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Everything in me halted. "Wait, what?"
Brian looked at me as if I had grown two heads. "Yeah, Adam called me a couple of days ago and told me that he was in love with you. He just wanted to let me know, so it wouldn't be awkward. Honestly, it is a little awkward still, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. All that bickering you all used to do was just massive foreplay, I guess."
"He told you he's in love with me? Two days ago?"
Brian looked at me strangely. "Yes," he drew out. "I thought you knew this. He told me the plan was to talk to you the next day and tell you how he felt. He said you were being stubborn, no surprise there, but he was determined to convince you that you should give him a shot. Which, I got to warn you, Reagan, when Adam gets his mind fixed on something, there's no stopping him. Be prepared for him to try to win you over."
Hope bloomed inside my chest. Adam had been having this conversation two days ago before he knew about any baby and before he felt any obligation towards me.
I felt a silly grin stretching across my face, and Brian tilted his head and smiled back at me. "I think I just saw fifty emotions cross your face in the span of thirty seconds. Is it, like, that time of the month for you?"
I rolled my eyes at him. "Okay, nice chat, Brian. I'll see you around," I said, walking past him and hurrying to my office.
As soon as I was in my office, Cheri was right behind me. "Girl, I do not know what happened between you and Adam, but he has been blowing up your phone."
Panic seized me. "Is he okay? Is Wolfie okay?"
Cheri looked at me a little oddly. "Yes, they both appear to be fine, but he said that you shut off your cell phone and he hadn't been able to get a hold of you. I sent him to your voicemail, so that he could say whatever it was he wanted to say in private, although I wouldn't mind hearing it for myself," she said with a mischievous smile.
Whatever look crossed my face caused her smile to drop. "Oh, hey, are you okay?"
I gave her a small nod. "I think so, but I'm doing what I can to get better. Thank you, Cheri, I'll listen to his message and call him back when I can."
She looked like she wanted to ask more but seemed to think better of it and left me alone. I closed the door softly behind her, then rushed to my desk and dialed my voicemail on my office phone.
"Reagan? Reagan, please call me back. I'm out of my mind worrying about you. I know I did everything wrong...said everything wrong—I just…it's a lot, you've gotta admit that. But none of it changes how I already felt about you, which happened long before I knew about a baby. Although, I am really excited about this baby. I know you're scared, and I'm scared, too. Let's be scared together—please call me back. All right, I'll quit whining on your voicemail. Oh, and you may wanna ignore the other voicemails. I love you, Reagan."
I plopped into my office chair and let the tears flow again. I didn't think I had any tears left in me after last night, but these were happy tears. This man really did love me, so why was I being so stubborn and fighting him so hard? God, sometimes I was my own worst enemy.
I was about to pick up the phone and at least let Adam know I was okay and to tell him I wanted to see him when there was a knock at the door.
I hurriedly wiped the tears from my face as Mr. Tate strolled in. "Reagan, I'm glad you're here. We got the report back from the caseworker for the Rollins case."
I sat up straighter. "Really? That was fast," I said worriedly. It could either be a really good thing or a really bad thing that the report came back so fast.
Mr. Tate gave me a comforting smile. "Yeah, well, the caseworker said that she wanted to help expedite this case, so that we wouldn't worry. She suggested to the judge that Wolfie stay exactly where he is—she left a glowing review."
A flush rushed through me. "That's wonderful. I mean, I'm not surprised one bit, but that's such great news."
"It is. Now, we need to decide how we want to approach this next. I think that Miss Baker's attorney might want a call and the report of the good news. Remind them that with the caseworker's testimony, and the fact that the defendant's mother specifically appointed Dr. Rollins to care for the child, that's it's going to be next to impossible for her to win her bid for custody. Let's see if we can't squash this case altogether."
I reached for my notes for Miss Baker's attorney and started dialing. "You don't have to tell me twice, sir."
***
I realized that I had been practicing law for a long time, and in that time, I had seen some wildly unexpected things and had some strange conversations. Despite all that, the conversation I had with Miss Baker and her attorney still surprised me.
Once I laid out the reports for both of them, Miss Baker's attorney asked if we could mute the conversation while she had a quick word with her client. But Miss Baker herself spoke up, "There's nothing to talk about. I am still going to fight for this child. You cannot convince me that Dr. Rollins is the suitable person to be handling his estate."
"Miss Baker," I started, "might I remind you that Dr. Rollins, nor anybody else for that matter, is going to be able to squander Wolfie's estate. In fact, nobody can legally touch that money until Wolfie is of age, and even then, it's only going to be Wolfie."
"What? Isn't somebody going to have to oversee it?"
"Of course. Somebody at the bank oversees it, somebody that Veronica and her husband chose specifically to do so. That somebody is not Adam—it's a financial professional."
There was a pause, and then, Miss Baker's attorney got on the line once more. "Miss Miles, may I put you on mute for just a moment? I need to discuss something with my client really quickly."
"Of course," I told her, shaking my head at the fact that Miss Baker was still so consumed with Wolfie's estate. Although, I was kind of surprised that she still hadn't understood quite how that worked. I had assumed that she was hoping that being his caretaker would ingratiate her enough to have him give her a cut when he turned eighteen. I guess I hadn't realized that she thought she would have instant access to all that money from day one.
