Balancing Act (The Santa Monica Trilogy Book 3) Read Free

left, after the Imitrex had finally kicked in, Angie continued to sit in her office, pondering the question.
    It wasn’t the first time someone had asked her that.
    Her mother did it regularly enough, but Angie figured that was part of the job description. In any case, her father was good at diverting attention away from hot-button topics.
    But as Angie’s siblings, colleagues, and friends paired up, settled down, and started popping out babies, she couldn’t help feeling a little left out.
    Three years ago, when she’d left BigLaw to start a small boutique firm with two other friends, they had all been on the same footing. Ambitious, energetic, still idealistic enough to believe they could conquer the world—or at least some small part of it that dealt with matters of real estate law, estate planning, and intellectual property rights.
    Now those same friends had spouses, kids, a life outside of work—while Angie was still alone, racking up billable hours.
    Where was the balance she had someday envisioned having? Wasn’t that one of the reasons she’d left her old firm, so she could be her own boss, and have more control of both her time and the cases she chose to take on?
    If so, the grand experiment was turning out to be a grand flop. Maybe not for her partners, but certainly for her. While Cheryl and Naomi were off celebrating wedding anniversaries and enjoying babymoons, Angie was stuck covering the office.
    Sure, she was earning a reputation as a tough-talking, no-nonsense litigator. But that same reputation seemed to intimidate most men. In the echoing halls and dim back rooms of the downtown courthouse, she heard the whispers. Ball-buster . Bitch . All because she was female, and smart, and didn’t back down in a fight. Not to mention the fact that she probably earned more in a month than most men earned in a year.
    What was she supposed to do—pretend to be less than she was, just to stroke some man’s ego?
    No way. Not in this lifetime.
    She didn’t cook, she balked at the idea of picking up someone else’s dirty socks, and she damn well refused to play a subservient role under any circumstances.
    Still, it might be nice to have someone to come home to.
    An image of Zach Stewart popped into her head. She blinked, willing away the memory of his hot body and too-handsome-for-words face.
    Zach was absolutely not relationship material. Good for a one-night stand, maybe. But anything longer term? Forget it.
    Though it was true he didn’t intimidate easily. He was simply too arrogant.
    He was also too much of a player. Not to mention rude, annoying, and a piss-poor judge of character.
    If she had any doubt about that last bit, all she had to do was remember the first time they had met, at Eva and Roger’s wedding. Angie had been eighteen, about to finish high school. Zach had just graduated college.
    In retrospect, Angie acknowledged that back then she might not have been the world’s most scintillating conversationalist. And physically she’d been more an athlete than a prom queen. But Eva had seated them together at the reception. Zach could at least have tried to say something to her besides “Nice to meet you” and “Please pass the salt.”
    Worst of all, he’d escaped at the earliest opportunity to hook up with one of the bridesmaids. The bottled blonde with acrylic nails, spray-on tan, fake double-D’s, and zero discretion.
    Seriously, who did that? In the coat closet, of all places.
    Over the thirteen years since, she’d heard plenty of similar stories from mutual acquaintances, leading her to believe that Zach’s deplorable taste in women hadn’t changed.
    So even if Angie was interested—which she wasn’t—there was absolutely no way that she and Zach could end up together.
    Angie sighed, and with a final visual sweep of her office to make sure that all sensitive files were locked up, she turned out the lights and headed home.
     
     

CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
    “Have the parties come to a