All Night Long (Man of the Month 9)

Wife?

Where the hell had that come from?

Companion, then. Date. She was so not political material.

A fact that underscored the rationality of their original plan: Contract to sell the distillery plus a good time while they were negotiating equaled happy memories for both of them when they parted ways.

It was what they'd agreed, and it made sense.

And yet she couldn't deny that the thought of going their separate ways now left her feeling hollow. And the part where she watched another woman on his arm brought out some serious mean girl attitude.

Hell. She was definitely in trouble.

"Selma!" The eager voice yanked Selma away from her pity party, and she turned to find Elena grinning at her as she hurried forward, accompanied by an athletic woman with wild, curly hair and piercing blue eyes.

"Elena! Why are you here?"

"I'm schmoozing. I have an interview with the director of one of the historic preservation societies soon. Figured I should meet her socially first."

"Good plan." Elena was about to start a graduate program in urban planning, and she was eager to get as much related experience as possible.

"What about you? Why are you here?"

"Easton had an extra ticket. I, um, I'm considering it a client perk."

"Easton Wallace?" the other woman asked. "I've been looking for him. I'm Hannah, by the way. Hannah Donovan."

"Hannah comes to The Fix sometimes. She's friends with Shelby. You met her once with Nolan, remember? Mr. April?"

Selma did. And she also remembered Hannah's name from the day she and Easton had worked in the conference room, and those ridiculous green monsters started up their conga line again. "I actually just saw him with another woman from his firm."

Hannah made a face. "Must be Marianne. I think Judge Coale only wants her as Easton's escort because she's too bland to be offensive to anybody."

Selma bit back a laugh, her estimation of this woman rising a bit. "How do you know Easton?"

Hannah waved a hand. "Oh, God, we go back forever. We were study buddies in law school, then mock trial partners. We dated for about seven seconds, but it didn't stick. We lost touch for about a year--I ended up dating a woman who was jealous of every ex-boyfriend--and then I moved to Austin to do in-house work and we reconnected."

The last bits of jealousy faded away.

"You know him because you're a client?"

Selma nodded. "He's negotiating the sale of my business."

Hannah's lips twitched. "If you say so."

"What?" Elena demanded.

Hannah looked at Selma. "I probably understated what good friends Easton and I are. To be honest, until Judge Coale started him on this path to be a judge, we were thinking about opening a firm together. I'm itching to be in the trenches. In-house pay is great, but the work can be monotonous."

Selma frowned, not sure she was following. Hannah, apparently, was a rambler, and Selma assumed that if they worked together, Easton would do the trial stuff and Hannah the behind the scenes law work.

"Right, sorry. My point is, we talk a lot. He's one of my closest friends, although with campaigning and his recent extracurricular activities, we haven't talked as much as we used to."

"Oh." Selma actually blushed. And blushing really wasn't like her. "What exactly has he told you?"

Hannah lifted a shoulder. "Nothing embarrassing. But I'm happy for him. It's clear he really likes you. Sorry it has to be so clandestine. Politics are stupid."

"That's for sure," Selma said.