Sadie had seen a whole lot in her years as an attorney. There was the time her divorcing client got it on with her soon-to-be ex just outside of the courtroom where their marriage was to be dissolved.
That happened.
The time she discovered her client had siphoned off hundreds of thousands of dollars from the family business prior to filing for divorce.
Totally happened.
What she had never seen was a super-hot guy with tree trunks for arms cuddling a newborn while she reassured a client about the custody arrangements of her fish.
Dinner was over, and Marlee and Eli were asleep upstairs after coming down long enough to eat and check on Luke. This time, Marlee had fed him upstairs with the door closed.
Roman was now on Luke duty since Sadie was taking a late-night emergency (but not really) client call in the dining room.
Marine-based life form custody disputes were an area of law Sadie had never needed to dig into. However, she believed in expanding her horizons. Mostly, though, intuition whispered that this case was a slam dunk. A slam dunk as a first case in her new practice would break the curse of her former firm and set her free in Denver.
“I promise your fish don’t need their own legal representation.” Sadie yawned, pressing the back of her hand against her mouth.
Luke was adorable, but man, he was needy.
Also, he had her tied around his teeny tiny pinky finger. True to Roman’s word, Eli and Marlee were the recipients of solid—even if sometimes interrupted by Luke’s demands—sleep.
“They’re just so unhappy.” Tonya truly sounded distraught. Prior to this meeting, Sadie’s custody disputes had all involved mammals who breathed air, lived above ground, usually walked on two legs, and mostly went to public school.
“The fish?” Sadie confirmed. She was tired, but she didn’t think she’d missed a whole chunk of conversation.
“Uh-huh.” Tonya’s words were slightly muffled. “They’re not happy at all.”
“How does one determine if fish are happy?” Also, how had Sadie gone to law school and spent tons of money on multiple degrees to end up right here, asking this question?
She wished she was about to embark on some great legal drama, but this was just a standard slam-bam-thank-you-Sadie divorce, Fish Edition.
“They’re like people. If they get depressed, they stop eating. They stop socializing. Things like that.”
When Sadie got upset, she ate everything and called her friends. But to each their own. Sadie wasn’t one of the women who lost pounds after a breakup. No, when the guillotine dropped on her own love stories, Sadie went out to buy a bigger size in pants. Lucky for her, and thanks mostly to Oliver for opening her eyes, she didn’t date often enough for this to be a consistent problem.
“Okay,” Sadie said brightly, ready to move the conversation away from the social life of critters who lived in a confined tank. Their social calendar was clearly more involved than her own, and well, that wasn’t something she wanted to have to discuss with her life coach.
“We’ll go over your requests in the morning and I’ll get them over to Rex’s attorney.” A squirrely guy named David who may seem unsuspecting at first but had a reputation for taking chunks out of his competition. Sadie was watching her back around him. She also knew how law communities like this worked. Once she bested him on this case, she’d officially be in the in-crowd. That meant respect from her peers, more clients, and a strong practice—all good things.
“Should I have seen this coming?” Tonya asked. “I mean, maybe Rex is right, and we just need to try again. Try harder.”
Waffling was bad when it came to divorce cases. One little slip and they’d find themselves with the sticky end of the lollipop.
Even though Tonya couldn’t see it, Sadie shook her head for good measure. “No one expects a relationship to end, but trust me, when it gets to this point, it’s best to just end it.”
“Are you divorced?” Tonya asked.
“No,” Sadie replied. She’d learned way too much over the years to even get married in the first place. Sadie settled in. She didn’t make it a habit to discuss her personal life with clients, but when it came to men? She told the Oliver story. “The thing with most men is that they are totally out for themselves. Their own needs. Their own desires. They don’t pay attention to what others need. They don’t care what anyone else needs. So they stomp all over anyone in their way—even if they do care.”
With very few exceptions in her experience.
“I don’t think Rex meant to ignore me,” Tonya said.
“But he did. There’s a good lesson here though. The important thing is not that you get to stay together, not that you get a divorce, and not that you beat yourself up over making a mistake. The important part is that you learn so you don’t make the same mistake twice.” Sadie should call Becca. As a therapist, she would be oh-so-very proud of Sadie and her life lessons.
In a world where everyone was out for themselves, a girl had to take care of number one.
“I’ll plan on seeing you in the morning.”
“At the cookie shop again?” Tonya asked.
Well, yes.
Their official attorney–client meetings to review Tonya’s divorce demands were not happening in Sadie’s plush office, because Sadie did not have a plush office. Or any office at all. She had a desk in her apartment or, presently, a dining room table with leftover tilapia at Eli’s.
The table was quite nice—Marlee had excellent taste. Mahogany with leather chairs that Sadie was pretty sure Luke would eventually wreck when he started toddling.
Sadie pushed aside her finished plate from dinner. She hadn’t had a moment to clear the table before Tonya called, frantic because Roger—of the slightly illegal-to-own aquatic variety—was depressed.
His depression problem became Sadie’s problem.
The absurdity of discussing the future of fishtopia after consuming their brethren was not lost on Sadie.
No actual office location meant that Sadie met her new clients in the birthday room at Heather’s Cookie Co.
She was a professional, so she needed to find an office. Unfortunately, Denver’s real estate bubble made it nearly impossible to find anything in her price range.
“Have you ever had to make a big change that made you nervous?” Tonya’s voice wobbled.
“I have.” Sadie nodded. “When I came back home to Denver.”
“I can’t lose my babies,” Tonya whispered.
“That will not happen.” Sadie caught Roman’s gaze through the glass window dividing the dining room from the living room and kitchen.
Roman stood with Luke held against the blue tee he wore with the tight sleeves. Luke was so little he fit perfectly in Roman’s two hands.
“Promise?” Tonya asked.
What was Sadie promising again? Right, the not losing of the fish babies.
“Absolutely,” Sadie replied.
And she meant it.
With crisis averted and client content, she opened the door to the living room.
“How is he?” she asked.
“He is my new favorite Howard.” Roman smiled down at Luke, who, for the first time, was awake but not making a big deal about it.
The whole house had the soft, quiet, middle-of-the-night vibe going on with dim lights and a warmth that only came from houses where love grew. Like her parents’ house.
Her dad. Eli. They were good guys.
They were not the norm.
“So Luke is your new favorite?” she asked.
Roman nodded.
“Bummer for me, huh?” Sadie wrinkled her nose. “Not being the favorite.”
“You’re a close second.” Roman swayed with Luke, so natural Sadie couldn’t quite believe he wasn’t well-versed in children. “But Luke here doesn’t try to negotiate with me.”
“Actually, I think he’s a master negotiator.” Given that he only had to make a noise and everyone hopped to.
“What about Eli? I figured he’d take the second spot?” Sadie asked, her joke falling flat as Roman’s expression shifted.
“He’s not as pretty as you,” he said with a note of significance.
The air between them felt electrical, and Sadie was losing a grip on her resolve to leave Roman be.
“Where’d you learn to do that anyway?” Sadie asked, watching Roman rock softly to a beat only he heard as his eyes never left hers.
“Do what?” Roman continued the sway motion that Luke was clearly digging.
“The sway thing.”
“What sway thing?”
“The thing you’re doing literally right now.” She glanced to his hips. Sure enough, they were initiating the sway.
“I didn’t realize I was doing anything.”
Well, he was, so…
“Sadie, I—” he said at the same time she said, “Rome—”
They both stopped talking, and Eli’s carpet suddenly held a whole lot of interest for both of them.
“You go first,” Roman encouraged.
“I was just going to suggest that we both take turns getting some sleep.” That was not what she was going to say. She actually wasn’t sure at all what she was going to say.
Roman nodded. “Good call.”
“What were you going to say?” she asked.
“I was going to tell you that I’m glad I get to spend time with you. Even if it’s just babysitting time.”
Oh.
That was nice. Really nice.
“Thank you. For telling me before that I look…”
“Pretty,” he said again, the deep timbre of his voice making her crave more words from him.
When was the last time a guy who wasn’t a blood relative had given her a compliment? And why was she having such a hard time accepting it? And why was Roman looking at her like he really believed it?
Most of all…why did it make her feel so light…so out of breath…so…good?