Page 31 of Fierce-Trent

Eli was giggling and he knew this had to be a game they played and thought he’d ask. “A cookie sounds good. We’ll get two,” he said. “You can punch it in.”

Trent knew as a kid that was half the fun.

Both cookies dropped down and Eli gave him the first one and the child kept the second for himself. “Thank you,” Eli said.

Eli had manners, that was for sure.

“You’re welcome. So three minutes. Is that how much time you get in hide and seek too?”

Eli giggled and started to walk back to Roni’s office. Not running this time, but walking. He was too busy trying to open his cookie. The kid was smart and was going to start to eat it before his mother might take it away.

Trent opened his and handed it over and took the one in Eli’s hand.

“Thank you,” Eli said again. “And no, Mom only gives me one minute for hide and seek. Our apartment isn’t that big. Not as big as my father’s house, but he never plays with me.”

Oh boy. He was getting information without asking and didn’t even feel good about this.

He had to steer it in another direction fast.

“I used to love playing hide and seek when I was your age. But I played with my older brother and younger sister. Raina, she’s my sister. She was the best, but she was the smallest and could fit in more spots.”

“That would be fun,” Eli said, taking a big bite of his cookie. “It’s just me. I’ve got friends where I live and when I’m at their house and playing we just play video games. They think hide and seek is dumb.”

“Then they don’t know what real fun is,” he said seriously.

They got back to Roni’s office and she was still on the phone but was standing there waiting anxiously, he could see.

Eli was giggling loud, having thought his statement was funny.

He pointed to his watch and held up three fingers and a thumbs up. He was going to skate out of there fast, but she asked the person on the phone to hold for a minute.

“Eli,” she said.

“I said thank you,” Eli said. “I really did. Right, Trent?”

“Mr. Davenport,” she corrected.

“I didn’t know his last name,” Eli said. “But I heard you call him Trent.”

“You can call me Trent if your mother says it’s okay. Mr. Davenport is my father and much older than me. I’ve got more hair and it’s not as gray.”

“You don’t have any gray hair,” Eli said, giggling some more. “Not that I can see, but you’re so tall. Unless you color it. Do you do that?”

“Eli!” Roni said. He could see she was mortified, but he just laughed.

“I don’t color it yet. I might be vain enough at some point in my life,” he said. No, he wouldn’t, but the kid was laughing and he was enjoying the interaction. “And your mother has a call to get back to and I’ve got work to do. It was nice to meet you, Eli.”

He held his hand out for the little boy to shake and was impressed with the firm grip. “Nice to meet you to, Mr. Davenport.”

“Trent,” he said again. “If your mom lets you.”

He made his way out of Roni’s office and adjusted the strap on his shoulder holding his laptop and some files, as he’d just come from court.He was pretty sure he looked like a fool running after the kid in his suit, with his shoulder bag hitting him across the back.

“You’re eating a cookie from the vending machine?” Janine said to him. Her eyes were zoomed right in on that.

“No,” he said. “I got it for my favorite paralegal.”

He handed it over. He’d always joked that he’d never eat a cookie out of a vending machine. He’d seen her eating them before and figured he’d get on her good side.

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