The Lawyer (The Dalton Brothers 1)

I already knew her answer and that her eyes were far larger than her stomach.

“Three, Uncle D.”

“Someone’s extra hungry today.”

Her nod was overexaggerated, making her hair flop in her eyes. “With lots of syrup and butter.” She drew a circle in the air and poked the center. “Daddy always puts a big glob right in the middle.”

Kendall took out one of the crayons and began drawing on Everly’s place mat. “Sounds like your daddy knows how to make amazing pancakes.”

“Don’t tell Daddy this,” Everly whispered, her voice carrying across the table, “but they used to be kinda icky. Now, they’re way better.”

I thought of Ford in his kitchen, a disaster in front of him, flour and eggshells everywhere as he tried to make his baby girl happy. “Your secret is safe with us, sweetheart.”

Everly tapped Kendall’s arm. “You know what? Uncle D makes really good pancakes. He’s gotten way better too. At first, they were kinda hard, but now, they’re perfect. Sometimes, when I go to his house on the weekends, he makes them for me, but today, he wanted to come here with you.”

“Is that right?” Kendall inquired.

“Mmhmm.” She grabbed the red crayon from the package and began to color between the lines that Kendall had drawn.

A four-year-old who didn’t miss a goddamn thing.

“Everly, can I tell you a secret?”

The little one placed her ear toward Kendall’s mouth, cupping her small hands around it. Unlike my niece, Kendall kept her voice down, making sure I didn’t hear anything, but the entire time she whispered, her eyes were fucking glued to mine.

Once Kendall pulled away, Everly’s mouth dropped.

“Don’t say anything,” Kendall told her. “It’s our secret.”

Everly wiggled, shaking her short arms like there was music playing. “Okay!”

“So, the two of you are keeping secrets from me?” I crossed my arms over the table, attempting to look pissed. But that was hardly the case. The two of them couldn’t be more adorable together.

Everly was enamored with Kendall.

“It’s a girl thing,” Kendall told me.

“And I’m a big girl now,” Everly added.

The waitress dropped off Everly’s milk and our coffees and cups of water and said, “What can I get you to eat?”

“Cinnamon roll pancakes for me,” Kendall said. “I’ll take the cinnamon whipped butter as well.”

“And for you?” the waitress asked me.

“The strawberry almond pancakes, and this one”—I nodded toward Everly—“will take the chocolate chip, the full stack. Whipped butter and syrup on both.”

As soon as the waitress left, I looked at Everly and said, “Do you know that Kendall is going to be on TV?”

Her eyes widened again. “Like in the movies? With the princesses? And the mermaids?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Not anything that fabulous. Just a TV show.”

“Uncle D, can I watch it? Pretty please?”

I chuckled. “You’re going to have to ask your father.”

“I’m going to tell all my friends at school to watch you. There are lots and lots of big kids there, and everyone is going to know you’re my friend.”

Kendall ran her hand over the top of Everly’s head. “That’s very sweet of you.”

“Did you ever think the highest-watching demographic of Glitzy Girls would be Everly’s pre-K?”

Kendall gazed at me, those beautiful cheeks reddening. “I’d die.” She looked back at Everly. “Make sure you and your friends cheer extra loud for me, okay? I need all the support I can get.”

Everly clapped. “We will. We’re good clappers. We can do it really loud.”

Kendall picked up the yellow crayon and began drawing large circles, which Everly filled in with different colors.

“I wish I had more friends who were as cool as you. I’ve only met one really good friend since I moved here. His name is Charlize, and he’s the best. He even does my makeup for me.”

“Really? Wow.” Everly looked up. “But Uncle D is your friend. He invited you for pancakes.”

Kendall grinned. “He did—you’re right—but Uncle D is my lawyer.”

“Daddy says lawyers can be nice sometimes.”

I took a drink of my coffee. “I think half the world would probably argue that point.”

“How about Daddy? He’ll be your friend.”

“Not that kind of friend,” I said to my niece. “We’re going to keep your dad far, far away from Kendall.”

“But why?”

Kendall’s arm went around Everly’s shoulders, and she attempted to reply, but I chimed in first with, “Because your dad has so many friends; he doesn’t need any more.”

When Kendall looked at me, I winked.

“I think you just need to be Uncle D’s friend. He can make you a sundae when you stay the night, and for breakfast, he’ll peel your oranges, and he’ll take all that icky white stuff off.”

Kendall watched me as Everly spoke, her eyes full of warmth. “Uncle D hasn’t ever made me a sundae or peeled my oranges when I’ve stayed over.”

“Uncle D, no sundaes for Miss Kendall? That’s a bad friend!”

Something inside me wanted to reach across the table and put my hand on Kendall’s. To graze her knuckles with my thumb, to inhale the tropical scent from the inside of her wrist. To have those tiny hairs that had fallen around her face tickling my cheeks as I kissed her.

My thoughts were interrupted as the waitress appeared and said, “Here you go, young lady. Look at that gooey chocolate stack.”

Everly’s face brightened up, her eyes so large that they looked like they were about to pop. “Holy bananas.”

“I even found some whipped cream for you.” The waitress placed a bowl in front of my niece.

“What do you say?” I reminded Everly.

“Thank you.” Everly grinned at her. “It looks scrumptious.”

We laughed as the waitress handed out the rest of the plates.

“Can I get you anything else?”