“Nope, first,” he insisted. “Like I told you on the phone, this is right up your alley. You know about all this family law stuff. You’re compassionate. You’re a woman.”
“And your sister-in-law, Dylan’s wife, is what?” she asked wryly. Because the Delacourts were big news in Houston, she’d been able to keep up. She knew all about their marriages.
Michael shrugged off the question, as if it wasn’t worthy of a response.
“Unreachable by phone?” she suggested. “Out in the hinterlands delivering a baby, perhaps?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t try. Look, Grace, I know this is an imposition, but you’re the best. Face it, I’m out of my element. When that happens, I know enough to call in an expert.”
If she’d been on her feet, she’d probably have fainted at the admission. “That has to be a first,” she commented.
“What?”
“You admitting you’re at a loss.”
He regarded her evenly. “I’m not blind to my faults, Grace.”
“Just not interested in correcting them?” she surmised.
His gaze narrowed. “Do you really want to take that particular walk down memory lane?”
Her cheeks burned. She swallowed hard and shook her head, reminding herself that his calling her wasn’t personal. He hadn’t dragged her over here because he’d been pining away for her for the past few years. It was about those two scared boys upstairs. Nothing else. Period. She had to keep that in mind. It would be way too easy to get caught up in all of this, to imagine that they were partners, a team…a family.
No sooner had that thought slammed into her head, than she jerked herself sternly back to reality. They were nothing to each other. Nothing. Old friends, at best. And this weekend was nothing more than a tiny, last-gasp blip on their flat-lined relationship. It was not evidence that there was life in it.
“No, of course not,” she said briskly.
“I thought not.” He studied her intently. “So, what do I do with them?”
He sounded genuinely perplexed, as if the decision-making king of the business world had finally butted up against a problem he couldn’t solve with a snap of his fingers or a flurry of memos. Grace found the uncertainty more appealing than she cared to admit. For Michael Delacourt to show his vulnerability, especially to her, was something worth noting.
“What options have you considered?” she asked, curious to know exactly where he was coming from. “And speaking of experts, why didn’t you just call the police and let them deal with the situation?”
To her relief, he looked genuinely appalled by the suggestion.
“They’re a couple of scared kids. How could I call the police? They haven’t done anything wrong.”
“They’ve run away for starters, and you don’t know that they haven’t done more,” she pointed out realistically. “They could have been roaming around for weeks breaking into places, stealing food, jewelry and who knows what else.”
“If they were stealing food, they weren’t much good at it. They were starved,” he said, ignoring the rest.
“Think back, Michael. All boys that age are starved at least a half-dozen times a day,” she reminded him.
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”
She was still mystified by what he expected. “Look, Michael, what exactly do you want me to do?”
“Talk to them. Handle it. Figure out what’s going on. Get them back home.” He raked his hand through his thick, dark brown hair in a gesture of frustration that pretty much destroyed the usual neat style. “I don’t know.”
She found that appealing, too. Because her reaction irritated her, she snapped, “Just get them off your plate and onto mine, I suppose.”
His expression brightened. “Exactly.”
“Sorry, pal,” she said, getting to her feet. She needed to get out of here before she succumbed to Michael’s charm and the very real distress of those two boys. This was heartache she didn’t need. There were plenty of other people around who could step in here and solve this, professionals with nothing at stake except doing their jobs.
“I think handling a couple of kids ought to be a piece of cake for a man who controls a multinational corporation,” she said. “You’ll be good for each other. Consider it your good deed for the century. Just think, you’ll have it out of the way right at the start.”
With the pointed barb delivered, she skirted past him and aimed for the door. Conveniently, her overnight bag was still there. She’d barely made a grab for it, though, when he stepped into her path. Even though Michael went through life with an economy of movements, he had always been able to move as swiftly as a panther when he chose to. Apparently right now he was highly motivated.
“You can’t leave,” he protested.
“Oh, but I can.”
“Grace, don’t do this to me. You’re a lawyer. You know how to cut through red tape, get things done.”
She regarded him with amusement. “And you don’t? Please. Compared to convincing a foreign government to let you steal mineral rights, this is just a little inconvenience. Deal with it.”
“Do you want me to beg?”
She grinned at the prospect, then regarded him curiously. “An interesting possibility. Are you any good at it?”
“Let me give it a shot.”
He reached for her hand, pressed a kiss against her knuckles that sent shockwaves cavorting right through her. It wasn’t exactly begging, but she had to admit it was an excellent start. Something inside her was melting right along with her resolve.
“Please, Grace. Stick around through the weekend at least. Help me get a straight story out of those kids. Once we’ve figured out what to do, you can race straight back to Houston and I won’t bother you again for another half-dozen years or so.”
She withdrew her hand, because she didn’t like the sensations his touch was kicking off. “Nice try, but I’m not convinced yet that you really need me. Any old lawyer would do. Doesn’t Delacourt Oil have a slew of them on retainer?”
He frowned at that. “None like you.”
She regarded him with surprise. “I almost believe you mean that.”
“Believe me, Grace, I have never meant anything more, never needed you more,” he said with convincing solemnity. “Never.”
There was a time when those words would have made her pulse ricochet wildly. Unfortunately, they still had a disconcerting effect. Ignoring it, she shook her head and took another step back, a step toward putting a safe emotional distance between them.
“Maybe this
