Page 31 of Perfect Assumption

I guess I’m going to be a part of this conversation.

Then again, as Carys steps out of her office with David, both their faces wreathed in concern, I need to be. I have to know how I can help my friends and how I can support this business.

And I’ll do it any way I can.

“Everyone come in,” Carys urges us.

We all file into the conference room, falling hard into the plush leather chairs. All of us except Becks. He makes his way over to the windows and just stares out over the New York skyline, not speaking.

Finally, it’s Carys who proclaims, “We didn’t pay tickets for this show of brooding male posturing, Becks. Angie rearranged my entire day. Do you mind getting on with it, or should we return to our normal schedule?”

Without turning around, he quietly asks, “How hard would it be to get the DJ Kensington under an NDA?”

“Why do we need to?” David blurts out.

Oh, God. This is going to be awful.

Carys stares at Becks’s back, trying to see beyond his question to the meaning beneath. I can practically see her wheels churning as she chooses the precise words she wants to use to question Becks.

Ward, sadly, doesn’t bother. He bursts into laconic laughter. “What happened? Did you get yourself in a spot of trouble with a girl young enough to be your daughter?”

Becks whirls around, his fists clenching at his side. His light blue eyes are focused on Ward with pure maleficence.

David, wisely, steps in between the two men, snapping at Ward. “That’s enough.”

“You’re right, David. It is.” Carys glares at her brother. “Regardless of whatever has happened, it is our job to protect our client.”

“I didn’t mean…” Ward starts to protest, but Carys cuts him off with a slash of her hand.

“I believe it’s almost time for your lunchtime meeting. We’ll take it from here and catch you up upon your return.”

Wow. I didn’t know it was possible for heat and ice to live in such close proximity without causing some kind of weather phenomenon. But between the anger pulsating between the siblings and the mood that just descended upon the room, there’s proof it can happen. I try to shrink into my chair when Ward spits out, “Fine. Just don’t let whatever he did get us disbarred.”

Before the door closes behind us, I feel the full force of Ward’s fury just before he turns and storms out the LLF conference room.

* * *

“Becks,just come right out with it,” David demands sometime later. “Tell us what happened at Redemption last night that has you pale as a ghost.”

He glares at David for a moment before he turns to Carys and blurts, “I saw Paige last night at Redemption.”

Carys rolls her lips together for a brief moment. “Your high school sweetheart, Paige? That Paige?”

“Yes, Carrie. That Paige. The same Paige who I found out from Marco happens to be his guest DJ’s mother when I asked how she could afford the cover charge to his club. Right before I asked some questions about the up-and-coming artist.” His chest visibly shudders. “Carrie, there’s every possibility…”

“Maybe Kensington’s younger than you think.” Carys treads carefully.

I speak up. “If she’s the age listed on her website…”

“Oh, God.” The pain in Becks’s voice is unmasked.

But Carys still asks because she’s his lawyer, “And you never before imagined this might be a possibility? Ever?”

“I was seventeen when I took off!” he explodes. “She was younger than me and the damn homecoming queen to boot. God knows, I was determined to get out of there, but if I knew I would have stayed no matter what.”

“What do you mean?” David’s curiosity raises the tension in the room.

Becks whispers in disbelief to Carys. Awe fills his voice. “You never told him?”