It’s easier to wake up on the days she knows she’s going to see Hannah and she finds herself actively looking for things to do with both of the Dalton women in her life.

With a sigh, she scrubs her hands over her face and turns, curling up on the couch completely. As she inhales, her eyes involuntarily close at the realization that her head is now resting against the spot on the couch that Hannah had sat in.

She always smells like coffee – heaven – and vanilla – double heaven – with the slightest undertone of peach, and the scent always lingers for hours after she leaves.

Christ.

She’s noticed all of these things – everything about Hannah – without registering how much her attraction has grown, for months.

Laying on her back, she stares at the ceiling.

“Who wouldn’t fall for Hannah, at least a little?” She asks the universe.

She’s intelligent, she’s sweet, she’s the perfect combination of soft and hard, and her nose scrunches up in the cutest possible way whenever she laughs. It was inevitable from the beginning that Caroline’s feelings would get mixed up in everything.

Perhaps it’s not all in perfect balance, perhaps it hasn’t been in a little while. But perhaps it’s still fine just the same.

v

v

The settlement hearing with Michael happens the Thursday before Easter and it goes just about as Caroline anticipated.

Depositions done, records scoured, prenup examined – Caroline is ready and she’s briefed Hannah on what is – mostly – going to happen.

Still, she has her hands on her shoulders outside of the conference room, gently rubbing the tense muscles in her shoulders. Hannah is more nervous and fidgety than she’d been when she’d asked Caroline to be her lawyer, which was the only time she’s seen her remotely like this. She hates that look in those eyes and she vows to herself that it won’t be there by the end of this divorce.

“It’s going to be a back and forth. You don’t have to say a single word to him. I’ve got this, okay?”

Hannah’s eyes bore into her own and the trust in them makes her feel so certain she will live up to earning it.

As she’s predicted, Michael – represented by Morrison Wilkens of Wilkens & Granger himself. Eye roll – is contesting many of her terms.

Morrison sits across from her, giving her a look she knows is purposefully incredulous, to make his opposing counsel doubt their terms. She knows all of his tricks; she’d learned from him for years.

They go back and forth about regular financial support –

“You’re expecting my client to pay three thousand dollars a month in child support alone? Along with fifteen hundred in alimony? All the while Mrs. Dalton is working full time herself?”