The Hardest Fight

She was nervous, possibly anxious to get to the bottom line. How much was Prime Developments willing to pay? Open Arms couldn’t deny they needed the money. There were signs of financial trouble everywhere Dylan looked. From the broken door when they walked in, to the duct tape holding one of the chairs together, it was clear there weren’t extra funds for the little things.

“Are you making an offer?” Lucy asked.

As Prime’s legal counsel, Dylan had been invited to this meeting to help with negotiations. He saw it as a chance to show off his ability to read people. It was a talent, really. A skill that came in very handy when interviewing witnesses or figuring out how hard to push someone with relevant information. Not only could Dylan tell when someone was lying, his powers of observation allowed him to appear as if he was able to read their minds. It was the same tactic that so-called psychics used to convince people they were talking to their dead relatives. These tricks had served him well in his career and helped him dodge a few bullets in his personal life. That girlfriend in college who was cheating on him only got to cheat once before she wasn’t his girlfriend anymore.

Dylan could read everyone. Everyone except for Lucy. The woman was a complete mystery. He never knew what was going on in that pretty head of hers, which was what had drawn him to her in the first place. Her mind was a fascinating place when she let him in. Lucy was smarter than most people assumed.

Lucy wasn’t going to stop him from making a good impression. If Dylan could help Prime get this property, he would prove himself to everyone at his firm, especially his boss, who just happened to be his mother. Their familial relation didn’t give him any advantage in pleasing her. Results were all that mattered to Clarissa Stevens-Hunt. So, whatever it was that Lucy thought, it wouldn’t keep the board from taking Prime’s offer if Dylan had anything to say about it.

Elizabeth held out her manicured hand, waiting for Dylan to place the offer he had drafted in it. “I think you will find our offer more than generous.”

Dylan wouldn’t call it generous. It wasn’t nearly what the property was worth, but it was surely enough to entice a needy organization such as this one. He watched as Elizabeth’s assistant slid copies of the offer across the table. Ms. Clayton passed hers off to Lucy without even looking at it. Obviously, it was too tempting. Lucy was the one who would do the negotiating, of course, because she was the tough one.

She had been Dylan’s biggest competition in law school. He had thought she hated him when they met. Turned out she had been more interested than she’d let on. They had dated the last year of law school and for two years after that. Dylan had believed she was the One, and everything she had said and done told him she felt the same way. That was how he had learned about the tiny glitch in his superpower. She had broken his heart without any notice. Actually, she’d ripped it out, stomped on it and driven over it with a steamroller just to be sure she’d done the job thoroughly. She was tough, all right.

“Generous?” Lucy questioned with a tilt of her head after reading the offer. “I’m guessing you assumed we were too busy ‘do-gooding’ to have done our homework.” She folded the piece of paper in half and set it in front of her. Ms. Clayton glanced at it but didn’t pick it up. “The members of the board are educated businesswomen. This is insulting.”

Elizabeth uncrossed and recrossed her legs. She ran her tongue over her teeth, a sure sign that Lucy had struck a nerve. She took a breath before replying. “We aren’t looking to offend anyone. What would it take to get your interest?”

“We aren’t interested in selling,” Lucy answered, but Ms. Clayton bit her lip. The director clearly wasn’t as sure as the legal advisor.

“Well, not all of us are interested,” Tanya Robbards, one of the board members, corrected. “Yet.”

It was Dylan’s turn to negotiate. “We aren’t here pretending we don’t know the predicament Open Arms has found itself in. Surely, you understand that if we wanted, we could wait a few months until the house goes into foreclosure. What we’re offering you—” he pointed at the folded paper, hoping Ms. Clayton would simply look at it “—is a chance to continue to do your work in this city.”

“We don’t need your money to continue our work,” Lucy cut in. The cold, level gaze she gave him did nothing to cool the heat that had crept up his neck. He hated that she could get under his skin so easily yet be so unaffected herself.

“You don’t, or Open Arms doesn’t?” he challenged. “If you foreclose on the house, you gain nothing. If you sell, you have enough equity to keep the rest of the organization running smoothly.” He sought to prey on Ms. Clayton’s fears. “You wouldn’t have to worry about losing this place, as well. So many women and children would still benefit from what you do.”

Ms. Clayton’s gaze drifted back down to the paper and the offer she hadn’t even seen yet. Her fingers tightened around the arms of her chair. She needed one more tiny push. He gave Elizabeth the sign she had been waiting for, and she went for Ms. Clayton’s jugular.

“Add another five thousand to that number,” Elizabeth said. “I’m sure that will help Open Arms purchase a new house in another neighborhood.”

With wide eyes, Ms. Clayton glanced over at Lucy. Her lip had to be bleeding given how hard she was biting it. She was just about to break and glance at the number when Lucy stood up, snatched the paper off the table and crumpled it up.

“We appreciate that you’re so concerned about keeping Open Arms’s doors open. Perhaps you’ll consider donating. We accept all major credit cards and love it when corporations match an employee’s gift.” She opened the door and waited for them to leave the room.

“I suggest you carefully consider what we’re offering,” Elizabeth warned.

“Safe Haven is very important to this agency,” Sharon Langston, another board member, replied. “We’ll be in touch if we’re interested.”

“We promise,” Lucy added.

“Ah, you say that, but do you really mean it?” Dylan asked. She had made promises to him in the past, like she would love him forever and wanted to change the world with him. She hadn’t meant that, now had she?

She didn’t answer. Her expression was pained. Again, he couldn’t tell what that meant. Did she realize how badly she had hurt him five years ago? Did she feel any remorse?

“Well, you have thirty days,” Elizabeth said. “After that, the offer will be off the table for good. Then, like Mr. Hunt explained, we will simply wait for it to foreclose.”

Elizabeth and her team all stood and exited the office. Lucy seemed to be holding her breath as Dylan approached her. He, on the other hand, took her all in. She still smelled like lilacs. The lilac bushes that edged the front gate of his greystone always made him think of her in the springtime.

“Say hello to your family for me,” he said as he walked by. The Everharts were some of the nicest people Dylan had ever met. The first time Lucy had invited him to spend Thanksgiving at their house, he had wanted to be adopted by them. Her dad was so down-to-earth and her mom made everyone feel at home under her roof. Dylan had prayed for her every day when they found out Maureen had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Even though Lucy had been so brave, she had broken down more than once in his arms over the possibility of losing her mom. He had been so grateful she had survived. When Lucy left him, he had mourned not only the loss of her but of the whole Everhart family.

Lucy didn’t respond to his request. She probably wouldn’t do as he asked. She didn’t care about him or his feelings. She never had.

* * *

BACK AT THE OFFICE, Dylan did everything he could to avoid his mother. Open Arms hadn’t signed on the dotted line and Elizabeth was less than pleased. That meant the same would go for his mother.

Clarissa Stevens-Hunt was one of Chicago’s top corporate lawyers. Stevens and Ellis had been the city’s most prestigious law firm since Dylan’s great-grandfather founded it back in 1924 with his partner, Roger Ellis. Great-grandpa Stevens passed it on to his son, who passed it on to his daughter, who couldn’t wait to bring her son into the fold.

Since the day Dylan was born, it was his destiny to work at Stevens and Ellis whether that was what he wanted or not. Clarissa had never allowed Dylan to consider any other possibilities. The only thing he was supposed to worry about was meeting her high expectations. He’d spent the past seven years trying to prove to everyone, especially his mother, that he deserved his position at the firm and wasn’t just there because of his heritage.

He stared at the stack of case files on his desk. This was Dylan’s reality—a lifetime of business law, white-collar criminal defense and sometimes a little real estate. There had been a time when he thought he might actually do something worthwhile, maybe convince his mother to let him dabble in some environmental law so he could advise corporate clients on sustainability issues and green standards. He had to get in her good graces before he dared to approach her about it. Securing this deal for Prime was about the only thing that could do that.

Clarissa Stevens-Hunt was the exact opposite of someone like Maureen Everhart. Warm and fuzzy were not character traits anyone would use to describe his mother. Dylan rarely saw her while he was growing up. She worked day and night, weekends and holidays. The woman had a smartphone before anyone else in the world knew what a smartphone was. Her phone was the last thing she checked before she went to bed and the first thing she looked at when she woke up. She’d missed family events, birthdays, vacations, even Dylan’s high school graduation. Her job was always the most important thing in her life, and that was how Dylan was supposed to think, too.

Only, Dylan had vowed he’d never put work above the people in his life. He was going to come home for dinner every night, ask his kids about their day, maybe even coach little league baseball. Dylan didn’t have a family of his own; but today, he needed to get out of work by five if he was going to make it to his neighbor Jeremy’s basketball game by six. Missing the game was not an option.

Jeremy was eight years old. His father had never been a part of his life and his mother’s addiction had led her to relinquish her parental rights. His maternal grandparents had taken him in and raised him as their own since the boy was three. Eugene and Gwen lived below Dylan and had sought his legal advice when they were trying to take custody of Jeremy. A year later, Gwen had been diagnosed with ALS and was told she had only three years to live. She survived for two.

It was during those two years that Dylan had bonded with Jeremy. They each filled an empty spot in the other’s life. Dylan had dreamed of having a family with Lucy. When she left him, that dream went with her. Being there for Jeremy while Eugene had been taking care of his wife had meant fewer hours at work and disappointing his mother, but it had been the most worthwhile period of Dylan’s life.

“If anyone calls, I’m unavailable until tomorrow,” Dylan told his assistant. He’d be up all night finishing some briefs, but seeing Jeremy play would be worth it.

“And if your mother calls?”

“My mother will call my cell if she wants to reach me, so you won’t have to worry about that.” He would have to worry about that, but Bridgette would be off the hook.

“How did your Prime meeting go?” Bridgette asked as Dylan shut down his computer.

Other than seeing the love of his life looking better than ever, it had gone the way he thought it would. Part of him had hoped Lucy would be a disheveled mess. The other part knew she would have thrived without him. She had definitely blossomed into a strong and independent woman.

“They didn’t sign. No one wants to accept a loss, but they’re smart women, they’ll take the money and start over somewhere else, I’m sure.”

Bridgette smiled. Her hair was a different shade of red than it had been the day before. She must have gotten it colored, but since she hadn’t mentioned a hair appointment yesterday, Dylan knew not to say anything. She was one of those women who told people she had never seen a gray hair on her head.

“Well, if anyone could tell what they were thinking, it’s you,” she said, picking up his coffee cup from earlier this morning. She was always taking care of little things like that for him. “Have a good night and don’t forget that tomorrow your eight-thirty got moved to seven-thirty and your eleven is now three-thirty.”

He couldn’t thank her enough for the reminder. Bridgette was excellent at her job. It often made him wonder if she had been assigned to him because his mother thought he needed someone like Bridgette or if he had worked hard enough to deserve her. Some people in the firm thought he was treated differently because he was the boss’s son, but Dylan had never considered that a good thing. Being treated differently didn’t always mean being treated better.

Dylan managed to make it out of the building and all the way home without crossing paths with his mother. By six o’clock, he was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, sitting next to Eugene in the bleachers of Whitman Elementary’s gymnasium.

Eugene leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. He was in his sixties and one of the gentlest souls to walk the earth. The man had been to hell and back, between losing his daughter to a world of drugs and his wife to disease, but somehow he’d maintained his positive spirit. He was a true inspiration and Dylan’s only real friend over the age of eight.

Eugene gave Jeremy a thumbs-up when the little boy scanned the crowd for his two biggest fans. With his hands cupped around his mouth, Dylan cheered loud enough for the entire gymnasium to hear. “Let’s go, Big J!”

“He’s nervous even though I told him all he had to do was have fun out there,” Eugene said.

“He’ll have fun once they get started.”

Jeremy was a bit of an anxious kid. He could be shy around new people, but once he got to know somebody, his true personality would shine through. The other kids on his team were joking around during warm-ups while Jeremy and another boy passed the ball back and forth.

A man in a suit and tie entered the gym, eliciting the biggest smile from Jeremy’s new friend. The guy climbed the bleachers and joined a woman holding a baby girl a couple of rows down from where Dylan and Eugene were sitting. He kissed the woman and promptly stole the infant away from her, planting more kisses on the chubby baby’s cheeks. Dylan felt a tinge of jealousy at the sight of the happy family. As much as he wanted that life, the possibility of ever getting it seemed slim to none. There weren’t many opportunities to date when he worked eighty hours a week, and no one he had dated held a candle to the woman he had wanted to be the mother of his children.

The buzzer sounded, cueing the teams to get ready to play. Jeremy gave them one more quick glance before paying closer attention to his coach’s last words of advice. Dylan had never bothered to look in the stands when he was a kid. He knew no one would be there. His dad had been a trader at the Chicago Stock Exchange, while his mother billed her hundred hours a week for Stevens and Ellis. The nanny dropped Dylan off and picked him up but never stayed for the game. That was why he swore he’d do things differently when he had kids. Jeremy wasn’t his but close enough.

“How’s work going?” Eugene asked as the boys ran up and down the court, no one able to get the ball through the hoop.

“Same as always,” Dylan replied. His phone rang and the caller ID told him it was his mother. He rejected the call and slipped the phone back into his pocket. If he didn’t answer, she might think he was busy with something work-related.

Eugene chuckled. “That’s what I get for mentioning work, right?”

“Yeah, knock that off.”

“Maybe if I ask if you’ve met any pretty ladies lately, one will call you and ask you to dinner.”

It was Dylan’s turn to laugh. “I wish.”

Jeremy got the ball under the basket, but instead of taking a shot, he passed it off. The other boy scored and everyone cheered. The family with the baby screamed the loudest.

“Good assist, Jer!” Dylan shouted.

“So, met any pretty ladies lately?” Eugene asked.

Dylan was about to answer when none other than Lucy Everhart slipped through the gym door. He pulled his baseball cap down to hide his face as she scanned the crowd.

His chest tightened and his mouth went dry. What in the world was she doing here?

CHAPTER THREE

LUCY WAS LATE for Simon’s game and had no one to blame but herself. She’d spent the better part of the day talking Paige out of calling Mrs. Kerrington and taking her pathetic offer. Today’s meeting had planted dangerous seeds in Paige’s head and made all of the board members question if selling Safe Haven was the right choice or not.

The thought of Dylan and his sparkling blue eyes, pleading with Paige to think of all the good she could do with the money from the sale, was enough to make Lucy scream. As if he had any idea what it took to make a difference in the world working at Stevens and Ellis. Years ago, he had sworn he’d find a way to fight for those without a voice instead of selling his soul to his mother’s affluent and avaricious clients, but it appeared he had done just that.

Kendall waved to get her sister’s attention. Lucy smiled and began trudging up the bleachers. Kendall’s husband, Max, bounced their daughter on his knee. The man was completely smitten. Five-month-old Darcy had her father wrapped around her little finger already. Kendall was in for trouble when that one got big enough to ask for things.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said, taking the spot next to Max and holding out her hands for her turn with the baby.

“I just got here,” he protested. Darcy loved new attention more than anything and lunged for her aunt, so Max reluctantly let her go.

The baby girl’s screech was earsplitting. It was her way of saying hello. Lucy made a funny noise in return and Darcy giggled, showing off the two cute baby teeth in her mouth. Her adorable laugh always made Lucy smile. Kendall made amazing babies. The tiny, delusional part of Lucy’s heart that wasn’t completely convinced she didn’t have a family in her future ached a bit more than usual.

“Simon scored a basket.” Kendall reached across Max to give Darcy a toy. “Just before you walked in.”

Of course he had. Keeping Safe Haven from going into foreclosure wasn’t going to be easy, and every minute Lucy spent working was a minute she wouldn’t get to spend with her family. Lucy’s anger toward Prime Developments and Dylan Hunt resurged.

“Your little one dropped her toy,” someone said behind her.

Max snatched up the elephant rattle and shook it in front of Darcy, much to her delight. Lucy tried to push the negativity she felt aside. She was here to watch Simon and enjoy her time with Kendall.

“Thanks,” she said to the older gentleman behind them. The hair at his temples was gray and his beard was more white than brown. He gave her a nod and a gentle smile. Just as she was about to turn back around, Lucy made eye contact with the man sitting beside him and her temper flared. “Are you following me?”

Dylan sighed and readjusted the brim of his hat. “No, I’m not following you.” He dared to sound indignant. “Are you following me?”

Lucy handed Darcy back to Max. She wasn’t going to dignify his question with an answer. “What are you doing here, then?”

“I’m here to watch a basketball game. What are you doing here?”

She faced forward and tried to pretend he wasn’t sitting back there. If she ignored him, it would be as if he didn’t exist. Kendall made Max switch seats so she could be next to Lucy. She hooked arms with her sister.

“Is that who I think it is?” Kendall whispered, glancing over her shoulder.

“Don’t look at him,” Lucy demanded. She wasn’t surprised by her sister’s uncertainty. Kendall had lived out east when Lucy and Dylan were together. “And don’t let me look at him.”

“Well, aren’t you the queen of the cold shoulder? No one does it better than you, Lulu.”

How dare he use that name not once, but twice, today. As much as she wanted to keep her cool, exhaustion was making it impossible. She swung her head around to find Dylan glaring back at her.

“I’ve had just about enough from you,” she snapped.

“I’m sorry, but what exactly did I do that offended you so much?”

“Oh, like you didn’t know I was going to be there today! Just like you probably knew I was going to be here tonight. No one does more research than the almighty Dylan Hunt.”

His eyes narrowed into angry slits. “Hate to burst your self-absorbed bubble, but the world does not revolve around you. I had no idea you were going to be here.”

“Oh, that’s right. Your world revolves around your family’s money and power.” Lucy could feel her skin tingling with her own indignation. “I hope you know I’m not going to let the board sell Safe Haven today, tomorrow or ever. Whatever your big plan is, you can forget it because we’re not interested. You can leave me alone now.”

“I’m already done with you,” he sneered. Those words stung more than she expected. “You don’t really have a say. Your role at Open Arms doesn’t give you the power to decide what you do with that house on Western. Your board will realize Prime is offering them an easy out. There was more than one person at that table today ready to accept our offer even before Elizabeth sweetened the deal. I could tell.”

It burned her to know he was right. She hated that he could read people so well. Some of their fellow students in law school had actually believed he was psychic. Lucy knew better than to buy into that baloney. He was observant, that was all. Too observant.

“They’ll never sell, and if by some miracle they do, it won’t be to anyone associated with you. I’ll make sure of that.”

Kendall tugged on her arm. Hard. “Lucy, stop.”

It was unclear how many times Kendall had already said that before it finally registered. The quarter had ended and the referee walked up the bleachers, stopping before he got to Lucy’s row.

“I’m going to have to ask you both to leave. This isn’t the place for whatever is going on between the two of you. You need to take it out of the gymnasium, please.”

“You’re kicking me out?” Lucy’s embarrassment heated her cheeks.

“I’m asking you to leave the gym, yes.” The ref glanced up at Dylan, as well.

“Fantastic,” Dylan mumbled under his breath, which for some reason struck another nerve.

“Don’t act like this is my fault. You’re the stalker.”

“Get over yourself,” he said, rising to his feet and shaking hands with the man next to him. “Tell Jeremy I’m sorry I couldn’t watch him play. I’ll be at the next one—as long as we sit as far away from certain crazy people as possible.”

Lucy huffed and grabbed her purse. “I’ll be outside,” she said to Kendall.

The referee followed them out, waiting until the door closed before returning to the game. Lucy peered through the narrow window that offered her a partial view of the court. She could feel Dylan staring a hole in the back of her head.

“Don’t think seeing you again was easy for me just because I knew it was coming,” he said. His voice was soft, as it often sounded in her memory. “You left me, remember?”

She hadn’t forgotten, although it was more like she had left him before he got the chance to leave her. He would have left. Eventually.

Lucy swallowed down the emotion lodged in her throat. Her feelings for him had never really gone away, and they demanded to be felt right now. There had been a vulnerable side to Dylan that made her protective of him. A side that longed to break free from his mother’s expectations and demands. He had wanted to make a difference, to work beside Lucy as she made a difference, too. They were going to change the world...together.