The Architect (Contemporary Clover Lake Grooms Book 1) Read online

  Alex shut the door behind her. After she was seated and done shifting, he took a seat behind his desk. “So what can I do for you?”

  Phoebe almost laughed. She’d known Alex her whole life. Alex’s family lived close, and the two of them used to swim in the lake together. Phoebe was having a hard time remembering that at the moment though. Back then, they may have been friends, they’d played together and eventually, in high school, they’d even escorted each other to a dance or two, but now, they were two attorneys debating a contract. Phoebe straightened and pulled the will from her bag again. “This.” She tossed it onto his desk. “This is bull, and you know it. I can’t for the life of me figure out why she did this.” She looked up at him. His eyes were wide, and she could see the vein in his throat throbbing against the tightness of his collar. “Why’d she do it, Alex?”

  Alex took a long breath before relaxing a little bit. He even ran a finger around his collar trying to stretch it. He shook his head. “I’m honestly not sure. She didn’t go into great detail. She only changed a few lines, so we didn’t have a whole session. She knew exactly what she wanted to do when she came in.”

  Phoebe was sure he was telling the truth. They’d known each other too long for her not to know his tells. She shook her head. “It just doesn’t make sense. At first I wanted to think that she was trying to help Jarred by leaving him some money, but everything I’ve discovered since then has led me to believe that isn’t the case. Jarred is doing well for himself.”

  Alex nodded and sat thoughtfully for a moment. He then leaned forward with his elbows on his desk. “Pheebs…”

  Phoebe watched as the point of focus in his eyes changed. He’d gone from staring at her face to staring at the will and then back again, but with a much different expression. He then looked at the door. She knew exactly what he was thinking. “This isn’t about that.”

  “But Pheebs.”

  Phoebe stood. “No, Alex. I am not that girl anymore. I don’t care if the other name on this will had been John Doe. All I want is an explanation. I can handle the rest easily.”

  “Handle the rest?” Alex lifted his eyebrows.

  “Yes. I have no intention of allowing this to pass through the courts as is. I’m headed to Philly in the morning to handle some other things, and I have every intention of having Helen Hamlin look it over and help me out while I’m there.” Phoebe watched Alex carefully, hoping there’d be a response to the name she’d dropped. There wasn’t. “I just need to know why.”

  Alex shifted and got up. He walked around to the front of his desk, where he sat on the edge. “Phoebe, we’ve known each other a long time. We’ve been friends a long time.” He laughed and continued. “We’ve laughed and danced together. You’ve cried on my shoulder. We even ended up in the same profession. I trust you.” He paused.

  Phoebe knew all the things he’d said were true, and truth be told, she trusted him too. He might not have chosen the same path she did when they’d left law school, but they thought a lot alike, and they had known one another for what seemed like forever. She nodded. “Yeah, and…”

  “Now I need you to trust me.”

  Phoebe stood. “But—”

  Alex interrupted her. “Remember when we were little and Daisy and I would come over to your house, and the three of use would go out in the boats and spend the entire day on the lake? Fishing for tadpoles and skipping rocks in between racing our boats and the occasional swim.”

  Phoebe couldn’t help but smile. She had a lot of fond memories of those times. Alex and Daisy were around a lot. Actually, she’d been really surprised that the two of them never ended up dating. “Of course I do.”

  “And do you remember what Gram would say to us when we’d come in after she’d come out on the edge of the dock and holler out for us?”

  Phoebe thought for a moment but nodded. “Yeah. She’d say, ‘I swear I know I told y’all not to head out so far when you know I can’t swim. You’ll end up having to save each other.’”

  Alex’s smile grew. Phoebe saw him through watery, blurry eyes. “Exactly.” He stood up and took her hand. “So let me do that. Let me save you.”

  Phoebe sat in the living room in the main house with her feet tucked underneath her and a glass of red wine on the table next to her. She had a stack of letters on the right side of her on the couch. She had one of the journals in her hand. It had once belonged to Lorraine Vus. Phoebe had figured out that Lorraine was her great-great-great-grandmother and that she’d come to America and married her husband very quickly. She’d known she’d come from a long line of strong women because her gram had told her countless stories about her own mother and of Phoebe’s mother. They were leaders, women who rose up and stood for something. Phoebe was proud of her lineage. Reading the journal had taught her more about her family and the lake than she’d thought possible.

  The very first entry was dated March 1902 and read,

  We were able to get our first glimpse of the American coast today. The captain says we’ll be on steady ground in the morning. Sometimes it’s hard to believe I gave up my entire life to marry a man I barely know. Charlotte is traveling with me, but I promised her that if she decided she’d like to return, I’d make arrangements for her to do so. She assures me that she wants to be there for my wedding day and will listen to no other reasoning. I’m glad she’s here with me and cannot wait to see what our future holds. Perhaps, once we’re settled, Charlotte will find herself an American husband too.

  Phoebe was intrigued. She was sure that the Charlotte whose letter she’d read was this very Charlotte, so she knew that they both did marry American men and stay in the country. She read several more entries in the diary, all of them referencing wedding plans and a lovely soon-to-be cousin named Adele Mellon.

  Before too long, Phoebe realized that she’d been reading and examining for well over an hour and had drained her glass. She got up to stretch her stiff legs and refill her glass when there was a knock at the door. Sighing heavily, she moved in stocking feet to the door, which she pulled open, mouth already dropped to start in on Jarred about how he needed to stop showing up, kissing her senseless. She’d told him to go and hadn’t invited him back. He should stay gone. But to her surprise, on the other side of the door, receiving the tirade she’d planned for Jarred was her beautiful and greatly missed friend Daisy.

  “Well, I see he’s already managed to get under your skin.” She laughed at what Phoebe was sure was a stupid look on her face and smiled. “Are you through? Could I come in now?” She lifted an arm and waved a bottle wine at Phoebe. “I brought wine…and snacks.” She lifted her other hand to reveal a bag she’d been holding. In it, Phoebe could see, were her all-time favorite potato chips as well as two pints of chocolate ice cream. Phoebe stepped back from the entrance but held the door wide for her friend to pass.

  “He is not under my skin.”

  Daisy laughed, not a little but a lot. She turned on Phoebe as she shut the door. “He’s never not been, Phee.”

  Six

  The apartment was quiet when she walked in. It was nine o’clock on a Tuesday morning, so she wasn’t surprised that Jess was gone, but it stung a little. She could have used a pep talk before getting herself together to go to the office. After tossing her things in her room, she showered and dressed quickly before grabbing the paperwork she needed as well as her laptop and hustled out the door.

  Normally she was happy to take the El into work, but she’d driven that morning. She hadn’t been uptown in a while and thought she could swing through on her way. The whole time she was driving through the busy streets of Philadelphia, she was trying to convince herself that she’d done so for a practical reason: she had to move the car or it would get towed. Or she had the car out of the garage, so it should be driven. Her favorite though, the one that made her have to admit to herself that what she was actually doing was driving by Peterson and Penn, was that if she went uptown and circled back, she’d be able to park on
the right side of the street, which happened to be the side the office was on. Daisy had been right; Jarred Holton was under her skin. Didn’t matter that he also made it crawl.

  Phoebe made it to the office after a long and intense detour. Thankful that the remote briefing had gone well, she walked into the office confident that once she got into court that afternoon, all would be well. She lifted her chin and went inside. She was prepared for the condolences as well as the mountain she was sure to find on her desk. She wasn’t disappointed when not more than three steps into the lobby, the receptionist, Leo, was on his feet and rushing toward her with his arms outstretched.

  Phoebe sighed just a little as she embraced the young man. He was very sweet and rarely expressed his emotions; it was one of the reasons he was so good at his job. He was always straight-faced like a professional poker player. They needed that in their office. They had some high profile clients with intense cases, and occasionally things would need handling. Leo had time and time again proven his worth. Plus he was great with people, and she knew from experience that the phone at his desk rarely stopped ringing. She was surprised at his affection but not his words. “I’m so sorry for your loss, Ms. Sullivan.”

  Phoebe gave him a small smile. “Thank you, Leo,” she told him as he scurried off back toward his desk, immediately getting back to his phone calls.

  She caught the elevator when no one else was in it and enjoyed the quiet ride up the six flights to the floor she shared with Jess and their interns. Almost like it was yesterday, she could remember their first day at Outman, Hamlin, and Burrows. They had both gotten internships. Phoebe and Jess had come in together, and for whatever reason, it seemed that even the senior partners could tell that the two of them worked better as a team than not, so they’d left them that way. Even on days when one of them would end up having to cover Leo’s desk, they made sure the other one was out gathering coffee or something. Then when school had been over, they’d both been offered positions. Both of them had worked hard to get out of their cubicles on the first floor and up to their own area on the sixth.

  Melanie rushed her the moment the door was open, handing Phoebe a cup of coffee and rattling off the massive list of things they needed to go over before she was due in court at three. She tried to focus on everything her intern was saying, but they were walking past Jess’s office and the door was closed. Jess’s door was never closed. She held a hand up to Melanie to stop. She handed her back the coffee as well as her bags. “I’ll meet you in my office.” Melanie looked a little stunned. “I won’t be long.”

  Melanie opened her mouth but closed it. Then opened it again. She looked like a fish pulled from the water, trying to save itself.

  “What is it?”

  Melanie shook her head. “No. It's nothing. I shouldn’t…”

  “Melanie. Just spit it out.”

  She still looked hesitant, but she started talking. “Well, Ms. Samuels’ door has been shut a lot since you’ve been gone.”

  “Oh…” Phoebe’s interest was piqued, and she wanted to hear the rumors. There had to be some, and she knew that Melanie would know them. “And…”

  Melanie had an odd look on her face. One that Phoebe couldn’t place. That was shocking in itself, but then she said, “Well, there’s a man that comes.”

  Phoebe held her hand up to her mouth, trying not to laugh. All sorts of possibilities were running through her head. She wondered who it could be. “Understood. I’ll just be a moment.” She really was trying not to laugh but was failing. She needed Melanie to run along so she could let it out without showing her lack of self-control, which she did the moment Melanie had walked behind the glass wall that separated Phoebe’s office from the center of the floor.

  The floor was a rectangle, with Phoebe’s office along one side, Jess’s opposite that, and a conference room at one end. All the interns, the paralegals, and their assistants were in the center. Phoebe went to Jess’s door and knocked softly. She tapped on the door three times, paused, and then tapped two more, letting Jess know it was her. It was a knock they’d come up with in college, one that would allow the other to know who they were so they knew to get up or not. More importantly, it also gave them fifteen seconds to cover up if need be. Phoebe stood outside the door silently, counting in her head, before she turned the knob and pushed the door open just enough for her to slide in.

  Phoebe had been kind of right. She’d assumed that Jess had locked herself in with the bouncer. The one with the big muscles that they’d met out one night. She’d assumed that the two of them were a thing now and couldn’t get enough of each other to the point that she was calling Tuesday bring your hunk to work day. She’d only been half right. The hunk was there, but neither of them seemed to be lusting after the other. Jess was standing, walking toward the door, and black t-shirt was sitting in the chair across from her desk.

  Jess immediately pulled Phoebe in for a hug. ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t home this morning.” Jess released her and backed away.

  “No worries. Only two places you could be.” She smiled at her friend, or tried to. The air in the room was thick. Full of something that Phoebe wasn’t sure she wanted to name. “I’ll leave you to things. We can catch up later.”

  Jess nodded before turning around. She stopped quick when she caught sight of the man still sitting across from her desk. “Oh.” She turned back around. “Phoebe, this is Brad. Brad, this is Phoebe.”

  “Nice to finally put a name with a face,” he said as Phoebe turned her attention to him. She nodded at his words and lied as she looked quizzically at Jess. “You too.” She held her friend’s gaze and could tell Jess was trying to convey something, but it wasn’t completely clear. Phoebe left, more confused than when she’d seen the door shut.

  JARRED

  Jarred hadn’t been able to figure out a good reason for him to stop by or call Phoebe. He still couldn’t believe he’d actually kissed her. He hadn’t been thinking. Seeing her there at the table, in front of the window, the lake behind her, the heat her anger was creating radiated off of her, making her glow. He’d had no control over his actions, but more surprising than that was that she had kissed him back. His lips had actually stopped moving when hers started out of pure shock. But they’d gotten with the program quickly.

  He hadn’t wanted the moment to end, but ended it had, and it had been jarring. She’d not let him say anything. She wanted him to leave. Not that he blamed her. Talking was the stuff that had always gotten them in trouble. The other stuff, the action, the feeling, all of that they’d been really good at. He was standing on the porch just outside his great room, looking out across the lake. There weren’t any lights on at the Sullivan house. He wondered briefly if Phoebe had gone back to Philly. She’d said something about a case. She was probably due in court. He was thankful he could work from home more often than not. He had a big fancy office in downtown Philly, but he was there as little as possible.

  Like the spring that fed the lake, the lake fed his creativity. He worked faster, smarter, and more importantly, there was more efficiency and beauty to his designs when he created them there rather than at the office. His partners knew it too. They only really expected to see him when big things were going down, client and board meetings mostly. Jarred sighed and leaned against the railing. The lake had always been special. From the moment he’d stepped out of the car that day dropping Phoebe off for the first time, he could feel its pull.

  Jarred remembered how much time he and Phoebe had spent beside it. They would lie in the grass and watch the clouds glide across the sky or skip stones at the edge of the water. There were a few times they’d wade in up to their knees or so, but the water was far too cold to go any deeper that late in the fall. The weekend after that first visit was the visit that was most etched in his mind. He and Phoebe had been skipping rocks and laughing together on the bank. Her grandmother had called to them, asking them to come in for something to eat. Jarred had been thinking of nothing other th
an kissing Phoebe for days. He’d planned moments and then they’d pass or someone would interrupt them. Or he’d get too nervous and back out. But that moment, she’d looked up at him, wide-eyed. “Last one,” she’d said as she crouched down to find another rock to throw. She got so excited when she could make it hop across the surface. He’d stepped closer, and she had moved closer without noticing so that when she stood up, rock in hand, they were practically nose to nose. Jarred had leaned in without much more thought. Her closeness had overwhelmed him. Made him stop thinking. He hadn’t had time to let the nerves set in; next thing he knew, their lips were touching and the taste of strawberry and peppermint caressed his lips.

  That kiss had marked him. He’d kissed other girls. But never had he had a kiss like that. It was short and sweet but impactful. He’d spent a lot of time in college trying to recreate a moment like he’d had with Phoebe. Each time he kicked himself for it because, though the memory remained a solid force, the attempts made the kisses he’d had with other girls watery in comparison. He’d taken longer than necessary to learn that lesson though. He’d ruined a lot of potential lasting relationships because of it too.

  The thing he didn’t understand was how he’d forgotten how much it had meant to him. The last girl, her name was Missy, she’d thrown a royal fit and given him a lecture he wouldn’t soon forget. It made him realize how he was sabotaging all his potential relationships, so in that moment, he’d decided to bury it. All of it. He hadn’t allowed himself to think about Phoebe in years. But now, now that she was back in his life and her grandmother had seen to it that she had no choice but to remain there, Jarred found himself grateful. He knew that Phoebe was pissed he’d told her gram about them, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret it. Maybe Rosalind Sullivan had heard more when Jarred had told her the very short story about how he had briefly dated her granddaughter than he’d expected.