Best Girl by Sylvia Warsh

Author:Sylvia Warsh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2012-01-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

The lawyer’s secretary had called and said the papers for the estate were ready. So after work, I changed into my knock-off designer jeans and touched up my hair and makeup. I’d never been to a lawyer’s office before.

I took the subway downtown to King Street, then walked east a few blocks. It looked like one of those sketchy neighborhoods that artists made funky, and while it was still cheap, the developers moved in. New condos were going up behind boards. Upscale furniture stores beside shops selling cigarettes and hot dog buns.

When I got to the street number, I stopped, surprised. It was a storefront. I’d pictured something different. Something more private up some stairs in an office building. At least the blinds were closed inside the window and you couldn’t see in. Randall Webb, Law Office was painted in small block letters on the glass.

I opened the door and walked in. The reception desk was piled neatly with folders. Some chairs sat near the window. A door behind the desk was open, leading to another room. A man was talking on the phone in the invisible distance. I headed over.

Once at the door, I got shy and just stood there. Randall Webb was leaning back in his leather chair behind a desk. Not what I expected. Thinning brown hair, kind of long for a lawyer pushing fifty. The sleeves of his white shirt rolled up.

“Look, there’s not much more I can do,” he was saying into the phone. “They’re cracking down on drunk drivers these days…”

Webb looked up and saw me. Without missing a beat, he waved for me to sit down in a chair in front of the desk. He got rid of the guy on the phone and stood up.

He gave me a big smile. “You’re Carol’s kid, aren’t you? I’d know you anywhere.” He came around the desk and put out his hand.

I took it shyly. He sat down in a chair beside me. Clean jeans. High-top runners.

“She was a beauty. You look just like her.”

I smiled like a dork.

“We were kids when we met. Grade ten.”

“Seriously?”

“I had a crush on her. But she was in love with Freddy from day one.”

“Then you knew my father too?”

He grinned. “Skinny little guy.”

“And you knew the other dudes in the band.”

“Iggy and Stu, yeah. They were the cool guys. I was the nerd. I did my homework. They played music. The rest is history.”

For a second I was irritated with my mother. She could’ve picked anyone and she picked Freddy. Then it dawned on me that I wouldn’t be here if she hadn’t.

“You were just a kid when…You don’t remember anything, do you?”

I shook my head.

“Lucky,” he said. He smiled sadly. “You were real cute. A neighbor was looking after you when I got there. Then Child Welfare came in. It broke Carol’s heart to give you up. No shortage of offers for you. She asked me to sort it out.”

“You arranged for my adoption?”

He fixed his eyes on me, searching.

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