“Reconnect?” Brice frowned. “I handled some legal work for Wendy, but I didn’t actually ask her out until after she’d gotten her settlement.” He winked. “Don’t share that with the Bar Association ethics committee, okay?”

“He didn’t remember me at all,” Wendy assured her. “I mean, it was so long ago. And when I hired him, I was Wendy Harrison, which was my ex-husband’s name.”

“We were in eighth grade,” Drue said, her voice cracking in disbelief. “You spent the night at our house nearly every Friday night of eighth grade. We’d tape Sabrina the Teenage Witch and watch it together on Friday nights. How could he not remember you?”

Wendy laughed and waved away Drue’s insistence. “Same old Drue. Still wildly exaggerating things. It wasn’t every Friday night. I spent the night maybe twice, three times tops. Your dad wasn’t even around that much back then, the way I remember it.”

Drue’s memories were distinctly different. She and Wendy had been nearly inseparable in the eighth grade, bonding initially over their shared misery at being the new girls in school, their friendship deepening over painful problems at home.

“Whatever,” she said now.

“Right,” Wendy said briskly, consulting her Rolex. “I was actually expecting you earlier, so we’re already behind with your training schedule.”

“My car wouldn’t start this morning,” Drue said, instantly feeling both lame and defensive.

“I’ll let you two girls get to the training room,” Brice said. “Why don’t we meet up and have lunch together at your break? I’ll get Geoff to make a reservation.”

“Can’t,” Wendy said. “We need her on those phones tomorrow. Which means she’s got the whole legal training module to get through, which is six hours, and then there’s the employee handbook. And she’s still got to run over to Medical Associates for her drug test.”

“Drug test?” Drue asked. “Are you seriously telling me I have to pee in a cup before I can work here?”

“Surely we can skip that for Drue,” Brice said. “I mean, she’s family.”

“Sweetie?” Wendy said, raising one eyebrow. “You know it’s office policy. How will the rest of the staff feel if they find out we made an exception for your daughter?”

“Oh. Right.” He glanced at Drue. “The drug test won’t be a problem, will it?”

“No,” Drue said, her lips tight. Unlike many of her friends in and out of kiteboarding, she’d never really developed an appreciation for pills or weed. But the drug test itself wasn’t the issue here. The issue was that her father was once again siding with his wife, instead of her. The last time it had been Joan. Now it was Wendy.

Suddenly, she was fifteen years old again. Pissed off and pissed on. Literally.