Page 6 of For the Love of the Lawyer

Clearly, he’d pissed her off, so Jon decided to send her some flowers to make up for his callous reaction. She really was a gem when he compared her to the other assistants at the firm with whom he was vaguely familiar, and he didn't want her to leave him.

Jon knew if she told Sherman she didn't want to work for Jon any longer, it would be a done deal and he’d be on his own. He refused to work with any of the others he’d encountered from time to time when Karen was busy with Sherman, to whom she was a prize as well. Jon knew his standing on that totem pole… way at the bottom.

After eating at his desk, Jon carried the salad container to the kitchen to throw it away and grab a bottle of water. He was about to return to his desk to finish a new draft of the domestic partnership agreement he'd worked up for Matt Collins when he heard humming behind him. Jon turned to see his father in the kitchen with a trash bag of his own.

"Hey Pop. How's your day?" Jon asked as he washed his hands at the sink while his father made himself a cup of coffee.

"Your mother's going to the farm this weekend, and she wants me to come along. I hate going to the country.” Hamilton Wells had always complained about going out to their second home.

Jon laughed. "You're full of shit. You love going out there, you just don't like to ride horses. It's her thing, Pop. You've enabled Mom for far too many years. It’s too late to change things now." Jon couldn’t help but tease his father, not surprised at seeing the big grin light up Ham’s face.

His parents owned a horse farm in Dillwyn, Virginia, about an hour away from Richmond. The house, of course, was massive as most of the houses in hunt country were. They’d owned it for several years, and Jon had spent enjoyable times there when he was younger.

There were six bedrooms, five bathrooms, a great room, a large, glass-enclosed atrium/trophy room, and a game room, complete with a pool table and theater seating in front of a ninety-six-inch television.

There was a pool and pool house with an outdoor kitchen. The large veranda had an outdoor fireplace. Behind the house were large riding fields for his mother to practice her various equestrian pursuits, which were her passions, and Jon knew his father would rather sever an arm than give up the property, regardless of how much he bitched about going to the country.

Allison Granger Wells worked for the city of Richmond as a marketing executive. She was the face of the city as far asextolling its prospects for media events, potential movie sites, and convention opportunities to promote it as a great historic, southern destination. She was very successful at her job, and Jon was proud of her, but not nearly as much as his father.

He knew for a fact his mother was Ham’s whole world, and the man wasn’t afraid to show it every time he was within arm’s length of Allison. His father didn’t believe it made him vulnerable to laud Jon’s mother’s accomplishments to everyone at the firm.

Ham and Allison lived in a large house in Henrico, just outside of Richmond, and his time growing up in that home was filled with wonderful memories. Jon had an idyllic childhood, even with his mixed-race parentage in a city that didn’t exactly embrace them when they’d first gotten married and moved to southern Virginia. The Wells’ had many parties at their home with the more progressive socially elite of Richmond and Washington, DC. His parents had established an annual tennis tournament held on Memorial weekend, the proceeds of which went to children's charities in Richmond and the surrounding area.

His father and Sherman Langley were the tennis players in the group. Marnie loved to garden and cook, and Allison was the horsewoman. They all, however, joined forces to host many charitable events at the ranch or at their homes in Richmond. Jon and Audrey tried all their parents’ hobbies, and truly grew up as free spirits. It wasn't a bad way to ease into adulthood.

The memories from those events were precious to Jon and served as a good example for him and Audrey regarding those less fortunate and how fulfilling it was to give to worthy causes. The two of them took on more pro bono cases than any of the other associates at the firm, and he knew their fathers were proud of them for their selfless acts, though he doubted their co-workers appreciated the pressure.

Ham chuckled, obviously seeing he’d gotten lost in the memories of times spent at the farm. "I guess you’re right about changing things at this stage of the game. So, you want to come out for the weekend? I could use some company. Mom's getting ready for breeding season, and I hate the new barn manager, Clyde Chambers. He's a pompous jackass, and I believe he has designs on your mother as a benefactor for some sort of Ponzi scheme he’s dreaming up. I honestly don’t think it’s in my best interests to let her go out there without me present to guard the coffers.”

Jon laughed. "Mom said he's the next best up-and-comer on the circuit. Have you started doubting her character assessment skills these days?"

Jon had been at the awards dinner where his mother met Clyde Chambers, who was escorting one of Allison's cronies that night. His mother had chattered excitedly with the younger man before the awards ceremony kicked off. She was set to win her last high-point trophy that night before she retired from the hunter-jumper show circuit.

He knew his father was relieved that his mother was retiring. Ham had always worried she might suffer an injury, but he’d supported her without fail. Jon hoped for that kind of devotion someday.

"Pop, I can't commit to the weekend, but I had the guy checked out for you and he seems to be legit. Unless you can talk Mom into quitting her job and managing things herself, you're just going to have to suck it up. Mom needs a barn manager, and she likes the guy. I don’t think he’s a threat, from what I read in the report I gave you.” As his father seemed to contemplate the information, the phone rang in Ham's pocket, and the two of them parted ways.

Jon went back to his office, seeing Matt Collins' file on his desk. He flipped through it to reacquaint himself withthe information he’d gathered when he was apprised of Tim's entrance into Matt's life. It reminded Jon why he'd made the draft agreement so stringent in the first place, certain it would be rejected offhand.

With the latest iteration of the agreement, they'd have room to negotiate if it ever came to be that Matt and Tim were going to register as domestic partners. He'd definitely steer them away from anything as remotely stupid as marriage. It was a no-brainer for him, and he was sure he could convince Matt he was right and head off that mistake at the pass.

Jon was interested in what the high-powered female attorney from Philadelphia wanted to discuss. Matt Collins was still pissed at him regarding a joint custody clause he'd suggested to ease the way for a quick divorce from Roberta Collins. Jon desperately needed to redeem himself with his client, so he didn’t lose the man’s business.

He knew for a fact Matthew Collins could be irrational when it came to his son, Ryan, but Jon supposed if he were a parent, he’d be the same. He hoped when it came to dealing with issues regarding the relationship with Tim Moran, calmer heads could prevail.

Chapter Three

After his earlier heart-to-heart with Tim, Mickey decided he needed to have a conversation with Josh and Miss Katie regarding his indiscretion with Ethan Sachs. They'd been good to him during the time he'd worked at the ranch, and he hated the idea he might disappoint them.

They were the first people who took an interest in him as a person, not just another ranch hand. His own family had been a fucking disaster, so he wasn’t exactly accustomed to people who cared, but the Simmons’ family had shown him there were good people in the world.

Mickey’s father, Joey, was a musician who moved Mickey and his mother to Nashville from Gainesville, Florida, in hopes of getting some studio work. All Joey got was a heroin addiction and a possession charge, sending him to prison due to the drugs he was caught with when they stopped him. They charged him with intent to distribute, which was something Mickey never told anyone, though he was sure it was his father’s intention. Of course, he had no idea what happened to the man after he went to prison, nor did he care to ever try to find out.

Mickey's mother, Lola May, on the other hand, had worked several jobs before Joey went to jail. He was playing small gigs in dive bars in Nashville, and she was trying to support his career so she worked to try to take the pressure off Joey so he could allow his creativity to flow and write songs. That was what Lola always told Mickey when he asked after his father.

Mickey knew Joey wasn’t writing songs while Lola was working two jobs to support the family. He kept his mouth shut because if she believed his father’s bullshit, who was he to tell her the man was passed out drunk when he got home from school.

Lola worked hard to care for the family, and to make up for his father’s lack of appreciation, so Mickey tried to be a good boy and give her nothing to worry about in hopes of making her life a bit easier. He even tried to make food for her so she could have something to eat when she got home from the dry-cleaning job she worked at night after she got off from her housekeeping job at Nashville General Hospital during the day.

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