“That sounds … like a stressful way to live. As for me, so many things finally came to a head.” She paused and looked at him for a long moment before continuing. “I was a partner at my old firm, but too often there were white male associates who got far more respect than I did, and the older partners loved to yell at me. I was just sick of it. I was tired of people doubting my ideas and intelligence, tired of just having to take the abuse, tired of working incredibly long days with no time for myself, and very tired of winter in New York. Finally, one day, after holding my rage in at work one too many times, I walked out of the building and called Ellie and told her I was in.”

“I’m really sorry you had to go through all of that,” he said.

He touched her hand again, and this time she slid her hand into his.

“Thank you,” she said. “I appreciate that.”

“You’re a month into the firm now?” he asked. “How’s it been so far? All that you dreamed of?”

He rubbed his thumb back and forth over her hand, and she smiled.

“I’m not really sure quite what I dreamed of, but it’s been great so far. Granted, it’s been stressful—it’s just me and Ellie, and we’re doing everything ourselves, from casework and meeting with clients to research to building bookshelves to updating our website to the seemingly endless amount of paperwork the State of California wants from us. But it’s incredible to be my own boss, and to do things the way I think they should be done, every single time.”

Boy, could he ever relate to that.

“Did you know anything about running your own business before?”

She shook her head.

“Nope, we’ve both learned on the fly. We both reached out to a lot of other women we knew who have started their own firms and their own businesses, and got a ton of advice, though—thank God for all of them. Some of that advice saved us from making some really bad and expensive mistakes.”

She was so animated when she talked about her firm. He liked that.

“You and Ellie have been friends for a long time, right? I bet it’s such a change to work with someone you can really trust,” he said.

The waitress set their burgers and fries in front of them, but Max ignored the food.

“Oh, it’s been great to work with Ellie—the two of us have such different strengths, but we still work really well together. And yes, I trust her implicitly, but we also signed a very detailed contract.” She grinned. “That was a very fun day, actually.”

Max grinned back at her.

“The true way to any lawyer’s heart,” he said.

Olivia picked up her burger.