Page 68 of Any Cowboy of Mine
“Ah, Sophie. You’d better get ready. I have a feeling you and I are in for one hell of an adventure together.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Brad,” she said, reaching for his hand. He took it, and they walked—neither of them noticing the cold—back toward the house, where Sophie could see Marge and Alan slow dancing through the front window. Penske followed behind, a gallop to his step, his tail wagging with pleasure.
It was going to be okay. Maybe, just maybe, even better than okay. As long as her after-dinner errand didn’t go awry, that was. She was nervous, but with Brad and his family behind her, she knew she could do anything. Sophie would give herself dinner to let the kaleidoscope of emotions spin inside her, then she would be all business, nerves thrown to the cold, mountain wind to make room for the dragons she needed to slay.
It was a good thing, too. Brad dropped her off at the library to retrieve her car with a full stomach and even fuller heart. That one family dinner had been so therapeutic to everyone there, Owen the only one who didn’t seem to understand why everyone in his new family was breaking down into tears and collapsing into each other’s arms. He kept asking if everyone was okay, was there something they all weren’t telling him, then the room would break into laughter, followed by more tears, until Sophie had excused herself to follow up on a work thing.
Promising Brad she’d come back to his apartment when she was done, she kept the rest of her plan a secret, knowing full well what he and his family would have to say if they knew where she was going. They wouldn’t be wrong, either. Heading to Julia’s might not be wrong since she hadn’t taken on Brad’s case as her own yet, but it bordered on witness badgering. Without a doubt, Drew and his whole team would tell her to back off, to take care of the injunction through legal means, but Sophie was following a hunch she hoped would pay off in the end. If it didn’t, they wouldn’t be too much worse for the wear. Hopefully.
Taking a deep breath before she turned Prosecuting Sophie on full blast, she knocked hard on the door twice. She threw her shoulders back and lifted her chin like she was addressing the judge, which in a way, she was. She’d gone home to change on the way to Julia’s, reasoning that looking the part was half the battle. Now, with her hair in a tight bun, her makeup heavier than before, and a tailored suit that hugged her in all the right places, Sophie felt ready to slay in full battle rattle.
The door opened, a very confused Julia staring back at her. Sophie stifled a grin at having caught Julia in what amounted to quite less than battle armor, something that would only work to Sophie’s benefit, she knew from too much experience. Julia had on a grungy pair of sweats that appeared threadbare and unwashed, a baggy T-shirt with small holes scattered across the front like she’d lost a war against moths the perfect accompaniment to the pants. Without makeup, her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail that looked days old, Julia wasn’t attractive in the moment, and knowing what she was capable of made her all the uglier to Sophie.
“Sophie,” Julia said, her pale, cracked lips still parted in surprise.
“I thought you’d remember me,” Sophie said, a smug, tight-lipped smile on her ruby-red painted lips. Julia pulled at her T-shirt, then ran her hands through her hair, trying to tame the flyaways that blew in the breeze. Finally, recognizing a futile attempt when she saw one, Julia crossed her arms over her chest and moved aside.
“Yes, well you’re hard to forget, especially the way we met. Would you like to come in?”
Sophie nodded, stepping over the threshold, a sour smell hitting her nostrils immediately. Chris slept sprawled out on the couch with empty beer bottles scattered around him like he’d fallen in a recycling bin, giving the stench a ground zero. He looked like hell, which helped explain why Julia didn’t look much better. A wave of pity washed over Sophie, which she let pass by. She needed to be ruthless if necessary—pity didn’t factor into her plans.
“So, why are you here? To defend your boyfriend?” The way she spat out the last word should have felt dirty to Sophie, should have stung her in some way, but instead, she only saw a woman in pain, desperate to right the wrongs she felt had befallen her. Julia wasn’t to the self-actualization part of maturity yet. That would be a heavy blow to someone like Julia, the perpetual victim.
Not that any of this mattered to Sophie.
“Well, that depends. I can either be here as his partner,” Sophie said, deliberately choosing a word that carried more meaning than the juvenilegirlfriend. She wanted to convey the idea that she and Brad were a team, working together—which they would be, when Sophie told him how this all went. “Or, I can be here as his legal counsel. That relies entirely upon you, Julia, and how you take what I am about to tell you.”
Julia choked on her sharp intake of breath, and her pale skin lost even more color than it already had. It had the effect of making her look like a mannequin, especially because, when she’d recovered from the cough, she sat perfectly still.
Good, she’s listening.
“You’re a lawyer?” Julia asked. Her voice was barely audible above the deep, rancorous snoring coming from the couch. Sophie had never had two back-to-back, identical questions about her profession come with such differing intonations. Marge had been impressed, eager, while Julia sounded like she might faint on the spot.
“I am. And I won’t lie to you, Julia, I’m a damn good lawyer, too. In fact, I just made partner at my firm, the winningest firm in the state, I might add. So, take that into consideration as we talk.” Sophie remained standing, wanting to impress upon Julia just how much hurt she would bring if Julia insisted on keeping her libel suit against Brad. “What you need to understand, Julia, is that your suit doesn’t have a chance of making it to court. Publishers print addendums in the first few pages of novels that indemnify them against legal recourse such as the one you filed on Brad. Now, like I said, I won’t lie to you. You can take this to civil court instead, sue Brad for defamation of character, but two things you need to know if you go that route. One, it will be damned difficult for you to prove that a character in a fictitious piece resembles you in the slightest, not without having to prove you’re a murderous bitch like Jewel, meaning you’ll pay heavily for legal fees that you’ll never see recompensed.”
Sophie took a deep breath, taking small, guilty pleasure in the way Julia’s lower jaw trembled, how her hands shook, pressed against her stomach.
“And the second?” she asked Sophie, barely a whisper.
“You will not win. I will amass the greatest legal team this side of the goddamn Mississippi to make you sorry you ever met Brad Connors, and I will not feel guilty about it, because the last thing you need to know, is that I see you. I see a sad, scared, little woman who got her heart broken after she screwed up, and instead of eating crow and apologizing to those she hurt, she doubled down. Julia, you did this to yourself. You didn’t have the patience to wait for something as good and kind and talented as Brad, and now you’re paying for it. But make no mistake, the penance is as simple as getting over yourself and moving on like a goddamn adult. If you keep heading down the road you’re on, I’ll make sure you pay with far more than you can afford. Do you hear me?”
Julia nodded. Chris sat up abruptly on the couch, hair standing on end, stubble on his chin unkempt. He grunted and fell back against the arm of the tattered furniture, and at this, Julia broke into tears.
“My… my mom and Chris came up with it,” she choked out between sobs that wracked her body. In any other situation, Sophie would pat her on the back, comfort her, but she didn’t move an inch in Julia’s direction.
“Well, you saw it forward, and it’s up to you to make it stop. And I would, Julia. As a woman who’s been hurt, I can empathize with the way you feel right now, but I promise you will feel nothing but regret if you continue to hurt the best man we both know.”
“Is he mad at me?”
Sophie knew what she needed to hear, could give her that small win, at least.
“No. He wants you to be happy, to move on as well.”
Julia shook with sobs.
“Can I offer you one more piece of advice, woman to woman?”
Julia nodded, sniffling. She wiped her nose on the sleeve of her shirt.
