Free War-N-Wit, Inc. - The Witch by Gail Roughton Page B

of viewing as the girls approached my
desk. Even some of the attorneys cast surreptitious glances. Of course, they
tried to maintain a neutral expression but a few of 'em just couldn't pull it
off. It'd be a cold day in hell when some of those guys parted with sufficient
funds to put a ring like mine on their wives' hands and an even colder day when
the thought of doing so occurred to them in the first place. Professional men
tend to be tightwads, something that I'd picked up over the years of
association with lawyers and, through Scott, with accountants.
      It
wasn't a cold day from my perspective, though. I'd talked to Magic Man a couple
of times, he was back in his office and setting up his agenda of new locates,
services, general investigation for the next few days. And the warm glow that
had started in my stomach and moved a tad lower kept moving lower still and it
wasn't just warm anymore. It was the full-blown heat and full sensation of
lazy, sensual love-making.
    I picked up my phone and pulled up text
mode.
    " quit it!"
    Response was immediate.
    " u quit it u started it"
    " did not" I texted
furiously.
    " did too quit rubbing damn diamond or polishing or whatever
the hell ur
doing"
    I looked down at my finger and the diamond
winked back again. Oh, hell. I was. I was rubbing the surface of the stone
every time it was inspected, polishing off any possible imaginary smudge.
    I sighed. It was going to be a long day. " sorry " I sent back.
    " im not but u play u pay"
    You're telling me, I thought, and
concentrated on my organizational lists for each of my lawyers so as to leave
them in tip-top shape. Doing so involved frequent ups and
downs as I grabbed files to check on their pleadings indexes and general
location. It took a little while to realize that my habitual down
position wasn't comfortable anymore. I had a habit of sitting with my legs
crossed. I'd always done it, never even consciously thought about it. Now,
though, whenever I crossed them, I felt an insistent pressure pushing back.
Once I realized that, I heard the echo. A protesting wail of "Baby girl!" reverberated out
in the great beyond.
    An incoming email from Stacy called out,
"Right now right now?!?!??!?!?!" Okay, it was really time for her stress-relief break. And none too soon for me,
either, though from the number of ?! in the string, little sister was having a typical Cal
Spencer morning. He was detailing a case to death but he wasn't spinning
completely out of control. Had that been the case, the string of ?! in the signal would have
stretched for the rest of the line.
    "Right now right now," I sent
back, and grabbed my phone and coffee cup. I beat her to the garage and took
the opportunity to check in with my personal private investigator.
    "You are driving me insane!" I
hissed.
    "Well, right back atcha', baby
girl," he advised. "And could you stop pin-balling around the office
like a steel ball in a pin-ball machine? You're making me tired!"
    "Good! Then maybe you'll be too tired
to—to—whatever the hell it is you're doing that's making me feel like we're
still in bed!"
    "I'm not doing anything on purpose, I
can't freakin' help it! You're driving me just as
crazy as I'm drivin' you, trust me! You sure you got to give two whole
weeks?"
    "Of course I do! You don't just walk
off a job and leave folks hangin'! Besides, you never know when you'll need a
good reference!"
    "Baby girl, you're about to become an
apprentice PI, you won't ever be in a law office again!"
    "Yeah, well, promises, promises. You
never know, and besides, the firm's a good contact, and anyway, we still
haven't talked about what we're doing about my apartment—"
    "Oh, fuck your apartment! Just break
the damn lease, I don't care about losing the freakin'
deposit!"
    The opening of the door signaled my
sister's arrival, and her first words indicated that she was following the
conversation very nicely.
    "I'll take your apartment, Ari, don't
be silly. I don't have a lease, I'm month