“Or you could take his job, and I can have yours.” I tell her and she laughs.

“Or that.”

“All right, I’m going to take off unless you need something from me.”

“Nope, I think we’re good. Have a good weekend and I’ll see you Monday.”

“See you Monday.” I leave her office and head down the hall to mine. As I’m approaching my door Billy comes around the corner and gives me a tight smile when he sees me. I’m sure he blames me for his current situation and would love nothing more than to tell me to go fuck myself. The thing is I don’t care, and he has no one to blame but himself.

After gathering my stuff, I head out to my SUV and call Franny as I pull out of the parking lot.

“Hey.”

“Hey, I’m on my way home. Do you need me to stop and pick anything up?”

“Ummm.” I can picture her looking around. “I can’t think of anything. I’m upstairs at Willow’s already, setting up with the girls. My parents said that they will be here at six.”

“Alright, I’ll be home soon to help out.”

“Okay, I’ll see you when you get here.” She hangs up after I tell her that I love her, and she whispers the same in return.

On my way home, I call Judge Brown’s secretary and ask to speak with him, and unfortunately he’s out of the office until after the weekend, so I have her pencil me in to meet with him Monday after my meeting with Charles’ lawyer.

When I get home thirty minutes later, I stop at my place to change into jeans and a tee then head up to Willow and Clay’s apartment. The moment I open the door PJ greets me in excitement and Franny smiles at me from the kitchen where she is standing with Willow, Miranda, and Emma, the three of them putting together platters of food. With her hair up and wearing body-hugging long sleeve t-shirt dress she looks adorable; she also looks a little stressed, which I don’t like.

When she came up with the idea of getting our families together, I tried to tell her that we could all go out to dinner somewhere, but she wanted everyone to be able to mingle and chat. And since we had been hanging with Willow and Clay when she came up with the idea Willow offered for us to use their space since they have the playroom for the kids to hang out in and the bar where I’m sure the guys will all congregate.

“Hey.” She smiles after I bend down to touch my mouth to hers. “How was work?”

“Charles took a plea deal.”