Exposed (Rosato & DiNunzio #5)(41)

“If you want, we can crunch some numbers right now. I know you hate math. I’ll help you. Do you keep those records in your laptop, like in Excel?”

“Yes, but I left without it.”

“You left without work?” Declan’s eyes flared open, comically.

“I know, I jumped in the car to see you. I was uncharacteristically spontaneous.”

“Is that another word for horny?”

“Come to think of it, yes,” Bennie answered, and they both laughed again.

“Hell, I’m done for the day if you want to go home. Or we can go upstairs and play with the laughing gas. The dentist tells me he does nitrous with the hygienist. Wanna give it a go?”

“Um, no.” Bennie took another swig of beer, which tasted better and better. Or maybe she stopped tasting it altogether.

“Or, I have another proposition,” Declan said, after a moment.

“What?” Bennie asked, enjoying herself.

“How about you and me go into business together?”

“Wait, what?” Bennie wasn’t sure she’d heard him right.

“You heard me. Partners. You and me. It could happen.”

“How can it happen?” Bennie asked, incredulous. “You’re here and I’m there.”

Declan’s expression grew serious. “If we want to make it happen, we could make it happen. I could fill in the blank for you, the one that Mary’s leaving. I could take on half of your overhead.”

“Why, when your practice is here, almost three hours away? You can’t move your practice. What about your client base?”

“Granted, I wouldn’t move. But I could open a second office.”

“You could?” Bennie tried to process the information. “Were you thinking about doing that?”

“I wasn’t, not completely. But I was trying to think about ways to get together down the line. With you.” Declan frowned. “This whole long-distance thing, it’s hard. It gets old. I’d like to see you more than once a month. We play telephone ping-pong all the time, like last night.”

“I know.” Bennie felt the same way. She’d been trying to get in touch with him, but they kept missing each other.

“So maybe the time is right to take expansion more seriously. I practice state law. I can do that in Philadelphia.”

“You, in the city? What about the farm?” Bennie knew Declan loved his horse farm, a pretty A-frame in the country with a barn for his two horses.

“I keep it. I live there. I’ll get the kid down the street to take care of the horses when I’m away. When I come to visit you, I’ll do a case, and maybe I’ll use it as an excuse to come see you.” Declan smiled at her, and Bennie smiled back, but felt uncertain.

“I’m just surprised. I didn’t know you were thinking this.”

“I was. I plan ahead, long-term.”

“Could you afford it?”

“I’m pretty sure I could. I can ballpark your expenses. They’re not that much different from mine, even accounting for a higher cost of living.” Declan shrugged. “I’ve been practicing for almost ten years now. You know I live cheap. I’ve got a lot of capital. My overhead is unbelievably low. I don’t even use a secretary anymore. I use an answering service.”

“Hmm.” Bennie mulled it over, but her doubts began to surface. “You wouldn’t be doing this if Mary hadn’t left, would you?”

“Well, no,” Declan answered, after a moment.

“So you’re just trying to help me.”

“Well, yes of course. I can help you.”

“I don’t know, honey. It’s a lot to ask, and I would never ask you to do that.”

“You didn’t, I offered it.”

“But what if it’s a burden? What if it doesn’t work out, what if you don’t want to practice in Philadelphia, what if we start fussing over money, or over space, or over Xerox machines?”

Declan smiled wryly. “I’d let you have the Xerox machine. You can have custody of the Xerox machine.”

“I’m serious.”

“I know.”

“It would worry me. It’s risky.” Bennie knew from experience, but she wasn’t about to fill him in. Many years ago, she’d been in business with a boyfriend, and mixing business and pleasure hadn’t turned out to be a brilliant idea.

“I’m willing to take the risk. I think we can deal. We give it a shot. If it doesn’t work, we undo it.”

“I don’t know, I’m not sure.” Bennie used to think she was good at taking risk until she met Declan. “Let me think it over.”

“That means no.” Declan took another sip of beer.

“Not necessarily,” Bennie told him, but deep inside, she knew it did. “Okay, you’re right. It does mean no.”

“Alternatively I could lend you the money. I can stake you for six months, even longer. You could ramp up in that time.”

“Aw, thanks, but no. I would never take your money. I really appreciate your offering though.” Bennie swallowed hard, feeling a rush of love for him. She rested her head back against his arm.

“I mean it. I’m not just saying it. You can pay it back when you want to. No rush.”