She opened the conference room door, effectively ending our meeting. “I’ll be in touch as soon as I hear from the insurance company.”
I sighed, reluctant to leave. I wanted to stay. I wanted to uncover her secrets in this room where we seemed to connect almost effortlessly. Instead, I followed her down the hall to the front of the office.
She stopped when she reached the front door, turning to face me. “Thank you so much for coming in this morning, Mr. Locke.”
“Oh, I think we’re past that formality, aren’t we? You can call me Griffin.”
“Sometimes I need to remind myself that we’re in a business relationship.” Her eyes were cool, but sparks simmered under the surface.
Was she attracted to me? I stepped closer, lowering my voice, hoping to elicit a reaction. “Why is that?”
She stood her ground, tilting her head slightly. “Are you still planning to kick us out at the end of our lease?”
Confused at the sudden turn in conversation, I stepped back. Why was she bringing this up now? “Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it.”
“My partners are concerned. They wanted me to discuss it with you before you hired me to handle your brother’s estate. It would be difficult to relocate when we’re just getting established.”
It was a reasonable point. “You’re right. We’d need to negotiate a new lease amount.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, cocking her head to the side. “Are you going to raise it so exorbitantly, we’ll have no choice but to move?”
It was clear I was an ass to her when we initially spoke. If I wanted her to view me as more than a business partner, I needed to fix this. “It’s in my best interest to have a paying tenant. I’m confident we can come to an acceptable amount for both of us.”
She lowered her arms to her side. “Thank you. Any meeting will involve all of my partners.”
“Of course. No proxies.” I smiled, so she’d know I was teasing.
Her lips tugged into a smile. “No proxies.”
“Shake on it?” I held my hand out to her.
“It’s nice doing business with you, Avery.” I held on to her hand longer than necessary, not wanting to break contact. Her soft warmth seeped through my skin.
“You too, Griffin.” A pink hue spread up her neck and cheeks. I let go of her hand, liking her reaction.
Chapter Five
Avery
Watching Griffin walk down the street, I knew I said too much.
I’d come so close to telling Griffin everything. A man who according to everything I’d read about him was cutthroat in his business. He might be softhearted when it came to his nephew but that didn’t mean he’d be the same with me. I needed to protect myself. I needed to remember that picture of him with his fiancée. He was rich and attractive. He dated women who looked the part on gossip sites. I wasn’t his type.
I knew how guys like that could be. I’d never be humiliated like that again. I was attracted to him, but that’s as far as it could go. He was our landlord. He could pull the proverbial rug out from under our firm anytime he wanted.
Dylan walked into the reception area. “How did the meeting go with Griffin?”
I smiled, hoping my turbulent thoughts weren’t written on my face. “It was fine. It’s a straight-forward estate. There’s not likely to be anyone contesting the will.”
“What about the boy’s mother?” Dylan followed me to the conference room.
I gathered Griffin’s paperwork, organizing it into his file. “She left when he was three months old. No one’s heard from her since.”
Dylan rested a shoulder against the doorjamb. “We should find her, see what she’s up to. If she finds out he has money, she might be an issue.”
I closed Griffin’s file folder, holding it to my chest. “Won’t it be expensive to track her down?”
“The mother could be a factor in the guardianship case. It might be worth checking it out. He certainly has the means to hire an investigator.”
Yet he lived in the same home as his brother, according to the inventory he provided, a modest colonial in a middle class neighborhood. Before his brother died, he lived in the apartment above the office. Griffin was a crossword puzzle I wanted to solve. I wanted to fill in all the blank spaces, reconcile his differences, then maybe I could put Griffin Locke in a box, one I’d never open.
“How are things with him otherwise?”
I rounded my desk, sitting. “Good. I apologized for calling him insufferable. He agreed to negotiate a new lease.” I added the last part to throw her off any line of questions into my attraction to Griffin.
Dylan raised a brow. “He’s willing to negotiate?”
“That’s what he said. We’d set up a time when all of us could be there, hash it out, and sign a renewal.”
“How’d you get him to agree to that?”
“I mentioned how we had this hanging over our heads, how it would be bad for business if we had to move when the firm was so new.”
“Good job. I’ll let Hadley know.” Dylan left my office.
I breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn’t asked any follow-up questions.
Hadley popped her head in a few minutes later. “Good job with the landlord. You say you’re not good with people, but you seem to be handling Griffin.”
I laughed. “I don’t know about that. He brings this side of me out that I didn’t know existed.”
“Oh yeah? What side is that?” Hadley crossed her arms over her chest.
Had I revealed too much? Will she realize that I’m attracted to him? “The one that pushes until she gets what she wants.”
“Good for you.” She moved to sit in a chair across from me. “I don’t think you’re a pushover.”
“Oh no. I’m not a pushover. I’m just not great with people. Not like Dylan.” I wasn’t sure how to explain my worries to her without telling her some of the truth. “I can handle clients. I know how to work for what I want, but you know, social situations, making friends… those are harder.”
Hadley’s eyes gentled. “You’re friends with Dylan and me, and Taylor, obviously.”
We met in our first year of law school when we were assigned to the same small group. We instantly clicked, forming a study group, and remained friends. I was grateful. I wasn’t sure we’d be friends otherwise. Sometimes, I worried we remained friends out of obligation. When we graduated, we went our separate ways for a few years until Dylan had the idea to open a firm together.
At first I resisted, because I didn’t have the capital to start something like that, but they said I could join with a lower share. We were partners on paper, but I didn’t feel equal. I smiled, masking the thoughts running through my head. If they knew the real me, the one who was ridiculed in school, they probably wouldn’t like me. Sometimes the negative voice in my head was hard to ignore.
“You’re right. We’re friends.”
Hadley studied my face as I held my breath, hoping she wouldn’t call me out. “I hope you know that we love you. I’m happy to be working with you.”