thanks, Gus. I’m the worst kind of company right now. Can I take a rain check?”
“Sure. Always.” He heard the sound of Brandon’s breath, then a swish as he imagined his brother opening his sliding screen door and walking out onto his expansive deck that overlooked the water. “But don’t think you have to call ahead or wait until you feel better. Come over whenever you want.”
“Thanks, bro.” He disconnected and stared at his cell phone. His estrangement from Brandon had been repaired by the same event that had broken his engagement and ended his marriage to the woman he knew he’d never get out of his blood. And as much as he appreciated his brother’s concern, Brandon was seeing Poppy, Sonja’s best friend. Henry didn’t put it past either Poppy or Brandon to try to fix things by surprising him with Sonja being at dinner.
They meant well, but were clueless. His and Sonja’s hurts ran deeper than a nice dinner and bottle of wine could mend.
* * * *
Sonja bit into the almond croissant with the hunger that had plagued her every day of the past few weeks. Like clockwork, her appetite returned late morning after the morning nausea passed. She knew the exact night she’d conceived the baby. Her body had felt “different” after the lovemaking session with Henry that had lasted the better part of a late winter night after they’d won a particularly challenging case. At first she hadn’t been able to pinpoint it and blamed her exhaustion on prenuptial jitters. The week before the wedding, her breasts swelled, her nipples became sensitive to the shower spray, and she’d felt as though her period was about to start at any moment. But of course it hadn’t. She’d known two days before the wedding for sure. Thank God she’d only shared it with Poppy. If Henry had known, she didn’t think she’d have been able to walk away from marrying him as she had.
The memory of leaving her soul mate at the altar made the pastry feel heavy in her stomach, and she paused, closing her eyes and breathing in and out slowly to ward off a wave of nausea. Anytime she remembered their wedding day she felt sick all over again.
“Is it that good?”
Her eyes flew open at the sexy baritone that only a few weeks ago had coaxed an orgasm out of her as he spoke dirty words into her ear while he moved over her, inside her, again and again. They might not have been completely candid with each other about a lot of things, but their sex life had always been honest.
“It’s delicious.” She put the croissant down on a napkin, next to her stack of files. Henry’s gaze dared her to look away, and she never backed down from anyone, so she stared back.
A quick flash of disgust shadowed his face before Henry looked away and sat in the seat opposite her, reaching over for his files. Usually they sat together, ready to work until whenever it took to get the day’s items checked off. It wasn’t going to get easy, ever, to know he thought so little of her. Knowing she deserved it for something he didn’t even know about yet—the baby—made it worse.
“I imagine you need time to go over these.” A deft verbal pitch to see how she’d react. Would she go high, admit she should have been back in the office last week, or go low and blame him for her staying away, or ignore it?
“Alesia sent me the files last week. I’ve read through them all.”
He had to be playing her—Alesia told Henry everything. He’d know she’d had copies to analyze. Their round-trip tickets to Tahiti had gone unused, so it wasn’t as if she’d been out of the country and unable to do any work.
“Any concerns?” He kept his face low, focused on the paperwork, but she saw the blood vessel just above his collar pulsing in rhythm to his heartbeat. Whenever Henry was agitated that was his tell.
“No, nothing to speak of.” Her voice was low and throaty, and she wished she’d tendered her resignation. It would be so much easier, especially now when every damned hormone in her body was setting off emotions she didn’t even know she was capable of. But a deft noncompete clause she’d signed when his father had hired her prevented her from going out on her own just yet. She couldn’t afford it. And now the house needed to be renovated.
Brilliant blue eyes watched her with their usual alertness. “You sure about that, Sonja? You’re acting like something’s not sitting right with you.”
“It’s just this.” She motioned very slightly between them, using her finger. “Awkward with a capital A, am I right? We didn’t talk about it as much as we probably should have this morning.” Of course, dearest Deidre’s appearance had shut down any chance of the conversation they needed to have in private.
The curiosity in his eyes turned to frosted crystal. “Let’s get it out on the table, then.” He splayed both hands on the dark polished surface, and she wondered if he’d forgotten about the time they’d both arrived to work early, too early. They’d ended up here, naked, in under five minutes. Did he see her naked body as she’d knelt on all fours, waiting for him to take her? She shook her head, blinked.
“Sonja, you okay?”
“Fine. You were going to say?”
“Whatever we shared was wiped out when you decided to walk out on our relationship without the least bit of warning. You’ve never given me a chance to explain my side of things.”
“Wait a min—”
“No, hold up.” He shot down her attempt to interrupt him with a flick of his hand. “You made your choice. And you’ve decided to continue on at this firm. I’m guessing that’s so that you can make your share of the money to fix the house, right?” He waited for her slight nod. “We both need to raise the funds to get the house rehabbed well enough to sell. Fine, I get it. But don’t think for one minute that there is anything other than our working relationship at stake. We’ve always enjoyed that, correct? And I’m willing to work with you, until the day you decide to leave the firm. Because, let’s face it, I’m not going anywhere. This is my family firm. You, you’ll go out on your own or take a better offer elsewhere. That’s okay. Until then I expect the best you have to offer, and for you to kindly refrain from referring to what we shared on a personal level. It’s over.”
Sonja stared at the man who’d hung the moon for her and only saw the stamp of Boudreaux on his expression. The same look his father had when she’d told him to take the money and referral he’d offered her to quit when she and Henry announced their engagement and shove them up his tight white racist ass. He’d never fire her, not as a black woman in his otherwise very white, very male firm. And regardless of his racist views, Sonja brought in a lot of business for their firm that they’d otherwise never catch. She’d expected Henry’s father to give her a hard time, but not so much Henry.
She’d been a fool.
“Our professional relationship never had anything to do with our personal life. Why should it now?”
Henry didn’t respond but instead glared at her. He may as well have thrown a machete at her for how his silent gesture pained her.
The door clicked open, and Alesia entered with trays of lunch food, followed by two clients and Rick, the firm’s other NOLA attorney.
As she and Henry stood to greet them she eyed her almost-husband. Her ex-fiancé. The man who’d broken her heart.
Henry was tall and professional-looking, whether dressed in a classic suit as he was now or in cargo shorts and a T-shirt. He’d been born to inherit
