Unavoidable Chance Read Online Free Page A

even take my files out of my briefcase before the bailiff says, “All rise.”
    I was completely disorganized the entire day in court. I always start the first day of a new case in court wearing my lucky yellow silk blouse. It’s sort of a good luck charm for me. I should have known to call in sick when Jax spilled coffee all over me and ruined it. The rest of my day didn’t go well either. I didn’t leave the office for the night until twenty after nine. I didn’t get to eat lunch or dinner. Reagan tries to keep me fed. She brought in a fruit salad and a sandwich, but I just didn’t have time to eat any of it. Much like many of my nights, I walk in my front door and strip out of my clothes as I walk to the fridge. A shoe here and the other shoe two steps after that. My jacket gets tossed to the floor, too. Nope, can’t do it. I circle back, pick it up off the floor, and fold it nicely over the couch. I unzip my skirt to loosen its deathly grip. Wine, I need some wine. I grab a glass and a bottle of red from the wrought iron rack on the counter. I open the drawer where I keep the opener and discover it missing. Where in the hell could it be?
    I frantically open each drawer and come up empty handed. I’m almost in tears. I’m so frustrated and totally over this day from hell. With a wine glass in one hand and the unopened bottle in the other, I walk to the fridge. Even opening the fridge is too much effort. I rest my forehead on the cool stainless steel surface and close my eyes. I take deep breaths in an effort to keep the tears from streaming down my face.
    I don’t know how long I stand there, but the next thing I hear is the annoying sound of gum chomping between Savvy’s teeth. I squeeze my eyes shut and just wish I had gone straight to bed instead of for the wine. All I want is a glass of wine. Was that too much to ask for on a day like today?
    Savvy takes the bottle from my hand, opens a drawer and removes the stupid opener that was clearly hiding from me, opens the bottle, takes the glass from my other hand, and pours it in the glass. She sets it on the counter, pats me in the center of my back, and then goes back to her room without a word. There is a God in heaven. I turn my head to the left and look at the glass of wine, which at the moment reminds me that Jax invited me to his restaurant tonight, and I sigh. I hadn’t planned on going anyway, but I do feel slightly bad that not only did I not thank him for the coffee, but I didn’t tell him that dinner just wasn’t necessary.
     
    Jax
    After I spilled Ava’s coffee on her, I had to hurry back home with coffee for me and my sister, Quinn. Wouldn’t you know it, but my coffee pot broke this morning. Before I left the coffee shop though, I felt so bad about not only ruining Ava’s shirt, but also wasting her coffee, that I had to at least get her another coffee. I explained to the barista that I had spilled someone’s coffee outside and wanted to replace it, but I didn’t know what she had ordered. I described what Ava was wearing to her and the young woman got a very strange look on her face. She only charged me for my two coffees and said that the other, which was Ava’s, was on the house. As I was leaving, she said, “Good luck with that.” I didn’t know what to make of that.
    After my wife died, Quinn moved in with me to help me take care of Sky and Hope. I don’t know what I would do without her. She’s a student at the University of Washington, School of Dentistry. She’s fifteen years younger than I am, and she has been a total godsend. So far our schedules have been able to work out where the girls never have to go to daycare or in an afterschool program. But, we both desperately need our morning coffee.
    I was rushing to get coffee and get back home so I could drop Skylar off at school for her last day of third grade. I can’t believe in the fall Skylar will already be in fourth grade and Hope will start all-day kindergarten. Where