Page 86 of A Lesson for Laurel

“Jesus. I’d love to just work seven hours a day.”

“Not even,” she said. “He took an hour for lunch too.”

She was laughing when she said it. “Guess his father was okay with it.”

“I have no idea. Philip was spoiled by his mother more than his father. Not my problem anymore. What about Rachelle? I’m assuming she didn’t like the amount of time you worked either?”

“Not really. But it’s not avoidable either. It comes with the job and being a partner. You can’t just like half of it.”

“No,” she said. “We both learned that the hard way.”

When they were back at his place, her phone was ringing on the counter and Easton was close enough to pick it up. “Looks like it’s Denise.”

He tossed her the phone and she caught it. “Hello, Denise.”

“Sorry, Laurel. I’ve been out of service and didn’t know what was going on.”

“You’re on call this week. It’s your responsibility to be in service or have someone cover your day for you.”

“I didn’t know I’d be out of service in some spots. I’m at a family reunion and when I was walking around my phone just went off. I noticed all the messages. I’m about three hours away from the plant. I was driving when all the calls came in.”

She ground her teeth. “If you were going to be out of town that far away, you should have covered your shift today.”

“Everyone knows to call me,” Denise said.

“And they tried. But we know how this went, don’t we? I’m out of town too and have no access to people’s numbers.”

“What happened then?” Denise asked after a moment of silence. She didn’t know if it was a concerned pause or the service again.

She got it now. In Denise’s mind, she had a backup plan in Laurel. So if she wanted to take her time getting back to people, someone else would always deal with it.

“I got a hold of Patty who took care of it all.”

“That’s good,” Denise said. “I’m glad it all worked out.”

She knew her eyes got wide. “We’ll talk about it on Monday. Please be in my office at ten.”

She hung up after that. “Wow,” he said. “That was kind of sexy.”

“I was much calmer than I wanted to be.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll talk to Lily first on Monday before I meet with Denise and go from there,” she said. She wasn’t one that fired people and wanted to give them a chance. Maybe she’d been too nice with Denise, but she was going to make it known this shit wasn’t happening again.

“And now you can put it from your mind,” he said. “How about a movie tonight?”

“A movie sounds good. An action flick.”

“Has anyone ever told you how perfect you are?”

“I wish,” she said.

“Then I’ll do it,” he said. “You’re perfect for me.”

“I feel the same way. You know what would be even more perfect?”

“What?”

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