Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 50080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
I park next to Eve’s car and take the bottle of wine and dinner to the apartment, and then come back to the car to get my work files. Inside the office, I stop at Noelle’s desk and hand her the stack of files, letting her know about the new deeds to be filed at the clerk’s office in each town. She loves having out of town clients because it gets her out of the office every now and again.
“I’ll take care of them.”
“Thanks. Is Evangeline in?” I assume she is because she didn’t text me that she had to go anywhere, but I also don’t want to assume she’s not with a client or something.
“She’s in the conference room.”
I give her a smile and then head toward my office to drop my stuff off. Noelle’s really good about taking detailed messages and sending them to our emails. Thankfully, I don’t have to spend hours listening to voicemail. Evangeline was lucky when Noelle came into her life. I’m not sure we’d function as well as we do without her. Which is why I’m pushing Eve to promote Noelle to paralegal and hire another receptionist. Noelle’s more than earned it.
At the conference room door, I rap my knuckles on the doorjamb and lean in. “Okay to come in?”
Evangeline looks up and nods. “How’d the closing go?”
I go to her and pull her chair away from the table and capture her lips with mine. “I missed you.”
Evangeline smiles. “I missed you too.”
Walking to the other side of the table, I sit down and stretch my legs out. “The closing went well. I was a little nervous when I got over there, and the seller still had some things in the house. My client wasn’t happy. We gave them an hour.”
“Everything else go okay with it being a remote signing?”
I nod. “I’m not going to do them anymore or at least not without a bigger fee. Noelle’s good at her job but things can change on the fly, and I need to be able to print changes. The mobile printer isn’t as efficient.”
“Makes sense. We have the space here, might as well use it.”
My eyes travel to the mess she has spread out on the table. “What’s all this?”
“Medical records of a potential client in Adams. A wife believes her husband got cancer because of their water. She says it’s contaminated.”
Evangeline hands me a sheet of paper which looks like water testing. “What am I looking at?”
“PFAS levels are off the charts.”
“I don’t remember much from environmental law, but I’m assuming these are bad.”
“Very. She says there are others in her area who have died. She’s going to set up a meeting so we can all talk.”
“This will end up being a class action lawsuit. Are you trying to become Erin Brockovich?”
Evangeline smiles. “If it helps people, why not.”
Who am I to argue?
“Let me know what you need me to do.”
“I will. But right now, I’m done with work.”
“Perfect timing. I have dinner and a bottle of red upstairs waiting for us.”
We tell Noelle to have a good evening and head up to the apartment. We wash up and then I pour two glasses of wine while Eve carries our dinners into the living room. She sits down in her normal seat and glances at the roses I bought her yesterday. I watch her every move.
“Zane, what’s in the flowers?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Evangeline leans forward and plucks a ring from one of the rose buds. She holds it by its delicate gold band.
“Zane?”
I move closer, taking it from her fingers and reach for her left hand, third finger. “I know it’s only been six months since we have found our way back to each other. Maybe it’s too soon, but I don’t want to waste any more time not letting you know how important you are to me.” I set the ring before her first knuckle and look at her.
“As much as I would love for this to be an engagement ring only, it can be a promise as well. I’m going to let you—”
“Yes,” she says, interrupting me. While my heart beats wildly, I didn’t ask her anything.
“Yes?”
“The first part,” she says.
“Ah.” I push the ring a bit farther. “Evangeline, will you marry me?”
“Yes!”
Before I can pull her into my arms, I push the ring the rest of the way down her finger, then pull her to me. “I love you.” My lips are on hers and we both deepen the kiss in the moment. She pulls back and holds her hand up, the early evening sun catching just right on the diamond.
“I’ve seen this ring before.”
I lace my hand with hers and continue holding her hand with the sunlight. “It was my mother’s.”
She looks at me, with unshed tears. “If you want something different, we can go pick something out.”