Chapter Forty-One
"Your new hire is something," he brought up the depositions for the first time during dinner.
She'd tried to avoid talking about it, it wasn't the safest subject between them after all, the night was supposed to be about them, not their common case.
"You like her?" she inquired curiously. She was aware of the effect Elsbeth had on people who were meeting her for the first time.
"It's hard to tell, she's with the opposition," he sounded kind of bitter, which was understandable considering how the depositions turned out in favor of Diane's client that day.
"As long as you still like me," she teased and was surprised not to get a smile from him in return.
"You make it very hard when you come at us like that. You used to be on the other side. How did this happen again?"
She wasn't exactly ready for such a question, but she couldn't blame him for feeling a little low, "Money talks," she shrugged and tried to divert the conversation from the case, "But did you just say it was hard for you to like me?" she teased him, knowing he couldn't have meant it that way.
"It was a temporary thing, only lasted a few seconds I promise," he smiled at her this time and she really wasn't angry.
"Don't think you can get away with this so easily," she threatened him playfully.
"Don't forget that we're in public. It would hurt our reputation if people saw us arguing."
"We are working on opposite sides of a case, what else do they expect?"
"So is this a business dinner? Should we talk settlement?"
"Who said that we want to settle?"
"My bad."
Their impromptu bantering was interrupted by the ringing of Diane's phone.
"It's Emma," she said before she answered the call, "Hey sweetie, is everything all right?"
"I want to go home, mom please come and take me home," she heard hear daughter's desperate voice, which also indicated that she must have been crying.
"Why? What happened?"
"I can't tell you on the phone. But please hurry!"
"Are you all right? Is Nat all right?" she asked in a worried voice, glancing at Will who tried to put together the pieces and didn't take his eyes off her face.
"Yes, we're fine, I just want to go home, please," she practically begged her, which was not exactly like Emma. If she acted like that it must have had a reason and she suspected that the reason might have been her aunt.
"We'll pick you up in a half an hour," she promised and she could hear the relief in Em's voice as she replied.
"I'll be waiting."
"Em wants us to pick them up, she must have had a fight with Aunt Diane. She sounded like she was crying," she didn't want to be a parent who jumped every time her kids needed her, but she also knew that Emma wouldn't have called if it hadn't been necessary.
"It's really not the best solution to have her watch the kids. Your aunt can be very controlling," Will expressed his concern over the subject again. It was easy for him to do so, considering she wasn't his relative, since his family lived in Baltimore.
"But she's all we have and she's better than some stranger," she felt like she repeated herself, obviously this was still a sensitive topic to discuss.
"It worked while they were little, but Emma's getting more and more self-conscious, these fights could become regular," she liked the way Will paid attention to the kids, noticing the change in their behavior even when he was preoccupied with work most of the time.
"I know, I'll try to talk to Emma, she's old enough to understand," she believed in her daughter's common sense, of course she had to choose some other time to discuss it with her, tonight was definitely out of the question.
"I really wished Sarah would live here, the kids love her."
"They do, but there's nothing we can do about it."
Sarah was definitely a perfect sitter, but she didn't visit them more than once or twice a year and Diane had no sisters of her own or other family members to count on.
"We should consider hiring a sitter, someone they might like. It's only once a week after all."
They had talked about this a few times already. Will didn't really like Diane's aunt, but he never questioned her capability to look after their kids either.
"I don't know, I'll think about this. But we really should go now."
"I'll get the check."
o-o-o
All four of them arrived home an hour later, Nat was already sleeping in the car, so Will carried him to his bed right away, while Diane made sure Emma got to her bed as well. On their way home Emma told them about her fight with Aunt Diane and while Diane tried to be supportive of her she also had to think of the other side of the story. She decided to have a talk with both her daughter and her aunt in the next days to clear this up and decide if hiring a stranger to look after the kids was really necessary.
When she left Emma's room she saw that the light was still on downstairs so she went down the stairs.
"I thought we could use another glass of wine to finish up our evening," Will came out of the kitchen with a wine bottle and two glasses.
"Perfect idea," she took the glasses from his hand and gave him a kiss.
They sat down on the couch in the living room and Will poured both of them from the golden liquid.
"What should we drink to?" she asked.
"To us and the children we couldn't live without."
"They make our life complete," she smiled hearing his perfect toast.
"Even when they ruin our night," Will slightly chuckled.
"I don't feel like anything was ruined tonight, do you?"
"Not really, it has just gotten better," he smiled and put his arm around her.