She hesitated and then slid off her shoes and curled her legs under her. “I’d been in New York for a couple of months, and I came across him in the park. Someone had dumped him. I took him to the vet, then to the adoption center and then I realized I didn’t want anyone else to have him.”
“You’d never owned a dog before?”
Her heart started to beat a little faster. “I had a dog as a child. His name was Toffee. He was a chocolate Lab. I adored him.”
“It’s always hard to lose a pet.”
All she had to do was nod and move on. She didn’t have to correct his misunderstanding, but for some reason she wanted to.
“Toffee didn’t die—at least, not then. My mother took him.”
“Took him?”
“When she left.” She leaned forward and cut a thin slice of cheese. She added it to her plate, along with some plump tomatoes and one of Eva’s mini quiches. “Turned out that although she could easily live without my father or me, she didn’t want to lose Toffee. That was hard.”
“I can imagine. You suffered two losses at once. That’s tough on anyone. Even tougher when you’re a child.”
He understood. Not because he’d handled it in his work, but because he’d handled it himself. Maybe that was why she felt compelled to tell him things she’d never told anyone else. “It was especially hard because when she tried to explain why she was leaving, she told me she wanted to be free. But then she took Toffee.” She paused. “So what that told me was that she wanted to be free of me.” The food on her plate lay untouched.
Daniel’s lay untouched, too. He was still, his gaze fixed on her face. “Hell, Molly—”
“It’s fine. You don’t have to work out what to say. There really isn’t anything to say. I expect you hear stories like that all the time in your working day. You’re probably immune.”
“I’m not immune.” He hesitated. “This is why you don’t date?”
“No, of course not! That happened when I was eight years old and I moved on long ago. Am I wary? Of course, but so are a lot of people, yourself included. Dealing with people at the end of their marriage must tarnish your view on life.”
He looked as if he was about to say something else and then changed his mind. “Sometimes. But I try and extract the positive from every situation and help people find the best way to resolve their issues. Sometimes that’s counseling and conciliation.”
The thought made her smile. “You’re a guy who talks about his problems?”
“Talking is what I do best. I talk to clients, if necessary I talk in court, in front of a judge.”
“I’m sure you’re good at that.” She decided to confess. “I looked you up.”
“On the internet?” He seemed more amused than annoyed. “Now I understand why you were reluctant to stay on your own with me. Which piece did you read? The one where they paint me as being a cross between the Dark Knight and Gladiator, or the one where they call me the Heartbreaker?”
She thought back to what she’d read. About how he was a master at strategy, finding the weak spot in his opponent. Then she remembered her racing heart rate and her jelly legs and decided that where he was concerned, all of her was weak.
“I know better than to believe everything I read.” She thought about what he’d discover if he did an internet search on her. Maybe he already had. If he had, he wouldn’t have found anything. There was nothing out there about Molly Parker. And if he’d found out by some means, they’d be having a different conversation. “You have quite a reputation.”
“The media like to exaggerate thing
s.”
And didn’t she know it. “That’s why I read everything with a critical eye for the facts.”
“And what did your critical eye tell you?”
“That you almost always win your cases, so either you’re very, very good or you only take cases to court if you think you can win. Which probably makes you wise as well as good at what you do.”
“A contested divorce is never my first choice for anyone. Having said that, I would never recommend that anyone engage the services of a divorce attorney who is afraid to litigate in court. If you do, you have little to no bargaining power. You need someone who is prepared to fight for your best interests, but who also knows when to settle. The ideal outcome is an early resolution.”
“You settle? I would have thought you would go after victory every time.”
“‘For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.’”
“Excuse me?”