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Je
He spread his hands. “I surrender. I can’t outtalk you, counselor.”
Her eyes flashed to his face. “How did you know I was a lawyer?”
He smiled slightly. “Those legal terms you were rattling off when you went over my contract with me had the easy ring of familiarity. Besides, some of the mail on your desk was addressed to ‘Je
Je
He made a deprecating gesture. “I try.”
Sal arrived with a pitcher of iced tea. “Fresh made, with lemon and lime,” he a
“No thanks, Sal. Je
Je
“I bring you some garlic bread,” Sal said and trudged off.
Je
Lee shook his head. “Sal is convinced that he could bring about world peace in one day if he could just get all the leaders of the various countries to sit down to a spaghetti di
“I’m not so sure he’s wrong.”
Lee poured them both a tumblerful of tea. “I’m not so sure, either, counselor.”
Je
“Why did you leave private practice?”
“Because I was offered twice what I was making as an associate at Chaus and Reynolds to come to the Freedom.”
Lee gri
“I thought so.”
“But you’re still a lawyer.”
“I’m still a member of the bar, yes, but I don’t go into court anymore. I was hired for the contracts expertise I picked up during my tenure with the firm. They did a lot of corporate work.”
“I see. It’s like Holy Orders, once in, never out Thou art a priest forever,’ that sort of thing.”
He was needling her again. She decided not to rise to the bait. “In a ma
He raised his glass of tea to her and said, “Here’s looking at you, kid,” in a very bad Bogart imitation.
Je
Lee put the glass down, exasperated.
She snapped her fingers. “I know! Peter Lorre.”
“Very fu
“Good lord,” she said. “What happened to your hand?”
He glanced down at it “Oh. I stoved my fingers in practice yesterday.”
“You ‘stoved’ your fingers. What on earth does that mean?”
He shifted his weight back in his chair, raising his hand in the air to demonstrate. “When you catch a football, you have to palm it, like this,” he said, showing her where the ball should fit into the hand of the pass receiver. “But if it’s coming in too high and you try to grab it, sometimes it clips your fingers and causes bruises. It travels with a great deal of force, and the impact creates the marks you see.”
“Is it very painful?”
“Oh, no. It looks worse than it is. I’d rather have this any time than a strawberry.”
“A strawberry?” Je
“A skin burn, similar to what baseball players get from sliding. The worst ones come from Astroturf.
They can really smart. I had one once that laid my whole arm open from the wrist to the elbow.”
Je
Sal arrived to check on their progress. After clucking over the amount left on Je
Je
“Probably. But whatever it is, please eat some of it, or I won’t be responsible for the consequences.”
Sal returned with a pot of espresso, a set of tiny cups and saucers, and something under a flowered napkin which he described as a “brown bo
“Dare I take a look?” Lee said.
“Why not? Live dangerously.”
Inspection revealed a round cake, iced with chocolate, with a topping of cherries in a thick glaze. When Sal came back, he sliced into it to reveal a whipped cream center.
“Here you go,” he said, cutting a huge piece for Je
“Thanks, Sal,” Lee said, winking at Je
“Baked this morning,” Sal said proudly.
“Have some with us,” Lee offered.
“Oh, no, got to get back,” Sal said. “Another time, you come in, we have a good di
“Okay.”
Sal vanished again. They could hear him at the back of the kitchen scolding one of the waiters in staccato Italian.
Lee laughed, lifting a forkful to his mouth. “If Roy could see me with this, he’d put me on suspension for a week.”
“Roy?”
“The team trainer.”
“Oh, you mean Roy O’Grady.”
“Yup. If I gain a pound he screams at me like an enraged leprechaun. ‘You got to be thin to be fast,’ he says. I often point out to him that he himself is thirty pounds overweight, but it doesn’t seem to make much of an impression.”
But Je
They drank the coffee, and Je
Je
Lee returned, with a package wrapped in butcher paper under his arm. “I begged off the cake and wound up with a baked chicken instead,” he said, gri
They tiptoed out like kids playing hide and seek and met the cab at the door. They tumbled into the back, breathless, laughing, pleased with their escape.
Je
There didn’t seem to be anything to say. Their shared afternoon had changed things between them, and they both knew it.
Lee ran a strand of her hair through his fingers. “I enjoyed myself today, Je
“So did I.”
He glanced up at the two-story frame house. “Do you live here alone?”
“I rent the second floor from the widow of a doctor. She owns the house and lives downstairs. The upper story used to be his office, and she had it converted for a rental when he died.” She couldn’t imagine a topic of less interest at the moment, but she was stalling and had the feeling he was, too.
“Are you going to be in that game for the Heart Fund in a couple of weeks?” he asked.
He was referring to a charity benefit that the Freedom sponsored each year as a preseason event Some of the players participated in a touch football game with a group of employees, and tickets were sold to spectators, with the proceeds going to the Heart Fund.