“I don’t know why Den asked to speak to you,” I said. I set the coffee on the edge of his desk. I couldn’t hold it; I couldn’t even look at it anymore. “But I dide in here to talk to you about Den.”


    He leaned back in his chair, folding his hands together. “Go ahead. I’m listening.”


    I’d gotten no more than an hour of sleepst night, so I’d had plenty of time to prepare myself for this conversation. I’d rehearsed it-out loud and in my head.


    But as I hugged myself in this chair, I couldn’t remember a damn word.


    “I want to start off by saying Den has been an incredible mentor. I’ve learned a tremendous amount over thisst semester, things the ssroom never taught me. Working with him, watching the way he conducts business, how he practices-it’s given me a foundation that I’m extremely grateful for. But even beyond that, he’d given me chances to apply what I’ve learned. Like a few weeks ago, when we met with Walter in Wyoming, he allowed me to lead that discussion and present the results I’d found during my research. I even gave Walter my opinion on what I thought the oue would be in his case.”


    Dominick’s hand moved to his chin,bing the whiskers of his beard. “Interesting.”


    That response caused me to pause. “Why do you say that?”


    “He must really believe in you if he allowed you to lead a meeting with Walter-or with any client for that matter. Even though you’re a Dalton, you’re still only an intern, Hannah.”


    At the time, I’d assumed it was because of my personal connection with Walter. But Dominick had a point. Since that trip, Den had allowed me to weigh in during several other client meetings. Knowing that he controlled every situation he was in, the only reason he would have allowed this was if he trusted me-trusted that I’d done my research, trusted that I was going to present the correct information.


    “With that being said, Den’s mentorship isn’t what I want to talk to you about,” I admitted.


    “All right.”


    This was the hard part.


    And the tightening in my throat, the slickness on my palms only made it more difficult.


    “I know Den was pretty adamant about assigning me to a different litigator at the start of my internship, and I don’t want that, in any way, to reflect poorly on him. You see … we have a bit of a past.” I looked at the coffee cup, testing my stomach to see if I was ready for a sip. I kept my hands in myp and continued, “Before the two of us came to work here, he mentored one of myw sses, and that’s where we originally met.” I paused, thinking of the right way to word this. “And that’s where things progressed outside the ssroom. You know, we took things to the next level-physically.”


    “I see.”


    “But here’s where things went all wrong, Dom.” I’d worn my hair down, and I gathered all the strands into my hand, my fingers acting like an stic. “There was a misunderstanding. I thought we were going to continue our night and see much more of each other. That didn’t happen because, in my eyes, he stood me up. And then we never saw each other again.”


    “And then you became his intern, which, I assume, came as quite a surprise.”


    I nodded. “But it gets worse.” I lifted my hair as the back of my neck began to sweat. “As I looked into the eyes of my new boss, I didn’t feelfortable telling him my feelings about the mishap or even my side of what had happened.” I took a deep breath. “So, I lied to him, Dominick. I told him I was too drunk to remember anything from that night. And, as you can imagine, the guilt started piling up inside him.”


    As he leaned forward, his cuff links hit the top of his desk, and his stare hardened. “Does Den know the truth now?”


    “Yes. It came to a headst night.” I dropped my hair and clutched my stomach. “I’m telling you this because there was a reason why he didn’t want me as his intern, and that’s my fault. He spent thest semester thinking …” My voice trailed off. I swallowed. I pushed the emotion away. “He thought he had hooked up with a woman who didn’t remember any of it, and that led to some really heavy and really shitty thoughts.”


    “Jesus, Hannah.”


    I whispered, “I know.” I raised my hand. “But I had my reasoning-a reasoning that I made very clear to himst night. He’s not innocent either, Dominick. We’re both in the wrong.”


    He remained silent, staring at me, his gaze telling me he was processing.


    “I know you warned him, which I love you for, but that warning came a littlete.” I uncrossed my legs and moved to the end of the chair. “He tried, Dominick. I can’t say I did because after that night we were together, many months ago, my feelings for him have only deepened. But he put in a solid effort to keep things professional between us.”


    “And now?”


    The knot fromst night returned. With each breath, it moved higher in my throat. “I love him.”


    The sound of his exhale was loud enough for me to hear. “Do you know why I warned him?”


    “No.”


    “Den might be the best litigator in California, and no one in this state dares to fuck with him, but I have an unfair advantage. I’m one of his best friends, and I can see right through him, and what I saw was that he already had feelings for you. The more he tried to hide those feelings, the more obvious they were.”


    He moved a pile of paperwork, like he needed more space for whatever he was about to say. “My warning wasn’t to keep him away from you. My warning was to make sure he knew that I was keeping an eye on him. And what that means in guynguage is, if he hurt even a hair on your head, I would destroy him. Limb by fucking limb.”


    I couldn’t help but smile. “And I love you for that too.” I got quiet as Dominick took a drink of his coffee. “I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen between us. What things will look like once everything calms down. But before this internship ends, I wanted you to hear this from me. I don’t want you ming Den for anything he said about me or his desire to transfer me. I take full responsibility for all of that.”


    Of course, Den had yed a big part in this, and I hadn’t been afraid to tell him thatst night. I’d take fault where the fault was due, but Den wasn’t a saint in this situation.


    “I’m curious what side of the story I’m going to hear when Denes in”-he looked at his watch-“in about three minutes.”


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    “In that case, I’d better go.” I grabbed my untouched coffee and stood from the chair. “I’ll see you this weekend at the graduation party?”


    “Kendall and I wouldn’t miss it.”


    I gave him a smile and walked to his door.


    “Hannah?”


    I turned around. “Yeah?”


    “Things get a little tricky when you work for family, and having conversations like the one we just had isn’t easy. Nor is it a simple feat to admit when you’re wrong. Thank you for being honest with me.”


    I nodded and opened his door, closing it behind me, immediately seeing Den walking down the narrow hallway.