Turning the Page Read Online Free

living since David passed. You work hard and smarter than you ever have, but then you go home and do nothing. The last party you went to was Harlan’s farewell when he retired from the firm and stepped down as senior partner. I know you only came because of what he meant to you, and you stayed long enough to say good-bye to him and then left.”
    Malcolm was a man who’d worked in words his entire life. He wrote them, twisted and prodded them, used them against others when necessary, and yet at this moment they escaped him. He wasn’t sure how to tell Jane that going to parties always reminded him of David. David had loved to throw parties and entertain, and he was the one who lit up a room just by walking in. He’d been the life of any party, and he’d always included Malcolm in his glow.
    “I don’t know, Jane. I just want some time to grieve and try to figure things out in my own way.”
    “But you’re not.”
    “Yes, I am,” Malcolm said.
    Jane shook her head. “I’ve seen you outside work, remember? And I know you. You’re going through the motions, and you need to think about starting to live again.”
    She placed her hands on his shoulders and began squeezing slowly. It felt good, and Malcolm closed his eyes. He hadn’t realized how tense he was until some of it began to slip away.
    “I’ll get there, Jane. I promise you that. But right now I miss him so much, all the time.” He was not going to cry in the office. He had shed plenty of tears for David before he was gone and enough to float a ship afterward. But none in the office, and he wasn’t going to start now. “I’ll be fine.”
    She stood and returned to her seat and her lunch. Malcolm stared down at his sandwich, appetite gone. He wasn’t really looking at anything, and yet David stared at him in his mind. He was scolding him with that disarmingly charming expression of his that always told Malcolm he was being a butthead without saying a word.
    “Okay. I’ll try, Jane.”
    “Good. When your brother comes this weekend, let him take you out and have some fun. I don’t care if you go bowling or to the movies, or even just take your brother to dinner. But go and have fun.” She picked up her lunch and took a bite. “Oh, by the way, on a different note, we got the approved scope of services from Mr. Erickson. So you can do that magic you do so well.”
    “Great,” Malcolm said and grabbed his sandwich for a bite. “I have the file here. I need you to prepare amended 2010 and 2011 returns. It’s an easy one with one line of income that needs to be moved. Then we can calculate the Social Security tax difference, and I can get on the phone with the IRS and make them see sense.” He handed Jane the file.
    “What lit a fire under you all of a sudden?”
    “Nothing,” Malcolm said and returned to his lunch. “He’s an author, and I’ve read a few of his books. They were good, and he seemed like a nice guy who took advice from the wrong person.”
    Jane took the files and peeked through them. “We tend to get that a lot.”
    “Yeah, we do. But in this case we can fix it.”
    “Okay. It’s nice to see you excited about something.”
    “Jane,” he said with a touch of warning.
    “Well, he was certainly handsome enough. A big strapping man. He passed me as I was leaving, and he had an amazing smile.”
    She grinned at him expectantly, but Malcolm did his best to ignore it.
    “You have to have noticed.”
    “Please, Jane. Just leave it alone. He’s a client, and that isn’t the way we talk about our clients.” Malcolm began looking up the numbers he needed. “If you could get those forms completed right after lunch, we can probably get this one nailed up with a minimum of fuss.” That all depended on how much grief Jane decided she was going to give him.
    Thankfully she finished her lunch without more hounding, and he was able to eat again and then get back to work.
     
     
    THE REST of the week was much the same—Malcolm