“Erin!” A little girl with two missing front teeth ran up to her with a huge grin.
“Hi, Merry!” Erin knelt down so she was eye level with the child. “How are you?”
“Good. Mommy said if you can get money from my dad, then maybe we can leave the shelter soon and find a real ’partment of our own.”
“I’ll do my best,” she promised the child.
Cole’s heart clenched at the seriousness of the girl’s words. Such huge hope and such a sad situation. Yet she looked up at Erin with such faith, even Cole wanted to believe she could perform miracles.
He accepted her request that he sit outside her door, client confidentiality being of paramount importance, especially to this kind of client. And he waited for the next four hours as she worked with as many people as walked through her office, never turning anyone away. Not even when her eyes were closing from exhaustion and he caught her mid-yawn when she walked her second-to-last client out.
He knew it was her second-to-last client, because he’d turned the lock on the front door. She was pregnant, had been shot, and needed rest. She’d have to forgive him, assuming she even realized. But thankfully she didn’t.
“Arm hurt?” he asked, as he helped her get settled in the car after the final client of the night.
“Badly.”
He managed not to growl at her for overdoing it, and climbed into the driver’s seat and got them on the road. “Those women rely on you.”
“They do.” She leaned her head against the window.
“Makes me wonder what my mom would have done if she’d had a place like this to come to,” he said, staring into the dark night as he drove.
“What?” Erin lifted her head.
“Never mind.” He didn’t like to talk about those years.
She studied him through wise eyes. “The one thing I always knew was that I had it good growing up. And my mom? She had it good because Simon stepped up when Mike’s real father wouldn’t. But what would have happened to her if there had been no Simon? If she had been pregnant, alone, with nowhere to turn? I want to make sure these women know they have somewhere. Someone.”
Oh, man, she was too good to be true. His mother would love her. “They’re lucky to have you.”
She shot him a grateful smile. “That’s nice of you to say,” she said through a yawn.
“I’m not nice.”
She rolled her head to the side. “You have your moments,” she countered.
Thankfully he pulled into the driveway of her condo before he had to reply.
• • •
Somehow Erin survived the first week of living with Cole. They made little progress in any kind of breakthrough in their relationship, which made her uneasy, as she’d have a future of dealing with him. Neither of them discussed her pregnancy, though she sensed he was taking the time to process his new reality. And since she, too, had needed time after she’d found out, she couldn’t deny him the same.
For now, Erin had enough to deal with, including the immobility of one arm and the pain from the bullet, which was getting slightly better day by day. For the baby’s sake, she took as little medication as possible, which meant she hadn’t slept much.
Still, she returned to work, grateful to be getting out of the house and even more grateful to be back in the office.
Trina greeted her with a welcome-back cake, which nearly brought Erin to tears. She blamed it on hormones. Her first two days back were harder than she’d anticipated. She tired easily, a combination of lingering pain and the drag on her body from the injury combined with the pregnancy.
Always observant, Evan noticed and stepped in, assuring her that he’d spread out her workload until she could handle everything again. She appreciated it and stopped insisting she could do more when she knew better. This unexpected pregnancy had certainly shown her limitations, and accepting them was better than thinking she was Superwoman.
Her biggest problem at the office was Cole. His hulking presence outside her door had everyone talking, providing an endless source of gossip and speculation among the women. Erin, who’d always been a private person, told them he was her bodyguard because of the shooting and he’d stay until they figured out who’d shot at her and why. She could only imagine how her colleagues would react when her stomach ballooned and the truth about her and Cole came out.
Especially Evan. He postured around Cole, and Cole returned the favor. And for what? Yes, Evan had asked her out in the past. Yes, they’d gone on one date when he moved back to town, before he’d been elected and become her boss. But no, she hadn’t found the chemistry needed to go out with him again. Not that he didn’t keep trying, but it had become a game between them. She was his challenge, and he enjoyed the chase. But Evan respected her legal abilities and she felt the same about his, and that was that. Harmless. Not that Cole understood.
Since the flowers had arrived, Cole acted like Evan was both the enemy and direct competition who needed to be chased off. Unfortunately, Evan treated Cole the same way. In reality, neither man had a claim on her, and the endless stress of the two men’s reactions was slowly driving her insane.
As for her shooting, the bullet had been found lodged in a nearby car, as well as the shell casing, near the woods. Only an amateur would leave evidence behind, but at least they had something to work with. Mike sent the evidence to the state police crime lab, which was backed up with more important cases, and that news sent her brother over the edge. To calm him while waiting on ballistics, Erin had given in and gone over her cases with her brothers, even though she believed the possibility was ridiculous. Still, the Serendipity police were questioning people she was prosecuting—and, as Erin had predicted—with no results.