If the Shoe Fits (4 page)

Poking Will’s shoulder with his sock-covered foot, his father sang, “Rise and shine, oh son of mine. You fell asleep on the sofa again?”

He opened his eyes reluctantly, squinting up at him as he groaned. “What time is it?”

“Seven,” he replied, raising his foot again for one more poke. “Now move over so I can sit down.”

“Coffee,” Will muttered, his eyes closed again.

“Mm-hm. Strong and black, just the way you like it.”

He peeled his eyes open only far enough to see the mug. He took hold of it with both hands and drew a sip from the cup. Isaiah, his father’s enormous cat, launched an assault on his foot when it moved beneath the blanket, and Will groaned as he nudged the feline to the floor.

“Morning,” he finally greeted his father.

“Morning,” he grunted back with a grin that Will returned.

He loved mornings like these with his father. He thought of all the time he’d have missed if he hadn’t sold his house and moved back in with his dad.

Such a good son
, everyone said when they heard.
What a selfless thing to do!

Will never admitted out loud to anyone—not even Julianne—that he gained as much as he gave from the move. Especially after his breakup with Holly, Will’s dad had become a bit of a security blanket. Familiar and comforting, compassionate and ever-present, his father had provided an emotional safety net that Will really needed. The best he could hope for was that he returned the favor by making his dad’s life less lonely, and maybe even more interesting, while they figured out the health challenges together.

“So what’s going on with you and Julianne, Son?”

A needle screeched suddenly across the record album of his thoughts.

“What do you mean?”

“Why don’t you just tell her how you feel?”

Will froze, the mug of coffee suspended in the air before him for several thumping seconds.

“I’m gonna be late,” he finally replied. “I need to jump in the shower.”

“You’re just like your mother,” Davis called out after him. “Running out on a conversation if it gets too tense. Well, I’ll tell you what I always told her: I’ll be here tomorrow, too. I got nowhere else to be.”

Julianne looked up from her desk in response to the soft whoosh signifying that the reception door had opened.

“I’ll be right with you,” she called out, completing the note on the pad of sticky notes before her.

“It’s just me, Miss Bartlett … Phoebe?”

“Oh, good!” she said as she peeled off the note and stuck it to the frame of her computer monitor with a dozen others in multiple pastel colors. “Come on in.”

Phoebe stepped timidly into the office and greeted her with a warm smile. “I came a little early in case there was anything you needed from me,” she said. “Paperwork to fill out. Coffee to be made.”

“That’s fine,” Julianne acknowledged. “You’re off to a great start. I’m so happy Pastor Dean recommended you!”

In her work as a public defender, Julianne had shared a secretary with six other attorneys in the office for the first years of her career. She’d been dreaming of her very own assistant for all that time, and Phoebe would fit the framework of that dream just fine.

“There are insurance forms on your desk,” Julianne said as she rounded her own and led Phoebe out to the reception area. “You’ll want to fill those out first, and fax them over to our agent. The number is on the sticky, here, on the monitor. And then Will has set up your email at your computer. Your password to get in is
Reception
. Will likes to make things easy.”

“Okay,” the girl said and nodded, pushing her wavy brown hair away from her face to reveal lovely golden-brown eyes that Julianne hadn’t really noticed on their first meeting.

“I’ve made up a list of your general duties,” she continued. “Sort of like a job description. And I’ve emailed that to you, so you can pick it up when you’re through with the insurance forms. Your official title is executive assistant. After you’ve had a chance to look everything over, why don’t you come into my office and we’ll have a chat.”

“All right.”

“The restroom is down the hall that way, and the coffee is in the conference room. There’s diet Coke and ginger ale in the fridge. If you like something else, just go ahead and order it.”

The ringing phone interrupted Julianne’s thought process, and Phoebe grinned excitedly before she picked it up for the first time.

“Law offices of Hanes and Bartlett,” she said in a businesslike tone. “How may I help you?”

Julianne raised both thumbs and grinned.

“Yes, sir, let me check on that for you,” Phoebe replied. She put the caller on hold and turned to Julianne. “Did you call about placing a classified ad?”

“Oh, yes!” Julianne cried, and she hurried to retrieve the torn piece of paper from the corner of her desk and delivered it into Phoebe’s hand. “I want this to run in tomorrow’s paper. Will you take care of that for me? Oh, and … could you put it on Craigslist too?”

“Certainly, Miss Bartlett.”

“And Phoebe?” she added. “When no one else is in the office, we’re just Will and Julianne, okay? You can save the titles for when we’re in the company of clients.”

“Thank you,” she said, clumsily adding, “Julianne.”

“You’re welcome, Phoebe.”

As their new executive assistant set about placing the ad that was going to bring Prince Charming home to her, Julianne sauntered casually into her office and closed the door. Once behind it, she suppressed the excited squeal, settling instead for a quick little happy dance around the corner of her desk.

“I’m a real attorney now, Father God!” she whispered in the form of a song as she danced toward her chair. “I got an of-fice … and a de-esk … and a Phoe-a-ee-ee-bee!”

She attempted an ultimately unsatisfying high five in the direction of Jonah’s fishbowl before settling into the enormous leather chair behind the carved oak desk. Looking around her office once more with glee, she sighed and returned to the unfinished task before her.

Less than half an hour later, commotion from the other side of her office door snagged her attention.

“I’m sorry,” Julianne heard Phoebe call out in a loud tone of voice. “Can I tell Miss Bartlett who would like to see her? If she has the time, I’m certain she would—”

Before poor Phoebe could finish the thought, Julianne’s office door burst open and Lacey James floated through it on a cloud of Chanel and peroxide.

Oh, great.

“Well, lookie
hee-ah
,” she sang in her thickest Southern Belle. “I guess it’s ta-rue. Almost anybody can rent themself an office and call themself an attorney these days.”

Kind of like how anyone can take on a Southern drawl and call themselves a Southerner, huh? … Sorry, Lord. That slipped
.

She’d been razzing Lacey about concocting her heritage ever since they’d first met a few years ago at the Bar Association gala, and Lacey retaliated by attacking Julianne’s forever-single status at every possible opportunity. These zingers had become the nature of their relationship; without them, Julianne realized there would be no relationship at all.

“I’m so sorry, Miss Bartlett,” Phoebe offered genuinely. “I tried to—”

“It’s fine,” she replied.

“C-can I get you anything then?”

“Nothing, thank you. Miss James won’t be staying.”

Phoebe retreated, wisely leaving the door standing open wide to enable the intruder’s quick departure.

“To what do I owe your swooping in?” Julianne asked Lacey.

“Careful now,” Lacey warned her with the outstretched tip of one of her sharp red nails pointing right at her. “You’re going to hurt my feelings.”

Julianne resisted the urge to question the existence of feelings in Lacey, and she said a quick prayer for self-control.

“Well, I imagine you’re on a reconnaissance mission,” Julianne stated. “Checking out the new digs?”

“Yes, and to congratulate you and William.”

Ah. William
, Julianne repeated internally.
Now we get to the point
.

“And where
is
William this afternoon?”

“William had a deposition to conduct,” she supplied with a knowing smile. “But I’ll be sure and tell him you stopped by.”

Lacey masked the disappointment quickly with a smile that seemed to crack her face right in two. “You don’t mind if I just take a quick little look-see around, do you now?”

“Don’t believe me?” Julianne replied, but Lacey was off on her private tour of the offices before she could complete the thought.

“Oh, don’t be silly,” she said upon return. “I just wanted to see the new place,
Julie
. It’s just lovely. It really is. Could use a woman’s touch though, couldn’t it?”

Pausing a moment to clench the words between her teeth with crocodile persistence, Julianne decided to let the insinuation pass.

“A plant or two, or some flowers?” she went on. “Oh, but I’m sure the new secretary can help with that.”

“If that’s all I can do for you,” she said so courteously that it nearly choked her, “I’ll let Phoebe see you out. We’re doing a little something here we like to call
practicing law
.”

“Isn’t that just like you, Julie. Sturdy and rock-solid. Always knee-deep in the grunt work.”

Dear Lord, give me strength
.

“I’ll leave you to it then.”

Julianne followed her out to the reception area with the thought of asking Phoebe to prevent similar situations at all cost in the future, but her heart nearly leapt into her throat as she glanced through the beveled glass panel to the side of the office doors. She’d recognize that shadow anywhere! It was Will, heading up the hall toward the office.

“Wait!” she called suddenly, taking Lacey firmly by the elbow and whirling her around until she nearly smacked right into her. “You didn’t see my view!”

Will flung open the reception door and started inside at just that moment, and Julianne frantically mimed a slashing motion to him as she practically dragged Lacey back toward the door to her office.

“You have to check this out!” she cried, waving one arm toward the window, cautiously using the other to direct Will toward his office, and quickly! “You can see all the way across the river, into Kentucky.”

“Yes. It’s nice,” she managed, and Julianne sensed the irritation in her tone.

Suddenly, Lacey softened. “Oh, you poor dear. I understand. This is really all you have in your life, isn’t it? Well, yes. Yes,” she said as she glanced out the window with a patronizing nod. “It’s just lovely. I’m glad you shared it with me, Julie.”

Next time, Will’s on his own
.

“But I really do have to be on my way. You’ll give my best to William, won’t you?”

“You know it.”

Once Lacey left the office, Will rounded the corner from behind his door and leaned on the frame.

“She drives me batty, Will!”

“And she knows it. Don’t let her get to you. Besides, if you didn’t have someone like Lacey in your life, how would you—”

“Learn to love the unlovable,” she joined him, in unison.

“Right.”

Phoebe stifled a giggle, and Will shot her a quick wave.

“Welcome to our law office, Phoebe.” He reached across the desk to shake her hand. “Good to meet you.”

“Thank you.”

“Never again, Phoebe!” Julianne called before heading into her office. “Do you understand?”

“Yes, ma’am, I understand. Never again.”

“I wish you’d have contacted me before you made the big leap,” Judd said, and Will shrugged at the phone.

“Well, if you returned a guy’s calls every now and then, that wouldn’t be an issue, would it?”

Judd’s laugh rumbled through the speakerphone. “Look, I know it might be too late for you to give it any consideration, Will, but we’d love to have you down here. Just think it over.”

“It’s not even a matter of just opening the law office here with Julianne,” he told his old friend. “I’ve got my dad to think about. He’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. In fact, I’ve sold my place and moved in with him to help with his care. I can’t uproot him, and I certainly can’t leave him.”

“You know, we’ve got a center here in Lexington that specializes in clinical trials and advancements in neurological diseases like Parkinson’s, bro. It would be a great place for him. Just think about it.”