more importance for her now.
But could he take as good care of her as I would, or would he turn out just be an asshole who’d leave her alone again? I shook my head. I didn’t know.
I’d taken care of Mom since I was old enough to work. We’d looked after each other. My whole life, just the two of us.
I’d understood my place in her world before Roy showed up, bringing his daughter Harley along with him, but now I had a stepfather and a stepsister and no time with my own Mom anymore. Losing my father had hit her so badly, but she’d never lose me. It had hit us both badly, so I didn’t give my heart away easily.
I sighed and glanced at the clock on the dash before pushing open the car door. Time to start work, although the office was suddenly the last place I wanted to be. I couldn’t leave Saint to make all the decisions for the day, though, so I heaved myself out of my seat and grabbed the flowers and my paperwork from the back. This job never slept, and Mom was the only element of personal life I ever made actual time for. Even if she suddenly didn’t have time for me.
I pulled the sleek, frosted glass door open—sparing a small smile of amusement for Saint’s love of glass—and stepped into the offices of the Caldwell & Holton Law Firm. Like many law offices, our signage boasted the scales of justice, but our name, backed by our reputation, made us unique.
I still couldn’t shake my disappointment, but I was being irrational. So irrational.
Of course I was. And I wasn’t disappointed at Mom. I wasn’t disappointed at all for her being happy and living a good life and making choices to finally please herself. So if I wasn’t disappointed at her, what was I? The slow realization frustrated me, and as much as I tried, I couldn’t shake off an ugly bitterness that my place in her life was no longer the same.
My initial burst of disappointment faded to frustration, but that festered and refused to dissipate as I walked inside.
“Flowers?” I thrust them at Jessica, surprising our receptionist and stalked down the hardwood corridor. My shoes struck the floor with a satisfying clack with each step I took.
Saint’s love of glass carried through to the interior design of our offices, with each of us working from a glass bubble offices. Fish tanks. Well, that was how it felt if I didn’t close the high-end, motorized blinds between the panes of glass—more Saint bling—for part of each day. Saint seemed to be used to so little privacy, and whenever I thought of his house, I remembered why.
We had windows overlooking the lake on one side, and another glass wall looking to the corridor. He’d agreed to walls between the offices, but I think that was mostly because he wanted somewhere to display his framed credentials or latest art acquisition.
Each window into an office was like a view into a different world. Saint had decorated his office like some old English wig-wearing barrister, complete with a dark wood desk, shelves of books and a Tiffany lamp, and the whole space reeked of taste and money. On the other hand, I preferred sleek, modern, and cheap Scandinavian flat pack, if I could get away with it.
I rushed past Saint’s office—he’d be cheery and try to say good morning, or something—and exhaled in relief as I closed the door on my bubble. I set my paperwork on my desk and switched on my computer then glanced out of the window. The sun shone in a blue sky, but it didn’t brighten my mood.
“Knock, knock.” Saint spoke the words through the door he’d already pushed open rather than actually knocking on anything, and a fresh wave of irritation rushed through me. But I gritted my teeth and turned to face him.
I knew I should have hit that privacy blind first thing.
“Good morning.” My smile felt more like a grimace—just a stretch of my lips—and Saint raised a quizzical brow.
“You okay?”
I opened a desk drawer and peered into it, looking for exactly nothing. “Yep, yep. Things are good.” I pressed my lips together to prevent any more words emerging. Yep? What the fuck was I thinking? Did yep even count as a word?
“Huh.” He sat on the loveseat tucked in the corner of my office and glanced meaningfully at the matching gray chair opposite. “Take a