In Your Honor Read Free Page A

at seeing her. He would never
tell her to her face, but Lenny was one of his favorite people. She
was like the daughter he thought he would have had, had he ever had
kids. But he wasn't going to start telling people that, he had a
reputation to maintain.
    “ Is the coffee good?”
Lenny asked with an eyebrow raised.
    “ It's decent,” he answered
as he set his mug down and waved at the waitress for another cup
for his companion.
    “ So,” Lenny started,
slipping her jacket off and leaning her elbows on the table, her
damn blue eyes sparkling, “what's this about? Carl Darrow doesn't
call without a reason.”
    He felt his mouth twitch up on one
side; he had missed her. He decided to skip the bullshit and get to
the point. Lenny never seemed to mind his methods. “You want your
old job? I mean, I know you're coming along anyway. Luke bought a
whole damn bus for you. I haven't been able to find a replacement,
and we're coming up on crunch time.”
    “ You haven't even looked.”
Lenny called his bluff and he almost grinned at her. “I don't know,
Carl.” She thanked the waitress for the coffee before continuing.
“It's a lot of work and I kind of wanted to spend some quality time
with Luke... if you know what I mean.”
    Carl rolled his eyes and she laughed
at him. “I know all that. But what if I doubled your
salary?”
    “ You know it was never
about the money,” Lenny chastised gently. No, the job was never
about the money. She was a highly successful snowboarder who had
run from her responsibilities, joined Team Double Blind Study, and
subsequently fallen in love with the lead singer and become part of
the family. It had been about a lot of things, but definitely not
the money.
    “ What if I let you hire
your own replacement?” Carl proposed. He knew she didn't want her
old job back. But he didn't want to have to go through all the
trouble of finding a person who would never hit the standards that
she had set for him on the previous tour. Lenny was the
best.
    Her brow furrowed in thought. “That's
not a bad idea, actually.” Carl mentally high-fived himself. Of
course it wasn't a bad idea, it was a great idea.
    “ Would you be willing to
train them and everything?” Carl looked down at his coffee, afraid
she'd read his mind if they had eye contact.
    “ I guess I could... I
mean, that would be the easiest option.” Lenny tapped her finger
against the handle of her mug. “Yeah, okay, I can do
that.”
    “ Great.” Carl picked up a
stack of applications sitting next to him in the booth and slapped
them on the table. “Here are your candidates. They need to be on
the crew bus on Monday.” He ignored Lenny's slack-jawed expression
as he stood and slipped on his coat. He clapped his hand on her
shoulder as he strode to the door. “Thanks, kid, it's good to have
to you back.”
    ***
    Lenny shook her head and
chuckled lightly at Carl's abrupt departure. She should have seen
that coming. Carl didn't do anything without making a plan first.
She pulled the stack of applications towards her and thumbed
through them, probably close to fifty. This is going to take awhile.
    Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she
pulled it out, grinning automatically when she saw Luke's name on
the screen.
    “ Hey,” she greeted her
husband.
    “ Hey, you left before I
was ready to go.” He sounded wounded but she knew it was only an
act.
    “ I was already running
late and you know how Carl hates to wait,” she replied, skimming
the top application.
    “ Are you at the corner
diner?” She could hear him moving swiftly, he must be on his
way.
    “ Yes, you want me to order
you anything?” she asked, flagging the waitress down.
    “ Yeah, pancakes. Be there
in a bit.” He hung up and she set her phone on the table just as
the server walked over.
    “ I'm gonna need your
biggest order of pancakes and a western omelet. Oh, and more
coffee.” She smiled her thanks as the girl went to place her order
and then refocused on the