Oh good, now he could ask her something he’d been wondering about since the luncheon.

“I’m impressed that you’ve only been here for a month and just opened your firm, and the community center already approached you about joining the board. Doesn’t that usually take a while?”

She smirked at him.

“Maybe for some people.”

He let out a bark of laughter that made the tables around them stare. He really liked how cocky she was.

“I liked your speech, by the way,” she said. “I don’t know if I mentioned that.” She had, but he was very happy to hear it again. “And I liked what you said about your criminal justice reform bill.”

“Thank you, that means a lot.” He knew she—unlike many people who complimented him—wouldn’t have done so if she didn’t mean it. He reached across the table and touched her hand. It was soft, warm. “The speech itself was mostly my staffer Poppy, so I’ll pass along your compliments to her. And the bill is something I’ve worked really hard on. When I became disenchanted with the way we lock kids up, I spent a lot of time talking to advocates and experts about what we could and should be doing for these kids.”

She kept her hand on the table right next to his. Just barely touching.

“That’s as unexpected as it is refreshing. We need more politicians to do things like asking experts who have devoted years to thinking and talking about how best to fix problems. It’s sad that that’s so rare, but I guess it is.”

He couldn’t tell if that was a backhanded compliment or not, but either way, he’d take it.

“Tell me more about your job,” he said. “It must have taken a lot of courage to start your own firm.”

She looked proud.

“It did. Though it took a while for me to decide to make that leap. Ellie first brought it up … oh God, maybe five years ago? At first it was just a joke, and then it got more serious, but it really wasn’t until last year when I finally said yes, I’d do it.”

He grinned at her.

“That’s definitely the opposite way I make decisions; I’m much more of a split-second kind of guy. What made you finally go for it, after five whole years of thinking about it?”

She opened her eyes wide and shook her head.