Page 31 of A Legal Affair
She’d filled her life with other, more important things, like taking care of her mother and helping her brothers establish the detective agency. She didn’t have time to do much more than daydream about Prince Charming. She daydreamed about them antiquing on a lazy Sunday afternoon, taking a romantic drive through the Hill Country and stopping for a picnic somewherealong the way. She daydreamed about them traveling the world together, slow dancing on a moonlit beach, walking hand in hand in the rain. Most of all, she daydreamed about being kissed. Such a simple yet powerful thing that very few men—at least in her experience—had taken the time to master.
Caleb Thorne is probably an amazing kisser.The thought immediately conjured up a memory of his firm, sexy lips glistening wetly after he’d sampled her ice cream.
Daniela scowled, even as she crossed her legs under the table.
She wondered how many eager female students Caleb had kissed, caressed, then taken home to seduce. And how many times had he and Shara made love? If Daniela was foolish enough to sleep with Caleb, would she become just another notch on his bedpost? Was he heartless enough to take from her without giving anything of himself in return? He’d obviously done a serious number on Shara Adler, who’d heretofore struck Daniela as a smart, savvy, no-nonsense woman who wouldneverbe reduced to waiting on the sidelines for a man to finish sowing his wild oats.
Daniela frowned.
Somehow she’d thought Caleb Thorne was different from all the other men she’d encountered in her life. And although she knew it shouldn’t matter that he wasn’t, it did.
Mattered more than it should have.
12
Crandall Thorne grimaced as two needles were inserted into his vein, then connected to a plastic tube suspended from the dialysis machine beside his chair. Lights blinked on the machine that monitored and maintained his blood flow while administering dialysate, a clear fluid used to draw waste products from his blood. For four hours he would be chained to the detested machine, with nothing more to occupy his mind than reviewing the case files his associates had couriered to him that morning.
And then Caleb sauntered into the room, and suddenly the required four hours of treatment became a great deal more bearable.
Caleb saw the way his father’s face lit up when he entered the sunroom that doubled as Crandall’s home treatment center. But by the time he sat down in a wicker armchair beside him, the old man was wearing his typical poker face.
“You know you didn’t have to come all the way up here,” he said gruffly. “I don’t need my hand held.”
“Do you see me holding any hands?” Caleb retorted. He grinned at the woman standing beside Crandall, adjusting levers on the dialysis machine. “How ya doin’, Ms. Ruth?”
“I’m doing just fine, Caleb. And don’t you pay your father no mind. You know he’s always happy to see you. He’s just too proud to say so.”
Ruth Gaylord had been hired as Crandall’s private nurse over the summer, shortly after he was diagnosed with acute renal failure. Although she’d only been around for three months, she already seemed like a member of the family.
Her skin was the color of melted brown sugar, her black hair liberally woven with strands of gray that she claimed had been put there by her ornery employer. But, as she told it, thirty years of marriage to a temperamental man had been her proving ground for working with the likes of Crandall Thorne. Widowed three years ago and retired from a stressful career in oncology nursing, she’d been working as a home healthcare provider as a way to keep herself occupied between visits from her four grown children, who were scattered around the country.
“Are you done fooling with that machine?” Crandall groused at her.
“Calm down, or you’ll get your blood pressure up.” She made one final adjustment and then patted his arm, gentle despite his brusqueness with her. “I’ll be back to check on you in a little bit. Caleb, would you care for something to drink? I believe Gloria made a fresh batch of sun-brewed iced tea this morning before she left. Sweet, the way you like it.”
Caleb smiled at her. “Maybe later, Ms. Ruth. I drank a gallon of water on the way up here, so I won’t be thirsty for a while. But thanks, anyway.”
After the woman left the room and closed the door behind her, Caleb shook his head at his father. “I don’t know why anyone puts up with you.”
“They put up with me because I pay them more than they’ve ever received anywhere else,” Crandall asserted. “Thatincludes everyone who works at the firm, right down to the administrative assistants.”
Caleb considered it, then gave his head another shake. “Nah, I don’t think that’s it. Hard as it is to believe, I think some of them genuinely like you, old man.”
“Old man, nothing. I may be hooked up to this confounded machine, but I can still take you across my knee, boy.”
Caleb chuckled, stretching out his long legs. “You heard Ms. Ruth. Don’t get your blood pressure up.”
Crandall scowled without any real rancor. With his free arm, he set aside the paperwork he’d been preparing to review and slowly removed his rimless reading glasses. He regarded his son in silence for a prolonged moment. “You didn’t tell me you had a visitor on Tuesday.”
Caleb stiffened at the reminder, then said levelly, “I didn’t think it was worth mentioning. Besides, you obviously didn’t need to hear it from me.”
“Still, it would have been nice.”
“Why?” Caleb challenged. “Would it have changed your mind about taking Lito’s case?”
Crandall’s lips flattened with displeasure. “I haven’t agreed to take his case.”
“But you will. I know you will.”
