nosy bastard when it came to her. My phone buzzed in my cupholder, and I swiped it up, checking the screen.
Mom: You need to return Alicia’s call. I didn’t raise my son to be so rude. She is extremely distraught.
Alicia had pulled out the big guns and called my mother. Too bad my mom’s guilt trips didn’t work quite as well as they used to. I dropped the phone back into the cupholder with a thud.
“The ex again?”
I shook my head. “Worse.” Kenna arched a brow in question. “My mother.”
She let out a bark of laughter. “Good to know someone can still put the fear of God in you.”
“You have no idea.”
Kenna glanced down at her lap, her laughter fading. “We haven’t talked about the lawsuit.”
I hadn’t wanted to talk about it because I didn’t want to see the pain and worry in Kenna’s face—the way it was flickering to life now. I’d wanted to simply take this away and deal with it myself. But that was impossible. “The first court date is next week.”
Kenna’s fingers twisted in her lap. “Is it usually that fast?”
“No. The system generally moves at a snail’s pace.”
“So, Grant must’ve thrown his weight around.”
A muscle in my cheek ticked. It shouldn’t have been surprising that Grant had found a way to jump the line, but I was still shocked at how quickly he’d managed to get on the court docket. “I guess those relationships run deep, even though they’ve been gone for over a decade.”
“Or their pockets run deep,” she muttered.
“Do you think they’d try to bribe court officials?”
Kenna looked up at me, her gaze full of a mix of pain and determination. “I think they’d do whatever they had to do to get what they want.”
23
Kenna
The trembling in my fingers was the only thing that gave me away. That tiny little shake as I smoothed my hands over the gray pencil skirt I wore. Everything else was a carefully crafted lie that said I had it all together.
“You look beautiful and business-like. I promise.” Caelyn gave my elbow a little tug. “We need to get going.”
I let out a shaky breath. A week had flown by. After work each day, I split my time between visiting Zoe and giving Crosby every last morsel of information that might be helpful in his fight against the Abbots. Every night, Crosby and I ended up tangled in my sheets, and I lost the will to ask him to leave. His presence, when so much else was up in the air, was calming. The feel of his body wrapped around mine was the only thing that seemed to lull me to sleep.
“Kenna?” Bell waved a hand in front of my face. “Earth to Kenna?”
“Sorry, what?”
She grinned at Caelyn. “I said I had to fight Crosby pretty hard to be the one to drive you to the courthouse.”
I stiffened as I took in my two best friends, who both wore cat-that-got-the-canary smiles on their faces. “He probably just wanted to go over what would happen today.” Despite the time Crosby and I had been spending together, we hadn’t been overt about it. And that was by design. I didn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea about what this was between us. But even as I had the thought, something inside me rebelled against it. This thing between us…it was already turning into more.
“You two have been spending a lot of time together,” Caelyn hedged.
I gave a shrug that I’d intended to look casual but was far too forced to be convincing. “We’re just hanging out.”
“Hanging out, huh?” Bell drummed her fingers against her lips. “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”
I groaned. I should’ve known that I’d never be able to hide something like this from these two. “I might’ve misjudged him a little.”
Bell’s brows flew up. “That’s a hell of a one-eighty from calling him a slacker lawyer.”
I winced at how hard I’d been on Crosby. How wrong I’d been. He was nothing like Grant, growing up in privilege and believing the world owed him everything simply because he existed. Believing there were no consequences to his actions. Crosby might live his life on his own unique terms, but he showed up for those who were important to him. Always.
“He’s a good man.”
Caelyn’s hands flew to her mouth. “Holy snickerdoodles! You’re sleeping with him.”
My cheeks heated, and I couldn’t meet Caelyn’s gaze. And that was all Bell needed for confirmation. “I knew it! Pay up,