Free Touchdown Baby by Rose Harris Page A

an athletic build and was maybe only an inch shorter than Jace’s six-foot-three-inch frame. Jace disliked him immediately, and after meeting so many people in his career, he trusted his judgment. Willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, since Ava had set up the appointment, Jace extended his own hand.
    “So, Mr. Johnson,” Bob started, when Jace cut him off.
    “You can call me Jace.”
    “Okay, Jace. Normally I would ask you what brings you in to see me, but I have been watching the news. I think I have a pretty good handle on the situation from the public prospective. What I want to know is your side of the story. Did you bring the papers you were served with?” Bob’s gaze never wavered as he spoke to Jace, and Jace could respect that in a man even if his gut yelled ass-kisser .
    Jace took the papers out of his jacket pocket and handed them to the lawyer. After Bob looked them over, he asked Jace to tell him what he remembered about the evening in question in general and about one Felicia Frampton in particular.
    Jace leaned back and closed his eyes to conjure up the events of that night. He rubbed the back of his neck, much in the same way he rubbed Ava’s what felt like hours ago, and began to tell Bob the details of the evening as he remembered them.
    “I was dealing with some unexpected pressures in my life and came home for a few days to blow off some steam. I had stayed at my parents’ on Monday night and decided to go visit Alex on Tuesday afternoon. He was visiting his own family, and it was close by.” Jace made the decision before he had entered the law office to keep his relationship with Ava to himself. The feelings he had toward her had nothing to do with the case, and he didn’t want to involve her unless it was absolutely necessary.
    “Both of us had not planned our visits home and rarely got time away during the season. Alex was surprised I wanted to visit him, and after hanging around his house all afternoon, I discovered he had broken up with his girlfriend that morning. A night of partying sounded like a great idea.”
    Jace looked at Bob and noticed he was taking notes as he relayed the story. Stretching long legs out in front of him as he tried to get comfortable in the wing chair, Jace stared out the window that was directly behind the attorney and let the memories of that night come back to him as he had done numerous times over the last two days.
    “We decided to go to a local bar a few miles away from Alex’s house called the Naughty Dog. We got to the bar around seven o’clock, found a table toward the back, and politely asked the waitress to keep our attendance at the bar on the down low. She seemed to understand we didn’t want attention on us, and for the first few hours, things were pretty quiet. I guess around nine or nine thirty a bachelorette group came into the bar, and they really got the party going.”             
    Jace looked at Bob and noticed, while he had been staring out of the window, Bob had apparently been taking in Jace’s body language as he tried to remember the details of that night.
    Jace wasn’t sure what Bob was writing down, but the lawyer apparently felt his posture was as interesting as what he was saying. He continued with the events that had haunted him since he received the papers on Saturday morning. “By the time this group of ladies entered the bar, Alex and I had both had downed more than a few beers and were feeling good.”
    “A couple of the girls started flirting with some guys at the bar, then one of them starting talking to Alex. I don’t think any of ’em knew us when they came over, so we both just sat back and let them flirt. Eventually we invited the entire group to drink with us. I remember congratulating the bride-to-be and buying shots. We all laughed when they demanded the entire bottle be brought over. I knew I would regret all the alcohol when I woke with a hangover, but we were having a great time.