Read Online Truly Madly Yours by Rachel Gibson - Free Book Online Page B

Max gave Nick a wary look before he added, “But you won’t win.”
    “Why did he do it? I have my suspicions.”
    Max looked at the younger man standing in his office. There was something unpredictable and intense lurking just beneath that cool exterior. Max didn’t like Allegrezza. He didn’t like the way he’d behaved earlier. He didn’t like the disrespect he’d shown Gwen and Delaney—a man should never swear in the presence of ladies. But he’d liked Henry’s will even less. He sat in a leather chair behind his desk, and Nick sat across from him. “What are your suspicions?”
    Nick leveled his wintry gaze on Max and said without reservation, “Henry wants me to get Delaney pregnant.”
    Max debated whether to tell Nick the truth. He felt no love or loyalty toward his former client. Henry had been a very difficult man and had ignored his professional advice repeatedly. He’d cautioned Henry about drafting such a capricious and potentially injurious will, but Henry Shaw always had to have things his own way, and the money had been too good for Max to let his client find another lawyer. “I believe that was his intent, yes,” he answered truthfully, perhaps because he felt a little guilty for his part in it.
    “Why didn’t he just say so in the will?”
    “Henry wanted his will drafted that way for two reasons. First, he didn’t think you’d concede to father a child for property or money. Second, I informed him that if you contested a condition stipulating you impregnate a woman, you might possibly win on the grounds of a conflict of morals. Henry didn’t seem to think there was a judge around who would believe you have any morals when it comes to women, but contesting the will would defeat the purpose.” Max paused and watched Nick’s jaws tighten. He was pleased to see a reaction, however slight. Maybe the man wasn’t completely void of human emotion. “There is always a chance you might get a judge who would declare the condition void.”
    “Why Delaney? Why not another woman?”
    “He was under the impression that you and Delaney had a clandestine past together,” Max said. “And he thought if he forbade you to touch Delaney, you’d feel compelled to defy him, as I take it you have in the past.”
    Anger tightened Nick’s throat. There had been no clandestine past between himself and Delaney. “Clandestine” made it sound like Romeo and freakin‘ Juliet. As far as the other, that whole forbidden theory, what Max said might have been true once, but Henry had overplayed his hand. Nick wasn’t a kid anymore, drawn to the things he couldn’t have. He didn’t do things just to defy the old man, and he wasn’t drawn to the porcelain doll who always got his hands slapped for him.
    “Thank you,” he said as he stood. “I know you didn’t have to tell me anything.”
    “You’re right. I didn’t.”
    Nick shook Max’s extended hand. He didn’t think the lawyer liked him much, which was okay with Nick.
    “I hope Henry went to all the trouble for nothing,” Max said. “I hope, for Delaney’s sake, he won’t get what he wants.”
    Nick didn’t bother with a reply. Delaney’s virtue was safe from him. He walked out the front door of the office and down the sidewalk toward his Jeep. He could hear his cell phone chirping even before he opened the door. It stopped only to start once again. He started the engine and reached for the small phone. It was his mother wanting information about the will and reminding him to come to her house for lunch. He didn’t need reminding. He and Louie ate lunch at their mother’s house several times a week. It calmed her worries about their eating habits and kept her from coming to their houses and rearranging the sock drawers.
    But today he didn’t particularly want to see his mother. He knew how she’d react to Henry’s will and really didn’t want to talk to her about it. She’d rant and rage and direct her angry diatribes at anyone with