Birthright

towns. I don’t know what difference it makes, as long as you remember who you’re representing.”
    “I know who I’m representing. I can’t begin to understand what this is like for you, or what it’s like for any of the parties involved. But I’m your lawyer.”
    “Your boyfriend thinks I’m after his mother’s money.”
    “One date doesn’t make him my boyfriend,” Lana said mildly. “And I imagine there’s going to be a certain amount of friction until this is cleared up. He doesn’t strike me as a simple, mild-mannered sort of man.”
    “He struck me as a putz.”
    Lana smiled as she rose. “Yes, he does give that first impression. I’m going to do some more digging and get the investigator started. I’ll need you to stop by the office sometime tomorrow. Hopefully, I can give you an update, and you can give me a bigger check.”
    She took Callie’s hand, gave it a bolstering squeeze. “I won’t tell you not to worry; I certainly would. But I will tell you everything that can be done will be. I’m as good at my job as you are at yours.”
    “Then we should wrap this up pretty quick. I’m really good at my job.”
    “Come by tomorrow,” she said as she picked up her umbrella. “Good-bye, Jake.”
    “Lana.” Because she seemed the type for it, he moved to the door to open it for her.
    When he closed it, he hesitated. He wasn’t quite sure what to do about, or for, Callie. She’d put on a good front with Lana, but he could see under it to where she was shell-shocked and unsure. And unhappy.
    He’d seen that combination before. Only he’d been the one making her unhappy.
    “Let’s get a pizza,” he decided.
    She stood where she was, looking kind of dazed. “What?”
    “Let’s get a pizza, see if we can get some work done.”
    “I don’t . . . You were just in the restaurant.”
    “I just had coffee. Okay, pie, too, but that doesn’t count,as it was mostly a ploy to get gossip out of Frieda. Good pie though. Peach.”
    “Just go away.”
    “If I go away, you’ll wallow. No point in that. You can’t do anything about any of this until you have more data. Gotta be a pizza parlor in town.”
    “Modesto’s, corner of Main and Mountain Laurel.”
    He picked up the phone. “Knew you’d already have the priorities in line. I’m getting mushrooms.”
    “No, you’re not.”
    “Half. I’m entitled to mushrooms on half.”
    “You get fungi anywhere near my half, you have to pay for the whole shot.”
    “I paid last time.”
    “Then hold the damn mushrooms. The number’s right there on the pad by the phone.”
    “So it is. Pizza, liquor store, post office.” He started to dial. “You never change.”
    He ordered the pizza, remembering her fondness for pepperoni and black olives, added mushrooms to his half. “Thirty minutes,” he said when he hung up. “You know, this place isn’t going to cut it for the long haul. We’re going to have to see about renting a house.”
    “It’s almost August. We don’t have that much time left in this season.”
    “Time enough. We should be able to score something we can rent by the month.”
    “I don’t know what I’m going to tell my parents.” She blurted it out, then just lifted her hands, let them fall. “What can I tell them?”
    “Nothing.” He walked to her now. “No point in telling them anything else until you have more facts. You know how to work an excavation, Callie. Layer by layer, point by point. You start jumping into theories too quick, you miss details.”
    “I can’t think straight.”
    “You will.” He waited a moment, then tapped his knuckles on her cheek. “Why don’t you try holding on to me for a minute. You never tried that one before.”
    “I don’t—” But he slid his arms around her, pulled herin. After a moment’s resistance she laid her head on his shoulder, breathed deep.
    The spot just under his heart fluttered. Settled. “That’s the way.”
    “I don’t know why I’m not mad. I can’t seem to find my mad.”
    “Oh, you will.”
    “Soon. I really hope I find it soon.” She closed her eyes. He was right, she supposed, she hadn’t tried this one before. It wasn’t so bad. “Is this another friendship deal?”
    “Yeah. Well, that and the possibility you’ll get hot and want to have sex. Let’s see.”
    He nipped at her ear, then her jaw.
    Oh, she knew the moves. He had damn good ones. She could counter, or she could meet them. She met them, turning her head