Page 86 of Just One of the Groomsmen
And honestly, some of the exercises she did with people meant leaning over them, and she’d rather be able to move without popping buttons off the type of shirts she didn’t even own.
“Do you understand?” Mr. Watkins asked.
She gritted her teeth in an approximation of a smile. “I understand.”
“Good. Push it and I’ll change it to skirts.”
He couldn’t do that, could he? Unless he was wearing a freaking skirt, and people would pay toavoidseeing that.
How could she do her job if she was constantly flashing everyone? Ugh.
“My reputation is the one on the line. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s my name on the door.”
Oh, she’d noticed a lot of things today. The lawyer definitely had a hand in this, too, so as for him? She sure as hell wasn’t going to be nice to him after this.
…
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Tucker mumbled when he went to answer the door Monday morning and saw five people lined up on his dock.
The only explanation he could think of was that they thought he was violating some town rule, but unfortunately for them, he knew the boating and housing laws better than any of them could even dream of.
They all started talking at once, and while one conversation merged into the next, he realized it wasn’t about boating laws at all but that each of them had brought their legal woes to him.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Do any of you see a sign on my boat? One that says ‘Law Offices of Tucker Crawford and Associates’?”
He wasn’t sure who the associates would be. Gators and mosquitos. And Flash, of course.
“Do you need me to make you a sign?” Mrs. Jenson, his third-grade teacher, asked. “I can have my Jimmy print one up at his shop by the end of the afternoon. He does real good work.”
If she hadn’t been part of the crowd, maybe Tucker could’ve kept up the grumpy hermit act. Now he’d never know. “What did you need, Mrs. Jenson?”
“I was in line first,” a lady with a huge folder of papers muttered. She looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t place her.
“Just call this international waters—there are no rules.”
Mrs. Jenson stepped forward. She held up a finger, then dug in her purse and pulled out two crisp dollar bills. “There’s your retainer. Now, do I just say what I need, or do we go into your…” Her brow furrowed. “Office?”
As much as he loved Addie’s grandmother, he was going to have to… He struggled for what mental threat to make, even though he’d never act upon it.
Not just because he was nice, either. The woman would somehow sense it and come scold him, and he couldn’t have his very first client in Uncertainty unhappy, or she might sendeven moreclients his way out of spite.
“We’ll head around to the front deck.” He turned to the rest of the people in the group, noticing one couple in the mix. “I’ll be with y’all shortly.”
This probably fell in theif you can’t beat ’em, join ’emcategory.
“You really should have some chairs if you’re going to make us wait,” the stickler-for-rules lady said, and he blew out an exhale, hoping it’d help his thinning patience.
He settled Mrs. Jenson in a deck chair and sat across from her. “I’ve gotta be upfront and tell you that I don’t have a law firm here in town.”
“So you’re not a lawyer? I thought you just got fired, not… What’s the word?” She snapped her fingers, the same way she’d done when she was teaching them state capitals and lost the name of the city herself. “Disbarred.”
“I didn’t…” While he wanted to metaphorically stomp his foot and say it was no one’s business and he didn’t care what they thought anyhow, he figured it was time to clarify he hadn’t been fired. “I actually quit my old job, and I still have my license. But I’m not the only lawyer in town—just the only one not currently practicing.”
“Those other two…” Mrs. Jenson shook her head. “One’s so old he falls asleep halfway through a meeting, and the other is a…” She glanced around and then leaned in. “He’s an asshole.”
“Mrs. Jenson! I should send you to the principal’s office.”
She appeared mildly reprimanded before cracking a smile. “There’s no other word for him. Some city guy who thinks we’re all gullible idiots. He doesn’t even try to hide he feels that way about us, either.”
