Page 66 of Kiss Me Now
“How’d it go?”
“Fine. Good dinner, good company.”
“Don’t lie to Gran.”
“I’m not. She was a nice lady with lots of interesting things to say.”
“You were bored.” Gran’s voice held such a note of certainty that I couldn’t deny it.
“How do you know?”
“Ian, how many times do I have to tell you: if you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you’ve always got. And you always date the same kind of woman.”
“There’s nothing wrong with the women I date.”
“Except that they’re all in DC. I know you like women with strong personalities to stand up to you and busy careers so they understand your devotion to yours. Am I wrong?”
“No. But there’s nothing wrong with a strong-willed career woman.”
“Nothing wrong at all,” she agreed. “And that’s exactly what Brooke is and why I picked her for you. She was just smart enough to leave DC before the city started eating her up. She throws herself into her work here as much as anyone you’re going to date in that town. That place is giving you a hard crust, Ian. It’s not good for you. It would be different if you were spending time with the good people there. But you’re always dealing with the rats and weasels.”
She wasn’t wrong. There was no point in arguing, but I tried. “I like Brooke, but I’m not what Brooke wants. Give me a couple of weeks to get her out of my system before I come back around.”
“Fools, the both of you,” she declared. “Neither of you knows what you need.”
“Can I just get a gold star for respecting her wishes?”
More grumbling. “Fine. But stop dating lawyers.”
I decided to ignore Gran’s advice and went out with a couple more lawyers in the next two weeks in between working on the Rink case. They were both attractive, smart, and ultimately like every other woman I’d dated since graduating from law school. Both dates only made me think of how easy it was to hang out with Brooke.
Luckily, work kept me too busy to dwell on it much. We wereso closewith the Rink case. All we needed was a witness willing to go on record about her experiences with him. If we got one, another would follow. But all of them were either bound by non-disclosure agreements or too worried about the senator’s reach to come forward.
“Keep looking,” I ordered Sherrie after our fifth victim declined to go public. “There are more out there, and one of them will eventually help us take this guy down.”
“You got it, boss,” she said, rising from her seat. “Hey, not to overstep, but I have a niece coming into town who I think you’d like. What do you think about me bringing her by to meet you? Maybe you guys could grab lunch or something.”
“Sure, that sounds great. Just promise not to quit on me if we don’t hit it off.”
“Never, boss. I’ll bring her by Friday. She’s a cutie. Look,” she said, pulling up a photo to show me. Her niece was a striking brunette with dark eyes and bold red lipstick.
“Cutie is underselling it. But can she carry on a conversation?”
“Top of her class at the Kennedy Institute,” she said proudly.
“Thanks for thinking I’m a decent enough guy to introduce her to.”
Sherrie rolled her eyes and pointed at me. “Saying stuff like that is exactly what makes you a decent guy. You’ll love her.”
“I look forward to it,” I said. She left my office with a wave, but despite meaning every word I said to her, I found myself clicking away from a picture of Rink’s weekend home to do a search on porch swings instead, because somehow, imagining Brooke having one of her own and spending a lazy Sunday afternoon in it had become the calm I needed in the never-ending capital rat race.
