Chapter 12

twelve

. . .

Henley

When I got to work Monday morning, I wondered how it would be with Easton. I’d tossed and turned most of the night, thinking about what he’d shared with me. The weight of it all.

I knew that he would most likely be cold to me today because the man was completely unpredictable. Hot one minute and cold the next.

But he’d opened up to me, and it meant something. I knew he wasn’t that guy, and he didn’t share often, so I was grateful that he’d trusted me with it.

I got to the office early and was surprised to find Rosie and Joey there before me. They were in Easton’s office, hanging streamers.

“What’s going on in here?” I asked, my tone light, but my heart raced because I knew he’d hate it.

“It was Easton’s birthday on Friday, and you guys were in court in the city, so we figured we’d celebrate today. He’s always such a grump about his birthday,” Rosie said, shaking her head.

“Why do you think that is?” I didn’t know what they knew. He was from a small town, so obviously people knew about Jilly’s accident all those years ago, but they might not realize the timing of it all.

“Maybe because he’s a twin? And Emerson doesn’t live here?” Joey said, as he tried to tape his end of the streamer to the ceiling, and it fell. Clearly, they didn’t know the reason for Easton’s disdain for his birthday.

He was a private man, and I understood it.

“That could be it. Or maybe he’s just not a birthday guy. Not everyone likes getting older.” I chuckled.

“Yeah, we do this every year, and he’s always annoyed about it. But he always gives me a big bonus for my birthday, and he has me order a cake for every employee’s birthday every year,” Rosie said. “I can’t just do nothing for his. He runs this place, and he works hard. So we just want to celebrate him once a year.”

“I totally get that. But doesn’t he have that Zoom call today with Bruno King? Streamers in the background might not go over well.”

She came to a stop. “Oh, I forgot about that. Shoot. Should we just decorate half of his office?”

Joey came down from the stepladder and looked between us. “I don’t know. The dude is annoyed with me most of the time, so I really don’t want to piss him off.”

“Well, you’re tall, and I needed help to hang things.” Rosie sighed.

There were three bags from the party supply store on the chair, and I knew she was coming from a good place.

“What if we decorate the staff lounge so he can go in there and be tortured for a little while, but he can go back to his office when he wants to leave?” I asked.

“Oh, that’s a brilliant idea. Yes! Let’s decorate the staff lounge. We can make him come in there for cake,” Rosie said, gathering up the bags as Joey and I followed her down the hall.

We spent the next thirty minutes covering every inch of the staff lounge in streamers and party décor. Rosie had brought a large birthday cake, and we sprinkled glittery confetti all over the table.

He would hate it, but at least it wasn’t in his office this year.

When we heard the sound of the front door opening, Joey almost tripped over a chair while hightailing it out of there. “I did not help with this,” he whisper-hissed.

Rosie and I both laughed and waited until Easton filled the doorway of the staff lounge. He raised a brow and took it in.

“Looks like a Disney princess puked in here,” he grumped, but I noticed the corners of his lips turning up the slightest bit.

“Happy Birthday, boss,” Rosie said.

“I told you not to call me that.” He walked over to Rosie and wrapped one arm around her and gave her a little squeeze. “But thank you.”

She raised a brow. “Thank you? I didn’t expect that.”

“Well, I’m not a complete asshole. So yeah, thank you for refusing to respect my wishes and ignore my birthday year after year.” He smirked and turned to see the box of bagels that she’d brought as he moved toward the counter and popped one into the toaster. “Thanks for the bagels. I didn’t have breakfast, and I had one too many whiskeys last night.”

“This is like a Christmas miracle in August. You’re so—friendly and not yourself today.” Rosie handed him the knife for the cream cheese, before grabbing a plate and a donut for herself.

“What can I say? I’m a year older and a year wiser.” He winked before grabbing his bagel from the toaster and adding some cream cheese before he turned to me. “Grab some food and meet me in my office. I want to go over this meeting with you.”

“Got it.” I moved toward the toaster and made myself a quick bagel as Rosie gushed about what a good idea it had been to move the party into the staff lounge because he’d handled it much better.

I made my way down the hall and into his office, setting my plate and coffee mug on his desk and sitting in the chair across from him.

We sat in silence for the first few minutes as he stared at his monitor. When he finally looked up, he raised a brow. “How’d you get them to move it out of my office?”

“I’m a savvy litigator, remember? I have my ways.”

He nodded. “Thank you. You didn’t tell them anything, did you?”

“Of course not.”

“Good. I don’t need a pity party.”

“I don’t think anyone would pity you for having a hard time on your birthday if they knew the reason.” I paused and thought about my words carefully. “But, it is possible to grieve for Jilly and still celebrate your birthday. You know that, right?”

He reached for his coffee mug. “I thought we agreed that if I told you what happened, we wouldn’t discuss it further.”

“That was before I knew what you were going to tell me. And I just thought an outside perspective might be helpful.”

“Are you my therapist now?” He feigned annoyance, but he had this sexy smirk on his face, and I squeezed my thighs together because when Easton Chadwick looked at me like this, I could barely contain myself.

“I was a double major. Pre-law and psychology.” My teeth sank into my bottom lip as he studied me. There was something different about him today.

He was lighter.

More relaxed.

“That’s an interesting mix.”

“Well, I think they go hand in hand. I want to be able to understand the clients that I’m representing. And if I’m being truthful, I’ve had the same therapist since middle school. She’s brilliant, and I respect what she does for a living, so I was interested in learning about it.”

His gaze softened. “Okay, good doctor. Tell me your theory.”

“Well, Evil Genius,” I said, leaning forward and resting my forearms on his desk. “It’s important to know that celebrating your birthday does not make you an asshole.”

He barked out a laugh. “That’s what you learned at Stanford and Harvard?”

“What I’m saying is that I think you feel guilty about celebrating your birthday because you think it means you stopped grieving the loss of someone you loved. And that’s not true.”

His face hardened with my words. “How is that not true?”

“For starters, the accident was not your fault, so there is nothing to feel guilty about in the first place. It was an accident. You didn’t cause it, and you couldn’t have stopped it. Guilt and grief are not the same. So yes, it’s fair that you grieve this time of year because you lost someone who was important to you. But it’s also okay to celebrate your birthday and have a good time with friends and family.” My gaze locked with his. “She wanted to be there for you on your special day. I’m guessing she would not want you to never celebrate your birthday again. You’re still here, Easton.”

His lips parted for a moment, and then he narrowed his gaze. “You think I’m not living? I’ve been living every goddamn day. I went to law school weeks after the accident, and I work for one of the best firms in the country.”

“I know you did. And you’re a brilliant attorney. But I’m just saying, it’s okay to have fun on your birthday, too. Grief doesn’t have to consume you. And obviously you’ve moved forward, and that’s great. But your birthday doesn’t have to be ruined forever.”

“Well, this is the first time in eight years that I’ve eaten cake and not been a complete dick at the office when they decorated for me. Let’s call that a win.” He leaned back in his chair.

“That’s very mature of you. And you didn’t even bite off the head of your therapist. This is progress.” I chuckled.

“That’s because I need a favor.”

“Getting the streamers out of your office wasn’t favor enough?” I teased.

“It’s pickleball night at the club again. These assholes from Colton County are coming to play, and Archer has a work emergency and can’t make it again. That’s twice in a month that he’s missed. I’m ready to kick his ass off the team.”

“So you need my pickleball skills?” I tilted my head and smiled.

“I do. Can you sub for him again tonight? You’ll be officially listed on the Chad-Six team because you’ve subbed twice.”

“I feel like he should be the sub at this point.” My head tipped back in laughter. “But yes. I will play pickleball with you, Chadwick.”

“Don’t let it go to your head, Princess.”

“You just told me you needed me. How can it not go to my head?”

He smiled a wide, genuine smile. “All right. Let’s get ready for the meeting. This could potentially be the biggest client this firm has ever signed.”

“This could get your name on the door.”

“That’s the plan.” He tossed me a file, and we spent the next hour reviewing the case. King Hotels, one of the most famous luxury hotel chains in the country, was being accused of favoring male over female employees, and Bruno King, the president and CEO, was adamant that this was a smear campaign.

This case would draw even more attention to the firm. My father was a bit of an egomaniac, and being on a list that named his firm in the top three in the country wasn’t enough. He wanted to be number one. He’d always been that way.

We spent the next few hours going over all the paperwork, the notes from human resources they’d sent over, the documentation of both the male and female employee salaries for the last ten years, and it did appear that this was pointing in the direction of a smear campaign.

Easton allowed me to sit in on the Zoom call with Bruno King, and things couldn’t have gone better.

“I look forward to meeting in person and making this official with a handshake, but I do believe that Holloway, Jones, and Waterman is the firm for me. I’ve met with Charles a few times, and he said that you would be the man in that courtroom standing beside me. You’ll start your investigation tomorrow in the city, so as long as you’ll be staying at the hotel, let’s just have dinner there.”

“That sounds great, Mr. King.”

“Please. We’re about to be spending a lot of time together, so call me Bruno.” He nodded. “And bring your pretty assistant, too.”

My shoulders stiffened, and I didn’t miss the way Easton’s hand fisted on the desk. “My apologies if I wasn’t clear. I thought I’d introduced you to Henley Holloway, our newest attorney at the firm, and she will be assisting me in court if we don’t end up settling.”

He had introduced me.

Bruno had apparently just decided to ignore the fact that I was an attorney.

“My apologies, Ms. Holloway. Such a pretty little thing. It’s hard to believe she could be both brains and beauty.”

Seriously? This pompous ass needs to learn some manners.

“Henley graduated first in her law school class at Harvard. She’s brilliant. So I’d ask that you show her the respect she deserves.”

Well, I hadn’t expected that. We wanted to sign this client, and pissing him off would be the kiss of death. But Bruno didn’t appear offended in the slightest.

“Not a problem. I have a lot of respect for beautiful women.” He laughed harder now, and his face was red as he started to cough. “All right. So how about dinner tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. I’ll meet you at the steakhouse, and your rooms will be ready for you when you arrive.”

“That’s very generous. Thank you,” Easton said. “We’ll be there.”

He ended the call and turned to look at me where I sat beside him.

“What a dick,” he hissed.

“Well, he’s an important dick, right?”

“Let me ask you this, they are being accused of mistreating women, and he just insulted our female attorney on the call. Is that a bit of a red flag to you?”

“Yes,” I said. “But your favorite color is red, remember?”

“I’m serious, Henley.”

“Well, everything in those files line up. So Bruno King can be a pig and still not mistreat female employees when it comes to fair compensation, right?”

“I don’t know. But I guess we’re going to find out, aren’t we?”

“My father and the other partners are going to want to sign him regardless of what we find out when we start interviewing employees. You know that.”

He pushed to his feet. “I do. But they aren’t the ones going to court with him. We are. So we’ll decide if this is a good move or not.”

“Yes, we will. But first, we must dominate at pickleball tonight,” I said, my voice was all tease.

“Get back to work. I’ll pick you up on my way to the club tonight.”

He was back in business mode and rushing me out the door once again. But when I glanced over my shoulder on my way out, I found his heated gaze on me.

And I didn’t mind it at all.