They all nodded, except for Pierce who was jotting stuff down on his pile of papers. If he was listening to the conversation, he didn’t give any indication. People began to congratulate them on their engagement. She continued to smile like an idiot while receiving handshakes and hugs from colleagues.
Time turned fluid, and Anna got lost in her own thoughts. The urge to flee returned as people pressed in upon them. It could have turned into a nightmare. Skylar wedged himself between her and the associates so that she was only approached by one person at a time.
She rested a hand on his back, grateful for the save.
Now all they had to do was keep up the pretense for a few months without getting caught. That shouldn’t be a problem. Right?
♥♥♥
That afternoon a few minutes past two o’clock almost everyone in the office building had left for their Thanksgiving weekend. Anna wasn’t in a hurry to leave. She’d let her secretary go at eleven. The woman had a husband and a home with grown children on their way to the house from various places to spend time with her. Holidays made Anna feel especially lonely, perhaps even a little depressed.
She sat at her desk, leaning back in her expensive chair while her feet dangled a few inches above the beige carpet. There wasn’t a single photo on her desk. Unlike the other lawyers with their firm, she didn’t have any living relatives. Did she regret that? Sometimes. Marriage and kids were not on her list of things to do. But deep down she sometimes fantasized about having a family.
A knock on her closed office door startled Anna. Her heart sprinted in her chest as she bolted upright in her seat, hands pressed flat on the desk’s surface. A lump lodged in her throat at the thought it could be Skylar. What would she say to him?
She swallowed convulsively. “Come in!”
Her spacious office seemed to shrink with the entrance of John Griffin. His unexpected presence rattled her. He stared at her without speaking until she almost spilled the truth right there at his feet. A tremor shook her slender frame. Maybe he already knew they’d lied. Maybe he blamed her, thought she had corrupted his son.
His brown eyes softened, and he smiled. “I wanted to officially welcome you to the family.”
“Th-thank you.”
“I just got off the phone with my wife. She asked me to extend an invitation to our Thanksgiving dinner.”
Terror seeped into her heart. Never in a million years did she imagine that as one of the consequences of their lie. Skylar’s family wanted her to join them for the holidays. She couldn’t possibly keep up the pretense for that long. She held a hand up and struggled to refuse without offending the senior partner. “Oh, no. I can’t possibly.”
“Do you have plans withyourfamily?”
“Well, no, I...I don’t... uh, have...”
“That’s settled then.” He clapped his hands together once. “We want to get to know the woman who finally convinced our son to give up the bachelor life. Have Skylar drive you up in the morning.”
Frantic, she searched for a reasonable way out, but she couldn’t think straight with her intimidating boss staring holes through her. Was it her imagination or was he searching her eyes for the truth?
On his way to the door, he said, “I want you to know that youdid earnthe junior partnership, and everyone here knows it now. Skylar told me after the meeting you were worried your relationship with him might have colored my decision, but I swear to you I had no idea. None of us did.” He pointed at her. “You have a bright future ahead of you at this firm, Anna.”
He’d called her by her first name.
The senior partner had called her by her first name.
A bubble of joy grew inside her, but it burst when she remembered why he was in her office. He thought she was about to marry his son. Would he still want her working at the firm after she and Skylar broke up?
Slipping into business mode because it was easier than talking about her personal life, she rounded the desk and handed him the folder with information on her new client. “I got off the phone with Christian Sabatino about an hour ago, and they are signing on.”
John Griffin skimmed over the documents. “Do you have any idea how many times someone from this firm has tried to bag that whale? Skylar befriended Sabatino a few years ago andstillcouldn’t convince the man to use us. How did you do it?”
She kept her lips compressed, knowing Christian Sabatino wouldn’t approve. The truth was Anna had gone up against his former lawyers in court a year before joining Griffin, Hyde, and Pierce. Sabatino was being sued over telling a woman applicant that he wouldn’t hire her because she was a woman. Big mistake. Anna had won the case and her client a quarter of a million dollars. She had expected Sabatino to be angry, but he’d handed her his business card on his way out of the courtroom. With a definite twinkle in his eye, he told her to call if she wanted to move up to corporate law.
Sabatino offered her a job on his legal team.
An hour ago she’d convinced him to make Griffin, Hyde, and Pierce hisnewteam.
John shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. You are a definite find, a rare jewel. I hope my son appreciates you.” He held the folder up. “This will stop any lingering doubts people might have. When we hired you, I told everyone you would become one of our finest assets.”
“Thank you, Mr. Griffin.”
“Call me John. I am, after all, going to be your father-in-law.”