Pound Foolish (Windy City Neighbors Book 4) by Neta Jackson, Dave Jackson Read Free Book Online Page A

he’d only met Nicole the other day, but she had worked as a paralegal for several years before the kids came along. “So, Nicole, did you know Paddock was a lawyer?”
         “No, really?Hmm.” Her voice sounded unconcerned. “I just thought he ran that limo company.”
     
    * * * *
       
    Lincoln Paddock was an attorney? The thought distracted Nicole all the way to church the next morning. When he’d called her to apologize for not taking the kids to the zoo because he had to go to court, it hadn’t crossed her mind he might be an attorney. Someone with a limo company would undoubtedly have legal business from time to time or maybe it was a traffic violation, so she’d just dismissed the comment as one of those things.
         But Greg said he was an attorney. That was intriguing. Did he practice as part of a firm? Or was the limo company his primary business?
         What if she’d continued down that track? Would she be an attorney by now? It had always been a glamorous world to her, something she’d enjoyed from the day she got her first job as a legal assistant just out of college. That job had been with a commercial real estate attorney’s office—no litigation, no courtroom drama. But she’d still liked it and within a year became a paralegal with plans to go to law school and study for the bar. However, once the kids came along Greg had felt strongly she should focus on parenting.
         And she’d agreed. In fact, it had been her choice to do homeschooling. She was organized and disciplined. She could do it well. But there’d always been that what-if in the back of her mind. What if she’d become an attorney?
         She didn’t know that much about Lincoln Paddock, but the allure that surrounded him was how she’d imagined being an attorney—successful, suave, big house. The tingle of riding with him in the back of his stretch limo came back to her as Greg pulled the Cherokee into the church parking lot. The way he’d smiled at her and paid such focused attention.
         The fact that he’d remembered his promise to take the kids to the zoo showed how thoughtful he was. And then when he couldn’t make it, he’d taken the trouble to call and apologize beforehand, not afterward. Greg used to be considerate like that, but lately he’d blown through her expectations as though she ought to just understand the pressures of his job without him having to say anything.
         Was this the kind of change in behavior her mother had noticed before discovering her father was being unfaithful? Hopefully that wasn’t what was going on with Greg! She had no reason to think there was someone else. On the other hand, they’d been married for over ten years; and the fire in their relationship that had once crackled and snapped now smoldered like a dimly burning wick drowning in a puddle of melted wax.
         Surely the fire wouldn’t grow cold with someone like Lincoln.
         Nicole almost stumbled on the steps going up to the balcony of Victorious Living Center. What was she thinking ? The mystery of how her father had fallen for another woman washed over her. Was this what had happened to him? Had it all started by following a what-if muse? It’d been one of the questions she hadn’t been able to ask her mother. Perhaps her mother wouldn’t have known the answer. But it shouldn’t matter. Nicole shook herself. She wasn’t her father! She wouldn’t follow in his steps.
     
    * * * *
       
    From their seats high in the stadium-like auditorium of the Victorious Living Center, it was easier for Greg and Nicole to watch Pastor Hanson on one of the huge overhead screens than to squint at him way down on the stage. He was a large man, not necessarily overweight but, at fifty-five, a little soft looking, Greg had to admit. Still, his wardrobe was impeccable, and he never sported a five o’clock shadow or the need for a haircut. Squeaky-clean.
         He stepped up to the clear