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)
I said the last words just as Dawson started down the hall. He frowned and nodded at Will. “Archer.”
“Hey, Dawson. How’s it going?”
Dawson grumbled something I didn’t catch.
Will lifted his coffee to his lips with a smile. “Good to see you’re just as chipper when we’re on the same side as you were when we were on opposite sides of the courtroom.”
Dawson’s face stayed stern. “Let’s hope you do a better job when we’re on the same team than you did when I kicked your ass a dozen times.”
“Ouch,” Will said.
Dawson gestured into the conference room. “Let’s get started.”
Will nodded but stayed at the conference room door even after Dawson walked in. He smiled at me again. “It was nice to meet you, Naomi. I hope we’ll see each other around again.”
“I’m sure we will.”
Lunchtime came before the meeting broke up. Dawson walked back to his office with Will in tow. Only one of them looked happy.
“I need the file back,” Dawson said as he entered his office. “Take it to Staples or have someone copy it and messenger it over by the end of the day. The preliminary hearing is next week, and I only received everything from the DA’s office on Friday afternoon.”
“No problem.”
The two men came back out, stopping a few feet from my desk.
Will looked over at me and back to Dawson. “Actually, I’ll probably return the file myself this afternoon. I have some business over here anyway.”
Dawson’s eyes narrowed. “Leave it with the receptionist.”
“I don’t mind walking it back to your lovely paralegal,” he said. “I wouldn’t want the file to get lost.”
Dawson crossed his arms. “I think it’ll safely make the thirty steps it takes to get from the reception area.”
Will looked between Dawson and me. “Or…I can just have a messenger deliver it instead.”
Dawson put a hand on Will’s back and started him walking toward the lobby. “Great plan.”
A few minutes later, Mr. Grumpy returned. He stopped at my desk. “Will isn’t a good idea.”
I thought I knew what he was referring to, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. “As co-counsel, you mean?”
“His schtick with the ladies is coming off as a bumbling buffoon. But he’s a player. His wife divorced him after the third time she caught him with another woman. She’s a lawyer, too. Nice lady.”
I blinked a few times. “I wasn’t planning on going out with the guy.”
Dawson shrugged like it didn’t matter, yet his face showed anything but indifference. “Just giving you fair warning.”
I wasn’t sure what was more upsetting, the fact that the man I’d spent all day in bed with this weekend thought I might say yes to going out with a coworker of his, or the fact that I totally fell for Will Archer’s buffoon act. Before I could respond, Dawson had disappeared into his office. I sat at my desk for a few minutes, going over the morning in my head, hoping maybe I’d see things in a different light and calm down. But the more I thought about it, the more pissed off I became.
Eventually, I walked into Dawson’s office and closed the door behind me. “I don’t know what your problem is, but I’m insulted that you don’t give me more credit than thinking I would go out with someone you work with.”
Dawson sat behind his desk with his jaw clenched. “And I’m insulted that you’re already planning on me being just a fuck buddy.”
“I never said that.”
“Not in so many words, but you don’t think I have the potential to stick around for more than a few months.” He sighed. “As much as it sucks, I get why you’d think that.”
I opened my mouth to say something in my defense, then closed it when I realized that was exactly what I’d insinuated. “I’m sorry, Dawson. I shouldn’t have said that. Sometimes I start talking before I think it through.”
“And sometimes the truth is better off coming out than hiding behind couched words.”
I shook my head. “I’m just scared, Dawson.”
“Of me?”
“Of getting hurt again. I don’t have the best track record with relationships. And for the last year, I’ve felt like I was floating in the wind. Then I met you, and you feel like such an anchor already. That scares me, but it has less to do with you and your history and more to do with my own fears.”
Dawson’s face softened. “And I can’t even tell you I know how to be in a relationship. There’s nothing in my past to make you believe I’m capable.” He looked down and shook his head. “I don’t even know if I’m capable. But I like you. A lot.”
“I like you a lot, too. Maybe we can just take it one day at a time and try to not focus on where things are going for a while. My trust issues don’t have anything to do with you, and I think with time we might be able to grow to believe in each other.”