Page 64 of Danny Hall Gets a Lawyer
“I was,” I said. I edged past Chase and followed Danny down to the kitchen. Got stared at by Wilder and Cash as we passed the living room. “Right about now I should be looking forward to drinks tonight at a cocktail bar so exclusive there’s not even aname on the door, celebrating my new job with Winston, Baker and Fisk.”
He leaned against the counter and folded his arms over his chest. “So, why aren’t you?”
As though I hadn’t been asking myself the same question the whole way back here.
“Why’d you drop the lawsuit against Harlan?” I asked him.
Danny’s mouth twisted. “He’s got Alzheimer’s, or dementia, or something like that. It wouldn’t be right.”
“You would have gotten such a good settlement.”
He shrugged and said again, “It wouldn’t be right.”
And that was why I was here.
My whole life I’d worked toward something like the job with Winston, Baker and Fisk in New York. The fast pace, the money, the lifestyle—yes, even those sixty- or seventy-hour weeks—and the prestige. Because that was what success looked like, and eventually you got the payoff of the corner office and the partnership.
Except I’d seen what that looked like in real life last night. Ezra Fisk had taken me out to dinner to welcome me to the firm and meet some of the team I’d be working with. Successful, ambitious people, all of them perfectly friendly and polite, who’d spent the entire dinner talking about the grade of the Wagyu beef on the menu, which wines were best, and whether it was even worth owning a car in the city nowadays.
And all I’d suddenly wanted was a cheap burger from a grill on a sagging back porch in Goose Run. The whole day I’d been ignoring the unease in my gut because it made no sense when this was everything I’d wanted. Just nervousness at the job interview, I’d told myself, but the unease hadn’t gone away even after Ezra Fisk had told me I’d gotten it. If anything, it had grown. And what Callahan had told me kept playing through mymind: Danny and Jane had dropped the lawsuit because Harlan wasn’t well.
Because, as Danny had told me twice now, it wouldn’t be right.
And things made a lot more sense now, like the pieces of a puzzle slotting into place, when I hadn’t even known I’d been trying to put it together to begin with.
Danny let out a long breath. “So, why aren’t you at your fancy cocktail bar?”
“Because I didn’t take the job.”
“What?” His jaw dropped. “Why would you do that?”
“Because it’s not what I wanted.”
“It is, though,” he said. “You always said it was.”
“I was wrong.” I swallowed. “I thanked them politely but told them I’d had a better offer and caught an early flight back. And also, if that offer is still on the table, I’d like to date you.”
He dragged a hand through his hair and gave me a wild look. “No.”
I blinked. “Oh.”
He pointed at me. “Tell me you didn’t give up a job in New York forme, Miller. Because I live in Goose Run and only own two pairs of shoes. Wait, three. I mean, I know I give incredible head, but not ‘worth quitting your dream job for’ head, because there’s no such thing!”
“Okay,” I said. “Firstly, I didn’t quit. I just didn’t accept their offer. And secondly, maybe turn the volume down a little unless you want your roommates to know all about your blow job abilities. Which are admittedly stellar, yes.”
“Right,” he said, flushing. “Yeah.”
“Danny, I didn’t refuse the job for you. I did it forme. But I maybe did itbecauseof you. When Callahan said you and Jane had dropped the suit, I couldn’t believe it. Whodoesthat? Like, who thinks doing the decent thing is more important thanmoney?” I almost laughed at the shocked expression on his face. “What you’re thinking right now? Exactly.Exactly. And I don’t want to be on that path. I don’t want to be the guy who thought that. And I don’t want to work in a place where doing the decent thing isn’t my first instinct. I became a lawyer to help people. You helped me remember that.”
His face did something complicated, like he was considering Chase’s offer to punch me. “I don’t want to be the reason you didn’t take the job, though. Because that seems like a lot of pressure. What happens when you decide you made the wrong choice?”
“I won’t,” I said. “I can’t pretend you had nothing to do with it, because if I hadn’t met you, I probably would have taken that job in a heartbeat. But if I blame you, then I’ll also have to blame Marty, who is actually weirdly inspirational when it comes to tree law, and Callahan, and everyone in Hopewell who just drops into the office to say hi, and my mom, who changed the subject when I told her I was taking the job—if you knew my mom, you’d know that means she disapproved—and especially my dad, who told me to follow my gut. Which is what I’m doing now.”
Danny’s mouth twitched up in the beginnings of a smile. “Wow. Are all your speeches this passionate? Because if they are, no wonder that firm wanted to hire you.”
“Shit, no,” I said. “Most of them are concise and cite the law and precedent. And you make me more nervous than any judge or jury.”
He snorted.
