Page 71 of Flirting with Forever

Mary shook her head. Right. She was in public. Her heart was galloping, she had underboob sweat and she was in public.

The last twenty-four hours had been a mess. Mary had yo-yoed from outrage to pain to everything in between.

Mary pushed thoughts of her judgmental mother from her brain and thought instead back to Friday night. John’s confident hands at her back, her cheek over his heartbeat.

She grabbed cereal off the shelf and tossed it into her cart, moving to the next aisle. She thought of John smoothing the strap of her sundress over her shoulder, the weight of his hand at her collarbone.

“John likes me,” she told herself.

I was expecting someone younger.

Different stages of life.

Interestingly enough, when Mary heard those two phrases this time, they were in her mother’s voice in her head, not John’s. Those two simple sentences didn’t paint a very flattering picture of how John felt about her. But she was done letting those handfuls of words outweigh everything else. The way he’d smiled at her on the dance floor. His hand at her back when she’d met his father. His fingers laced with hers on the train. He’d given her his bed, for goodness’ sake.

And the hug. She could finally let herself think of the way he’d held her in her kitchen after the break-in.

It had been medicine, that hug.

Maybe she’d even known then, that things had changed between the two of them. Because those kinds of hugs were rare. And he’d given her two of them.

John liked her. Maybe, technically, she wasn’t quite sure if Thursday was a date or not. And maybe, technically, she still hadn’t seen his eyes track her up and down the way they had that waitress, but he’d danced with her like he’d wanted her. And that was enough for her. For now, that was enough.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ITWASWEDNESDAYnight at 5:00 p.m. that John was nearly brought down to the sidewalk in a sweaty, joyful hug. Hang Nguyen’s mother, Cuc, was sobbing into John’s shoulder and leaning her whole weight on him.

“Mom!” Hang said, trying to pry her mother off of her lawyer, but it was no use. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Modesto-Whitford.”

“It’s okay,” John said, a blisteringly big smile on his face as he patted Cuc’s back. “I know exactly how she feels.”

Hang broke into a smile herself, still nervous at the edges, tight with emotion even as she blinked with relief. She gave up on trying to pry her mother away from John and just plunked herself down on the nearest bench. “Oh, my God,” she muttered into her hands. “I can’t believe it’s over.”

“It’s officially over,” John repeated, his smile threatening to helicopter him straight into the ominously gray cumulonimbus that was creeping up from the edge of the horizon.

Cuc said something to Hang in Vietnamese.

“Yes, Mom. You’re right. Come sit.” Hang patted the bench beside her and finally Cuc released John’s neck only to give her daughter’s neck the same treatment. The two women hugged and cried, and John gave himself the small pleasure of soaking it in. There were so few moments like this one as a public defender. When the world quieted and the only thing buzzing through his veins was good news.

All charges dropped. The jury had found Hang Nguyen innocent on all counts. This good-hearted young woman would not be serving time she didn’t deserve to serve. She would not be spending time and energy and worry inside the walls of that courthouse. She would sleep well tonight.

And so would John.

The three of them walked to a meeting room in the public defender’s office, where he explained things in full to them, walked them through the next steps. They spoke for another twenty minutes, exalting in their shared victory. And then the mother and daughter went on their way. He left a note for Sarah on his way back to his office. She didn’t accept presents of any kind from her staff, but she had a hell of a thank-you card headed her way.

Richie had already left for the night, so the office was quiet and hot as John sat there, buzzing, looking at the ceiling.

He’d won.

Hang had won.

He’d fought tooth and nail and saved years of this girl’s life. This, right here, was worth every late night, every moment of worry. Every taunting comment from his father.

There was a knock on his door and John lifted his head just as Crash Willis stepped inside.

“Willis.”

“Whitford.” There was a long pause and then Crash gave him an unexpected smile. “Reynolds told me about your win just now. Congrats.”

---