Page 5 of Impossible Rapids
Brandon smiled at that, but Shawn didn’t. Usually Shawn smiled at her teasing. She considered it a personal victory every time he smiled and especially when she got him to laugh.
“I took Mercedes to meet with Wallace many times.” Shawn stared the man down.
Julie felt like she was watching two bulls eye each other, each planning the strategy to move in and rip the other apart. It was unnerving and thrilling. Maybe more unnerving because it was so thrilling. Were they posturing over her?
No.
The much more likely story was Brandon had an unrequited crush on Mercedes, as many men had, and was annoyed with Shawn because Julie’s favorite Thor lookalike had held Mercedes’s heart.
Join the jealous club, she wanted to tell her new lawyer friend. Julie had been around Shawn and Mercedes enough to know she could line the Rio Grande with men wishing they’d had a chance with Mercedes and women wishing they had a chance with Shawn.
She’d had three separate women at the graveside service ask when she felt Shawn’s heart would heal. Translation: they wanted to move in on Mercedes’s man. She’d smiled compassionately and told them Shawn would never get over Mercedes. When inside, she’d been fracturing at the truth in that statement. Shawn had dedicated his heart and his life to their beautiful and generous friend and her family. Franz Belle had transferred the bulk of his family fortune to Mercedes a couple years ago. The rumors circulating now were that Franz would name Shawn his legal heir and everything would eventually transfer to the ‘stand-in son.’ Even as Mercedes’s right-hand woman, Julie didn’t know if that was true. Franz’s only cousin and his wife were nasty people, she knew Franz would fight to keep the fortune away from, but maybe he’d allocate the money to his and Mercedes’s various charities.
“What do you need with Miss Pandoran?” Shawn asked shortly.
“A whole lot,” Brandon said, his gaze trailing over Julie’s face and down along her fitted black dress to her silver high heels and back up.
Julie’s eyes widened. That was brazen, and she suddenly wasn’t as impressed with the male model lookalike and wished she had a sweater to cover up with, even if she would sweat through her antiperspirant.
Shawn stepped in front of her, his hand automatically reaching back to touch her arm as if to reassure her he would keep her safe. She almost swooned. She’d seen Shawn in this protective posture with Mercedes many a time, and several times she’d been the recipient of his protection as well. She’d wished to be the one he protected and, more importantly, loved.
She was a bad, bad person. Fantasizing about her friend’s man on the day of her funeral. Sorry, angelic sis, she told Mercedes.
You go girl, she imagined her friend said back.
And she really needed to talk to a pastor about Mercedes’s voice in her head since she’d passed and what angels up in heaven were privy to. She’d found herself talking to and hearing Mercedes’s quips often since she died three days ago. She liked that connection, but then she worried whether her friend could hear her thoughts now. Would Mercedes be ticked to know how deep Julie’s crush on Shawn was or would she laugh about it as she had always laughed at most things Julie said?
The jury was still out on that one.
With Shawn boldly defending her, her heart raced. Was there any wild possibility that he felt something for her? Maybe in a year or two, they could heal and see what happened.
“That was completely unprofessional,” Shawn said in a deep, angry tone. His voice and his posture were a warning that Julie thought only Jagger, Captain Aiden Porter, and maybe Captain Cash Trapper would dare defy.
“Forgive me.” Brandon actually sounded repentant. Smart man.
Julie couldn’t see the guy. Shawn’s gloriously large frame blocked him from view. What would Shawn do if she eased in a step and laid her head against his strong back? His simple touch on her arm had her warm all over. The thought of resting against those nice muscles of his sounded comforting and spine-tingling.
Brandon conveniently changed the subject. “I need to meet with both of you in Mr. Belle’s study as soon as possible.”
“For what?” Shawn challenged.
“The reading of the will would be the formal term for it, but a better description might be the reading of Mercedes’s final instructions for both of you.”
Julie could only imagine Mercedes had planned out instructions for both of them. It was a relief to know she still had assignments and a purpose. For now. She’d been waiting for this, surprised Mercedes hadn’t personally given Julie final instructions for her to implement after the funeral was over. Julie had plenty of assignments for today. Apparently, Mercedes had wanted her legal representative to share the next steps with them. Why?
“We still have a yard full of guests.” Shawn gestured around. “I’m sure the instructions can wait.”
Julie found it intriguing Shawn cared about their ‘guests’ when, besides the reception line he’d been forced to deal with before the graveside service, he rarely spoke to anyone but their close friends. She saw Isabella Travier watching them and realized he wanted more time with his Mama T.
“Unfortunately, it cannot. Miss Belle had my instructions laid out months ago, down to the fifteen-minute window I was supposed to approach each of you. If you will please head to the study, I’ll retrieve the other requested attendees.”
“That sounds exactly like something Mercedes would do to us,” Julie piped up from behind Shawn. “The conniving angel anyway.”
Shawn turned just enough to give her one of his glorious smiles. He chuckled. “I don’t know if you can say conniving and angel in the same sentence, but it fits.”
She winked at him. “Mercedes would forgive me.”
“I’ll see you both in a moment,” Brandon said.