a strong defense and had negotiated an impressive plea deal for him.
I owed Patrick big-time, and seeing Tess, Nick’s ex-girlfriend, on my stoop last night was a reminder of it.
“Can’t I have one of my deputies do it?” I asked with a sigh. “You have no idea how high-maintenance Finn Heller is.”
Patrick laughed. “No way. I promised her he’d get the best man on the force. One has to assume that’s you, Peanut.”
Leave it to one of my brothers to be loving and condescending in the same breath. “How do you even know this agent? Is she a client?”
“You know I can’t tell you that. But I can tell you she’s Olivia’s tennis partner at the club. She and her husband are friends of ours. In fact, you’ve probably met them at the holiday party before. Iris is tiny, and her husband is a giant. Olivia always makes rude jokes behind their backs about the physics involved during sex.”
That rang a bell. I remembered the husband more than the wife. Sexy as hell, but a pompous jackass who name-dropped in every sentence.
“Yeah, okay. Whatever. But this is a big ask, so now you’re going to owe me one.”
His warm, familiar laughter made me smile. Moving away from my family had been the only downside to my relocation to Colorado.
“That’s not how this works,” he said. “We’ll be even if anything. Don’t you remember when Nick wanted to bribe the judge on his case?”
Heat flooded my face. My partner had hidden his corruption incredibly well until he’d been caught. Then it had seemed like almost a game to him.
My hesitation must have betrayed my emotions because Patrick’s voice dropped the teasing tone. “It’s okay, Dec. You know I’m used to shit like that. He wasn’t even close to the worst of my clients. And I was happy to do that for you. Okay?”
I was the youngest of five boys. They’d always been just as protective and loving toward me as my parents had been.
“Okay. Yeah. Ah… speaking of Nick, Tessa showed up here last night.”
“Really? Is she okay? I saw her about six weeks ago when Nick signed away his parental rights. Since you’re listed as her next of kin, she told me I could disclose it to you.”
I hadn’t known she’d listed me as next of kin, but she’d told me about the parental rights. Thank god. Nick Kimball had never been father material.
I thought of how Tess had been so exhausted she’d burst into tears before I’d taken her inside and put her to bed. “She’s not okay. It’s been rough on her back in LA, financially and emotionally. Her business dried up, and all her so-called friends have suddenly evaporated. I told her to stay here with me for a while. I have room, and she needs someone in her corner.”
“She’s lucky to have you. It’s probably good for her to disappear until this crap dies down. As long as some of these bribery cases are still making their way through the courts, it’s going to remain active in the tabloids.”
At least Nick’s plea deal had saved us all that long, drawn-out process. He’d begun serving his long sentence as soon as Patrick had made the arrangements.
“I’ll have to find her a doctor or midwife, but I have a friend whose sister is a nurse. I’m sure she can help.”
“Good. Listen, I have to go. Things might not be busy in a small-town sheriff’s department, but they’re bonkers here. I’m due in court in about twenty minutes. Call Mom. She got downright sniffly the other night because you weren’t there for her special spaghetti and meatballs.”
I ended the call laughing. Our mother made spaghetti from a jar with frozen meatballs and tried to pass it off as an old family recipe passed down through generations from some Italian ancestor who didn’t actually exist. As soon as we were old enough to figure it out, we started calling it “Mom’s special spaghetti and meatballs,” and it cracked us up every time.
Leave it to Patrick to lift my spirits. My improved mood lasted all of ten minutes until Penny announced the arrival of “that adorable boy from that show.”
“Send him in,” I grumbled.
Somehow in the twelve or so hours since I’d seen him last, Finn Heller had become exponentially more attractive. Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me with an attempt to downplay his looks in my memory. But here he was in the flesh, about as sexy and