Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 95421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
A mental health professional, perhaps, because you’ve lost it, Reed…
I shook my head. “Nothing. Right this way. After you.”
Unfortunately, my attempt at being a gentleman turned into an opportunity to ogle her ass as I followed her down the hall. She had a great ass, and that damn skirt followed the curve of it almost as closely as my eyes.
I nearly got caught when she stopped at the desk stationed outside my door. “Is this where I’ll be sitting?”
“Ummm…” At least ten feet at all times. “Yeah, that’ll be your desk, but I’m going to move it. I do a lot of calls on speakerphone, and when my door is open it can be pretty disruptive. Just give me a few minutes to put my stuff in my office, and I’ll relocate it.”
“Okay.” She looked around. “Is there a coffee machine? I brought Keurig pods and some ground beans and creamer, too. I can make us a pot.”
I pointed down the hall. “First door on your right.”
“Perfect. Thanks. How do you take your coffee?”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I don’t mind. I’m going to make mine anyway.”
“Alright, thanks. I take it black. There are mugs in the cabinet. You’ll be able to guess which one is mine. It was an office-warming gift from Ben.”
She smiled. “Okay. Be back.”
A few minutes later, I’d moved her desk to a safer location, and Naomi returned with two steaming mugs. She held up the one that read Fresh out of Fucks to Give. “I was torn between this one and the one that said Blow Me, I’m Hot.”
“The jackass bought me that one, too.” I shook my head. “I don’t know why I tell him shit sometimes. He showed up with that one the day after I fired a client by telling him to blow me and hanging up the phone.”
She scrunched up her nose. “This is going to be more different than working in the DA’s office than I thought.”
“I hope you don’t get offended easily.”
She caught my eye. “Only when people ogle my ass.”
My eyes widened.
Her lip twitched. “Gotcha.”
How the hell did she know?
She laughed. “I was teasing. But I guess you just confessed.”
I wasn’t admitting to shit, so I waved for her to follow. “Come on. I’ll show you around the rest of the office.” A few steps down the hall, I spoke without turning back. “You better not be ogling my ass.”
“I’m more of a forearm girl.”
Note to self, do extra reverse wrist curls at the gym tomorrow.
I gave Naomi a quick tour of the office. It wasn’t that big, so it didn’t take long before we were back at her desk. I pointed. “There’s a laptop in your top drawer. We use Caret for billing and timekeeping, and you should have all the usual research software already installed on that computer. You’ll just need to set up accounts, which you can do after I assign you an email with the firm’s domain.”
“Okay, great.”
“Every Monday morning, my old paralegal and I used to get together at ten to go over the status of my cases. It took a few hours, but I’m often out of the office for extended periods of time for trials and hearings, and I think it’s important for clients to be able to talk to someone when they reach out, without having to tell their story from the beginning. Why don’t we do that today? It’ll give you a little background on each case.”
“Perfect.”
“I’m still working on finding a staff attorney and another admin. But I hired a new receptionist finally. She works eight to four. I’ll introduce you when she gets here.”
“It’s okay. I can do that myself so you can get started with your day.”
I grinned. “That would be great, especially because I can’t remember her damn name at the moment.”
Naomi laughed. “I’ll fill you in when I find out.”
“Thanks.” I thumbed over my shoulder to my office door. “I have a few things I need to get done before the phones start lighting up. Why don’t you settle in and we can catch up later?”
“Sounds good.”
I’d made it to the doorway of my office when Naomi stopped me.
“Hey, Dawson?”
I turned. “Yeah?”
“Thank you for giving me a chance. I promise I won’t disappoint you.”
I smiled. “I’m sure you won’t.”
***
“You were awfully quiet.” I stacked the files I’d brought into the conference room to review with Naomi into a pile. “Did I go over the cases too fast?”
She shook her head. “Not at all. I’m still trying to figure out how to be a paralegal. I don’t want to overstep and act like an attorney.”
“What do you mean?”
“My mind still thinks like a lawyer, even if I’m not one anymore. So when you talk about cases, I want to interject with ideas about making a motion stronger, or if maybe there was some entrapment in a kickback case. But it’s not my place.”