Page 35 of Danny Hall Gets a Lawyer (Goose Run #1)

DANNY

THREE WEEKS LATER

H oly shit.

Who knew that Harlan had so much stuff ?

Once Helen got him a place in the memory unit at Sunny Fields, it took us three weekends to get all the junk cleared out.

And most of it was literal junk. I felt bad for not noticing earlier, but Harlan always kept himself, and his yard, so clean, how were we to guess the inside of the house was a dump?

I wasn’t the only one feeling guilty. Helen had to take a break more than once to go outside and cry.

It was pretty rough going, but now we finally had the place empty, I could tell it was a huge weight off Helen’s mind.

“I couldn’t have done it without you boys,” she said as she stepped back to give the twins room to carry another box outside to Wilder’s truck. “I mean that literally. I wouldn’t have known where to begin.”

“See, our place is always pretty messy, so we know how to deal with it,” I said, hoping to coax a smile out of her. We both knew there was a hell of a difference between messy and hoarding.

Miller lugged a trash bag outside, and Wilder held the door for him and then came in.

Wilder was having the easiest time of things despite the fact he’d worked most of last night and was operating on about three hours of sleep.

He was used to physical labor. The rest of us?

Not so much. Hell, even Miller was doing better than the twins and me because he went to the gym.

But we’d given it our all this weekend in an effort to get it done.

Not because we were saints or anything but because we wanted our weekends back.

I definitely wanted my weekends back. What was the point of having a brand-new hot lawyer boyfriend when you spent most of your time together moving stacks of old magazines and junk?

That said, Miller lifting heavy shit in a tank top sure did make me feel some kind of way, so it wasn’t all bad.

Especially not when he stayed the night afterward and I got to show him just how much I appreciated him pitching in to help.

“Are you still going to sell the place?” I asked Helen.

She sighed. “I think we’ll have to, to pay for Dad’s care.”

Yeah, that shit was expensive. I was lucky Grandma hadn’t had to sell when she moved to Sunny Fields, and I was guessing that the memory care unit was even more expensive than the regular rooms where the residents could still look after themselves.

“Well, let us know,” I said. “We’ll keep the lawn mowed so you don’t have to drive all this way to do it, so that it looks okay for buyers.”

“Honey, I’ve seen your yard,” Helen said.

I grabbed my chest. “Helen, that’s harsh!”

“Harsh but fair!” Wilder called from the living room.

Helen laughed. “No, I’d appreciate it.”

“I mean, it won’t be as nice as Harlan kept it,” I said, “but at least it won’t look like the place has been abandoned.”

She squeezed my shoulder. “Thank you, Danny.”

Wilder ducked outside and Miller came back in.

Helen reached into the back pocket of her jeans. “This is for you.”

She held out a small folded piece of paper, and I took it. I opened it and blinked down at it. It was a check. “Shit. I can’t?—”

“Danny, I talked to a friend who knows a little bit about the law, and she told me what that lawsuit could have cost Dad.” Helen shook her head. “And I know this is nothing close to that, but I hope that you take it. For the tree and for the help you boys have given me this past month.”

I blinked again at the figure. “It’s too much.”

Helen gave me a glare that matched her father’s. “It’s not. You’ll take it, and you’ll put it in your bank account.”

So I took it. “Thank you. I’ll split it with the guys.”

Helen opened her mouth, possibly to argue, but just then a familiar pair of arms circled my waist and Miller rested his head on my shoulder. “I think we’re done, babe.”

“Oh, Miller. Here’s yours.” And Helen held out another folded check.

Miller took it and didn’t even open it to look. He just tucked it into his pocket. “It’s not necessary, but I appreciate it. Thank you, Helen.”

The fuck? Did they teach classes in law school on how not to be awkward and make things weird, or did Miller just figure it out for himself? It wouldn’t surprise me—my boyfriend was all kinds of smooth.

“I need to go find Wilder and the twins and give them their checks,” Helen said and headed toward the front door.

I turned around in Miller’s arms. “Mine’s two hundred dollars! Is yours?”

He took the check out to look at it. “Yeah.”

“That’s a thousand dollars all up!” The twins were going to lose their minds.

“Which is cheaper than hiring a cleaning crew for three weekends straight,” Miller said.

I couldn’t remember ever having two hundred dollars in my pocket that wasn’t immediately earmarked for stuff like bills, groceries, or whatever needing immediate fixing on my piece-of-shit truck.

“Oh man,” I said. “I kind of want to blow it all on pizza and beer except I should put it in my savings, right? For community college?”

“Yep,” Miller said and wiped a smudge of grime off my nose. “You save yours, and I’ll blow mine on pizza and beer, and that way everyone wins.”

“I like the way you think.” I hooked my fingers through the belt loops in his jeans. “So this means you’re staying for dinner, right?”

“Of course.” He grinned at me. “Wilder wants free legal advice.”

“Oh, you’re gonna give free legal advice to my friend? How romantic!”

“Babe,” Miller said in a low voice, “if you wanted romance, you wouldn’t have suggested pizza and beer. All due respect to pizza and beer, but they’re not romantic.”

I loved how Miller said shit like “all due respect” instead of “no shade” like a regular person. And I loved that he was willing to blow his money on pizza and beer for us.

“Damn,” I said. “Okay, so romance is off the table. I guess you’ll just have to fuck me like an animal instead, huh?”

He pretended to think about it seriously. “I guess so.”

For a second both of us held off laughing, but only just for a second.

Even though Miller was super smart, we laughed at dumb shit together, and I loved that about us.

Dating Miller was incredible, not because we were doing anything different as boyfriends than when we’d just been hooking up, but because we were doing everything exactly the same as we always had, except now we got to look forward instead of just existing in the present.

Like, I’d already invited him to Thanksgiving with Grandma and Emma-Lee and the guys, and he’d asked me if I wanted to spend Christmas with his family.

And it felt nice, whenever we parted, not to have to wonder when we’d meet up next, because we already knew.

On the nights Miller didn’t spend in Goose Run, I stayed at his place in Hopewell.

Once, I’d stopped by his office to meet him for lunch because I had a day off, and I’d met his boss.

Miller was definitely winning in the boss stakes. His boss had adjusted Miller’s hours so he finished at noon on Fridays so he could come see me, for starters. Plus he had a dog, not a goose, so that was another point in his favor.

Miller was still laughing when I leaned forward and kissed him softly. “You’re awesome,” I said. “I love you.”

There were a couple ways that could have gone.

I mean, the main takeaway was that I probably shouldn’t have said it when we were both sweaty and grimy and standing in Harlan’s house.

It was kind of a big thing to say, right?

But it didn’t feel like a big thing. It felt about as natural as breathing.

But that didn’t mean he felt the same, and I found myself holding my breath waiting for his response.

And Miller smiled and said, “Love you too.”

As easy as breathing.

Back in high school when I’d asked Grandma if Wilder could come live with us, I’d never thought the house would one day be full of friends who’d become family. But now, as I argued with Chase over the last piece of pepperoni pizza, I couldn’t imagine it any other way.

“You ordered the supreme,” I said. “This is mine!”

“It looks so good, though!”

“It is,” I said, taking a bite and licking the rest of it in case he got any ideas.

Cash laughed silently beside us.

We were sitting on the back porch with our pizza and beers.

Miller and Wilder were in the kitchen where Miller was giving Wilder advice about Gracie’s custody.

Wilder wanted to have her, and Gracie’s mom wanted him to have her, so you’d think it’d be a done deal, except her mom’s parents were kicking up a fuss.

It was a whole thing. Wilder had been stressing out over it, but Miller hadn’t seemed too worried when I’d gone in there to grab some more beers, so hopefully it wasn’t going to be a big deal.

“Is Miller going to work for Wilder pro boner as well?” Chase asked with a leer.

I flipped him the bird. “Nobody gets Miller’s boners but me.”

Cash leaned over and whispered to Chase, who nodded in agreement.

Chase said, “Cash says we know. We can hear you.”

I paused with the beer halfway to my mouth. “What?”

“Walls are pretty thin, is all I’m saying,” Chase said, grinning.

“Wilder’s room is between ours!”

Chase raised his eyebrows. “You know those ear protectors he told you he bought for when he uses the nail gun at work? Why do you think he keeps them on his bedside table?”

My face burned, but I said, “Fuck off. You’re just jealous that Miller’s a beast.”

Chase snorted, but Cash shrugged and nodded.

I decided that Miller didn’t need to know about this conversation.

Though I was definitely going to look in Wilder’s room and see if the ear protector thing was true or if it was just Chase’s usual bullshit.

Miller and Wilder came back outside and joined us after a bit, and I moved along the bench to give Miller space beside me.

“Heads up,” Wilder said, and I caught the beer he tossed me. He looked happier, which was good.

“Did you work your lawyer magic?” I asked Miller quietly.

“I don’t work magic,” he said, tangling his fingers with mine, “but yeah, we sorted some stuff out.”

I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek and murmured, “I’m willing to take care of Wilder’s legal fees.”

He turned to me, brow creased. “What? There aren’t any. He’s not my client. It was just general advice.”

I remembered how Marty had had to explain the whole phone number thing to Miller and sighed. Miller might have been the smartest guy in a courtroom, but he wasn’t always the smartest guy in any other room. Or a back porch.

“No,” I said softly and leaned against him. I whispered, “I’m trying to find a funny way of saying you can take Wilder’s legal fees out on my ass.”

He hummed. “Joke really didn’t come together, did it?”

“No, not really. But it was still worth a shot. And the offer stands.”

“Noted,” he said with a smile.

And then he honest to god did the stretch-and-yawn thing and draped his arm around my shoulders. “I’m beat,” he said to nobody in particular. “I might turn in.” He turned to me. “You coming?”

“Not yet,” said Wilder and Chase together, then cracked up laughing.

They were idiots, but they were my idiots. And from the way Miller was shaking his head and smiling at them, maybe they felt a bit like his idiots too.

I stood up, leaving my unopened beer on the bench, and pulled Miller to his feet. “Goodnight, assholes.”

Leaving them all still laughing—even Cash, silently—I tugged Miller inside the house.

I kept hold of his hand as I drew him down the hallway and into my bedroom.

Once we were inside with the door firmly shut, I grabbed the front of Miller’s shirt and reeled him in for a kiss.

It didn’t take long for it to turn hot and heavy, but when my hand slid over Miller’s ass, he pulled back, flushed and breathless, and said, “Wait.”

“I’ve been waiting all day,” I said. “You know watching you lift shit drives me crazy.”

He laughed. “I want to show you something.”

“I’ve seen it,” I said, “and it’s amazing.”

He laughed again. “I’ll take the compliment, but I’m not talking about that.” He took his phone out of the pocket of his jeans, flicked through a few screens, and then held it out to me. “This.”

I squinted at the photo of a sapling.

“It’s the same as the one Harlan cut down,” Miller said. “Well, it’s not exactly the same, but it’s related. Literally. Did you know they can DNA test trees?”

I blinked at him. “What?”

“It’s coming from Richmond,” Miller said.

“I was going to wait until it got here to surprise you, but it turns out I’m shit at keeping secrets.

Also, it was Marty who ran your tree’s DNA and got it through one of his arborist contacts, and I knew if I didn’t tell you, he’d accidentally spill the beans. ”

I stared at the picture. “Being shit at keeping secrets seems like it could be a problem for a lawyer,” I said as happiness bubbled up inside of me.

“Lucky you’re my boyfriend, not my client.”

“Yeah,” I said, “I like it better this way too.”

“Just think,” he said. “Someday that little sapling will be as tall as your tree was. It’s going to look great.”

“It’ll take a lot of years until it’s that big,” I said.

Miller smiled. “We can wait.”

“Yeah,” I said, my heart swelling. “I guess we can.”

Watching trees grow with Miller? That sounded like a hell of a plan to me.

THE END