He’d never really discussed his work with her, except that little bit that involved her mother. Maybe he did want to pull her a little more into his world.
“Well, I didn’t test it first,” she warned, placing her hands on his shoulders. “But I know you like steak, so I went from there.”
He gave her a quick kiss on the lips before stepping around her and letting out a low whistle.
“I’m impressed.”
“I’d hold back praise until you actually taste it.”
Lucas glanced over his shoulder to her. “You went to a good bit of trouble for this meal.”
Paisley wasn’t great at dealing with compliments of the domestic goddess variety, so she skirted around him and grabbed the bottle of wine from the ice bucket.
“Don’t get too excited,” she told him as she poured him a glass of Chianti. “I had to look everything up. It’s not like I was raised with a mom who showed me how to make homemade mashed potatoes with gravy or roll out fresh biscuits.”
After she served herself some wine, she placed the bottle back in the bucket and risked glancing to Lucas. He remained in place, his eyes locked on her.
“Your mother didn’t have to make homemade anything,” he stated. “She had other areas she excelled at, I’m sure.”
Paisley attempted a smile and started filling the plates. “I’ve never thought about it before,” she told him. “I mean, she did work her butt off to support us. I didn’t know any different than having her gone most of the time or there were days I had to go to work with her when she couldn’t afford a sitter. By the time I was ten, she just started leaving me alone and would call on her breaks to check in.”
Ten years old. Paisley couldn’t imagine leaving a ten-year-old home alone, but then again, she wasn’t a single parent with limited options. Never once did she doubt her mother’s love. The woman just made life choices that made things more difficult at times.
“She never dated,” Paisley went on. “Or if she did, I never met the men. It always seemed to just be the two of us. I guess that’s why this is so hard. I had no clue she knew who my father was and purposely kept it from me.”
Lucas took a seat next to her instead of across from her. Once she sat down, he took her hand and stared into her eyes.
“Maybe she didn’t know,” he defended. “That’s still to be determined and I’m sure we’ll find out more once we get proof on Sterling.”
Paisley sighed. “Is that even possible at this point? I doubt he would even know unless my mother flat out told him, and if she did tell him, why didn’t he claim me or ever reach out?”
Paisley had so many questions and there were only two people who could answer them: her mother, who was no longer living, and her real father, if he ever knew anything to begin with.
“It’s hopeless, isn’t it?” she asked.
“I’ve never given up on a client and I sure as hell am not about to start with my wife.”
His conviction had her blossom of hope growing. She truly believed him. She just didn’t know how he’d pull this off.
“I just want to go see him,” she muttered.
Lucas’s fork clattered to his plate a second before he reached for her hand and squeezed. “Patience. That’s the one thing you have to have in my business. It’s not easy, and can be downright maddening at times. But I promise, we will confront him. Together.”
Together. Perhaps he did want them to be a team and maybe in more ways than just this case. Having dinner together every night seemed so familial and they’d settled right into a nice pattern.
Paisley couldn’t help but feel that maybe this could work. She so badly wanted to tell him her true feelings, but she needed to be patient. Isn’t that what he’d just told her?
Every part of her life now required the right timing—confronting Sterling and telling Lucas she’d fallen in love with him again.
Fourteen
Lucas had never been the best at sleeping all night. Clients and cases would wake him, and his mind never fully seemed to shut down.
Which was why he sat on the floor of his living room with another open box of Lynette’s things. She wasn’t the most organized person. He’d uncovered some planners that she seemed to have good intentions of completing. She’d start out the year with detailed accounts of events, only to taper off about May or June.