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She gasped out a surprised laugh and it ether, Avett We gaether"

She snorted a little "Except I’ time if we lose"

"True But I’ve won cases far ainst my clients If I lose this one, it athered fro me the hairy eyeball that I’m not your typical kind of client"

"Well, if you called Pa to do with it She prefers to be referred to as ave her a steady look and made sure she could hear the sincerity in my tone when I told her, "And my typical client is anyone that can afford me I don’t care if you have pink hair or if you’re the star running back for the Denver Broncos If you hire ive, and I will treat your case like it is h of relief "I’ll need to thank Asa for hiring you, then"

I decided not to tell her that her dad was picking up the bill now and instead absently told her, "I like your pink hair, by the way"

She blinked rapidly at ers were touching the rosy ends of her hair

"You do?" She sounded incredulous

I nodded "I do, but youit before court It never hurts to look as respectable and as law abiding as possible" She frowned atoff her ire "That’s the kind of advice your dad would tell you to listen to if he was here I told you, I spend a lot of tinificant to you, it can have a huge ie and the jury If we get that far" Even though I would be inexplicably sad to see it go It suited her and I liked the way it and she brightened up my typically drab office

She fisted a handful of the pink locks and closed her eyes for a split second When she opened theain, her bottom lip jutted out in a pout that not only did I want to bite, but that also hter

"Okay, besides my hair, what else do I need to do before the preli? How do I usted by the idea, I had to bite down another chuckle

"The hair, and dress appropriately for court So and you look fairly innocent You’ve got your entire life ahead of you We want to play that up Besides that, do what the arraigne told you--stay away from the boyfriend and try and keep yourself out of trouble"

She stiffened across from me and whispered, "Ex-boyfriend, and I told you, I don’t ever want to see hi to have a choice" I looked at the watch onto her for well over the time I had blocked out in my schedule to meet with her It felt like it had only been a handful offroot me into this kind ofyou want to do soht That you don’t need souy that hurt you, the un and tried to rob a place thattiot toon me, so we need to wrap this up I’ll be in touch I’ to want to talk to you about their case against the boyfriend I should have a date for the next hearing soon"

I reached out to shake her hand and almost jerked my palm ahen our skin touched A jolt shot up my arm It took all ainst a live wire

She pulled back and curled her fingers into her pal to hold on to the vibrant electricity the contact between us had created When we touched, ed, stimulated in a way I’d never felt before

"I look forward to hearing fro her way to the door of my office Once she was there, she paused with her hand on the knob and turned back to look at me over her shoulder "Quaid"

I looked up from the file I had turned my attention to and lifted my eyebrows at her in question "Yeah?"

"I’ nor as innocent as you seee and jury because you think it will help keep nize that’s not the reality of the situation" She was out the door before I could formulate a response

I called Pam to let her know I needed a fewback in my chair as I tried to recover from Hurricane Avett She was a tiny ind of destruction and I couldn’t see my emotions in I’d never encountered anyone like her I couldn’t re with someone as real, as open with their faults and failures, as Avett seemed to be I’d never met anyone as reckless with their own fate as she was Soauntlet she thren on her way out

Obviously she was technically young, otten back froe for the first time I wasn’t as untried as a lot of men in their early twenties but that had row up than it did with fighting for my country Still, the difference bethat I knew then and what I knoas huge, so yes, Avett Walker was young, regardless of her assurances that she wasn’t

As for her being innocent … I had her criel However, there was soentle and soft How innocent she may or may not be was still very much up for debate