Private Lives. Karen Young

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СКАЧАТЬ out.” Lifting his hand, he pushed Gina ahead a little more forcefully than she expected, but she quickly regained her balance and picked up her pace to match his as they headed toward the car.

      “Seems in a hurry,” Ryan observed, watching as Gina was hustled into the Porsche.

      “It’s necessary…before she changes her mind.”

      Ryan shifted his briefcase to his left hand and urged Elizabeth into a walk. “I think I’ve just been dissed big-time,” he said dryly.

      “I wouldn’t expect a bouquet of flowers tomorrow from your client if I were you,” Elizabeth said, still frowning at the Porsche that was peeling out into heavy traffic. But concern and disappointment were a thick knot in her throat. He’d done it again. He’d smiled and mouthed a few smarmy words and Gina had caved, just as she and Louie had feared.

      “All I need now,” she said mostly to herself, “is to get back home and find a message that she’s decided to go back and live with him again.” She was barely aware that it was Austin’s lawyer beside her.

      “I don’t think that’ll happen.”

      “Oh, it could. She’s done it many times.”

      “It might be difficult this time. Three’s a crowd and I’m not counting Jesse.”

      She gave him a quick glance. “He has another woman already?”

      He shrugged. “He hasn’t admitted it. I’m just repeating gossip.”

      “Isn’t that a breach of ethics? The man’s your client.”

      “As I said, it’s only gossip. Besides, Austin’s parting salvo makes me think he’ll be looking for fresh representation soon.”

      She would have laughed, but she was simply too disheartened. “It won’t matter. He’s in damage control mode and we’ll only know how much damage he’s controlled when Gina gets home tonight.”

      “I thought they were just having lunch,” Ryan said.

      “Oh, they’ll have lunch all right…and then he’ll persuade her to spend the afternoon with him to give him more opportunity to get her to rethink her attitude. Then he’ll treat her to dinner in a great restaurant. It’ll be expensive and romantic, a place to remind her of all the perks that come from sleeping with the enemy.”

      As they neared her car, Elizabeth fished her keys out of her purse and chirped the remote to unlock it. But before she climbed inside, Ryan stopped her.

      “May I ask you a personal question?”

      “Ask anything you want, but I certainly don’t promise to answer.”

      “It’s about your friendship with Gina. Anyone can see that the two of you are nothing alike. From what I learned about her after I took on the case, Gina’s made some really bad choices. Granted, Austin’s not a very reliable source, but on the stand yesterday you said the two of you have been together as foster kids since you were five years old. Tell me, why is her personal life a wreck and yours almost the exact opposite?”

      “Almost?”

      “Well, nobody’s perfect. So, unless you’re going to tell me something bad, my comment stands. And my question.”

      “I’m not going to tell you anything, Mr. Paxton. My personal life is just that, personal. And private.” She got into the car, but he caught the door before she could close it. “What?” she demanded. Both hands on the wheel, she looked straight ahead.

      “You have a reputation for avoiding publicity, for reclusiveness. Don’t you know that the more mysterious you seem, the more intriguing you are to your fans? Avoiding them just adds to your mystery. Throw a few scraps out there and they’ll back off. And it’s Ryan, not Mr. Paxton.”

      “Reporters don’t want scraps, they’re hunting red meat. I have a right to avoid anyone prying into my life. Thanks for the advice, but no thanks.” She put the keys into the ignition and started the car. Getting on a first name basis with Ryan Paxton was another thing she wanted to avoid. “And my fans won’t care—because they’re children.”

      “How do you communicate with them, other than your books, of course? By e-mail on the Internet? Letters? What?”

      “Letters mostly.” She could just drive off, but he’d unknowingly touched on something she was not reluctant to share. “And I answer them all, each and every one.” Her fan mail came from children, innocents who wrote from the heart. Elizabeth understood that need to communicate. She knew how it felt to write a letter when you still believed there was someone out there who would listen. And she knew how it felt to wait expectantly for a reply that never came.

      “Kids send you letters,” he said, considering that with a half smile. “You must get some real cute stuff.”

      She thought of the eight-year-old whose letter lay even now waiting for a reply in her in basket. The child’s younger sister needed a heart transplant. Would Elizabeth please tell the child’s parents that she would like to give her sister “half of her heart?” “Sometimes they aren’t very cute.”

      He still blocked her leaving, standing with his weight on one hip, his left hand resting on the door frame of her car. She didn’t wait to hear what else he had to say about her career or her personality drawbacks. Instead, she reached for the handle of the door, forcing him to move back, and closed it smartly. “Goodbye, Mr. Paxton,” she muttered to his receding outline in her rearview mirror.

      Ryan stood for a minute watching Elizabeth drive away. Okay, he’d satisfied his curiosity. He’d had a conversation with her out of the courtroom. Away from her pal and soul mate, Gina. He hadn’t made up the reason for seeking her out, not exactly. He knew, if left to his own devious devices, Austin would chew Gina up and spit her out, sans any financial settlement, no matter what the court decreed. And just to ease his conscience, he was going to give Curtiss Leggett an earful about his prick of a son. He might not be as black as the two women had painted him, but he wasn’t a boy scout either. So, Ryan’s motive in talking to Liz was honorable. Sort of. He also wanted to talk, one on one, with the daughter of the man who was responsible for John Paxton’s death.

      He’d watched her for a few minutes at the coffee bar before approaching her. She was easy on the eyes, as gorgeous in person as her press photo. In fact, he’d had a hard time keeping his thoughts in line when he had her on the stand in the courtroom. He admired her loyalty, too. She was as fierce as a mama tiger defending Gina. Or possibly, it was the little girl, Jesse, who stirred the fires in her breast. Beautiful breasts. He’d had no trouble imagining the feel of them in his hands as he stood talking to her, even in that severe suit with the starched blouse underneath. But he didn’t intend to get caught up in any sexual fantasies about Elizabeth Walker. He had other, more compelling reasons for getting to know her better.

      Her old man was dead, killed in a house fire just a day or two after his dad’s suicide. That much was public knowledge. But information beyond that about Judge Matthew Walker was extremely hard to come by. Maybe Elizabeth was a possible source. She’d been only five when he died, but she probably had his papers, his files, a record of the cases he’d been involved in at the time of his death. If she hadn’t destroyed them. Being a foster kid, her possessions might have been lost as she’d been palmed off to one anonymous family after another.

      He СКАЧАТЬ