The Millionaire's Tainted Legacy

A Strange Call

Caylee was amazed how quickly the table filled up with people once the word was out that the burgers were off the grill. And as far as burgers were concerned, they were certainly checking off all the boxes. There were fat hamburgers, salmon burgers (must be a Florida thing), and vegan burgers that looked so much like real meat it was hard to tell the difference. Olivia helpfully put little toothpicks with signs on each platter identifying the burger type. Apparently the teen ate mostly a plant-based diet, and a few of the others around the table chose those as well.

Joey, she noticed, had one of each variety of burger on his plate.

Caylee selected a plump bakery roll, and decided to go with the salmon burger, adding toppings from the wide selection. Then she served herself a large portion of field greens as a bed for a not-so-large helping of potato salad. If she spent too many meals with this crowd she wouldn't be fitting into the bikini Tito had been admiring for long. Stop it, she reminded herself, that's your mother talking. Thanks to her mother's obsession with being thin, Caylee had spent her early teen years battling an eating disorder. She intentionally added another scoop of potato salad to her plate.

Everyone was talking at once and piling their plates high, and she tried to imagine herself spending an afternoon like this at the home of one of the partners from her previous New York City law firm. It didn't compute.

No, she'd been to a few of those small "informal gatherings" of a few partners and a select number of associates at one of the partners' homes, and they had reminded her more of the catered "casual dinners" her mother typically hosted. Dignified, refined, and downright boring.  The associates all being careful what they said, and jockeying for position in conversations with individual partners. Namedropping firm clients and prospects, and hoping for a fast track up the partnership ladder. And certainly no children in view.

Caylee decided she much preferred the impromptu cookout at Sam and Camilla's house.  She glanced over at Jake and wondered if he'd felt as much out of his element the first time he spent an afternoon like this as she did.

At any rate, he certainly seemed to fit in now. And she'd already heard about his reputation in the upcoming annual firm regatta, which was the talk of the office. There she'd get to see how everyone in the firm - the partners, the junior lawyers, the paralegals, legal assistants, the case manager, office administrator, and investigators  - all interacted in the annual sailboat race that Jack had managed to win with his hand-selected crew every year since its inception.

Well, we'd just see about that this year. Cousin or no cousin to Jack, she'd already been commandeered by Sam to sail with his team. And if there was one thing Caylee could do even better than mingling at social galas and diving into complex legal research, it was sail.

She glanced over at Tito, back in that body-hugging t-shirt that did nothing to hide his well-muscled chest and wondered if he also knew his way around a sailboat. She guessed she'd find out before the regatta, since he'd volunteered her so smoothly to join him on the OFC sailing retreat. Jack and Bailey would be onboard as well - it was Jack's boat they'd be taking for the trip - but it was Tito she was picturing, shirtless again, trimming the sails and tending to the business of sailing while his skin glistened in the sunlight with a fine sheen of moisture from sprays of salt water as the boat cut through the waves.

He caught her staring at him from across the table and instead of looking away she gave him a slow smile. His eyes stayed focused on her and he leaned forward as if he was going to say something, but just then Ritchie put a hand on his shoulder and gestured at Joey with his plate of towering burgers, and he grinned and made a comment to Ritchie instead that Caylee didn't catch.

Now that Ritchie was away from the grill duties, he was wearing the baby sling contraption she'd seen Maria with earlier, and the baby appeared to be napping again.