Unlucky in Law Read Online Free PDF

hurrying too much, she paused by the window. One of the secretaries had kept a delicate flower garden going out there in the old days, and the white building that had started its life as a house had blue irises, red geraniums, and a hominess that didn't seem present anymore in the practical juniper bushes and clumps of tall grass waving in the soft gray air.
    Nodding at the receptionist, she walked down the short hall and opened the door to her new office.
     
    Nina's secretary from Tahoe, Sandy Whitefeather, filled the brown chair in the compact front office like a lion balancing four legs on a tiny stone. Today she wore a down vest over a black turtleneck over a long denim skirt and burgundy cowboy boots. Sandy's long black hair was pulled into a beaded band that fell down her back. Behind her, a mullioned picture window looked over a courtyard full of stalky weeds and wildflowers.
    She hung up the phone, saying, “About time. I see you have new shoes again. You're gonna break your neck one of these days, wearing those torture heels.”
    “You have new shoes, too. Don't tell me those narrow pointy toes are the shape of your foot. I've seen your feet. I bet they're killing you.”
    “Yeah, but I like what I see when I look down.”
    Nina sat down and kicked off the high heels. “Okay, we'll both get bunions. Peace pipe?”
    “Hmph. The Washoe people don't use peace pipes. Get your stereotypes straight.” She studied Nina. “New shoes,” she said, “and jewelry, too. A whole new you.”
    Nina felt obscurely embarrassed, but she held out her finger for Sandy's scrutiny.
    “Big,” Sandy said. She wasn't looking at the ring. She was looking at Nina.
    “It was his grandmother's.”
    “Tradition is good.”
    “No need to fall out of your chair celebrating or anything.”
    “Congratulations, of course.”
    “Thanks.”
    “It's a big step.”
    “Forward,” Nina said firmly.
    “How did Bob take the news?”
    Bob had spotted the ring the minute she picked him up from her father's house. She tried to explain, but he put up a hand. “I know what a ring means, Mom.” His reaction had been mixed, not altogether positive, but not harsh, to her relief.
    “He'll need time to adjust to the idea,” she told Sandy, realizing she was using Paul's words.
    “So you'll be staying here. With the golfers and the retirees.”
    More assumptions. “We haven't worked out the details.”
    “Hmm.” Sandy turned back to the paperwork on her desk. “I made up the files and left a list of the D.A.'s office and other numbers on your desk. Mr. Pohlmann says the firm's taking you to lunch. He dropped off some of his files for you.”
    “Great.”
    They had a month to work through everything, including the upcoming trial. Although Nina had succumbed to Klaus almost immediately, she hadn't actually committed to Stefan Wyatt's case until she had found out Sandy wasn't just available, she was eager to take a break from Tahoe. Solid, matter-of-fact, and smart, Sandy was a friend too, for all her crankiness and obstinacy. With her along for the ride, Nina felt strong and supported.
    After finishing up a job in Washington lobbying for more Washoe ancestral lands, Sandy had come down to Monterey County with her husband, Joseph, and established herself immediately with some old friends who ranched near Big Sur, where her son, Wish, was already staying. As she explained it, one of her daughters had shown up unexpectedly a month before at their ranch near Markleeville, kids in tow, husband glaring.
    Sandy didn't go into what had brought her daughter home, she just said the tepee up in Alpine County, actually a small horse ranch she and Joseph owned, was feeling mighty cramped these days. Joseph was recovering from surgery and needed fresh air, riding, and “no more of what that girl of ours has to give at the moment.” She had accepted Nina's offer of a temporary position at the Pohlmann firm without bothering to ask a single question.
    If