“Malaburn doesn’t invite me to the client meetings.”

Whitaker shook his head. “Just show up. He can’t cut you out of meetings.”

She hadn’t minded when Malaburn hadn’t included her in the pitch meeting because she was hoping not to join the team. But when he’d insisted she work on this case but still didn’t invite her to client meetings, she’d been upset. She’d tried to rationalize the exclusion: at least she could use that time to work on other cases. But now he refused to make a winning argument, and if they lost the motion to dismiss, she would have to continue working with him. And she definitely did not want to do that.

“He’s meeting them today at four,” she said.

“It’s almost four. In the office?”

“Yes.”

“Excellent. I’ll ask my assistant to find out where. We’ll run into them.” He chuckled. Who knew that retiring partners were so feisty?

His assistant called back with the meeting location, and they walked to the conference room. It was empty.

“I can stand here and text you when they come, and then you can appear,” he said.

“Or we can pretend we’re meeting in the conference room, and they’ll walk in on us,” she said.

“That’s even better,” he said, his blue eyes gleaming.

They entered the room and sat down at the conference table.

“You need to look more relaxed so it doesn’t look like we’re expecting them. You keep looking at the door, and you’re sitting on the edge of your seat. Try sitting back,” he said.

She leaned back in her chair. “Now you’re checking out the door.”

Whitaker chuckled. “We used to play pranks when I was an associate, before it became serious business to be a law firm partner.” He pulled a legal pad from the center of the table towards him. “Back in the days when you left the office to eat dinner at home. Before the practice of law changed.”

The door opened. Malaburn, accompanied by two men, entered and stopped short. “Audrey. Gene.”

“Lawrence, good to see you. We’re just finishing up here,” Whitaker said. “Audrey was just telling me all about your case. Fascinating. Particularly that new argument she’s come up with that could win the case for you.”

Malaburn opened and closed his mouth.

“I don’t think we’ve met yet,” Audrey said, standing up to shake the clients’ hands. “I’m Audrey Willems. I’ve been working on your case.”

“Great to meet you. We’ve seen your name on the memos and wondered when we’d meet you in person. You have a new argument?”