Page 106 of Running Home to You
“No, it’s okay.” Abby stepped away, ruddy and panting. Her eyes were dilated saucers, but she was otherwise astoundingly calm.
“I shouldn’t have done that.” Kate cycled toward the familiar anxiety that she’d narrowly avoided for nearly five years.
“It’s okay.”
Kate rested her hands on her knees. “Fuck.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Abby said. “Kate, stop. Breathe. It was just a drunk kiss. No harm done.”
She lifted her head and met Abby’s face. She willed herself tobelieve it was just one kiss. No harm. Ryan didn’t even have to know. Because it meant nothing. It had to mean nothing now. “Okay.”
“Okay.” Abby nodded, the smallest frown flashing before she glanced around the hallway. “You want to get some food?”
Kate squinted, still gathering her bearings. “What?”
“Pizza maybe? Unless you want to go to bed.”
“No. Yeah. Food.”
Abby grinned. “No. Yeah. Food.” She grabbed her hand, and Kate didn’t dare let go.
No one would ever believe the night she spent with Abby in Las Vegas was entirely innocent, but after the hallway, they didn’t share another kiss. Abby ordered pizza and a bottle of champagne to her room, and they flopped into bed like they were bunking for another road game.
“What’s the champagne for?”
Abby popped the cork. “You.”
“Me?” Kate furrowed her brow.
“The new job. Special counsel at Cortell & Griffin. You’ve got to be the youngest one. I saw the directory. It’s like an AARP yearbook,” Abby said as she handed her a glass.
Kate chuckled. “Mick told you?”
Abby blushed. “No. I looked you up.” She raised her glass. “This is for the other times too. The law review, the clerkship, graduation. It felt weird to not celebrate with you or tell you I was proud.”
Kate’s heart split and the tears nearly bubbled again. All she could do was clink her glass to Abby’s in return. “Thank you.” She sipped and tried not to think of Ryan. Of how he had winced when she got the job and heard the salary. Of how badly she’d wanted this from him but shrank each time she accomplished something instead.
“And you like it? You’re getting to do what you wanted?”
“I think I will eventually. I hope.” Kate nodded slowly. “I know itmight not make sense, going to a big corporate firm like Cortell & Griffin.”
“It does. It’s the best, right?” Abby said.
And unlike Ryan, Abby didn’t say it like an accusation, but like she was seeing Kate fully. Like she always had.
“Yeah.” She stared at her pizza. “I still want to pursue the hard cases. The ones that come down to fairness, to not letting anyone get walked all over, or cast aside. I think maybe I can do that there—have both. Enough power to make a difference. Maybe change something from the inside out.”
Abby’s gaze brightened when she finally met it. “You will.”
Kate didn’t let herself smile but nodded. “Plus, now that I have the job, I can start paying you back for my tuition. With interest, I insist.”
“Nope,” Abby said through a mouthful. “It was an investment in the future. My tiny contribution to the good of mankind. You can pay me in free legal advice.”
“Please don’t put yourself in a position to need it.” Kate grabbed another slice of pizza. “You really shouldn’t have done that with your money.”
“What else am I going to do with it? I feel guilty every time I use it while my teammates scrape by on pennies. I don’t deserve it.”
Kate swallowed and dabbed her lips on a napkin. “We don’t get to decide what we deserve.”
