Malakai (Stone Society #13) - Faith Gibson Page 0,5

thank you, which wasn’t anything new. Josie was used to her sister being rude and unappreciative. She returned to her desk, placed her purse in the cabinet, and sipped her caramel latte she picked up every morning from a little coffee shop on the way to the office. Yes, she could do without the calories, but she absolutely could not live without the caffeine. While her computer woke, she opened her planner and reminded herself of the files she had to work on, even though she had them all down in her head. She didn’t leave anything to chance. Not once had she forgotten a project. Never had she let her family down when it came to what they needed to win their cases.

Preston walked through the door an hour later, expensive leather briefcase in hand. As he did every morning, he said hello to Josie as he passed her desk to get to Presley’s office. Presley was supposed to have been a boy and named Preston the second. When she surprised them by not having the right anatomical parts, they’d scrambled to come up with a different name. In the long run, their dad hadn’t cared Presley was a girl. He still shaped her into the image of himself, and her sister ate up the attention. She played all the sports and got the best grades. She was competitive from the start, learning from the best.

Josie came along a few years later, and her mother shielded her from her father for the most part. When it was apparent she wasn’t anything like Presley, her father lost interest. Josie loved her mother more than anything in the world, and the two of them remained close. Her mom cooked Sunday dinner once a month, and it was the only time Presley showed up at her parents’. They both saw their father five days a week, but once a month wasn’t enough time with their mother. Not for Josie.

“Joselynn, please come here,” her father ordered. At least he had the decency to tack on a please. Something Presley never did. She grabbed her tablet and joined them. “The Sanderson case has been pushed up two weeks.”

“No problem.”

“What’s the date on that?” Presley asked.

“September twenty-seventh,” Josie answered.

“I was talking to Dad.”

“She’s right, Pres.” Still, Presley flipped through her calendar, but Josie already knew what she was looking for.

“The Peters case is that day as well, but you have all the information,” Josie said.

Presley scowled. “You are aware things come up last minute.”

“I am, and when that happens, I’ll handle it. Presley, I’ve been doing my job a long time, and I’ve never let you down. I’m not going to start now.”

“The Peters case is the most important trial of my career. Dad, can’t you get the Sanderson trial moved to another date?”

“No, I can’t. And I won’t. For once, listen to Joselynn. She works harder than the two of us combined.” Josie frowned at her father. That was the first time she could remember him praising her. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have a conference call to prepare for.”

As soon as Preston was out of the office, Presley said, “Do not screw this up for me.”

Josie bit her tongue. “I won’t,” she said instead of the ugly comment she wanted to hurl at her sister.

The day flew by like normal, with Josie eating lunch at her desk. When four-thirty rolled around, Presley came out of her office dressed in workout attire. She sauntered by without a word. Josie wished she had the luxury of going to Hartley’s for kickboxing classes. Presley said the classes kept her mind sharp. Josie didn’t doubt it. She also didn’t doubt her sister had her eye on the hot guy who taught the class. Her sister had never had to chase after a man, but it seemed this one was playing hard to get. Presley hadn’t shared her pursuit of the man with Josie. She had overheard her sister’s conversation with her best friend, Elise. The guy was probably gay if he wasn’t interested in someone as pretty as Presley. That, or he was the fabled unicorn who fell for women like Josie instead.

Josie hated the smug feeling she got every time Presley whined about the man not falling into her arms. Pettiness was beneath Josie. Instead of dwelling on things that didn’t matter, she called in an order for dinner and got back to work. When Josie looked up, it was a little after nine.