Law, Lies, and Love Affairs

You're Coming to Dinner?

Mike hung up the phone in frustration. Thanks to that bumbling idiot Burt O'Connor the entire deal in Milan was going to have to be renegotiated, instead of the company just exercising reasonable options to take it in the direction Stevie had brilliantly proposed. And that jackass O'Connor had walked out of here with a nice fat severance package and still had the nerve to whine about how unfairly he'd been treated.

Mike would have preferred to just throw him out on his ear and let him sue the company for the damn severance, but clearer heads had prevailed. As his partner Ross had pointed out, the time and legal fees they'd spend wasn't worth it. Just cut the guy a check and show him the door and move on.

But damned if it didn't stick in his craw anyways. If O'Connor had paid half as much attention to negotiating contracts for the company as he did protecting his own interests in the event of a takeover, the company would be in a much better position.

And that no-cut, flex time, leave by 5:00 and work whenever she felt like it employment contract O'Connor had let Stevie talk him into? It was crunch time on saving this business, and he needed Legal 24/7. Especially if he had any chance of keeping the potentially very lucrative wine importing business from slipping right through their fingers. One of their competitors was poised to move in fast, so Mike had to move faster. And despite his own law degree, he needed a second set of eyes on this deal and the old saying was true: a lawyer who represented himself had a fool for a client.

Sure, he could bring someone in from the outside, but Stevie was the best. And she had five years of experience negotiating complex deals that made the problem in Milan look like child's play.

Child's play, he reflected. That was the crux of it. Of course she had to step up and take care of her niece. It was admirable. He respected her for it. But something had to give and it for damn sure wasn't going to be his plan to turn this company around. The only way to save the deal in Milan was to go there in person. And he didn't intend to handle that negotiation alone. Stevie was just going to have to fit her new responsibilities at home into her responsibilities at work. She had a no cut contract, true, but in it she'd also made a commitment to stay with this company for two years. And if she walked off the job, she'd owe the company the equivalent of one year's salary in liquidated damages. Money he imagined she needed to hang onto, now that she was no longer drawing a salary from one of the most high-paying law firms in the world.

So the next place Stevie would be walking wouldn't be away from this job – it would be onto a flight to Milan. He placed a quick call to his assistant at Wellington Ross to reserve the corporate jet and make the other arrangements.

Then he picked up the desk phone and punched Stevie's extension. And went directly to voice mail. He looked at his watch. Of course. It was already after 5:00, so she was out the door. Well, this was one conversation that wasn't going to wait until tomorrow. Or be handled by phone. He pulled up the employee list and checked her address. He'd text her on the way so his visit wouldn't be entirely unexpected. But it was time she realized that she wasn't calling all the shots here. And if she wanted to keep her job and her bank account intact, her shapely butt would be on that plane tomorrow.

* * *

Stephanie's phone buzzed with an incoming text message just as they were sitting down to eat. She picked it up and frowned.

"Mommy says it's rude to use your phone at the table." Maddie's little face was sternly disapproving, and Stephanie had to hold back a smile even as the similarity between Maddie and Samantha pierced her heart. She wore the exact same expression that had graced Samantha's face a thousand times – usually when Stephanie was pushing the boundaries and about to get the two of them in trouble.