He broke off when Maureen narrowed her eyes at him. “Not that. We never—no. I meant … We’ll leave it at weird.”
He laid the legal pad on her desk. “What they want is pretty straightforward. You can draft it up, shoot it to me. If you can’t read any of my notes, just let me know.”
“You have very legible handwriting for a lawyer. You have Mona Carlson in about twenty minutes. The divorce—which she may actually mean this time. Then Grant Feister at eleven-thirty, DUI. Only two appointments this afternoon, but that’s a good day, Zane, for your first full week up and running.”
The phone on her desk rang. “And that may be one more. Good morning,” she said into the receiver. “Zane Walker, Attorney-at-Law.”
* * *
He got flowers, dropped them off about three in the afternoon. The cheerful woman who greeted him said she would take the flowers in, or she could ask Ashley if he could go in himself.
He told her to just take them. Please.
Since the rest of the day was clear, he headed over to Emily’s with some paperwork she’d asked him to deal with.
He found her standing in front of the house, hands clutched together in her nervous pose as she watched Darby digging a trench with her little machine. Roy and Hallie planted some kind of tree on the other side of the front yard, now bisected with a flagstone path that ran to the front porch, where Gabe and Brody worked together to hang a porch swing the color of chili peppers.
He parked, and since Emily looked as if she might be sick, or run screaming, went straight to her.
Eyes a little wild, she grabbed his arms. “What have I done?”
“I don’t know. What’s happening?”
“She’s digging a ditch. In the yard. It’s for sprinklers or drip something, or—God. It’s irrigation for a shrubbery.”
“Like Monty Python?”
“Oh Jesus, oh God, it’s like Monty Python. She says it’ll have color from spring through fall, and texture all year, and balance the yard, and low-maintenance, and there’s no such thing as a black thumb.”
“If you don’t want it—”
“You don’t understand.” She gave him a desperate little shake. “She starts talking and you just start nodding and thinking, That sounds beautiful, that sounds great. Why didn’t I think of it in the first place? Then she starts doing it, and you’re, What have I done? Look, look at the color of that porch swing.”
“I did. It’s what, red-hot chili pepper?”
“Oh sweet baby Jesus, it is! I picked it. I picked it myself—or did I?” Still gripping him, Emily turned her head toward Darby, narrowed her eyes. “Did I really pick it? I think she has some sort of mind control. I’m not kidding.”
“Take a breath, Em.” To help her out, he gave her a hug. “I can say one thing for certain. The stonework looks awesome.”
She looked down at the walk. “It really does. She’s a genius. I mean, I see it in every bungalow she’s finished, but—”
“Keep breathing. You know what else? I like the swing.”
Emily breathed. “Damn it, so do I. Somehow she always ends up being right. Distract me from my madness. How’s it going with you?”
“Good. I’ve got a handful of clients. Maureen is pretty damn perfect, and I’ve got a line on a summer intern. If I pick the one I’m leaning toward, I’ll be outnumbered by women. Oh, women,” he remembered. “Ashley’s having her baby.”
“Now?”
“Now. She started having it in my office. It was beyond weird.”
Emily tipped her head toward his shoulder. “We’re having a day, aren’t we?”
“You could call it that.”
Her phone signaled, and after a glance at the readout, Emily kissed Zane’s cheek. “I have to run down to the office.”
“I have to get home anyway. Get some stuff done. But here’s that paperwork you asked for.”
“Oh, thanks. Come for dinner tomorrow night, when I’m less crazed.”
“It’s a date.”
He started to walk up, say hi and bye to his cousins, when Darby stopped the machine, hopped off. So he crossed to her instead, studied the trenching.
“So. A shrubbery?”
“It’s always best to appease the Knights Who Say Ni.”
He had to grin. “So I’ve heard.”
She took off her cap to swipe her forehead.
Just what the hell color was that hair? he wondered. Not brown, not really red. But more red than brown in the sun, more brown than red in the shade.
“You’re just the man I wanted to see,” she said as she put the cap back on.
“Need a lawyer?”
“Not right this