Page 21 of It's Always Been You
I turn to Allie and Jordan, who are still cuddled up on a single chair.
“Do you each want your own chair for the business portion of this meeting?” I ask dryly.
“Nah.” Jordan just squeezes Allie tighter. “I have a twenty-four hour shift starting at seven tonight, and Allie is on tomorrow. I’ll just keep her close now if it’s all the same to you.” He gives me a cheeky grin, and he’s too adorable for words.
“You do you. So, why don’t you tell me what you need from me?”
“It’s kind of…sensitive,” Allie says, glancing around like there’s someone to overhear her.
I get up and close my office door, then take the vacant chair next to them. “I know we’re friends, but now I’m also your lawyer. Everything you say in here is confidential. Unless you specifically tell me to share it, it stays here.”
“Okay,” Allie breathes a sigh of relief and glances back at Jordan. He gives her an encouraging nod.
“I know we made it seem like what we need is straightforward, but it’s a little more complicated than that.”
I give her a reassuring smile. “There’s no one better at complicated than I am.”
“I know. I trust you. So, no one knows this, but over the past two years, I’ve been working on a medical device. It’s a little complicated, but the gist of it is that it’s a kind of patch made with human stem cells that can help heal the hearts of kids suffering from heart failure. I know it sounds a little like science fiction, but it’s not. It’s real, and it works, and one day it’s going to save thousands of children who would otherwise die of heart failure while they wait on the transplant list.”
“Allie,” I breathe, trying to grasp the enormity of what she’s telling me. “That’s incredible.”
“Isn’t it?” Jordan asks, looking at his fiancée with awe. “So many lives are going to be saved, and it’s all because of her.”
“So, tell me what you need from me.”
Allie hesitates for a second. Jordan runs a hand down her arm and her whole body relaxes. “Tell her, baby girl.”
“I’ve been working with an intellectual property lawyer to patent the device, and the patent just came through. As soon as it did, the hospital offered to buy the patent from me for, well, a shit ton of money.”
“Do you want to sell it to them?”
Allie nods. “I do. I can’t do anything with it on my own without a big institution to back me up. The Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh is a premier research institution, and they’ll doright by it. I trust them, and my IP lawyer looked over the deal and dealt with their people. It’s all on the up and up. People already bring their kids here from all over the world for treatment. This would be one more reason why. The reason I’m here is the money. It’s…well, it’s a fucking insane amount of money, and I want to make sure it’s handled properly from a tax standpoint and whatever the fuck else. We don’t really need it now, but one day we’ll have kids, and they’ll go to college and whatever. It’ll probably come in handy then. That’s your area of expertise, not mine.”
I nod. “It absolutely is, and I can help you. I’ll need copies of the patent and all the correspondence with the hospital. I assume the offer is in writing?”
“Yeah, it is. I brought some stuff with me, and I can have my IP lawyer send you all the rest.”
“Works for me. I’ll need you to sign an engagement letter to make this all formal and everything and give me permission to contact your IP lawyer. Once I get all the details from them, I can put together a plan for you, and we can meet again to talk about it.”
Allie lets out a sigh of relief and leans over to hug me. “Thanks, Mol. This has all been…a lot. And it’s been hard to keep it quiet.”
“I’ll take care of it. I’m really good at my job. But Allie, I’m fucking impressed. You’re amazing.”
“She is, isn’t she?” Jordan runs a hand over Allie’s hair and kisses her on the side of her head. “I’m definitely marrying up.”
He grins, and Allie leans back against him.
“Love you, baby girl. Proud of you,” he whispers in her ear, and I see her eyes go soft.
Watching them has me thinking of the blue-eyed guy who once whisperedI love youin my ear and looked at me like I was his beginning and end.
And I’d be lying to myself if I said I wasn’t looking forward to seeing him again.
Chapter Six
Gabe
It’s a different sort of experience, walking in the door to Molly’s office for the second time. First of all, I have an appointment, so I know she won’t kick me out. Or, at least, I’m pretty sure she won’t. Second of all, I’m dying to see her again. It’s like now that I’ve finally seen her and talked to her, I need to do both of those things all the time.
