Adverse Possession (The Anna Albertini Files #3) - Rebecca Zanetti Page 0,30

I really shouldn’t. But having Quint mad at me was better than having Tessa angry. She could be volatile, and I wouldn’t put it past her to cover my car with whipped cream or something. Tess was a sweetheart, but she believed in revenge. “I’m worried about Quint, Nonna. Since Chrissy broke up with him, he seems lost. He’s dating the wrong women. Believe me.”

Nonna stilled. “He is?”

I nodded vigorously. Jolene might’ve been just doing her job by nailing me in the newspaper, but she wasn’t that nice, and Quint deserved somebody kind.

“Oh.” Nonna sat back, obviously thinking rapidly. “All right, then. As soon as we get Tessa taken care of, we’ll move on to Quintino. Do you have anybody in mind?”

“No,” I burst out. “Nobody. I don’t want to be a match-maker.”

She stood up. “Too late, sweetheart.” Then she ambled to the doorway. “Incidentally, how are things going with you and Aiden? Even though he isn’t Italian, he’s a good man.”

“Great,” I said quickly. No need for any interference from my family right now.

“Good. Is he going to be able to help with the fact that a dead body was found on your porch?” She turned at the doorway, the full force of her chocolate-brown gaze hitting me.

“Yes. Don’t worry about that, Nonna.” I’d wondered if she’d get to the newspaper article.

She sadly shook her head. “I can’t help but worry. Also, why is that Jolene O’Sullivan always writing articles about you?”

“She doesn’t like me,” I said. As much as I wanted to help Tessa, I couldn’t throw Quint under the bus a second time by telling Nonna that he was kind of dating Jolene. I was a better cousin than that.

“Then there’s something wrong with that woman,” Nonna said.

I grinned and stood to walk around my desk and hug my grandmother. “You might be biased.” Slipping my arm through hers, I walked her into the hallway. While I hadn’t known she’d made an appointment to see me, there was no way I’d keep from escorting my Nonna out of the office and to her car. My stomach growled. “I haven’t eaten. Do you want to go grab lunch?” Oliver was going to kill me if I left him with all of those people in the waiting room, but I had to eat.

Nonna patted my arm. “Normally I would, but I have work to do today to prepare for Plan B. That reminds me. You and I are doing lunch tomorrow, so make sure you have an hour at noon.”

Oh, man. I was now involved in this scheme. There was no way to argue with Nonna, so I didn’t try. What had I gotten Tess into? I should probably warn her, but my schedule looked pretty packed for the rest of the day.

Thank goodness. Yeah, I’m a wimp.

Chapter 12

At the end of a buzz-worthy day, I handed over all of the retainer checks I’d acquired to Clark. He sat at his desk, happily filling out the deposit slip and making notations. In fact, it was the happiest I’d ever seen him. “Good day?” I asked.

He looked up and his glasses slid down his straight nose. He pushed them back up. “We’re making money. I can’t believe it. That crazy newspaper article about the bar fight actually got us business.” His office was decorated in navy hues that were calming, and the big tree outside his window added to the sense of peace. Even so, he all but hummed with excitement. “I don’t suppose you could get in a bar fight once a quarter?”

“I don’t suppose I could,” I said dryly. “At least we’ll be able to pay rent as well as the boys this month.”

Clark nodded. “Yeah. Speaking of which, make sure you hand in billable hours end of the week, so I can transfer some of this money from the trust account to our actual account to pay those bills. We have to earn it first.”

I winced. One of the best parts of being a prosecuting attorney was not having to worry about billable hours. I missed that set salary. Hopefully we’d still have salaries after the next newspaper article revealed Sasha’s murder on my porch. “No problem,” I said. “What time do you want to meet tomorrow morning for our first case management weekly session?” It sounded so official, and I loved it.

He reached for a nearly empty mug of coffee set neatly on a coaster. “If tomorrow is anything like today, we’re going to be slammed