“What bill?”
“Reno—”
“I came up here on my own time, Tessa. You’re in the right, you need help, and I want to help you. My hourly rate is zero. End of discussion.”
She looked at him for a long moment then said with quiet dignity, “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. We’ve got a fight on our hands before this will be over.”
“Still. Thanks for being in my corner.”
Reno grinned. “This is gonna be fun. I deeply enjoy taking down sleazy lawyers who give my profession a bad name.” Then Reno glanced over at him, his grin widening even more. “Dillon, walk my client out, would you? Some of us want to drink a beer and go to bed because we barely slept last night.”
Dillon walked Tessa to her car in the dim glow of a half moon. The April night had cooled off, faintly damp with the smell of wet earth around them. The crickets weren’t out yet, but the spring peeper frogs were trilling their high-pitched notes.
She paused with her hand on the car door. “You weren’t kidding about your brother being sharp. He looked at me once, and I think he knows my life history and entire financial situation.”
“He probably does. He’s annoying like that.”
She gazed up at him in the moonlight. For a second, he thought she might lift up onto her toes and kiss him again, and he was caught off guard by how much he wanted her to.
She squeezed his hand instead, and murmured, “Soon. After this mess is sorted out, okay?”
He smiled reassuringly, trying to communicate that he understood her need to focus all her energy on this and that he would wait for her as long as it took. “Okay.”
“Thank you for calling him,” she said. “I hope he shuts down this lawsuit quickly.”
“Me too.”
They traded crooked smiles.
He held her car door for her and stood in the driveway watching her taillights until they disappeared around the bend.
When he turned around, Reno was on the porch with two open beers, waiting.
“Don’t say it,” Dillon bit out.
“Wasn’t going to.” Reno handed him a beer.
“Yes, you were.”
“Yeah. I was definitely going to razz you. But I changed my mind.” Reno sat on the porch rail and took a long pull of his beer. “I’m gonna say a different thing instead. You ready?”
“No.”
“Drink you beer first, then. I got a hold of some huckleberry beer from the brewery in Apple Pie Creek. The stuff that’s been winning all the international beer awards. It’s supposed to be life changing.”
Dillon had never been much of a drinker and he wasn’t sure how he felt about berries and beer in the same bottle.
“If you’re not drinking, then I’m gonna say my piece now.” Reno tipped the purple bottle at him. “You’re in love with Tessa.”
“Dude—”
“All the way in love. The kind you don’t come back from. I knew it the moment I saw your face today.”
“You’re so full of?—”
Reno cut him off. “Don’t waste my time or yours denying it.” He wasn’t smiling, now. His pale blue eyes —their mother’s eyes — were steady on Dillon’s face. “I came here to take a case, and I’d do it for any client you send me, because you’re my brother and I owe you more than I can ever repay. But I’m not just here for the lawsuit.”