Barefoot Kisses: A Billionaire Love Story (5 page)

“Probably the best potatoes I've ever had. Even better than Mom's,” I gushed, reaching for another bite. She knocked my fork away with hers to defend the potatoes from me, but I got a fork in anyway.

“You need to marry this guy,” Darcie informed me as she stuffed another bite into her mouth. “Anyone who sends something this delicious has to be a keeper.”

“I'll work on that,” I said dryly. I didn't even have his last name, let alone a way to marry him. I left the potatoes alone this time and took another bite of the salmon. This was the best meal I'd had in weeks.

“Um, how do I get out of here?” A voice asked, disrupting my salmon and potato bliss. I looked up to see the delivery guy standing in the doorway. The attitude from earlier was replaced with a bashful blush.

I looked over at Darcie as she furiously stuffed potatoes into her mouth. There was no way she was going to leave those potatoes. “Don't eat all of it, okay? I need to drop some stuff off with Calvin, so I'll show him out as I go.”

“I make no promises,” she managed to say around her mouthful of food.

I laughed as I grabbed the pictures off the printer and put them and the USB drive with all my findings in a folder. With a little bit of luck, I would have these to Calvin and be back to my food in no time.

“This way,” I told the delivery guy. Since he wasn't offering to carry my books, I was showing him out first. “They really need to put up a sign down here or something. People keep getting lost down here. This is the third time today.”

He followed me silently until he could see the elevators at which point he took off without even saying goodbye.

“Have a great evening!” I called out after him. I wasn't surprised or terribly disappointed when he didn't say anything. Most people around here didn't. Sometimes I wondered if I was invisible or if people really were just that rude.

I groaned as I reached Calvin's office. The light was off. I knocked, and checked the door, but it was locked. Of course, he got to go home while I stayed here working. I hit his number on my phone.

“Hey, Calvin,” I said when his voice-mail picked up without even ringing. “I finished that discovery file you wanted, but you're not here. I'll try Alexa.”

As much as I didn't want to call her, I knew I would get in trouble later if I didn't at least try. Alexa's phone rang twice before switching to voice-mail. I did my best to keep my irritation under control. Instead I went for passive aggressive. “Hi, Alexa. Calvin had me work on that discovery file for the Preston case you were supposed to do. I have it done. I guess they'll just wait until morning.”

I clicked the end-call button and then banged my hand against Calvin's locked door. This was a huge case and I knew the partners would be furious if they found out the two of them had left work undone on it. I had stayed late and missed my dinner reservations for them, yet neither one of them could be bothered to even pick up their phones.

I thought about just sliding the file under his door and going back to my delicious mashed potatoes. Or what was left of them. I even started to lean over to set it on the floor before I thought better of it. If I left the file here, Calvin and Alexa would just take full credit for it in the morning. The pictures were going to keep this lawsuit from trial and save our client millions. I deserved at least a pat on the back for finding them.

I checked the case file header. The partner running the case was Kathryn McDonald. I would just have to bring it up to her office and slide it under her door. That's where it would end up eventually, I was just skipping the step where Calvin got the credit instead of me.

I skipped the elevator and took the stairs up the one floor. Since I didn't have an armload of books, the stairs were faster. The cement was cold on my feet and I regretted my decision almost immediately. But, by taking the stairs I could pretend that my elevated heart rate was from exercise and not from the idea of what was going to happen to me when Calvin found out I had gone over his head.

The light was on in Kathryn's office and the door was open. I wasn't expecting that. I had thoroughly planned on just sliding the file under the door and scurrying away. My name was on the files, but I certainly wasn't ready to go in front of one of the nation's leading lawyers. The woman sitting at that desk was one of my personal heroes. I was terrified that she would find my work wanting.

I stood for a moment of indecision until I remembered Aiden saying he didn't think I'd be a lower level employee for long. I had gold-plated information. I had everything to gain from giving it to her and nothing to lose. If a stranger who had known me for five minutes thought I could be something, then I had no reason not to at least hand the file to her.

I knocked on the open door, buoyed by Aiden's words before I could talk myself out of it. “Ms. McDonald?”

An imposing woman looked up from her desk. Her blonde hair was graying, but instead of making her look old, it made her look distinguished. She had her glasses perched on the tip of her nose as she read over a document in her hand. She was exactly what I thought a lawyer should look like and everything I wanted to become.

“Yes?” Kathryn McDonald responded, sounding slightly annoyed at the intrusion. A hot sweat spread out on my stomach and the palms of my hands. Maybe I should have just left the file for Calvin.

“Ms. McDonald, I'm Lena Masterson- a paralegal downstairs...” I fumbled with my words. I had no idea what I was doing up here, let alone talking to the head partner of the firm.

“And?” Ms. McDonald blinked slowly at me, waiting for me to stop talking gibberish.

“I'm sorry to bother you- I just came across, I mean I found...” I stopped and took a deep breath, trying to center myself. Aiden had thought I could do this. I began again. “I found some information that will win you the Preston case.”

“A bold claim,” Ms. McDonald said as she set her reading down. I had her complete attention now and I started to shake. “Let me see it.”

I nearly tripped as I hurried over to her desk to hand her the file. “I printed the relevant pictures, but the original screen shots are on the USB as well as the-”

“Where did you find these?” Ms. McDonald cut me off.

“On the myFace pages of the plaintiff's friends. He was smart enough to un-tag himself so they didn't show up on his personal page, but several of his friends have all their pictures set to public view. I recognized him as soon as I saw them.” I swallowed hard. I had been expecting her to smile, but so far she was just watching me with a perfect, unemotional lawyer mask.

“Why didn't the attorney I had assigned to this find these?” she asked, holding up a file from her desk. I recognized it as the file I had delivered to Calvin earlier in the day from Alexa.

“I'm not sure, ma'am,” I said quietly. Ms. McDonald's sharp green eyes flashed up at me. She didn't believe me. She tossed Alexa's thin file down on her desk and picked mine up again, evaluating the contents.

“Why didn't you bring this to Calvin? I don't usually have paralegals bringing me their findings directly.” She turned a page and looked it over. I really hoped I hadn't missed any spelling errors.

“He isn't here and he didn't answer his phone,” I said carefully. I didn't want to get him in trouble, but Kathryn McDonald deserved to know the truth. Her eyebrows raised slightly and displeasure flickered across her green eyes. Calvin was going to have a bad day tomorrow. “I thought the discovery was important enough that it should get to you tonight. Before you meet with the clients in the morning.”

“You're LTM5?” she asked, pointing to my initials at the bottom of the page. The computer automatically printed the user's initials on everything. It made figuring out who had done what research more effective and the billing department could then bill appropriately.

“Yes, ma'am.” I nodded, doing my best not to nervously fidget. I realized I was bare foot in her office.

“I see your initials on most of my cases. I thought for sure you were an attorney.” Ms. McDonald set my file down on the desk in front of her and smiled at me. She went from scary intimidating to attractive when she smiled. “Thank you, Lena. This is excellent work. You were right to bring it to me.”

I let out a nervous breath I hadn't realized I was holding. “Thank you, ma'am.”

Ms. McDonald looked up at me and gave a short nod before turning back to her original reading. I stood there for a moment before I realized that I had been dismissed. As quickly as I could without tripping over my feet, I hurried out of the office.

My heart was fluttering as I stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to go down. Once the doors closed, I started to laugh. It was more of just a release of nerves than actually finding the situation funny, but it still felt good. I leaned against the wall, giggling as I tried to figure out if today had been good or bad. I didn't get my raise and I had to stay late and miss dinner with my sister, but in exchange, the big boss had complimented me and I had gotten a handsome man to carry my books and buy me dinner. Just thinking about him made me smile.

Good day
I decided, stepping into the spot I had stood earlier in with Aiden. Aiden had made it a very good day.

T
he Chicago sky was a steel gray that threatened to bring rain or snow later in the day. A cold wind whistled between
the
buildings and whipped at my hair with angry fingers. I pulled my coat tighter and sipped my coffee as I hurried into the lobby of the skyscraper that housed the McDonald, Smith and Ward offices.

The lobby hummed with conversations as people piled into elevators on their way to work or waited for coworkers under the lofty marble columns. Darcie waved as soon as she saw me, hurrying across the lobby to join me. Since she had helped me put my leftovers in the fridge, I had a sneaky suspicion she would be joining me for lunch and eating most of it.

“You get that guy's number yet?” Darcie asked, bumping my shoulder with hers
in friendly greeting.

“I wish,” I said, taking another sip of coffee. My coffee pot was still broken, so I was enjoying a latte from the coffee shop on my way. “I'm not one hundred percent certain he wasn't just a figment of my stressed out imagination.”

“Oh, he was real all right,” Darcie assured me. “And so were those potatoes last night. I think they must have used real cream to get them so good.”

I laughed, shaking my head. Books and food were that girl's passions. Together we stood in line to get on the elevator up to our respective floors. “I'm fairly sure they put crack cocaine in them to make them that good—oof!”

A man in a black leather jacket ran smack into my shoulder, knocking me off balance and spilling coffee down my arm and across his sleeve.

“Hey! Watch where you're going!” the guy snarled, turning to stare me down. He was bigger than I was with mean features and cold eyes.

“I'm so sorry...” I stammered. “I didn't mean to...”

“Damn right you didn't,” he growled, getting into my face. “Do you know how much this jacket cost? ”

I looked down at his jacket to see the last of my coffee running off it. My own arm was soaked with latte and I was just glad that it had cooled enough that it didn't hurt. I had no idea how I was going to fix this. I shrunk back, unable to meet his angry gaze. “I'm so sorry...”

The man puffed up his chest. People were starting to stop and watch. I had the sick feeling in my stomach that I was about to get pummeled.

“You ran into her, jackass,” Darcie interjected, stepping into the shrinking space between the man and me. She had her “touch me and die” face on. “I suggest you keep walking.”

The man looked her up and down once before deciding that she really would cut him if he tried anything. Darcie wasn't big enough to be intimidating, but she made an angry cobra look like a kitten when she was mad. He took a step back and rolled his shoulders before walking away like that was his plan all along.

“Thanks,” I said quietly as I pulled my coffee-soaked jacket off and hung it over my arm.

“The guy was a jerk,” Darcie said, flipping her blonde hair back over her shoulder. “You okay?”

“It's just coffee. It'll come out in the wash. At least it wasn't hot. I really should watch where I'm going.” I shrugged.

Darcie gave an exasperated sigh and put her hands on my shoulders. “Lena, you know I love you, right?” She waited a moment for me to nod before continuing. “That wasn't even close to being your fault. You can't let people walk all over you like that. You got to stand up for yourself. You are worth standing up for.”

“I'll work on it,” I promised, not meeting her eyes and instead peering into my now empty coffee cup.

“You're going to do a lot more than just work on it.” Darcie was getting her fighting face on again. “I'm serious as a heart attack. You don't take shit from anyone. Not even me.”

“How am I supposed to do that, Darcie?” I asked, meeting her flashing eyes. “If I don't take your shit, I won't have anyone to take mine.”

“Smart ass.” Darcie narrowed her eyes and evaluated me. “I'm serious, though. I'm going to sign you up for some self-defense classes or something. There's nothing like kicking a man in the balls to make you feel powerful.”

The two men standing nearest to us both skittered in opposite directions.

“Sure, Darcie,” I conceded, but I knew she was right. I let Alexa walk all over me. I didn't defend myself to Calvin during my review, or tell him no when he had me stay late. I was surprised that I had even spoken to Kathryn last night, and the only reason I had done that was because I was thinking of Aiden.

I tossed the empty cup into the trash and stepped onto the elevator with Darcie. We moved toward the back with surprising ease. Apparently talking about ball kicking made people give us space.

“Did you ever hear anything from Calvin or Alexa last night?” Darcie stepped closer to me to allow more passengers on the elevator. “You said you called them before you saw Kathryn.”

I shook my head. “Nope. But I'm looking forward to the fallout today. There's no way they won't at least get reprimanded for leaving early. Am I a bad person for hoping they get publicly shamed?