Jake turned in time to receive a paper from the shaky hands of Lil’s “lawyer.” His quick skim of the document slowed as he perceived quality. The kid was good. It was well-crafted and as professional as he would have expected from his seasoned lawyers. He nodded, “This is impressive. Good work.”
Aaron’s face transformed with an ear to ear grin. “Thank you. I based it on the Sterling vs. Laudin Communications case.”
Lil looked across the room and pinned Jake with those amber eyes of hers. “Good enough that you would write him a letter of reference?”
Aaron’s face reddened. “Lil, Mr. Walton doesn’t have to do that. He doesn’t know me.”
It was clear that Lil wanted Aaron to succeed. Why, he couldn’t say yet, but it would cost him nothing to toss the boy an opportunity. “I’m always looking for entry level people and we have a branch in Boston. If you send me your resume, I’ll give it to my legal department. Then it’s up to you to impress them.”
“Oh, my God!” He turned to Lil and his grin grew even wider, if that were possible. “Oh, my God!” A spontaneous hug threatened to erupt from him.
Jake held out his hand to deter him.
Aaron shook his hand with enthusiasm. He turned to Lil. “Thank you, Lil! Thank you!” and hugged her.
Jake wanted to rip the little, tail wagging puppy off of Lil, but he didn’t. Lil hugged him much longer than he would have liked, but eventually, thankfully stepped back and said, “I didn’t do anything, Aaron. You did.”
Jake looked down at his watch and pocketed the paper. “We have to go now if we plan to get to the station early.”
Lil’s eyebrows furrowed, she seemed to want to say something regarding the paper, but instead she said, “I’ll get Colby.”
She stepped out of the room and Jake had every intention of following her when Aaron stopped him with a hand on his sleeve. “Mr. Walton?”
Jake looked down at the hand, which he expected the boy to hastily remove, but he didn’t. Instead Aaron met his eyes with surprising directness.
He said, “A lot of people judge Lil before they know her. She says what she thinks and sometimes she’s more impulsive than she should be, but when she loves someone-there is nothing she won’t do for them, even if it hurts her own chance at happiness.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I saw the way she looked at you. If she falls in love with you, make sure you are worthy of that kind of love. Colby’s father took advantage of her. She doesn’t need to go another round with disappointment.”
The puppy had teeth.
“Is that a warning?” Jake asked in a tone that backed most men down.
Aaron removed his hand from Jake’s sleeve, but did not step back. “I guess you could say that it is.”
“Bold move to take with your potential new employer.”
The young man adjusted his wrinkled t-shirt and said, “Some things are worth the risk.”
Jake nodded. Loyalty was something he respected. “Send that resume. I think you’ll do fine in the Boston office.”
Aaron let out a long sigh. Not smiling. Just waiting. Even more impressive.
Jake said, “I’m only here to make sure Lil is safe. There is nothing more than that between us.”
After a moment, Aaron stepped away and seemed to relax. He said, “Whatever you do, don’t send her flowers. She hates watching them die. She says it’s as sexy as receiving a bouquet of hamsters stapled to rulers.”
Jake grimaced a bit at the image, “That’s quite a visual.”
Aaron said, “That’s Lil. She likes images that evoke emotion. Ask her to sketch something for you sometime. She doesn’t belong in an office, she belongs in a studio bringing those images to life. She’ll never be happy on the path she’s recently chosen for herself. If you care about her, you might want to help her see that.”
A fist of fire curled deep in Jake’s abdomen, but he held back further discourse. He didn’t like Aaron giving him advice on how to deal with Lil. He didn’t like that his displeasure was most likely obvious to the young man before him.
The entire trip was a waste of time and emotion. After today, Jake would have no reason to ever see Lil again-except perhaps across the room at a social event.
Whatever mess she got tangled up in next time would be none of his concern.
Oddly, that thought made him scowl again.
Chapter Four
Lil pulled up to the front of the news station. She unbuckled her seat and turned toward Jake. “Give me the paper.” She held out her hand.
Jake took the paper out of his pocket and turned it in his hand thoughtfully. “It’d be better if you waited out here with Colby while I go in.”
“Just give me that damn paper,” Lil said and made a grab for it, but Jake moved it back out of her reach.
“I don’t understand you, Lil. Why is it so important for you to do this? Dominic or I could have easily handled it with a phone call from New York, but you didn’t take anyone’s calls. I could resolve this for you right now-be back in the car in ten minutes and you wouldn’t even have disturb Colby.”
“I want to fix this myself.”
“That much is obvious, but I keep asking myself the same question. Why?”
Lil gestured at her baby in the backseat. “She’s why. If you genuinely want to know why I’m doing what I’m doing, the answer is almost always the same. Her. She deserves the kind of stability and love that I had growing up.”
“Then why won’t you let Dominic help you?”
Lil threw a hand up in the air for emphasis. “You don’t get it, do you? Dominic is a fantasy. Not even my fantasy-Abby’s. Which is fine. She can walk away from her life and tie her happiness to the whim of some man who may or may not be there for her in a month, but I can’t.” Lil laid a hand on the back of her baby’s car seat. “I have to think of Colby now and what’s best for her.”
He wasn’t going to debate Dominic’s loyalty-honestly, Dominic was dangerously unpredictable lately. He really couldn’t say what he would be like a month from now. Was his transformation permanent or just an extreme and temporary reaction to his father’s death? There was no way to know, but none of that was going to get him an insight he could use. “And dragging your daughter in there to witness something she won’t remember is going to help her how?”
“It proves to me that I can do this on my own. I didn’t need the support of her biological father, I don’t need Abby, and I certainly don’t need some New York billionaire who came here only because his boss asked him to. You want to help me? Don’t stand in my way. Let me do this.”
When Jake didn’t immediately hand her the paper she added, “Please.”
And his breath caught in his throat. The raw emotion in her explanation far outweighed any he’d expressed in perhaps his entire life. It made him want to protect her even though she was asking for him to do the exact opposite.
He handed her the paper. “I’m still coming with you, but I won’t interfere.”
She studied him quietly before removing her baby from the seat behind them. “I can handle this.”
He watched her stride toward the NBN Communications building, shoulders set back with determination, baby balanced on one hip and he thought he’d never seen anything more beautiful. She was a tigress going to battle for the little one in her arms.