Blood Brothers Page 0,105

"The stuff."

It occurred to Fox that he was considered fairly articulate in court. "Filing, billing, answering phones, keeping the calendar, rescheduling when necessary, handling clients, typing documents and correspondence. She's a notary, too, but that's not a necessity right off."

"What software does she use?"

"I don't know. I'd have to ask her." Did she use any software? How was he supposed to know?

"I don't know anything about secretarial work, or office management. I don't know anything about the law."

Fox knew tones, and hers was defensive. He kept shoveling. "Do you know the alphabet?"

"Of course I know the alphabet, but the point-"

"Would be," he interrupted, "if you know the alphabet you can probably figure out how to file. And you know how to use a phone, which means you can answer one and make calls from one. Those would be essential job skills for this position. Can you use a keyboard?"

"Yes, but it depends on-"

"She can show you whatever the hell she does in that area."

"It doesn't sound as if you know a lot about what she does."

He also knew disapproval when he heard it. "Okay." He straightened, leaned on the shovel, and looked dead into her eyes. "She's been with me since I set up. I'm going to miss her like I'd miss my arm. But people move on, and the rest of us have to deal. I need somebody to put papers where they belong and find them when I need to have them, to send out bills so I can pay mine, to tell me when I'm due in court, to answer the phone we hope rings so I'll have somebody to bill, and basically maintain some kind of order so I can practice law. You need a job and a paycheck. I think we could help each other out."

"Cal asked you to offer me a job because Quinn asked him to ask you."

"That would be right. Doesn't change the bottom line."

No, it didn't, she supposed. But it still griped. "It wouldn't be permanent. I'm only looking for something to fill in until..."

"You move on." Fox nodded. "Works for me. That way, neither of us are stuck. We're just helping each other out for a while." He shoveled off two more blades of snow, then stopped just to lean on it with his eyes on hers.

"Besides, you knew I was going to offer you the job because you pick up that sort of thing."

"Quinn asked Cal to ask you to offer it to me right in front of me."

"You pick up on that sort of thing," he repeated. "That's your part in this, or part of your part. You get a sense of people, of situations."

"I'm not psychic, if that's what you're saying." The defensive was back in her tone.

"You drove to the Hollow, when you'd never been here before. You knew where to go, what roads to take."

"I don't know what that was." She crossed her arms, and the move wasn't just defensive, Fox thought. It was stubborn.

"Sure you do, it just freaks you. You took off with Quinn that first night, went with her, a woman you'd never met."

"She was a sane alternative to a big, evil slug," Layla said dryly.

"You didn't just run, didn't haul ass to your room and lock the door. You got in her car with her, came with her out here-where you'd also never been, and walked into a house with two strange men in it."

"Strange might be the operative word. I was scared, confused, and running on adrenaline." She looked away from him, toward where Lump was rolling in the snow as if it were a meadow of daisies. "I trusted my instincts."

"Instincts is one word for it. I bet when you were working in that clothes shop you had really good instincts about what your customers wanted, what they'd buy. Bet you're damn good at that."

He went back to shoveling when she said nothing. "Bet you've always been good at that sort of thing. Quinn gets flashes from the past, like Cal. Apparently Cybil gets them of possible future events. I'd say you're stuck with me, Layla, in the now."

"I can't read minds, and I don't want anyone reading mine."

"It's not like that, exactly." He was going to have to work with her, he decided. Help her figure out what she had and how to use it. And he was going to have to give her some time and some space to get used to the idea.

"Anyway, we're probably going