
I think about the fact that there are only two weeks left of my arrangement with Dilynne. Before, I would have said the timing would be perfect. I could blow up my life with the truth about my dad, Tori, and now Greg, and have the perfect excuse to end my engagement to Dilynne at the same time.
But after last night? That’s the last thing I want, and maybe it’s time to lay the groundwork so Dilynne knows the truth about that too.
I already told my father that I’d be seeing her this evening. Maybe I need to make that a reality.
“Not a big deal. I have plenty to keep me busy in the meantime.”
Rhonan laughs. “Dilynne?”
I stare out the front windshield, replaying every detail of what being with her intimately felt like. “Yeah.”
“How’s it going? I mean, after that kiss the other night, I figured she might threaten your life if you ever tried that again.”
“Uh…” I blow out a breath. “No threats. In fact, we explored some other aspects of our physical connection last night.”
Rhonan is silent for a beat. “What do you mean other aspects?”
“You’re a smart guy, Rhonan. Put it together.”
He blows out a breath. “Holy shit. And Dilynne?”
“She initiated it.”
“What the hell does this mean, Elliot? Are you two…”
“I don’t fucking know, Rhonan. I haven’t had a chance to talk to her about it yet… And lord knows the woman doesn’t let many people past her walls, especially not me. I just know it’s not going to be easy to convince her my feelings are real.”
“Then move slow. Test the waters, and in the moments when it matters, make her listen. Don’t let her brush this under the rug, and don’t let yourself either.
Fletcher would tell you the same fucking thing.
” Then he gasps. “Oh, shit. Fletcher is going to lose his mind over this. Have you told him yet?”
I glance at the clock on the dash of my truck. “Today’s been a little too busy to fill in my best friends about my sex life. Sorry.”
“Does that mean you plan on telling Henley too?”
Fuck.
Henley.
Lord knows he was already having trouble with the idea of Dilynne and me in a fake relationship. Once he finds out we crossed the line into real territory, he’s going to freak out.
“Henley doesn’t need to know just yet. Until I know that she might be open to something more, I think it’s best this stays between us.”
“And are you sure something more is what you want, Elliot? I know you’ve been struggling with these feelings toward her, but now that you two have…you know,” he says, taking in a breath. “Is a relationship with her really something you can actually see happening?”
I think back to what it felt like being with her last night.
It was so natural, so easy, so fucking mind-blowing that I’m positive sex with Dilynne Clark has rewired my brain.
“Something shifted last night, Rhonan. I can’t explain it yet, but when I find the words—”
“I get it,” he says, interrupting me. “You don’t have to explain it to me, man. Vienna changed everything for me. In fact, I’m not even sure that I could still find words to describe how she made me want to open up again.”
“At this point, I think Dilynne knows me better than I know myself. That alone makes this worth exploring. She has seen parts of me Tori never did. She stayed when things got messy, even when she had no reason to. That has to mean something.” That realization hits me hard because it sounds so much like the kind of relationship my grandparents had.
“And as for whatever’s been shifting between us…
that part finally feels clear. She stopped feeling like just a friend a while ago. I just didn’t want to admit it.”
“Then lean into it, man. And let me know if there is anything I can do to help you. I’m here for you. Always.”
“I know you are, Rhonan. I know you are.”