“Yeah, and that gets messy. The cap, every one of your brothers, every man and woman in this county, and every judge at the courthouse would see your play because they’d play it the same way. Lowe spent decades where he existed only to destroy your life. He nearly succeeded in that. They’d get that. Me actin’ for a woman I haven’t even taken on our first date? Not so much.”

Colt said nothing for a beat before he sighed.

That meant he saw Garrett’s play.

“We done with our brief?” Garrett asked. “I got cases to close.”

“We’re done, brother,” Colt muttered.

That also meant they were good.

Garrett nodded and started to turn away when Colt called his name.

He gave the man his attention.

“Would be good, you got some happy. Would be good, Cher did too. But you couldn’t have picked a bigger challenge, Merry. I hope you know the work you got cut out for you, man.”

“It’s taken me nearly two weeks to get her to a place where I could even talk to her about a date, Colt. I think I know that.”

Colt grinned.

Garrett shook his head. They were done. They were good. Time to get to work.

So he left Colt to do that.

But before he took off with Mike, he called Swank’s, got the only reservation they had left, and texted the time to Cher.

He knew she was still on a course to surfacing, not retreating, when he and Mike didn’t even make it to the bottom of the back stairs before his phone sounded with a return text.

Got it. And just so you know, I’m only going because I know you put out on the first date.

This meant Garrett Merrick walked out of the station laughing.

* * * * *

Cher

I walked down the hall into my living room.

My son, on the couch, eyes to the TV, looked at me.

“Whoa,” he said. “You’re ready way early.”

I was.

This was due to the fact that I’d called Mom to ask her to come early because we had to chat. And because I’d called Feb and Vi to tell them I needed a dress for a date with Merry at Swank’s. Since I didn’t need to be spending two hundred dollars on a dress when my ex was threatening attorneys, I needed to borrow one, so I was hitting the bar early to do some dress borrowing in the office.

And last, because I needed to have a sit-down with my boy.

“Hit mute, kid, would you?” I asked.

He looked at me, then he lifted the remote from his thigh and hit mute.

I curled my leg under me as I sat on it on the couch, turned toward him.

“What’s up, Mom?” he asked.

“Merry came to visit me today.”

I’d practiced this. I didn’t know how to begin, but I thought sharing that information and waiting to see how he’d react would guide my way.