“Gigi—”
“What things, Allyson?”
“Gigi!”
She leans toward her cup of tea and brings it up so it sits just inches beneath her nose. “What. Things?”
“Luke and I—”
“Got distracted?” She snickers under her breath, but tries to hide it by taking a sip of her tea. “I see.”
“No! It’s not…” I swallow my words. Because I can’t lie. Not to her, and especially not to her face. “Yes. Luke and I… and I tried to stop it. A million times in the last couple weeks, I’ve brushed him off and said I can’t.”
“Why?”
My brain is tumbling, my heart, my thoughts and emotions and feelings. On the outside, I appear as unruffled as always, but my insides are caught in a storm of turmoil. “Why what?”
“Why’d you brush him off? Why didn’t you want to be with Luke?”
“I did want to be with him, which is why I had to be careful. He’s cute, and funny, and silly, and wild, and crazy, and—”
“So why did you deny yourself?”
“For a million reasons.”
“Give me just one.”
“Well, he’s a client, for starters. And that’s pretty much the only reason I need.”
Smiling, Sonia refolds her ankles and goes into therapist mode. She thinks she’s slick, she thinks she can switch hats and no one notices, but I’ve watched her work for weeks now. I know when I’m speaking to Great-Grandmother, and when I’m speaking to Therapist.
“Luke isn’t like our typical client, Ally. First of all, it was court-ordered, and all three of us know he’s here because a judge said so. Not because he needs help. He might be one of the most well-adjusted people I know. And I know that because I know the foundation he was built on.”
“He has a rap sheet, and a reputation around town.”
“And do you think he’s the person people say he is?”
“Well…” I hesitate. “No. I don’t know.”
She smiles. “Furthermore, court orders aside, he is not your client. He is mine. You’re merely here on work experience. A shadow. Not a doctor.”
“Ouch.”
She breathes out a soft laugh. “No offense intended. So that’s two strikes against your cons. Any more?”
“He’s a womanizer.”
“Obviously not a very good one, considering you’re a woman, and you’re calling him out on it.”
“Or maybe he’s a pro, because I’m calling him out on it, and yet I was in his bed last night.”
Her eyes pop wide, and right after that, color warms her cheeks. “Oh dear.”
“Don’t say oh dear!” I explode. “I know what it means when you say that. I’ve been your shadow, remember? I’ve seen you in session, and the times certain men come in here, the really good-looking ones, you say oh dear, and it basically means something rude.”
Sonia’s chest bounces with quiet laughter. “You caught me.”
“You enjoy it when those Bishops come in here, because you get to look and pretend it’s work.”
“It is work.”
“Yes, but it comes with a view! So then you’re all, ‘oh dear’, and now you’re saying oh dear to me, which means you’re probably imagining me in bed with Luke, and it’s freaking me out.”
“What’s freaking you out? The fact I may or may not be imagining you in bed, or the fact you were in bed with him?”
“Both! Neither. I don’t know!”
“Did you know Luke and his brother are essentially carbon copies of their father? The same hair, the same eyes, the same wideset mouth. All three are very handsome.”
“Stop thinking about them in bed!”
She bursts out in laughter that almost topples her tea. “I’m not imagining them in bed. Well…” She coughs to clear her throat. “I wasn’t. But now you said it, so it’s in my head. Did you have a nice time?”
“In bed? Yes!” I throw one hand up, and toss my phone from the other until it drops down on the table with a muted thud. “Yes, I had an amazing time, because he’s really cute and funny and silly. But he’s also really commanding when…” My heart flutters. “And demanding when… and he knows how to…” I sit back with a slump, and sigh. “Oh dear.”
“That’s what I’m saying,” she snickers. “I don’t know Luke the way I know his parents, but I know without a shadow of doubt that he comes from a good home, a good, loving family. I know that his mother would never tolerate any toxic behavior from him, except, perhaps, his hunger for chaos. But his chaos would never hurt innocent people.”
“So who does he hurt?”
“Mostly himself,” she jests. “And his brother, when he wants to tag along for the ride.”
“Which is…?”
“Almost every single time.”
“Ugh.” A grunt I never intended still manages to roll through my chest and out of my mouth. I sit with no posture, my stomach unclenched, my back arching the wrong way. “He’s charming as hell, Gigi. Luke is just… and he asked me out to dinner tonight.”
“Did you accept?”
“Of course I did. He’s too frickin’ charismatic for me to deny. Which means, if we’re being realistic, I’m probably going to be in his bed again afterwards, because he’s really good at… that. And when he touches me, I feel—”
The phone on Sonia’s desk trills just once, then her receptionist’s voice cuts through the room. “Your nine-thirty is here, Sonia.”
Sonia’s eyes remain glued to mine, her smile, her racing thoughts that I can almost see. “Thank you, Calla. Give us just two minutes, then you can send him in.”
When the call cuts out, Sonia leans forward and collects the file she’d been reading when I walked in. “I think it’s lovely that you’ve found a man who scares you out of your comfort zone. And it’s not bothering me one bit that he’s Jon Hart’s son. I love that family like I love you, Ally. I watched those boys grow from a dream that Jon and Casey so desperately wished for, into these men… who end up on my couch under court order,” she snickers.
“Additionally, Luke lives here, in this town, and I don’t see him leaving any time soon, so if you happen to like him enough that you stay, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings. I’ve made no secret about how I feel about you and your mom. I want to know you both. I want to spend time with you both. So if Miranda’s only daughter happens to fall in love and stay here…” She gives a dainty little shrug that I’m certain she means to look innocent, but really, it’s anything but.
She’s the devil, but her evil plans never actually hurt anyone.
“You speak of love and relocation like they’re simple decisions.” And those decisions, those words, are completely unacceptable to me. “You’re getting way ahead of yourself. We haven’t even had our first date yet, so I think maybe you should pump the brakes a little, and—” I trail off at the gentle knock on the door.