Chasing Forever (The Forever Series #1)(58)

She shrugged. “She called in sick.”

Thank God, she didn’t leave…yet. “What are you doing with those?” He pointed at the files in her hand.

“Her friend is stopping by to pick up her files. The Summary Judgment Motion has to be done by Monday morning. Regan wanted to work on it over the weekend.”

Annabelle turned to leave. Then he got a sick feeling at the bottom of his stomach. “What friend?”

She stopped and looked over her shoulder. “Huh?”

“What’s the name of her friend?” He took a sip of Regan’s cappuccino, trying to pretend as if that were the most normal question in the word.

Her eyebrows furrowed. “Parker, I think.”

Pain lanced through his chest. Of course. Fucking Parker. “Right.”

“Anything else?” she asked.

“Did you talk to her?”

“Yes, about twenty minutes ago.”

He nodded. “Did she sound okay?”

She gazed at Lucas for a few seconds like she didn’t understand his question. “I think so.”

“I can take those to her house.” He motioned toward the files in Annabelle’s hand. “Her friend doesn’t need to pick them up.”

She looked at her watch. “There’s no need. He should be here in fifteen minutes.”

He nodded.

***

After he had left her office, he spent the entire morning trying to contact her. He called her cell phone and her home phone. He emailed both her personal and work address. She never responded. It was as if she’d vanished from the face of the earth. He could sit outside her apartment, but then he might run into Parker and that wouldn’t be good.

By lunchtime, Lucas was tempted to claim he didn’t feel well either. He hadn’t done one productive thing the entire day, unless he counted stealing Regan’s personnel file from Human Resources. He poured over the sparse details of her life, her driver’s license, her passport, even her social security card. Then he stumbled on her emergency contact information, which included her mom and Parker. For one insane moment, he considered calling her mom, but what could he say to her? He couldn’t imagine Regan had said anything favorable about him, especially after last night.

Finally, at five o’ clock, he gathered up his things and finalized his timesheet for the day. Damn, he missed her. The office had felt lonely without her and it’d only been one f*cking day, and he had an entire weekend to wonder if she’d return on Monday or call in sick again.

When he finished totaling his billable hours, he cringed. Three. That was it. The number wasn’t even remotely respectable, which meant Saturday and Sunday would be spent in the office if he wanted to meet his goal. The partners expected him to bill roughly two thousand six hundred hours a year, which meant fifty-two billable hours a week if he took two weeks of vacation.

He mentally calculated his total year to date. Shit. Regan had disrupted his life in more than one area. Every week since she entered his life, his hours had steadily decreased. He needed to get his shit together and fast. Before she walked into his office at the beginning of the summer, he’d won the biggest case of his life. Now his billable hours sucked, and he was pretty sure he had violated the no fraternization rule.





Chapter Twenty-Seven




Late Saturday afternoon, Regan finished applying her makeup to go to the engagement party for Parker’s brother, and walked out the front door of her apartment. She spotted Parker leaning against his white Prius in a black suit.

Parker had spent Friday afternoon at her apartment. Initially, she didn’t feel entirely comfortable with him staying with her. She worried that Parker might be offended by her less than enthusiastic mood.

“You don’t have to stay,” she’d said when his dropped off the files for the Summary Judgment Motion. “I’ll be fine. I have a lot of work to do.”

“I don’t mind. You do your work, and I’ll do mine. We don’t have to talk,” he’d responded. “You shouldn’t be alone.”

“It’s not a big deal,” she lied. “Lucas and I only went out a few times. I’ll be fine. You shouldn’t feel obligated to hang around.”

“Look, I already called in sick for work and I can’t work at home because my roommate has company.”

He was lying because he was worried about her. In the end, she let him stay.

As she approached his car, she smiled acting as if she were excited for their date or whatever it was now. She didn’t know. They hadn’t discussed it. “Why didn’t you come in?”

Parker opened the passenger side door for her. “I was talking on the phone to my mom. She’s acting a bit neurotic about the details for the party. She wanted me to recite my toast so she could approve the content.”

“Did you pass the test?” Regan asked as Parker sat in the driver’s seat.

Parker smiled in amusement. “For the most part. She strongly suggested I reserve a few of the stories for the bachelor party.”

Regan turned to him. “Did you agree?”

“I’m reserving judgment until the moment.”

Regan laughed. “Good idea.”

Parker tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “How are you feeling today?”