Texas Proud and Circle of Gold (Long, Tall Texans #52) - Diana Palmer Page 0,15
no children. She had a roving eye for rich men. It had already gotten her in trouble with their boss, Mr. Kemp, the district attorney. That hadn’t seemed to stop her. She wore very revealing clothing—she’d been called down about that, too—and she wasn’t friendly to the women in the office.
Bernie put down her purse, folded her cane and took off her jacket before she sat down.
“I don’t see why you work,” Jessie said offhandedly, looking down her long nose at Bernie with a cold blue-eyed stare. “I’d just get on government relief and stay home.”
“I don’t need handouts. I work for my living,” Bernie said. She smiled at the tall brunette, but not with any warmth.
Jessie shrugged. “Suit yourself. I’m going over to the courthouse on my break to talk to my friend Billie,” she added, slipping into a long coat.
Bernie almost bit her tongue off to keep from mentioning that their breaks were only ten minutes long and it would take Jessie that long just to walk to the courthouse. The district attorney’s office had been in the courthouse, but this year they’d moved to a new county building where they had more room. The increased space had delighted the office staff, which had grown considerably. Their new office was closer to Mrs. Brown’s boardinghouse and Barbara’s Café, but farther from the courthouse.
She didn’t say it, but her coworker Olivia did. “Who’s in the courthouse today, Jessie?” she asked with a blank expression. “Some really rich upper-class man who might need a companion...?”
“You...!” Jessie began just as Mr. Kemp’s office door opened. She smiled at him, all sweetness. “I’m going to the courthouse on my break to see my friend Billie for just a minute, Mr. Kemp. Is that all right with you?” she added with a cold glance at her coworker.
“If it’s absolutely necessary,” he replied tersely. He wasn’t pleased with his new employee. In fact, he was beginning to think he’d made a big mistake. A glowing recommendation from a San Antonio attorney had gotten Jessie the job, mainly because there were no other applicants. Competent receptionists with several years’ experience weren’t thick on the ground around Jacobsville.
“It really is,” she said, and looked as if it wasn’t the whole truth. “I have a friend in the hospital in San Antonio. Billie’s been to see him,” she added quickly.
“Okay. Try not to take too long.” He paused and looked at her for a long time. “You get a ten-minute break. Not an hour.”
“Oh, yes, sir.” She was all sugary sweetness as she walked out the door in a cloud of cloying perfume.
Bernie’s coworker fanned the air with a file folder, making a face.
Not five minutes later, assistant DA Glory Ramirez walked in the door and made a face. “Who’s been filming a perfume commercial in here?” she asked.
“Somebody who’s mad at me, probably,” Sari Fiore, their second assistant DA, laughed as she came in behind Glory. “Perfume gives me a migraine.”
“I’ll turn the air conditioner on long enough to suck it out of the building,” Mr. Kemp volunteered.
“Ask her to wash it all off. I dare you,” Sari said to the boss.
He laughed and went back into his office. The phone rang. Sari picked it up, nodded, spoke into the receiver and pressed a button. It was for Mr. Kemp. She hung up.
“Where’s Jessie?” Sari asked curtly. “The phone is her job, not ours.”
“There’s some rich guy at the courthouse,” Olivia told her. “She had a call from her friend Billie, who works as a temporary assistant in the Clerk of Court’s office. I guess that was what it was about, although she said she was going to ask about a sick friend.”
“She can’t do that on the phone?” Sari asked, aghast.
“Well, she can’t see the rich guy over the phone,” Olivia said demurely and with a wicked smile.
“Jessie’s a pill,” Glory added. “I wonder how she ever got past the boss to hire on here. She’s definitely not like any legal receptionist I’ve ever known.”
“She’s big-city, not small-town,” Sari said. “She’s got an accent like that lawyer from Manhattan who was down here last month.”
“I noticed,” Glory replied. “How are you feeling, Bernie?”
Bernie flushed and grinned. “I’m doing fine.”
“Oh?” Sari teased. “We heard about your new boarder at Mrs. Brown’s.”
Bernie went scarlet.
“That was mean,” Glory told Sari.
“Sorry,” Sari said, but she was still grinning. “Isn’t Mikey a doll?” she added. “He could pose for commercials.”
“I noticed,” Bernie said. “He’s very good-looking.”