Baby It's Cold Outside by Addison Fox Read Free Book Online Page B

“Roman?”
    Avery gave a quick nod before heading back toward the opposite end of the bar. Sloan didn’t need any more information—the reaction, coupled with the odd remark earlier—told her all she needed to know.
    Avery Marks was nursing one hell of a broken heart.
     
    Walker nodded around his longneck, feigning interest in whatever it was his law partner, Jessica McFarland, was saying.
    “It’s getting uglier by the day, Walker. Isn’t there something we can do? Kate’s been here a lot longer. She’s entitled to stay in her father’s home.”
    “She’s got a home and she can stay there until we get this figured out. Until then, the house is under an injunction and neither of them can live there.” He turned his gaze on Jess. “You damn well know that, so why the argument?”
    “It hardly seems fair.”
    “We’re not tasked to judge what’s fair; we’re tasked to do our jobs.”
    “But she just came waltzing up there and thinks she has a right to Jonas’s things.”
    “ She is Jonas’s daughter, Grier.” The small burn of annoyance that had dogged him since the start of the case—that Jonas had ignored said daughter for her entire life—shifted into a simmering fire. “And, Jess. If you can’t separate your personal feelings from this one, maybe you need to extricate yourself from it.”
    She held up a hand, her cocktail sloshing dangerously close to the rim of her glass. “You think I can’t handle it?”
    “I think you need to stop thinking like Kate Winston’s friend.”
    “Easy for you to say.”
    “It wasn’t a suggestion, Counselor.” Frustrated that someone he respected as much Jess couldn’t separate the small-town life from her job dogged him as he headed for the bar, intent on getting a refill for his beer.
    When he had Avery’s attention, he pointed to his beer. “I’ll have another longneck and snag me one for Mick while you’re at it.”
    He allowed himself to casually look around the large lobby, now packed to the brim with Indigo’s finest. Before he could stop himself, his eyes alighted on the woman at the center of this evening’s little tête-à-tête.
    “You sure can’t seem to stop looking at her, Walker Montgomery.” Avery’s whisper floated over his left shoulder. He turned, careful to keep his manner casual, even as he questioned how she had noticed.
    “I’m just taking in the view. And there’s a lot to take in this evening, seeing as how we’ve suddenly got a few party girls in our midst.”
    “I’d hardly call them party girls. Grier Thompson’s been given the bum’s rush by this town and her friend just wants to help her break the ice.” Avery shot a dark glance across the room at a gaggle of women wrapped in a circle around Kate.
    “Kate’ll thaw out.”
    “She’s not acting like she’ll thaw out.” Avery reached under the bar and pulled out a bottle of wine, pouring herself a glass. “In fact, she’s getting colder and meaner by the day.”
    “She’s still here drinking the free liquor.”
    Avery nodded toward a short line of glasses at the bar—two to be exact—holding credit cards wrapped in receipts. “Oh no. She’s got her own tab going. Made sure several people saw her do it, too.”
    Walker shook his head at the small-town politics. Truth be told, they weren’t all that different from large-town politics, but it was a lot easier to show your hand up here.
    Kate and her friends sashayed to the bar and ordered another round.
    Or to show off your hand, Walker thought as the women made another production of ordering on their tab. Loudly.
    He moved away from the bar, his interest in getting caught up in conversation about the same as getting cornered by a grizzly on his way home. Instead, he moved determinedly in the direction of Grier Thompson and her friend.
    Sloan.
    Why couldn’t he stop thinking about her? It was a name to be whispered in the wash of moonlight coming into his bedroom as his mouth did dark things to