8. Eight

Eight

Zack was deep in a dream when I awoke the next morning, his features serene, completely opposed to what I’d witnessed last night. I loved to watch his face while he slept. It had been a habit since day one, but today, I felt sad as I took him in. I knew his points were valid; I got his worries, but he didn’t see Cassie’s heart breaking the way that I did.

I wrapped an arm around him and laid my head against his chest, listening to his heart thump as he slept. His skin smelled clean and warm, very inviting. In spite of my thoughts, I began to press soft kisses around his collar bone and up to his neck. I wanted to make up and not start the day on a bad note.

He stretched and his arms instantly sought me out. “It’s good to wake up with you again. I didn’t like waking up alone. ”

I wriggled up his body and felt his response as I pressed my lips to his. “I’m sorry about last night.”

“Me too.” He pulled me close as he kissed me deeper. “Tell me more about the work thing, that sounded like good news.”

“Are you serious?” I grinned at him. “Get me all involved in your nakedness and then want to talk about work?”

“You’re not that far off naked yourself,” he teased as he pulled at my light pyjamas.

“Well, I missed you pretty bad, I mean… Those phone calls were nice but not quite up to the real deal.” I ran my fingers through his hair and continued to kiss his neck. “And you did buy me this beautiful ring - gives me ideas about you every time I look at it.”

He took hold of my hands. “Stop trying to distract me and tell me about work.”

I sighed and rolled to the side of him. “You know, there was a time you were desperate to get me like this.”

“I’ll deal with you in five minutes, I just want to know about how amazing my fiancée is doing at work.” He wrapped his arms around me, his hand rubbed in slow circles across my bottom as he spoke. “The quicker you tell me, the quicker my hands move.”

I sucked a deep breath in. “It’s top secret, you get that, yeah?”

“You remember what my job is? ”

I slapped him across the arm, playfully. “You’ve heard of Kye Maloney?”

“Is that a serious question? Top goal scorer last season.”

“Sorry, football geek.” I wriggled up, forcing his hand lower. “He didn’t know he’d got someone pregnant, then court papers landed on his doorstep about child maintenance, and she wants a lot. They’re trying to get it kept out of the press, but Peter doesn’t think they will.” I teased my fingers along his hip.

He grabbed my hand and kissed the tip of my nose. “Rest of the story. Control yourself, woman.”

I sighed with frustration. “Peter’s leading the case, and they want me to be full time on it, with Anna, of course. I get extra money, and they’ll get other people to cover my normal duties. You think I should do it?”

“You should definitely do it, it’s an amazing opportunity. Which firm are they up against? Have they had DNA tests done?”

“Stop trying to talk dirty to me with the DNA.” I flicked my tongue against his warm skin. “It’s a new firm that nobody has heard of. DNA tests should be back Monday. Kye wants to countersue for custody, and there’s some stuff about having had his child kept from him. Are we done with the work chat?”

Zack flipped me over and pressed his whole body against mine as he kissed me, his tongue rolling over my own. “We’re so done with the work chat.”

Monday morning raced around too quickly, as always. I headed to Margaret’s office as soon as I’d finished absorbing that first, hallowed coffee.

She looked up as I entered. Was there almost a smile there? Impossible to tell with Margaret’s unmoving face.

“Have you got five minutes?” I asked.

“Literally only five. Have you made a decision?”

“Yes, I’m in. I’d love to work on the case.” I smiled as I spoke, but she didn’t seem to particularly appreciate it.

“Brilliant. Take an early lunch. We’re meeting at one and it’s likely to be for the rest of the day.” She shuffled paperwork around and picked up her phone; I was obviously dismissed.

I messaged Zack to let him know the deal was sealed but didn’t expect to hear back as it was his first day in the Manchester office. My phone did however beep with a message from my lovely Cassie.

Hello. You feel better now you’re reunited?!

What is the fascination with my sex life?

Hah! You just sounded glum last week.

He’s definitely un-glummed me x

That sounds gross. I know it’s short notice but fancy a resurrection of our Monday night tradition? I’ll drive over to you?

Sounds perfect, miss you. Come to the house around seven thirty?

It’s a date, you better put out woman xx

At exactly one o’clock I stepped into the intimidating boardroom, which had been taken over as the headquarters for this case. A lot had happened since last week. The DNA test had confirmed this was, in fact, Kye’s child. The media block had been denied and the case was expected to become common knowledge in the evening news.

There was an air of anticipation in the room, an electric feeling as documents were handed to me to be copied for everyone. Paper and digital versions of every item for each of us, which seemed wasteful. I knew what the paperwork for a case like this would be like.

As I waited for the computer to spring to life, I glanced over the outline. Listening to all the legal jargon and knowing what the eye-watering bill would be, it was easy to forget that at the center of this was an innocent child.

It seemed the mum was a part-time shop worker, juggling single parenthood with everything else. Not a WAG or a celebrity like I’d expected. She’d fallen pregnant after a one-night stand three years ago, before Kye was famous. He’d never known, until now. The cynical side of me wondered if she was only coming forwards at this point because his multi-million pound contract had been in the news – but her version was that she just couldn’t manage financially and needed support.

Now, though, a whole other barrel of worms had been opened up as Kye was taking action over being kept in the dark about his child. Kye had millions, literal millions, to pay us to represent him. The mother, Holly, would not have matching resources. It saddened me, but I knew how these cases went - money talked in law.

I flicked through the rest of the paperwork absentmindedly until I froze on the original documentation sent by the other side. The logo was new. The name was new. The address was not new.

Adamson Hughes Family Law .

I grabbed my keyboard and Googled it.

It wasn’t a new firm at all. It was an old firm with a change of partner. A very familiar firm. Mr Draper must have finally retired, and that meant… Cassie had said he was doing well at work, but she hadn’t elaborated.

Luke would be as surprised as me. When the paperwork was sent to Kye, they wouldn’t have known he would instruct my firm to represent him.

“Lily!” Anna’s voice screeched across the office. “What are you doing? We need more coffee.”

I grimaced. I wanted to slap her already. Nobody else spoke to the secretarial staff like she did, and she saved the worst for me, every time.

My fingers trembled as I made the drinks. It wasn’t a total disaster, it could be Hughes rather than Adamson representing, and I wouldn’t see them anyway, I was just admin and support. Luke wouldn’t even see my name on any documents, most likely. I wasn’t important enough to be named. I would need to speak to the secretary on their side fairly often… Why did this have to happen now?

I sighed as I looked up to the ceiling. Zack would flip. Between this and the egg donation issue, he would not be a happy fiancé. In some ways, the last six months had been incredible for us, but it concerned me how he acted at times, like I had to do what he said. It wasn’t often though, mostly he was an absolute sweetheart, the biggest softie, and I guess it wasn’t that weird to not want me to have an unnecessary medical procedure.

I carried the drinks through in a daze, wondering the whole time - should I even tell Zack? I couldn’t get out of this case now. To tell him would stress him out for no reason. No reason at all. Except… If he found out later, he’d think I hid it on purpose .

Why was nothing ever straightforward?!

And now I was thinking about Luke… I wasn’t meant to think about him. So pretty, though.

The afternoon dragged in a steady flow of admin tasks. Just as I was about to leave the office and head home, Anna shouted to me.

“Lily, can you be in half an hour early tomorrow?” There was a distinct lack of please in that sentence.

“Of course.” I forced a sweet smile as I spoke, my jaw too rigid. She was going to make this whole case difficult, that much was obvious.

Cassie enveloped me in a loving hug as soon as I opened the door that evening.

“I haven’t seen you in forever!” she exclaimed.

“Or, alternatively, a couple of weeks?” I said, raising an eyebrow with a laugh.

“I’m starved,” she said. “Shall I just say hi to Zack, and we’ll go straight out?”

“Oh, he’s on the phone, new job and all that,” I shrugged as I grabbed my bag and keys. He truly was on the phone, I hadn’t lied, I just didn’t want any awkwardness.

Half an hour later, we were sat in the window of a gorgeous little Neapolitan place as we split a pizza with the thinnest, crispiest base. I had a beautiful, Italian white wine; Cassie had to make do with lime and soda before her drive home.

I felt like I couldn’t quite keep up with my own breaths, they were so fast with nerves. Cassie and I caught up on news about jobs and houses and kids and everything under the sun like we normally did. But I needed to tell her about Zack’s reaction, and I also wondered if I should I tell her about this case?

“So, you know I said I’d speak to Zack about the egg donation idea?”

Cassie nodded, her eyes lit up in anticipation.

“He’s really not a fan…”

She reached across the table and took hold of my hand. “It’s OK, I get it. I don’t want to cause issues between you two.”

“It’s not OK though, Cassie. He’s doing that thing again where he acts like he owns me. I want to help you, and he should support that,” I sighed and knocked back a glug of wine.

“What reasons did he have?” Her voice had a tiny shake to it as she asked the question.

“That he wants us to try for a baby soon and is worried about the procedure and any potential impact it could have. He also thinks knowing it was half my child would cause problems with our friendship.” I pointed between Cassie and myself. “I said I wouldn’t be thinking of the baby as half my child, but he had his mind made up. ”

“I’ll look into the anonymous donors again. There’ll be other clinics I can approach, try and figure what I’m getting. It’s an egg, at the end of the day, I’m not going to have the family round for tea. Thank you for even considering it.”

“Look into it, Cass, but as far as I’m concerned, this isn’t over. He can’t just tell me what I can and can’t do.”

“It sounds like he’s thinking of your future.”

“Pretty sure he’s thinking of his future…” I said with a sigh.

“Lily, the last thing I want is to cause a rift between you two when you’re back on track.”

“It’s him causing a rift, not you. Anyway, how are things back at home? Much changed in town?”

She chewed on her lip as she looked at me. “Such as? There’s a new corner shop. Couple more coffee shops. You after some specific information here?”

“No… Just wondered.”

She wiped her mouth and threw the cloth napkin onto her plate. “They made him a partner. There was a huge debate about the name because it should, technically, be Hughes her smile back in place. “Just me and the kids. Guy won’t be able to get away from work. It’s going to be amazeballs.”

“I know! Just remember it’s a secret. You get all giddy and flirty around Zack.” I said.

“Frankly, I don’t know how you don’t get all giddy and flirty around him, not like you used to anyway.”

“Cassie, stop worrying. Everything’s fine. Nothing’s going to go wrong,” I said, wishing I truly believed my own words.