Page 15 of The Wrong Side of the Law

“Okay. I’ll add that to the list, then. Lisa’s helping me sort some of this stuff out, when she has time.”

“Oh, good. You’ve already got a lawyer, then.” Rita grins viciously, showing plenty of teeth. “Find out where the money went, save what you can, and kick that witch out so hard and fast she’ll have broomstick splinters in her ass and the flying monkeys will need at least a week to catch up.”

“Ugh. I can’t do that. Kick her out, I mean.” I sigh. “There’s days, though. There’s days. I just can’t do it. For Francis’s sake, at least. It would kill him.”

“No faster than she will.” Rita looks pissed again. “You know she took him out of school?”

“I would hope so,” I say. “He graduated last year.”

“No,” she tells me. “He didn’t. Once you went off to New York City she yanked him out of school. Once you left, he never went back.”

“What?” I gasp. “I don’t… that doesn’t make any…”

“I know, right?” Rita throws her hands up, disgusted. “Margaret pulled him out of the best private school in the county and told them that her little daaaahling had better things to do than waste his time there.”

“I’m… wow. I seriously don’t even know what to say.”

“Margaret said plenty for the both of you, honey.” Rita pats my hand, then makes air quotes with her fingers. “She said Francis wasgoing places. She said that she was busy working full time as his manager, and that Francis needed to be practicing guitar, not memorizing the state capitals or some other such stupid crap.”

“Maybe there was something to it after all,” I say, barking out a short, bitter chuckle. “Francis sure as heck knows all the state capitals now. Or at least the ones on his tour itinerary. But how do you know about all this?”

“Emily. I already told you. It is my business to knoweverythingthat happens in this sleepy little town. I gotta pay for that condo somehow.”

Rita goes quiet for a moment while the waitress drops off two sodas, but once the woman is out of earshot she takes my hands in both of hers and continues. “Seriously, Em. You have got to let her go. She’s going to drag you down with her, and she’s not headed anywhere you want to be.”

“She’s family,” I say, shaking my head. “You know what that means.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I sayshe’s going to drag you down with her? I misspoke.” Rita rolls her eyes at me. “What I meant to say wasshe’s going to push you down ahead of her to cushion her fall and then blame you for tripping her.”

The pizza arrives, and silence rules the table for the time it takes to eat the first slice. I know that Rita is right about Margaret. I flat out know it. But no matter what she’s done, she’s still Francis’s mother, and she was still my father’s wife.

“Okay, lecture delivered,” Rita says, washing down the last bite of the slice with a gulp of soda. “So what’s the deal with the job interview? Where was it? What’re you wanting to do?”

“Huh.” The unsettled feeling from earlier is back, and stronger than ever. “That’s sort of the thing. I’m just not really sure how it went.”

Rita’s raised eyebrow asks the question her mouth—full of pizza—can’t.

“Oh, I got the job. That wasn’t even a question. I had the job before I even went to the interview. Lisa and Barbara—do you know Barbara Randolph? I’m not sure—but between the two of them, I had the job already.”

Rita swallows, hard.

“Slow down, girl,” I tell her. “You’re gonna choke on that!”

“I’m gonna chokeyouif you don’t make with the damn story!”

“Okay, okay! The State Attorney’s office. I’m basically going to be a paralegal-slash-admin assistant. The interview wasn’t to get hired so much as it was to see if I’d go tothatjob or to a different office. But something…” I shake my head.

“Oh. Well, then. Something.” Rita giggles. “It makes perfect sense, then. Something!”

Rita’s laughter is infectious.

“Quit picking on me!” I say, kicking her shin under the table. “But seriously, though. I’m going to have the hottest boss in town, starting tomorrow morning.”

As soon as I say the words, it hits me. The feel of his hand on mine, warm and strong. Firm, but gentle. The weight of his eyes when he looked at me; and how it made me sit taller, hold my head straighter and put my shoulders back. Was I just putting my best professional foot forward, desperate to make a good impression? Or had I been responding to something in his gaze? Was I imagining it all?

“Oh my God,” I say, finally understanding what had been nagging at the back of my mind all afternoon. “That’s it. I’m going to have the sexiest boss in town.”

Across the table, Rita stares at me in shock. No, more than shock. Her nose is crinkled like she just smelled a week-dead skunk, and the rest of her face is twisted up in disgust as if she’d just been forced to take a bite of it.

---