Twist of Fate Read Free Page B

she felt that every prayer, every song, the church had ever known was echoing through her. And underneath was a sense of deep connection intertwined with sharp alarm.
    Clamping down on her reaction until she could examine it more closely, she said, "How lovely. This place...sings."
    "You can feel it?"
    She glanced at Rob. Hard to read expressions under that beard, but his eyes were intent. "If you mean can I feel that this was a much-loved house of worship, yes. I'm glad you saved it. No new building would ever have such richness." She advanced, feeling as if she were swimming in light. "Not right for me, though."
    "What business are you in?"
    "I'm a lawyer."
    "A lawyer?"
    She smiled wryly at the surprise in his voice. "People always have trouble believing that. My first week in law school, one professor called on me by saying, 'You, the barmaid in the third row.'"
    "Isn't that considered harassment?"
    "Probably, but at Harvard Law, the philosophy is to torment students into toughness. If you can't take it, too bad. I was warned that HLS is not a user-friendly school, but I didn't really appreciate what that meant until it was too late."
    "In the case of that professor, it meant that he noticed you. Any man would."
    To her surprise, she blushed. "Is that a compliment?"
    "Definitely, in a nonharassing sort of way." He smiled and changed the subject. "Why Harvard? Because it looks so good on a resume?"
    "That, and to prove I could do it." Her reply was absent because her attention was on Rob, who was standing in a swath of light. With the sun gilding his hair and emphasizing the breadth of his shoulders, he was a sight well worth admiring.
    Suppressing thoughts of how long she had been celibate, she continued, "My mother says that even when I was a toddler, the surest way to get me to do something was to say it was a bad idea."
    "Tenacity is a useful trait for a lawyer. What's your specialty?"
    "I'm a litigator, currently working for a firm that does mostly corporate work. I'm thinking of opening my own office so I have more variety and fewer hours." She gestured around the former sanctuary. "Practicing law here might ruin the beautiful energy. And the building is too large, especially with the upstairs office space."
    "Actually, the upper level is an apartment with an outside entrance. I'm staying there now, but if you wanted to live over the shop, I could find another place."
    She drifted to a window, admiring the care with which the surviving stained glass had been combined with the clear glass panels. Rob was a man who liked doing things right. "That's okay, I don't want to be that close to my work."
    "Will you stay with corporate litigation?"
    She scanned the room, unable to stop herself from imagining it as a reception area. "Some, but what I really want to practice isn't law, but justice," she said slowly. "I want to give little guys the kind of representation that usually only big guys can afford. I want to rip some fat-cat throats out."
    The unnerving light eyes regarded her thoughtfully. "That's a mission this old church would approve of, I think. A modern version of driving the moneylenders from the temple."
    Why had she said so much to a stranger? "Perhaps. Or maybe I'm just temporarily insane with spring fever. Thanks for the tour, Rob. Even though this wouldn't be right for me, you've done a beautiful job."
    "Thank you." He ushered her toward the back door. "If you change your mind, give me a call. Do you have the number?"
    "Kate gave it to me." With a last wave, she climbed into her car and headed for downtown, her mind churning. To think that if Howard Reid hadn't canceled this afternoon's deposition to play golf, she would be terrorizing his expert witness rather than having all these unsettling new experiences.
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    Rob watched the burgundy-colored Lexus turn south on Old Harford Road, wondering if she had bought the car to match her hair. Even with a schoolmarm hairstyle and her sexy little body