“No, no. We’re not just going to ignore that little revelation. Are you guys actually dating?”
“Five seconds ago, you were threatening to quit. Now you want me to talk about my love life?”
“With Colton Wheeler? Yes. I want every detail.”
“Are you going to tell me about you and Zoe?”
“I’m going out with her again tonight. Your turn.”
“Keep this up, and I just might fire you.”
“Have you slept with him?”
“I am not answering that.”
“Oh. My. God. You’ve had sex with Colton Wheeler.” Addison did a little dance in her chair.
“Can we please get back to the issue at hand? Why didn’t you tell me earlier that you felt this way?”
Addison sobered once again. “I didn’t want to seem ungrateful or lazy.”
“You’re neither of those things. You’re the heart of this office, but obviously I’ve been relying on you for way too much.”
“So you’ll think about it? Hiring more people?”
“I’ll figure it out.” She had no idea how she would figure it out, but she couldn’t afford to lose Addison. “And I’m not considering the job in D.C.”
Addison shut the office door as she left, leaving Gretchen alone with a distracted mind and a heavy sense of foreboding. She truly hadn’t thought about the fact that Christmas Eve was next week when she sent out the weekly schedule. It bothered her that Addison had been holding all that in for so long. Was she that unapproachable? Did her staff really see her as some kind of . . .
Oh, shit. She really was Ebenezer Scrooge, and it had nothing to do with how much she hated Christmas.
Gretchen stared at the ceiling, counted to ten, and then stood up. She opened her door and walked out into the lobby. “Addison—” The words faded at the sight of a well-dressed woman walking in the front door.
She wore a long winter-white coat, clutched a limp pair of baby-soft leather gloves in her right hand, and bore a striking resemblance to her mother. But that was impossible. Her mother had never been to her office before. As far as Gretchen knew, her mother didn’t even know where the office was located.
“There you are, darling,” the woman said with a smile.
Wow, she even sounded like her mother.
The woman breezed across the small waiting area, her velvet scarf and heeled boots looking as out of place as a giraffe in a petting zoo. Gretchen braced for the impact of her stiff embrace. “I was just in the neighborhood and thought I would stop by to see you.”
Gretchen caught Addison’s eye. They exchanged a shocked gaze, the tension from a few moments ago replaced with shared confusion. Gretchen cleared her throat. “In the neighborhood? Are you lost?”
“There’s a first time for everything, isn’t there?” Her mother cast a purposeful gaze around her surroundings. “So this is where you work.”
“This is the law office that I own, yes.”
“It’s smaller than I imagined.”
“My clients don’t really care about the size of my office.”
“Right. Well—” She beamed at Addison, turning on the artificially whitened socialite smile that had charmed everyone from President Bush—the second one—to Little Richard, which was a really long story. “I’m Diane Winthrop, Gretchen’s mother.”
Addison extended her hand over the reception desk. “Nice to meet you.”
“Seriously, Mom. What are you doing here?”
“Goodness. It’s nice to see you too.”
“I’m sorry. You just really, really surprised me.”
“That was my plan.” Diane smiled. “Have you eaten? I thought maybe we could get some lunch at that little cafe you’re always talking about.”
Gretchen wanted to stick a finger in her ear and shake it around to make sure her hearing still worked. “You want to have lunch at ToeBeans?”
“Yes, that’s the one. What do you say?”
“I don’t understand. What’s going on?”
“For heaven’s sake, Gretchen. Can’t a mother take her daughter to lunch?”
“Sure. But you’ve never, not once, come to my office and suggested lunch at a place where you have to order from the counter. So forgive me for being a little suspicious.”
“Yes, well, as I said, there’s a first time for everything.” It wasn’t so much what she said as the way she said it that caught Gretchen off guard. Her mother’s eyes shifted sideways, and she moved her gloves from one hand to the other. Twice. As if she was nervous.