She was really good at formulating arguments for her age. I guessed she’d picked that up from me.
The kid wanted to be a lawyer too. She definitely had the communication and logical reasoning skills for it. I just didn’t really want her future career choice to be set in stone from such a young age. I didn’t actively discourage it because that was a surefire way to make her dig her tiny little heels in, but so far, I’d managed to not exactly encourage it either.
Little jokes like the one I’d made earlier about her coming to work with me were my attempt at showing interest and not dissuading her, but I also always denied her requests when she seriously asked to visit my office. I figured if she still wanted to go by the time she was twelve, then I’d take her a time or two to see if she was still interested.
My office was no place for a seven-year-old. Especially not for my seven-year-old. I didn’t want her following in my footsteps, even if she was the spitting image of me. It wasn’t because I didn’t think she could do it—she’d be great. She was already better at cross-examination than most of the interns at the firm. It was more about wanting her to do something that would really make her happy. Preferably with less stress, fewer hours, and a better work-life balance.
“We’re going to be late, Dad.” Her voice cut into my thoughts.
I glanced at the clock on the dash and realized she was right. Our efforts to make up for me losing track of time this morning were being severely hampered by the slow-moving car we’d gotten caught behind. I rolled my eyes at the custom license plate that said “WRITER” before checking the traffic in the oncoming lane.
If we stayed behind this ninety-something-year-old writer, Allie would only get to school tomorrow. As soon as I saw a gap, I darted around the vehicle and accidentally cut them off in the process. Ah well. If the writer doesn’t want people cutting them off, he or she needs to stop driving like a geriatric sloth.
The driver laid on the horn, but I just sped up and ignored the glare my daughter shot me.
“That was mean, Daddy. We should’ve waited.”
“I did wait until there was enough space for me to get past. You said we were going to be late and I know how you feel about that. Now we’ll get there on time.”
“I thought being rude was wrong.” My brown-eyed girl narrowed her eyes at me in the rearview mirror. “You’re always talking about what’s right and wrong, justice, and morality. What you just did goes against all of that.”
My daughter, the compass of morality. I couldn’t argue with her on this one, though. She wasn’t wrong, but I had been. I didn’t feel bad about it but I couldn’t make a stand to defend myself either. It was simply one of those things.
“Do what Daddy says, honey,” I told her, “not what he does.”
Allie sighed and crossed her arms, shaking her head again as she turned back to the window. “You’re a bad influence.”
Chapter 3
Laurie
What an asshole! I bit my tongue to stop myself from cursing the driver in the Mercedes out loud. I didn’t like swearing in front of Katie.
Besides, she was still talking about how excited she was for the costume contest. I didn’t even think she realized how close we’d just come to being in an accident.
My heart pounded and I gripped the smooth surface of my steering wheel so hard my knuckles turned white. Doesn’t he care at all about other people on the road?
“I’m going to win,” Katie said from her chair on the backseat, her voice confident and her spine straight. We’d braided her hair into two shiny pigtails that hung past her shoulders, and added a plaid ribbon that matched her shirt to the straw hat. “I have a good feeling about my costume this year.”
“So do I,” I said, taking a deep breath to calm my racing heart. “The point is to have fun with it, though. As long as everyone has fun, it doesn’t matter who wins.”
“I guess you’re right.” She sighed before flashing me another wide smile. “But whoever wins will have so much more fun than the others.”
Laughing as we got to the school, I pulled into the drop-off lineup. We crept up the line behind a blue minivan until it eventually skipped ahead. A familiar black Mercedes was suddenly in front of us. It was the very same one that had cut us off just a couple of miles back.
Well, what do you know?
A little girl in a suit climbed out, ducked her head back into the car, and then waved once she’d retrieved her backpack.
I nodded at her. “Do you know that kid?”
Katie craned her neck around my seat to get a look at who I was talking about. “That’s Allie. She’s in Mrs. Thompson’s class.”
“Right.” Mrs. Thompson taught the same grade Katie was in, which meant the asshole’s kid was in Katie’s year.
“Bye, Laurie.” She scooted forward in her seat after undoing her seatbelt to plant a kiss on my cheek. “I’ll see you later.”
“Good luck with the contest,” I called as she climbed out of the backseat. She did a half-turn to give me a thumbs-up, her blue eyes shining in excitement.
“If I win, can we go for ice cream after school?”
I shrugged, a soft smile forming on my lips. “Let’s go anyway. Win or lose. We don’t need a special occasion to have ice cream.”
She rushed to the front doors after giving me another nod and an enthusiastic wave, meeting up with some of her friends before going inside. Once she was safely in the school, I started to pull away only to realize the darn Mercedes was blocking me.
Straining forward, I managed to peer into the driver-side mirror to see a man talking on his phone. He clearly didn’t care a lick about who he was inconveniencing while casually chatting and making the rest of us wait.
I gave my horn a little tap, muttering a string of foul words at him under my breath. A hand with long fingers and an expensive watch on his wrist came out of the window to wave me past. Obviously, he was oblivious to the fact that I couldn’t get past.
He was so wrapped up in his world that he must not even have noticed the row of cones blocking the way. I let out a heavy breath and mumbled more bad words while putting my car in park and unbuckling my seatbelt.
I made sure my brake was engaged, leaving the car idling as I climbed out and stomped up to his window. It was still open, and it sounded like he was arguing with someone. Go figure.
Folding my arms over my chest, I dipped my head and glared at him until he noticed me.
He arched a brow before barking into the phone. “Hold on. I’ll call you back in a minute.”
He hung up without waiting for a reply. Typical.
When he turned his full attention on me for the first time, my breath caught in my lungs. It had been a very long time since I’d really noticed a guy, but I couldn’t not notice this one. Truth be told, he was exactly the type I used to be interested in when I still bothered with things like dating.
He looked out at the world through russet-brown eyes surrounded by long, pitch-black lashes. His hair was a warm color somewhere between chestnut and copper. Although his body was partially hidden by the car and clad in a fancy suit, it was all too clear that he had a lean physique with broad shoulders. He looked like he was tall too.