Kyle lifted his eyes to hers when he heard her voice. His face held a haunted, haggard look. “Sorry . . . what?” he said, clearly distracted by whatever it was he’d been looking at.
“I penned an opinion for the case,” she said, taking a few steps toward him. “Do you have time to review it with me? Make sure I didn’t miss anything on what you wanted to say about PTSD-induced psychosis?” Kyle’s argument was self-defense, based on the fact that the husband had been violently abusing his client for ten years and in the moment she’d shot him, she’d been under the influence of ongoing post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Sure,” he said, dropping the pictures onto the blotter. He glanced at them again, then blinked rapidly, as though he were trying to erase the images he’d seen. He gestured toward one of the well-padded, black leather chairs on the opposite side of his large maple desk. “Have a seat.”
Natalie sat down and was about to hand him the papers she held, but instead, concerned by his demeanor, she kept them. “I don’t mean to pry,” she said, feeling her cheeks warm, unsure whether or not she should continue. “But are you all right?”
“I don’t know.” He nodded toward the pictures in front of him. “The police took these when she filed her restraining order against him. Her third restraining order. He broke her collarbone and her arm, that time. And gave her two black eyes. The first time, he fractured a rib that ended up puncturing her lung.”
Natalie stayed silent, watching him drum his fingers on the edge of his desk. She could see what had happened to his client pained him, and it made her think there might be more to this talented litigator than just his handsome face.
“I’d kill him again myself, if I could,” Kyle said. “Fucking bastard.”
Natalie waited a beat before speaking. “I’d help you hide the body,” she said. He smiled, their gazes locked, and the air between them took on an electric, butterflies-in-the-stomach quality. Later, the two would agree that in that moment, it felt as though they were seeing each other for the first time.
That night over drinks and more conversation at a local bar, Natalie learned that despite Kyle’s in-control, polished-lawyer demeanor when he was at work, he was a man who felt things on a deep level. He was just careful about to whom he revealed this part of himself. “My dad was big on not showing your opponents any weakness,” he told her during a discussion of their families. “He drilled it into me and my brother to be tough, so I learned to push down any sign of how I might be feeling in order to come out on top.” He paused and gave her a wry smile. “Unfortunately, that tendency hasn’t worked well for me in my personal relationships.”
“Are you telling me I should get out now?” Natalie asked with a playful edge, suspecting that she understood Kyle better than he might think. She’d dated over the years, of course, but none of her relationships lasted more than a few months, her partners typically calling things off before they got too serious. The comment she’d heard most often was “You’re hard to get to know.”
Kyle stared at her a long moment before answering. When he did, he reached over and took her hand in his. “Please don’t,” he said, and her heart skipped a beat inside her chest. Later, he walked her to her car, kissed her, and suddenly, all of Natalie’s resolve to avoid romance on the job disappeared.
They reported their relationship to HR, and to Natalie’s father, who was thrilled with the match. Only a few months after that, they got engaged. They’d been married just over a year when she got pregnant with Hailey and quit the firm, Natalie’s father conceding that if he couldn’t one day hand his legacy over to his daughter, his more than competent son-in-law was the next best choice.
Now, lying in bed with him, Natalie burrowed her face into her husband’s chest, and her next words came out muffled. “Do you think I should try to find out more about her?”
“Your birth mother?” Natalie nodded, and felt her husband inhale before speaking again. “Do you want to?”
She hesitated only a moment before answering. “Yes.” She paused, and then went on. “But my mom will freak.”
“Your mom’s the most insecure person I know.”
“Yeah,” Natalie agreed, but she drew out the word, hesitant, feeling a little protective of the woman who had raised her. “You know she just has a hard time dealing with any kind of loss.” Kyle understood that a few years before his mother-in-law and Natalie’s dad decided to adopt, Natalie’s mom had suffered a life-endangering ectopic pregnancy that resulted in a full hysterectomy—something Natalie was aware of only because her father had told her. Her mother’s health issues and the lost baby were other subjects she refused to discuss.