Page 33 of Danny Hall Gets a Lawyer (Goose Run #1)

MILLER

M y heart was in my throat as I knocked on Danny’s front door, which was lucky because I needed the room in my chest for the knot of anxiety that had decided to move in.

The door was wrenched open, and one of the twins stood there. I wasn’t sure which one it was.

“Hey,” I said. “Is Danny here?”

“Hey, Danny! It’s Miller,” the twin called. “You want me to punch him?”

It was definitely Chase.

Danny appeared a moment later, and it didn’t escape my notice that he didn’t tell Chase no. He stared at me and I stared back as I waited for him to say something, anything. The silence stretched out between us like a tightrope, and finally I couldn’t take it any more. “So, um. Can I come in?”

“I guess,” Danny said. He wrinkled his nose and looked down at his bare feet. “I thought you were in New York.”

“I was,” I said. I edged past Chase and followed Danny down to the kitchen.

Got stared at by Wilder and Cash as we passed the living room.

“Right about now I should be looking forward to drinks tonight at a cocktail bar so exclusive there’s not even a name on the door, celebrating my new job with Winston, Baker and Fisk. ”

He leaned against the counter and folded his arms over his chest. “So, why aren’t you?”

As though I hadn’t been asking myself the same question the whole way back here.

“Why’d you drop the lawsuit against Harlan?” I asked him.

Danny’s mouth twisted. “He’s got Alzheimer’s, or dementia, or something like that. It wouldn’t be right.”

“You would have gotten such a good settlement.”

He shrugged and said again, “It wouldn’t be right.”

And that was why I was here.

My whole life I’d worked toward something like the job with Winston, Baker and Fisk in New York.

The fast pace, the money, the lifestyle—yes, even those sixty- or seventy-hour weeks—and the prestige.

Because that was what success looked like, and eventually you got the payoff of the corner office and the partnership.

Except I’d seen what that looked like in real life last night.

Ezra Fisk had taken me out to dinner to welcome me to the firm and meet some of the team I’d be working with.

Successful, ambitious people, all of them perfectly friendly and polite, who’d spent the entire dinner talking about the grade of the Wagyu beef on the menu, which wines were best, and whether it was even worth owning a car in the city nowadays.

And all I’d suddenly wanted was a cheap burger from a grill on a sagging back porch in Goose Run.

The whole day I’d been ignoring the unease in my gut because it made no sense when this was everything I’d wanted.

Just nervousness at the job interview, I’d told myself, but the unease hadn’t gone away even after Ezra Fisk had told me I’d gotten it.

If anything, it had grown. And what Callahan had told me kept playing through my mind: Danny and Jane had dropped the lawsuit because Harlan wasn’t well.

Because, as Danny had told me twice now, it wouldn’t be right.

And things made a lot more sense now, like the pieces of a puzzle slotting into place, when I hadn’t even known I’d been trying to put it together to begin with.

Danny let out a long breath. “So, why aren’t you at your fancy cocktail bar?”

“Because I didn’t take the job.”

“What?” His jaw dropped. “Why would you do that?”

“Because it’s not what I wanted.”

“It is, though,” he said. “You always said it was.”

“I was wrong.” I swallowed. “I thanked them politely but told them I’d had a better offer and caught an early flight back. And also, if that offer is still on the table, I’d like to date you.”

He dragged a hand through his hair and gave me a wild look. “No.”

I blinked. “Oh.”

He pointed at me. “Tell me you didn’t give up a job in New York for me , Miller. Because I live in Goose Run and only own two pairs of shoes. Wait, three. I mean, I know I give incredible head, but not ‘worth quitting your dream job for’ head, because there’s no such thing!”

“Okay,” I said. “Firstly, I didn’t quit. I just didn’t accept their offer. And secondly, maybe turn the volume down a little unless you want your roommates to know all about your blow job abilities. Which are admittedly stellar, yes.”

“Right,” he said, flushing. “Yeah.”

“Danny, I didn’t refuse the job for you.

I did it for me . But I maybe did it because of you.

When Callahan said you and Jane had dropped the suit, I couldn’t believe it.

Who does that? Like, who thinks doing the decent thing is more important than money?

” I almost laughed at the shocked expression on his face.

“What you’re thinking right now? Exactly.

Exactly . And I don’t want to be on that path.

I don’t want to be the guy who thought that.

And I don’t want to work in a place where doing the decent thing isn’t my first instinct.

I became a lawyer to help people. You helped me remember that. ”

His face did something complicated, like he was considering Chase’s offer to punch me. “I don’t want to be the reason you didn’t take the job, though. Because that seems like a lot of pressure. What happens when you decide you made the wrong choice?”

“I won’t,” I said. “I can’t pretend you had nothing to do with it, because if I hadn’t met you, I probably would have taken that job in a heartbeat.

But if I blame you, then I’ll also have to blame Marty, who is actually weirdly inspirational when it comes to tree law, and Callahan, and everyone in Hopewell who just drops into the office to say hi, and my mom, who changed the subject when I told her I was taking the job—if you knew my mom, you’d know that means she disapproved—and especially my dad, who told me to follow my gut. Which is what I’m doing now.”

Danny’s mouth twitched up in the beginnings of a smile. “Wow. Are all your speeches this passionate? Because if they are, no wonder that firm wanted to hire you.”

“Shit, no,” I said. “Most of them are concise and cite the law and precedent. And you make me more nervous than any judge or jury.”

He snorted.

“I’m serious,” I said. “What you think here, what you decide, it matters to me. I mean, unless you really did decide already?”

He tilted his head curiously. “You really wouldn’t mind dating some guy who works at Goose Run Gas?”

“Why the hell would I care about that?” I asked, hope welling in my chest. “I’m nothing fancy either. I’m just a small-town attorney, after all.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “You don’t even have a highway billboard with your face and the question ‘INJURED?’ on it in big letters.”

“Yes, truly the mark of a discerning professional,” I agreed dryly.

He lifted his chin. “You know, if you were any kind of lawyer, you’d at least appeal my decision.”

“Yeah?” The spark of hope burned a little brighter.

“Yeah. I mean, you’ve made this big speech and all, but you haven’t tried to change my mind.” He was grinning now.

“I’m actually pretty good at jury selection,” I said. “I can tell when it’s going to go my way.”

Danny laughed. “Oh, is that so?”

“Yeah,” I said. “It is.”

“Come here,” he said, and I’d never crossed a room so fast. As soon as I was within reach, Danny looped his arms around my neck and pulled me close. “Miller Clarke, I would love to date you. Case closed.”

“That’s not actually what a judge?—”

And then Danny pulled me into a kiss, and who cared what judges did or didn’t say? We could always work on his legal terminology later.

Or not.

There were plenty of things we could do instead that were a lot more fun.

When I dragged myself in the door of Fisher Law on Thursday morning, I was late and I felt less bad about it than I probably should have. But then, I was feeling pretty great about everything right now on account of Danny agreeing to date me.

We’d spent last night together burning up the sheets, and that wasn’t even an exaggeration.

We’d only been apart for a week, but it had felt like so much longer, and we’d made up for lost time, fucking hard and fast until we could barely move.

And the sex had been incredible, but the best part?

That had been after, when I’d taken the time to trace every muscle and curve of Danny’s body until I’d reassured myself he was really here with me.

And he’d done the same, running his broad palms over my bare skin with a soft smile on his face.

Then we’d curled up together and talked quietly until we’d both fallen asleep around three.

The alarm had gone off at five thirty for Danny’s early shift.

It should have left me plenty of time to drive back, but then Danny had given me that wide, easy grin of his before ducking under the blankets and putting those exceptional blow job skills of his to work, and that had made us both late leaving the house.

Chase had rolled his eyes as he stood waiting by Danny’s truck when Danny kissed me goodbye, and he’d called us a pair of fucking saps.

Neither of us had argued.

I’d swung by my place for a shower and a change of clothes first, because I was already late anyway and I wasn’t prepared to wear yesterday’s underwear. Going commando was a step too far, even for somewhere as casual as Hopewell.

“You’re late,” Marty said.

“See, keen observational skills like that are what will make you a top-notch attorney one day,” I said around a yawn.

“Take your feet off the desk.” But I said it more out of habit than actual annoyance.

How could I be annoyed at anything this morning when I had a job it turned out I actually loved and a shiny new boyfriend?

Marty took his feet off the desk and sat up, narrowing his eyes at me. “You look way too happy for someone who’s running late, so nothing bad’s happened. Which means something good must have happened. Did you get laid last night? Was it Danny? I bet it was Danny.”