The Spark by Vi Keeland
CHAPTER 27
Donovan
“Where the hell have you been?” Trent sat back in his chair and put his fork down.
“Sorry I’m late. I couldn’t get a client off the damn phone.”
“I’m not talking about being late for lunch. I came down to your office twice this week to see if you wanted to order in some dinner, and your door was shut and the lights were off.”
I grinned. My friends didn’t yet know that Autumn and I had gotten together. “I had more important shit to do.”
Juliette’s brows rose. She covered her full mouth with a napkin and leaned over to feel my forehead. “More important than work? Are you sick?”
“Nope.”
“Then what is more important than work right before the upcoming partner vote?”
“My girl.”
“Holy shit,” Trent said. “Are you smiling over a woman?”
“I am.” I’d also had her underwear in my pocket the last three days, but I didn’t share that part.
“So there’s a woman out there who passed your tests?”
“With flying colors.”
“Wow,” Juliette said. She turned to Trent while pointing to me. “He’s smitten. Our little playboy is growing up so fast.”
I pulled the container with my lunch out of the bag. “Poke fun all you want. I don’t even care.”
Trent wiped his mouth with his napkin. “I never thought I’d see the day. We should double date.”
“I don’t think she has any sixteen-year-old friends for you,” I teased and bit into my sandwich. “But I’ll ask.”
“I wasn’t asking you to fix me up, jackass. If you’d been around lately, you’d know I have my own girl.”
I stopped chewing. “Not a blow-up one?”
“Fuck you. A real one—and she’s smoking hot, too.”
I was glad to see my buddy happy, but that wouldn’t stop me from busting his balls. “Not underage, not a blow-up doll, and she’s smoking hot? So you’re paying her, then?”
Trent threw his napkin at me. “I met her at the bar a few weeks ago. She’s Juliette’s friend. You actually talked to both of us on your way out. She has excellent taste, so she met you first but came home with me.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What’s her name?”
“Margo.”
Hot damn—the woman I’d sent his way after whining to her about Autumn. I wasn’t about to mention that she’d hit on me first. I nodded. “Margo…sounds familiar. Brunette?”
“Yup.”
“You two hit it off?”
“Spent almost every night together since then.”
I nodded. “Good for you.”
Juliette and Trent looked at each other funny.
“What?”
She shook her head. “You’re acting weird. Only a few jabs at Trent and…you’re smiling too much.”
I clasped my hands behind my head. “That’s because I’m happy to be alive, ladies and gentlemen.”
Trent turned to Juliette. She shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I checked his head. No fever.”
Trent finished chewing. “Alright. I’ll bite. Tell us about this magical creature who seems to have stolen your brain. What does she look like? How big is the unicorn horn on top of her head, and does she let you play with it?”
I might’ve gotten a little starry-eyed. “She’s gorgeous—red hair, green eyes, alabaster skin.”
Juliette’s face scrunched up. She pointed to me as she looked at Trent. “Did he just use the word alabaster?”
My buddy shook his head. “He’s definitely lost his mind if this is what I think it is. Red hair and green eyes? Please tell me this isn’t Blake’s girlfriend.”
I smiled. “It’s not.”
“Thank God.”
I grinned. “Because she’s not seeing The Dick anymore. She’s all mine.”
Trent tossed his fork on the table and looked up at the ceiling with a groan. “Shit.”
“You should be happy for me. I finally met someone. All you ever do is bust my balls because I won’t settle.”
Trent shook his head. “Let me get this straight. You spent seven years working your ass off to make partner at this firm. And a few weeks before you might actually get there, you start taking half days, slacking on billable hours, and banging the girlfriend of a partner whose vote you need in order to get to the finish line.”
“Relax, buddy. They were casual, and she called it quits. Blake has no idea we’re seeing each other. He doesn’t even know we’d met before I picked up that pro bono case he assigned me. And I haven’t been slacking. My billable hours are down, but they’re down to what normal workaholics trying to make partner bill.”
“Uh-huh.” Trent nodded. “You’re venturing onto some thin ice, my friend. Didn’t you ever hear the saying ‘what’s done in the dark always finds its way to the light’?”
I shrugged. “I could care less if Blake finds out in the long run. Part of me is looking forward to it. It’s practically his damn fault, anyway. If he hadn’t been too lazy to take the pro bono case he dumped on me, Autumn and I probably would never have seen each other again. Besides, I only need to keep it under wraps for a little longer. Then I’ll be a partner, and tough shit on him if he doesn’t like it.”
Juliette shook her head. “I don’t have a good feeling about this. You better be careful.”
“Stop worrying. It’s fine. There’s no way he’s going to find out.”
Trent puckered his lips and made a loud kissing sound.
I smirked. “No more kisses for you, buddy. I’m a one-woman man now.”
“That wasn’t me blowing you a kiss, dude.” He shook his head. “You said there’s no way he’s going to find out. That was me kissing your luck goodbye as your cocky ass blew it out the door with that rush of hot air.”
***
The following week, my life went from great to phenomenal. If I knew a better word than that, I’d use it, but I hadn’t had much reason to bolster my vocabulary of superlatives relating to the state of my life in the last thirty years. Sure, I was successful—and until a few months ago, I thought that was what it took to make me happy. I hadn’t even known I was unfulfilled until, well, until I got my fill of Autumn.
On Sunday, we went to Bud’s so Storm could do the work he’d agreed to do in exchange for the bike. Autumn and I did some painting inside while we were there, and I managed to sneak her into the garage and cop a cheap feel while we made out like two horny teenagers. At night, I served dinner with Bud. He still had his cast on, but he wanted to help—and by help, I mean he wanted to boss me around like I didn’t know what I was doing after fifteen years of doing it with him. But it made him happy, and I was glad he was in good spirits again, so I didn’t give a shit.
On Wednesday night, I took Autumn out to dinner—at a bowling alley, where she proceeded to spank my ass and bowl a two hundred and six. Apparently, her father had a bowling team for his law firm, and she’d always joined them growing up. Normally, I was super competitive, and a loss to anyone would have bruised my ego, but this time I didn’t give a shit if my girl handed me my ass in a game, because she smiled all night. Also, every time she got a strike she jumped up and down, which I liked a lot.
I also somehow managed to bill one of my highest weeks, and old man Kravitz came down from the ivory tower to tell me I’d done a great job for one of his personal VIP clients who’d gotten himself into trouble with the SEC.
Yeah, shit couldn’t have been going better.
My phone buzzed on my desk, and the picture I’d taken of Autumn last year flashed on my screen. At the risk of sounding like a complete dorky sap, a little warmth ran through my belly. Actually, if feeling like this made me a dork—I’d been totally missing out by trying to be cool all my life.
Leaning back into my chair, I swiped to answer.
“Hey, gorgeous.”
“You answer the phone like that for all women, don’t you?” I heard the smile in her voice.
“There is no other woman, sweetheart.”
She sighed. “I called to say thank you for the stuff you bought for Storm.”
I’d stopped over at Park House this morning and dropped off a bag with a lock for the bicycle Bud had given him, and also a Nike sweatshirt with a reflective stripe down the side for when he inevitably rode in the dark. But he’d already left for school, and I was running late. The woman at the front desk was busy on the phone, so I’d written Storm’s name on the bag and motioned that I was leaving. It wasn’t until I got to my car that I’d realized I forgot to leave my name.
“How did you know I gave him something?”
“Hmmm… A good guess? When I stopped over at Park House for a meeting earlier, Rochelle at the front desk told me some hot guy dropped off a bag for Storm.”
I grinned. “You think I’m hot?”
She laughed. “I can see your gloating, cocky face right now even through a phone call. Let me guess, you’re leaning back in your chair, too?”
I sprang forward in my seat. “No, I’m not.”
She laughed. “Anyway, I just called to say thank you for doing that. It was very sweet. I don’t want to take up too much of your time.”
“You’re always a welcome break.”
“You working late tonight?”
“Yeah. You and Skye watching your show and talking about me?”
“Believe it or not, not everything is about you.”
“I definitely don’t believe that.”
She chuckled. “I’ll see you tomorrow night?”
“Can’t wait.”
“Me too.”
An hour later, Blake Dickson appeared at my office door. I was on the phone with a client, but that didn’t stop him from coming on inside and taking a seat while I finished my call.
I forced a cheery smile when I hung up. “What’s up, boss?”
He picked up a crystal paperweight of the Earth I kept on my desk and tossed it up and down like it was a stress ball. I gritted my teeth—it had been a gift from Bud when I graduated law school, and was the only personal item to be found anywhere in my office.
“I need a favor.”
I need one too. Get the fuck out of my office.
“Sure, what’s up?”
“I have dinner tomorrow night with Todd Aster. You helped squash an inquiry the feds made about some of his investments a few years back.”
“Yeah, I remember him.”
“Well, he’s going through a messy divorce, and apparently his wife has some documents related to that investment that could be damaging.”
“Statute of limitations still open?”
Blake nodded. “Unfortunately.”
“Okay...how can I help?”
“Fill in for me at dinner tomorrow.”
Shit. “I, uh, have plans.”
Blake sat up a little taller. “So do I. And I’m counting on you to handle this for me.”
Of course I couldn’t say no. So I nodded. “No problem. I’ll rearrange my schedule.”
Dickson got up and headed to the door without so much as a thank you. He turned back at the last minute.
“The vote’s coming up soon. I’ll be honest, I was pretty much team Mills when the candidates for partner were announced. But you’ve proven to be someone I can rely on, someone I can trust to have my back.”
The irony wasn’t lost on me, though I put on a solid fake smile. “Of course. Happy to help out.”
“I’ll have my admin send you the details.”
After he left, I slumped in my chair. I didn’t want to go to a damn dinner; I wanted to spend the evening with Autumn. Her two-nights-a-week rule was already killing me. Going down to one wasn’t an option.
When the email from Dickson’s assistant came in, I asked if we could possibly move the seven o’clock dinner to six.
The rest of the day got away from me, and it was almost eight before I checked my email and found a response confirming she’d been able to switch the time. Hopefully Autumn wouldn’t mind getting together a little later. I knew her friend was over for their Bachelor marathon tonight, so I didn’t want to call and interrupt. Instead, I shot off a text.
Donovan: Would you mind if we had a late dinner tomorrow night? Something came up at work, and I have to go to a dinner meeting with a client at six. I can probably be done by eight or eight thirty.
Autumn responded right away.
Autumn: Boy, I’m going to start to get a complex. First, Skye cancels on me, now you’re changing our date… Just kidding. Sure, that’s fine.
Donovan: Did Skye really cancel on you?
Autumn: Yeah. She thinks she has the flu.
Donovan: Sorry to hear that. I know you were looking forward to it.
Autumn: We’re down to the last five episodes, and I can’t watch TV or go on social media because I don’t want to accidentally find out who won! I told her if she tests positive for the flu, I’m watching without her because I need to go online.
I chuckled. I could never understand how so many smart women loved that dumb show.
Donovan: Spoiler alert. He picks the one no one likes.
Autumn: OMG! Are you kidding me? He picks Meghan?
Shit.
Donovan: I was joking. I have no idea how it ends. Or how it begins, for that matter. Though most of that shit ends the same way—whatever is best for ratings.
Autumn: You almost gave me a heart attack. Meghan sucks!
I laughed to myself.
Donovan: I’ll text you when I’m on my way tomorrow.
Autumn: OK. Have a good night.
***
The hearing I had the next afternoon wound up taking two minutes because opposing counsel showed up and asked for a last-minute continuance. Since I was meeting Dickson’s client at a restaurant closer to my house than the office, I figured I’d work the rest of the afternoon from home. I had prep work to do for a trial coming up, and home had fewer distractions anyway.
As I walked in, my cell phone rang.
I smiled and swiped to answer. “Hey, beautiful.”
“Is that a downgrade from gorgeous? I think I was gorgeous yesterday.”
“Definitely not.”
“I was just thinking—you asked if we could have a later dinner because you have to meet a client for dinner, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Why would we go out to dinner if you’ve already eaten?”
I shrugged. “You have to eat. Plus, I want to see you.”
“I want to see you, too. But we could just hang out here. I’ll eat before you come. Skip dessert with your client, and I’ll make you the best ice cream sundae you’ve ever had.”
I smiled. “If you’re sure you don’t mind, that sounds great. Want me to pick up some ice cream on the way over?”
“No need. I have all the supplies from my canceled plans with Skye last night, including fresh, chocolate-dipped waffle cones. They’ll go bad before she’s able to come over. She tested positive for the flu.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“Thanks. I’m going to drop off some soup for her on my way home from work. But I gotta run. I’m about to go into the subway.”
“Alright. Be careful. I’ll see you later.”
I changed out of my work clothes, grabbed my laptop, and settled in on my couch. My office maintained a portal online where I could sign in and download the depositions I needed to re-read. But as I clicked to the web, an ad popped up for the new ABC streaming app. It advertised some of their hit shows available, including The Bachelor. I smiled, thinking of Autumn, and clicked to close it. But instead of hitting the X, I must’ve hit the icon to make it larger because a preview of a bunch of women getting out of limousines popped up, and some doofus handed them each a rose. I went to click off a second time, but then a girl stepped out of a stretch limo wearing a belly dancer’s costume.
Hmpf. Maybe I’ll watch a few minutes before I dig into my work…
