“You okay?” Nash asked, placing his hand on her elbow to help steady her.
“Yes, I’m fine.” She discreetly moved her arm out of his grasp and walked beside Tania. Nash followed close behind. She couldn’t wait for this hearing to be over so that she could get away from the likes of Nash Dupree, and the lustful thoughts that plagued her mind whenever he was around.
* * *
Nash watched Iris in action. She looked stylish yet professional in a black pinstriped skirt suit with a white button-down blouse opened at the neck and pearls. From his vantage point, a bench right behind her and Tania, the skirt accentuated her shapely derriere, making it almost impossible for him to pay attention. After ending his relationship with Eve a few months ago, he had vowed to stay clear of women and focus on his businesses, but Iris made that hard to do. She intrigued him and he wanted to get to know the sexy vixen who hid behind business suits and seemed to have a shy side about her.
“Excuse me, Your Honor?” he heard Iris say, her voice suddenly strained. Nash sat up straighter, wondering what he had missed.
“I said I think it’s in the best interest of this child if she’s removed from her uncle’s home until after the review hearing,” the judge said.
“Now, wait a minute!” Nash sprang from his seat. “There is no way in hell I’m letting you or anyone else take her from me.”
“Have a seat, Mr. Dupree, before I have you removed from these proceedings,” the judge said in the same monotone voice.
“No! I can’t have a seat when you’re talking about taking my—”
“You’ve been warned, Mr. Dupree. Please have a seat.”
Panic rioted within Nash like a volcano on the verge of erupting. There was no way he could sit back and let them take Tania from him. She was his everything. He yanked on his designer tie, loosening it while the room seemed to close in around him and his breath solidified in his throat. What in the hell had happened? This arraignment hearing was supposed to be just a formality.
When Tania was born, his twin brother and his sister-in-law chose him to be Tania’s godfather, asking him to be her caretaker if anything should ever happen to them. He would never forget the way his heart swelled when he’d first laid eyes on her. The miracle of life overwhelmed him and he knew at that moment there was nothing he wouldn’t do for that little girl. But when he’d agreed to be her godfather, he had no idea six years later her parents would be killed during a tsunami in Japan.
It’d been nine years and his chest still tightened whenever he thought about his brother. Not only had he lost his twin, who was also his best friend, but he had to try and explain to a little six-year-old why her parents were never coming back. Now this judge was threatening to take the one constant in his life and the only family he had left away from him? They might as well lock him up now because there was no way he’d sit by and watch them take her, especially not without a fight.
“Your Honor,” Iris chimed in. “With all due respect, I don’t think it’s a good idea to remove my client from her home. She’s a good kid and I have gotten to know both her and her uncle and I can see that Mr. Dupree loves this young lady more than anything. He’s given her a good home and the best edu—”
“I don’t doubt Mr. Dupree loves her, Counselor, but I don’t see where he’s giving her the type of attention she apparently needs,” the judge explained, as if Nash weren’t sitting there. The more Nash heard, the angrier he became. “It’s clear that Tania is an intelligent young lady, but the trouble she’s been getting into lately tells me that something is missing in her life, and I think that something is attention and order.”
The three of them listened as the judge gave Tania a stern lecture about her past social behavior, as well as his concern about this last incident and the direction she was heading. When he was done with Tania, he started in on Nash. He commented on the type of lifestyle Nash lived and how he paraded around with numerous women.
“Over the next three months, I want both Mr. Dupree and this young lady to go through counseling—first individually, and then as a family. We’ll schedule the first review hearing for six weeks. Once I get reports back from the therapist, as well as the assigned probationary officer, I’ll decide if further disciplinary actions are needed.”
“Your Honor.” Iris took a long breath before continuing. “Where are you proposing Tania stay during this time?”
“She can stay with a dependable relative, or we can contact Family Services.”
“No!” Iris, Nash and Tania said in unison.
“I’m sorry, Your Honor,” Iris spoke up, and wrapped her arm around Tania’s shoulder when Tania started to cry. “As a person who has personally lived in one foster home after another, I don’t think placing Tania in a foster home is in her best interest. Mr. Dupree is all the family she has and they are good together.”
“Well, what would you suggest we do with her, Attorney Sinclair?”
Iris bit her bottom lip and glanced at Tania, then back at Nash before returning her attention to the judge. “She can stay with me.”
A tense silence filled the small room. Shock wasn’t a strong enough word to express what Nash felt at Iris’s proposed solution. He had seen how quickly she and his niece bonded before going into court, but he couldn’t believe what she was volunteering to do. There was no way he could object because at the moment he had no other ideas. Even if he had, one more outburst might very well land him in jail.
“This is an unusual request, Counselor.” The judge ran his hands over his thinning gray hair, then removed his eyeglasses. He gnawed on the temple tip in deep thought, looking from Iris to Tania and stealing a glance at Nash. “But...I’ll allow it. Actually, I think you might be good for this young lady.”
* * *
What was I thinking, agreeing to become Tania’s temporary guardian? Iris thought after the judge dismissed the court, placing her cell phone back into her briefcase. No, she knew exactly what she was thinking. She didn’t want to see Tania go from foster home to foster home the way she had after her mother was killed. At fourteen, Iris had been angry at the world. Though academically smart, she wanted nothing to do with school and had skipped a large chunk of her freshman year of high school. Thank God she had finally ended up with Mama Adel, her last foster mother and the one woman who made a difference in Iris’s life.
Iris released a shaky breath and planned her next move. She made a quick call to her office and talked with Noelle. The judge had agreed that it was probably best that another attorney from Iris’s firm oversee Tania’s case going forward and, after hearing what happened, Noelle gladly agreed to take over.
Iris glanced at Nash and Tania, huddled together at the end of the courthouse hall. She didn’t have a clue how to care for a child, especially a fifteen-year-old girl, who, according to her uncle, was a borderline genius. All Iris knew was that she couldn’t let Tania end up in foster care.
“Thank you,” Nash said to Iris when she approached him and Tania. Nash had his arms around Tania and Iris couldn’t tell who was comforting whom. This couldn’t be easy for either of them. According to Nash, he had had custody of Tania since she was six years old and he was all she had.
A strong desire to be wrapped within Nash’s arms herself came over Iris and it took all she had to maintain some distance. What the heck was wrong with her? Each time she looked at him, her stomach did somersaults and she couldn’t understand—why him? She was about to take on one of the biggest challenges she had ever faced, and here she was fantasizing about being in his strong arms. It didn’t help that she was seeing a softer, more compassionate side of him that she hadn’t seen the day before.
“Tania, sweetheart, have a seat over there.” Nash pointed toward a bench ten feet away. “I want to talk with Attorney Sinclair for a moment,” he said, kissing the top of Tania’s head before releasing her.
“Thanks