“I’ll call later, Grace.”
I didn’t fail to notice he had been calling me Grace all day. Not Gracie. He had dismissed me earlier, brushing off my offers of help. He’d been quiet and outwardly calm, but his body was anything but. He held me too tight in the elevator, his arms like a vise around my waist. His grip on my hand was just shy of painful. He was holding in his anger, and he refused to share with me. He refused to share so much of his life with me. I didn’t understand what was happening or how to get him to open up to me.
I cupped my jaw in my hand and smiled into the screen, hoping it looked natural.
“I’m fine, Dad.”
He narrowed his eyes, the crinkles at the corners only making him more handsome. He was a good-looking man, the silver at his temples adding to his attractiveness, not taking it away. When I was growing up as a teenager, older girls at my school would make comments about my dad when he would pick me up, calling him a DILF. It upset me at the time, but now it made me laugh, remembering his horror when he found out. After that, my mom picked me up more often than he did, and he always remained in the car. My mom thought he was the sexiest man in the world and had no problem telling him or any of their kids that, making us all groan. He had no problem flaunting the fact that she thought that way. They were a wonderful couple, especially given their rocky start. I was lucky to have them as parents, although at times, my dad was a little over the top with his protectiveness.
“What is so important about this case that you’re working all weekend? Heather says she hasn’t seen you in weeks, and Bent mentioned Addi said the same thing when I spoke to the BAM boys the other day. What’s going on?”
I took a sip of my coffee to buy a little time. “First off, both Heather and Addi are busy too. Second, not only am I articling, I’m studying for the bar too. As for this case, it’s a mess. Five siblings, all of whom hated lawyers, so they insisted on doing everything on their own, as did their father, who started the company. Contracts, copyrights, trademarks. Except most of what they did was wrong, the copyrights are in a bunch of wrong names, trademarks weren’t properly registered.” I rolled my eyes with a long exhale. “How they went this long before something major happening is a mystery. Now, one brother died, and his wife is claiming she owns a chunk of the company and the copyrights. The others disagree, and one of them finally decided to hire a lawyer to sort it out. I’ve been tracing hundreds of copyrights, trademarks—it’s a complicated, ugly mess. We’re up against a deadline since some of the copyrights are set to expire.”
“Is your boss helping at all or leaving it all to you?”
“Of course he is. So is another staff member. The biggest problem is one of the siblings, a sister, claims to have some of the most important documents needed but refuses to hand them over to anyone resembling a lawyer. She calls them all useless, lying wastes of space. She lives in Las Vegas and refuses to cooperate.”
“Sounds like a real mess.”
“It is.” I chuckled. “Every time my boss calls and tries to talk to her, she hangs up on him, after calling him every name in the book. He’s started taking notes on some of the unique words and phrases she uses to describe lawyers. He thinks he’ll write a book.”
My dad threw back his head in laughter. “He sounds like he and I would get along well.”
“He is brilliant. I’m learning a lot.”
“Is he treating you well?”
I was glad my father was hundreds of miles away and I could control my facial expressions. I shrugged. “He’s my boss. I get along well with his PA, Michael. We work well together. And before you can ask, he has a husband and a daughter. We’re friends.”
My dad studied me. “You look tired, Gracie.”
“You said I looked stressed. Which is it, Dad?” I teased. “You, of all people, know you need to make sure your language is correct.”
He smirked, one corner of his mouth lifting higher. But I was saved from the inquisition when my mom appeared, sitting down on my dad’s lap. Her gentle expression warmed my heart. She was a great mom—loving and giving. She had always been there for me, and I adored her. We all did—especially my dad. Even now, watching how he encircled her waist with his arm, drawing her close, kissing her cheek as she joined in on our call, made me smile.