A Little Wild by Kate St. James Page B

sipped her strawberry smoothie. Relax . “I eat at Sandie’s twice a week, usually when I’m working late. I’m surprised I haven’t run into you there.”
    “I don’t work late.”
    She studied him. “That will have to change, you know.” She set her smoothie cup on the bench. “If you want the climbing center to succeed, you’ll need to work day and night to get it off the ground. Most new business owners log horrendous hours. I’m talking sixty- or seventy-hour workweeks, Zach.”
    “Kind of like a backroom lawyer.”
    Touché. However, with his money and connections, he had several options. “I’m serious. Unless you plan on hiring a manager right away, running this business will consume your time and energy. Don’t kid yourself that it won’t.”
    “I’m not. I know it’ll be rough, Tess, and I’m fully prepared to follow through. I don’t want to hire a manager until I have to. Even then, I’d like to remain in charge of the gym and juice bar, just find someone to run the equipment store. I’m not about to leave my father’s company to fade into the background with my own business. I want to be there every day, interacting with my customers. Climbing The Walls is my baby. If anyone needs to feed her and change her dirty diapers, it’s gonna be me.”
    Tess smiled at the odd but accurate analogy. Zach Halliday was one creative guy—both on the phone and off it. “Climbing The Walls. Great name.”
    “I figure it’ll accurately reflect my state of mind by the time I open.”
    “What’s your time frame?”
    “Three or four months from now—the middle of November or December. Rock-climbing addicts will be screaming for a dry indoor haven. It’s perfect.”
    “You can capitalize on Christmas by advertising annual memberships as gifts.”
    “Good idea.” He finished his sandwich and stuffed the wrapping in the take-out bag. “Does this input mean you’ve decided to represent me?”
    Tess tried to stop grinning at him like an idiot, but his enthusiasm for his plans was contagious. Yeah, that’s it.
    “I don’t know,” she responded in a light tone matching his. “You still haven’t answered one of my many questions.”
    He closed an eye against the bright noon sunshine. “Which one is that?”
    “About why you came to me. Like you said, Zach, I’m stuck in the back rooms a lot. Until today, I hadn’t even met your father. How did you hear about me?”
    His coffee-brown gaze traveled over her face, warming her from the inside out. He rested a hand on his thigh, close to her hip. “Like a dog with a bone,” he murmured.
    “Like a detail-oriented lawyer.”
    “Well, detail-oriented lawyer, I did consult a couple of others before you, but they backfired.”
    “At Greenburg & Associates?”
    He shook his head. “At first I didn’t want to hire someone from L.G.’s firm, in case word leaked to my father before I was ready.”
    “That wouldn’t happen at Greenburg.”
    “There’s always a chance talk will happen. The trick is preventing it as long as you can.”
    “True.” Done eating, she wiped sandwich crumbs from her lips and hands with a napkin.
    Zach glanced at his watch. “Should we keep talking here or walk?”
    “Walk and talk. I need to get back.”
    He collected their garbage and deposited it in a trash can before they joined the flow of pedestrians. When they reached Cordova, they turned toward the Greenburg offices on Howe Street. As one of the city’s electric trolley buses chugged by, Zach resumed their conversation. “One of the drawbacks to having a lot of money is that nearly everyone you meet wants a piece. Until a friend recommended you, every lawyer I contacted was more interested in how my Halliday connections might benefit them rather than how they could help me.”
    Tess’s heart pinched. A passerby jostled her arm, and she repositioned her purse strap on her shoulder. “Is that why you offered me client referrals, because you thought I’d