get this straight. First she refused to stay in Fayetteville and join your family’s practice.”
“There aren’t any opportunities for advancement in a small family partnership,” he explained.
“Then, the firm in Little Rock hired you, and wanted you bad enough to take her in the bargain. Right?”
Eventually he nodded. “Right.”
“So she used you to get into a firm she couldn’t have gotten into on her own, then she left you for someone with more power and prestige.” Paige threw up her hands, exclaiming, “Well, at least she stayed true to form!”
“T-true to form?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it? She manipulated you, and when she found someone else who could offer her more, she traded up.”
He was so taken aback by the idea that for a moment he couldn’t even give it proper thought. Paige must have taken his silence for censure, for she suddenly wrinkled her pert little nose, sighed and muttered, “Okay, I shouldn’t be judging, but such selfishness gets to me.”
His family had hinted at the same thing, that Robin had left him for his boss not just because the man was elegant, affable and downright loquacious but because she was greedy. It hadn’t made sense at the time. His bank account was hefty enough, after all. Since then he’d avoided thinking about it because it was too painful.
Now, after several years, he could see things from a different perspective. Robin had used him. That didn’t make the hurtful and numerous accusations she’d thrown at him any less true. Did it?
He shook his head. Robin was correct about him being inept with women. Had she not pursued him, he doubted that they’d have ever gotten together. One-on-one with a woman, his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth and his mind went completely blank. The more attractive he found her, the worse it was.
Usually, he amended silently, glancing sideways at Paige.
It was nuts to think that he might be any different with Paige. If his poor communication skills and emotional ineptness were not enough, there was his clumsiness. Okay, maybe once he’d been fleet of foot and a force to be reckoned with on the athletic field, but those days were long gone. That he’d been able to discuss them, even briefly, with Paige Ellis had been terribly flattering, which had led to hours of conversation. The fact that he’d enjoyed those hours so much suddenly made him seem especially pathetic.
None of this meant anything to Paige, after all. She was an admitted sports freak; he’d allowed her interest in the fact that he’d once played college football to become more personal than it was surely intended to be.
Disturbed, Grady let his seat back, mumbling that they had a long day ahead of them, and closed his eyes. She agreed with him and curled up in her seat, but she did not sleep. He knew this because he didn’t sleep, either.
They changed planes in Atlanta, and on that last, short leg of the trip, he avoided personal conversation by discussing business, beginning with a particular form that she needed to sign. He’d mentioned it before, but she’d been in too much shock to really understand at that time.
“In other words,” she said, after he’d gone over the whole thing once again, “if I sign this, we’ll be pressing charges against Nolan in South Carolina as well as Arkansas. Is that correct?”
Pleased that she’d grasped the concept this time, he reached for an ink pen. “Exactly.”
“But I’m not sure that’s what I ought to do.”
His hand stopped with the slim, gold-plated barrel of the ink pen still lodged within the leather loop provided for it. “I beg your pardon?”
“I’m not sure I want to prosecute Nolan.”
Grady’s tongue seemed to run away with him. “Why on earth not?” he demanded. “The man kidnapped your son!”
The spike-haired lady across the aisle turned a curious gaze on them, and Grady realized he’d raised his voice.
“You think I don’t know that?” Paige said with some asperity. “Believe you me, I know what it’s like to miss your child with every fiber of your being, minute by minute, hour after hour, day after day after week after month…. And I realize that I’m about to do the same thing to Nolan that he did to me. The pain of that may be punishment enough.”
“That’s not the point,” Grady told her urgently, doing his best to keep his voice down. “This is about protecting you and Vaughn.”
“That is the point,” she insisted, sliding into the far corner of her seat and folding her arms. “I can’t let this be about retribution, and right now, for me, it is.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I don’t expect you to. Suffice it to say that I’ve been seeing a counselor for some time now, and she, along with my Christian ethics, warn me against seeking any sort of vengeance.”
“What about what’s best for your son?”
“I think this is what’s best for my son,” she stated firmly. “Nolan is his father. Do you think he wants his father punished? I don’t think so.”
“I would,” Grady insisted. “Knowing he kept me away from my mother, I surely would.”
Paige shook her head. “You only say that because you can’t see the other side. You haven’t been a parent. You don’t know what it means to put the welfare of your child first. I’m sure Dan would understand what I’m trying to say.”
That stung, far, far more than it should have. She was correct, but that didn’t keep Grady from feeling great alarm on her behalf. As far as he was concerned, allowing Nolan Ellis to walk around free was a reckless and frightful thing for this woman and her son. His every instinct screamed for prosecution on every possible level, but all he could do was point out the legal loopholes that she would be leaving open if she failed to follow his advice.
She listened, but he could tell that he wasn’t convincing her. Frustrated, he searched for a way to compel her to accept his reasoning.
“No one would blame you if you locked him up and threw away the key!”
“That’s beside the point.”
“Then what is the point?”
“Doing the right thing.”
For a moment he could only stare at her, wondering if she was for real. “This is the right thing.”
She stared back and finally said, “I’ll pray about it.” With that she turned away from him.
Confounded, Grady watched her bow her head and retreat into herself. He’d made his best case, giving her good, solid legal advice, but he might as well have saved his breath. Obviously they didn’t communicate as well as he’d thought.
This wasn’t the first time his legal advice had been rejected, after all, not by a long shot, but he’d never been more disturbed about it.
Popping his seat back again, he folded his arms
