Three Makes a Family--A Clean Romance Cari Webb (short books for teens txt) 📖

Hahn strode up to the table. The deep red stripes in her glossy black hair highlighted a spark of irritation in her brown eyes.

“Gina. It’s good to see you.” Drew offered the woman a small smile. “It’s been a while.”

“Ha. I worked at the DA’s office for four years. I’ve been gone from there for almost two years. In all that time, you never came to my family’s restaurant.” Gina tapped her pencil against her order pad. “But now, suddenly, you’re here. It’s no coincidence, is it?”

Drew nodded and motioned to Molly. “Gina, this is my friend and legal counsel, Molly McKinney and Molly’s daughter, Hazel.”

Gina tucked her pencil behind her ear and her notepad in her apron, then shook Molly’s hand. She gave an exaggerated wave to the baby and followed it with a cute drawn out, “Hey, Hazel.”

Molly quietly watched as the woman’s demeanor relaxed the more she interacted with Hazel. Molly unfolded her napkin, set the white fabric across her lap. She hoped she sounded casual. “Gina, I’m sure you’re aware of the charges against Drew.”

Gina moved beside Hazel’s high chair and pulled a bright pink uninflated balloon from her apron pocket. “I keep up with the news.”

“We wanted to talk to you about the DA’s office.” Molly stepped into the lead, kept her tone professional and her words direct. Molly and Drew had practiced mock trials and witness depositions while stealing French fries from each other’s lunch plates in law school. If only a French fry swap was the objective now. “Specifically, we’d like to know about your time working as an administrative assistant for Cory Vinson.”

“I was fired.” Gina inflated the balloon, tied the end and began twisting it. Her face was pleasant, her movements unrushed as if she were discussing nothing more serious than the weather. Only she never made eye contact, not with Drew. Not with Molly. Gina added, “It was an immediate termination for doing my class homework on my work computer during my lunch breaks. There’s a policy that states the property of the district attorney’s office cannot be employed for personal use.”

“That’s unfortunate.” Molly aligned the silverware on the table in front of her and worked to align herself with the young woman. “Usually, written warnings and measured work assignments are given before termination.”

“That would be due process. It only exists at Cory Vinson’s whim in his world.” Gina completed three more twists on the balloon, creating what looked like the front of a poodle. “As Drew knows.”

Drew’s shoulders rolled back. “Do you know something about the charges against me?”

Gina lifted one shoulder. Again, nothing disturbed her pleasant expression or easygoing manner. “Only what I’ve read online or in the newspapers and heard on TV. The same as everyone else.”

“But you were Cory’s lead administrative assistant,” Drew countered.

Finally Gina lifted her gaze and looked directly at Drew. “And you were Cory’s favorite assistant district attorney.”

Hazel patted her palms against the high-chair tray and bounced in her seat. Her attention fastened on Gina’s balloon animal. Gina completed her balloon dog with a poodle puff to the end of the tail and presented her creation to Drew. She added, “Curious, isn’t it? We’re both no longer at the DA’s office, but Cory Vinson is.”

“Another coincidence.” Drew tapped the balloon dog’s nose against Hazel’s cheek. He smiled when Hazel laughed, then set the animal on the table in front of her.

Gina skipped her attention to Molly. “Drew always told his paralegals and research assistants that coincidences were messages. That they had to find the connection and it wouldn’t always be obvious.”

Molly glanced at Drew. “That’s good advice.”

Drew swirled the ice around in his water glass. “It’s what I believe.”

“I shared it with my professors when I was still in school.” Gina stretched out another balloon. “It always stuck with me.”

“Then you know it’s no accident we’re here.” Molly added more dried cereal to Hazel’s tray.

“It’s no accident I’m here either.” Gina’s eyebrows lifted as she blew up the balloon.

Drew ran his palm over the table. “Gina, you’re connected to the DA’s office.”

“I was connected to that place.” Gina tied the end of the blue balloon in a quick knot as if she wanted to tie off her past too. “But that’s behind me. And I want it to stay that way.”

Molly shifted and thought she caught the slightest fragment of uncertainty in Gina’s gaze. Whether real or a trick of the afternoon sun, she wasn’t certain.

An older gentleman, his gray hair thin on top and his waistline soft, stepped beside Gina. “My daughter is the best balloon creator in the Bay Area. I taught her myself when she was young.”

“Papa, you’re too kind. This is my father and owner of Girasoli, Antonio Porta.” Gina expanded a second blue balloon. Hazel squealed. Gina smiled. “Papa always made balloon animals for my sister and me. Now I make them for my daughter and our patrons’ kids.”

“I remember when my granddaughter was this age. So precious.” Affection was laced in Antonio’s accent. He held his hand out to Gina, wiggled his fingers and grinned. She placed several balloons on his open palm. “My granddaughter is a princess. I believe all daughters are princesses.”

Molly liked Antonio instantly. His love for his family was endearing. But this wasn’t a fun family lunch. She needed real information. Something more than the fleeting thought that she’d like to return for a casual lunch with Drew and Hazel. “Antonio, how old is your granddaughter?”

Antonio made quick work of his balloon crown and revealed it to the table as if he were presenting a fine piece of jewelry. Then, with the flair of the crown jeweler, he placed the crown on Hazel’s head. “My grandbaby, she turned two last month.”

Molly picked up her glass of ice water and sipped. The cold water sent a shiver over Molly’s skin. Or perhaps that was the rush of energy returning, the kind she’d sought yesterday in her apartment with Drew. Gina left the district attorney’s