Courting Trouble Read Free Page A

to you if we had the same dad.”
     
    *
     
    “I leave in an hour.” Tulsa’s tone was staccato and bore little emotion—no judgment, no remorse—only the conveyance of her intent to her two partners.
    “This is a horrible time for you to leave.” Jo leaned against the credenza in Tulsa’s office. Her face was placid and her voice calm, but a tension underscored Jo’s words. A tension akin to a lioness ready to spring for her prey.
    “This is family.” Emma settled onto Tulsa’s office couch and slipped off her periwinkle-blue kitten heels. She tucked her bare feet beneath her and brushed back a tendril of blond hair from her cheek. “She doesn’t have a choice.”
    Jo searched the room with her eyes as if trying to find reason within the room. “We’ve got five new cases coming our way and two of them are heaters, not to mention our regular case load—”
    “It’s Tulsa’s family ,” Emma interrupted and this time she emphasized the F word. “Jo, you have three sisters and two brothers; you know about family.”
    Jo tilted her head to the side and let her gaze glance across the ceiling, her irritation palpable. The shrug of her shoulder indicated that she finally acknowledged Tulsa leaving for Powder Springs wasn’t by choice, but an obligation.
    This was a tough one for Jo. After a decade as an assistant district attorney, she was all business, all the time—well, nearly all the time—she had a definite soft spot where Emma and Tulsa and her own family were concerned.
    “Sylvia sent both of you memos about my court appearances for the next couple of—”
    “Emma’s right.” Jo’s eyes were softer, friendlier. “We can handle it. We will handle it. What do you think? A couple of days?”
    Tulsa caught Jo’s hopeful gaze. She wasn’t sure how long Savannah and Ash needed her in Powder Springs, but it was definitely more than a couple days.
    “Weeks,” Tulsa said, “maybe even a month.”
    A grimace breached the stone wall of Jo’s face. “A month?”
    “We’ll handle it,” Emma said.
    Although they were all around the same age and friends since law school, Tulsa had started the firm and then came Emma and finally Jo. Less prickly than Jo and more savvy than Emma, Tulsa always handled the high-profile cases and the media.
    Full of purpose, Sylvia rushed into Tulsa’s office. A red leather laptop bag bounced against her hip and in her hand she carried a file.
    Tulsa’s stomach collapsed with the block of dread now wedged in the pit of her belly. How could she maintain her practice and save her family? She wanted to help Savannah, she wanted to save Ash, she wanted to be a good sister and devoted aunt, but she didn’t want to go to Powder Springs, Colorado, to accomplish these goals.
    “I loaded your laptop with everything you need.” Sylvia reached out and hitched the laptop-case strap over Tulsa’s shoulder. “Basically, your entire office is on this computer.”
    “Well not everything,” Tulsa said.
    “What do you mean? I put—”
    “—I mean you , Sylvia.” Tulsa gathered her friends into her gaze, “You, and Emma, and Jo.”
    “Savannah and Ash need you,” Emma said. “We’ll be fine.”
    Tulsa appreciated Emma’s compassion and reassurance, she even appreciated Jo’s pragmatism and realism, and she especially appreciated Sylvia’s organization and dedication. Right now, though, what she didn’t appreciate was being yanked out of LA to clean up her sister’s mess.
    “Did you get the pleading for Ash’s custody case?”
    “That,” Sylvia said, waving the one file she held in her hand, “is a bit of a problem.” She flipped the file open for Tulsa. “I’ve been on the phone with the clerk in the Powder Springs Courthouse for two hours and so far they’ve only managed to fax me the signature page for the pleadings.”
    “Who’s the attorney?” Tulsa tilted her head toward the page.
    Which small-town bumpkin practicing in Powder Springs had agreed to