Private Lives. Karen Young

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СКАЧАТЬ pocket. She wasn’t fooled by his casual air. There had been nothing casual about the way he’d gone after her and Gina on the stand yesterday. And this close, he seemed taller and more intimidating than he’d been in the courtroom.

      She resisted an urge to ease back and held her ground. “I don’t know what we could possibly have to say to each other, Mr. Paxton.”

      “You heard the warning Judge Hetherington gave Austin and Gina. I thought you and I might help ward off the Third World War.”

      “The way I heard it, the judge assigned that task to you and Maude Kennedy.” Elizabeth glanced toward the attendant who was brewing the cappuccino. With a hiss of the machine, he completed the creation and handed it over. She took it and began walking away. Ryan followed.

      “I’d still like a minute to talk about it.” With a light touch on her arm, he steered her toward an empty table. Wishing she hadn’t indulged her craving for coffee, Elizabeth allowed him to pull out a chair for her. After the session in the courtroom, she’d left Gina and Maude to begin hammering out some kind of workable agreement with Austin and Ryan, telling Gina to meet her at the coffee bar in an hour. It surprised her that Ryan had left his client unprotected with Maude Kennedy. She hoped Maude was taking advantage of his lapse in judgment.

      When she was seated, he took the chair opposite. “You must be feeling pretty good about the judge’s ruling,” he said.

      “What makes you say that?”

      “It’s obvious, isn’t it? Gina gets the kid, the money…two thousand bucks more than she asked for. Plus, you’re off the hook. She can get an apartment and you get your privacy back.”

      “Do you practice being obnoxious, Mr. Paxton? Or were you simply born that way?”

      “You mean you wouldn’t mind if Gina stayed with you indefinitely?”

      “I mean exactly that. Gina and Jesse are family. I love them both. They’re welcome in my home as long as they want to be there.”

      He slapped his briefcase into the empty chair at the table and dropped his head back, looking at the ceiling for a moment before straightening up. “I’m screwing this all up.”

      “Screwing what up?”

      “My peace mission. Trying to get your help on this whole stupid situation before it turns into something we’d all rather avoid.”

      “Like what? Like Gina might get attacked again by that sadistic jerk? Or, worse yet, he might turn on Jesse? How would you like that, Mr. Paxton? How would you feel if he lost his temper when Jesse spills her milk or…or leaves a toy on the stairs or breaks something that he prizes? Children do that, you know. How would you like it if she landed in the ER with a broken arm? Or a concussion? Or worse!”

      He was shaking his head. “Come on. You’re exaggerating. Nobody produced a scrap of evidence proving Gina was roughed up by Austin. And you’re not going to make me believe he’d hit that little girl.”

      “I’m not going to be able to make you believe anything except what you want to believe,” Elizabeth said bitterly. “You’ve convinced yourself that Austin’s okay. Odd, since you probably don’t even particularly like him. At least, I didn’t see much evidence of strong male bonding between the two of you during the two days I’ve had to observe. Your attitude is so typical. You won’t let yourself think that a fellow lawyer, a well-educated contemporary from a privileged background could be a cruel, vindictive, violent creep, will you?”

      “Not without something more than the word of two—”

      “Lesbians?”

      Again, he was shaking his head. “Ah, I don’t believe that.”

      “Then why did you insinuate it to Judge Hetherington?”

      “I’m a lawyer. I use whatever tactics I can to benefit my client.”

      She stood up, nearly tipping the coffee over. “I never could understand why anybody would want to be a lawyer and you’ve reassured me about my instincts.”

      Ryan touched her hand. “Wait, wait a minute, Ms. Walker.” The look she gave him was so furious that he fell back. “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t approach you to stir things up worse than they are between Austin and Gina. Believe it or not, I’m trying to do some good here.”

      “How, in God’s name, are you trying to do good?” she asked, genuinely baffled.

      “I need your help in trying to get Gina and Austin to work something out for the sake of the kid…for Jesse’s sake. And I don’t think it’s going to happen if it’s left to them.”

      “I can promise that Gina is more than willing to do whatever it takes to work out something for Jesse’s sake. She loves her child more than life itself.”

      “And Austin doesn’t, is that what you’re saying?”

      “If the shoe fits.” She wadded up her soaked napkin and tossed it and her unfinished cappuccino into the trash. “And now, if you’ll excuse me…”

      He caught up with her just as she stepped outside into bright sunshine. “Don’t you even want to try?”

      She put a hand up to shade her eyes and stared at him. “Excuse me, but it’s difficult for me to believe that you’re thinking of Jesse and Gina, Mr. Paxton. The only way this could have been worse is if Austin had been given full custody of Jesse. Then she really would have been lost to us. This way, Austin will still be in her life and in Gina’s, I’m sorry to say.”

      “Ryan.”

      She blinked. “What?”

      “I’m Ryan, not Mr. Paxton.”

      “Look,” she said, drawing a weary breath and digging for her car keys, “the only two people who are relevant in this…this agreement that the judge has decreed are Gina and Austin. And nothing you or I can do is going to affect that. I don’t quite understand why you felt comfortable leaving your client with Gina and Maude, but without you they may be able to work something out. Maude is smart and coolheaded and even Austin must respect her.”

      “Yeah, and it would be nice if Maude was in there with them. Unfortunately, when they booted me out, they booted her out, too.”

      Keys forgotten, Elizabeth stared at him. “What do you mean they booted her out?”

      “Just what I said. She—” He stopped abruptly as a sporty BMW stopped at curbside, brakes squealing. The driver was a woman. “Damn it all,” Ryan muttered as she got out of the car and looked over the top of the car at him.

      “Where the hell have you been?” she growled, snatching sunglasses from her face. “Why do you have that damn cell phone if you aren’t going to bother answering it?” She was halfway around the front of the car now. “I’ve been trying to reach you for hours, Ryan. Damn it! You’re impossible. You’re—you’re—”

      “Excuse me a moment,” Ryan said to Elizabeth in a grim tone, adding, “Don’t go away. I still want to talk to you.” He intercepted the furious woman, catching her by the arm just as she stepped up on the sidewalk. But even though he turned СКАЧАТЬ