Ritchie Perez closed the lid on his laptop, leaned back in his expensive leather chair, and looked out the floor-to-ceiling window of his office, taking in the panoramic nighttime view of the Miami skyline. It didn't matter how many million-dollar verdicts he and his two partners brought in. Ritchie never forgot where he came from. And the years of hard work and sacrifice it had taken to get here. He'd come a long way from the salary he'd made as an Assistant State Attorney, prosecuting gang members and drug pushers. His life now was a world away from his memories of growing up in one of Miami's poorest and toughest neighborhoods.

"You want to grab a beer?" His partner Jonathon – the Berrington of Flanagan, Berrington &Perez – stuck his head in the doorway. Jonathon, unlike Ritchie, had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He came from a long line of blue-blood New England lawyers who didn't exactly approve of his departure from the tradition of practicing corporate and tax law. Not that Jonathon was looking for their approval. It always amazed Ritchie that Jonathon, who'd had every privilege, was the cynical one, while, he, Ritchie, was the object of his partners' good-natured jabs about his reluctance to let any good cause go unchampioned. It was the main reason he'd left the State Attorney's office and joined his two partners launching their firm six years ago.

As a prosecutor, he'd seen so many victims, and although he'd brought justice to the criminals who hurt them, he'd wanted to do more. In their personal injury law firm, he and his partners only represented the victims of serious injuries that were the result of the grossly negligent or reckless acts of others. They had built a reputation for taking on corporations whose dishonest practices resulted in serious injury or even death to consumers. And they'd qualified for membership in the million-dollar verdict club many times over.

He realized Jonathon was still waiting for a response.

"Sorry," Ritchie said, glancing at his watch. "I'm already late for St. Theresa's." His parish sponsored a Wednesday night soup kitchen that fed the homeless and, unless there were pressing matters at the office, Ritchie tried to be there in person working the food line.

"I still don't know why sending the check isn't enough," Jonathon grumbled. He dropped a heavy file on the corner of his partner's desk.

"Tough day in court?" Ritchie grinned. Anything less than an unqualified victory left Jonathon in a bad mood. So even though they'd been certain the judge would grant the opposing attorney's motion to continue, he knew Jonathon was steamed at what amounted to just one more delay getting a major case to trial.

"You don't want to hear about it," Jonathon said, scowling. "Especially since the way my schedule's looking now this case is probably going to screw up our fishing trip in Bimini Christmas week."

Ritchie shrugged. "Maybe the case will settle by then."

"Yeah, maybe. Sure you won't skip the food service at St. Theresa's tonight and go wind down with me? I'm buying."

"Go hit up Sam," Ritchie suggested.

"Like that will happen," Jonathan said. "Flanagan doesn't have time to grab a beer after work anymore. Not since he went from carefree bachelor to family man."

Ritchie laughed, and headed for the locker room of the small gym they maintained for use by the three partners and their employees, to trade his suit for jeans and a t-shirt. Jonathon had decided to get in a workout and by the time Ritchie left, he appeared to be in a competition with one of the younger lawyers in their office on dueling treadmills.

If Ritchie were honest with himself, he had to admit he was a little jealous of Sam. A little more than a year ago, Sam hadn't even known he had a son. Now five-year-old JD was the pride of his life, he was reunited with Camilla– the woman he'd loved and lost, and they were happily married with a second child – six-month-old baby Sophia. Rounding out the family was Camilla's sixteen-year sister, Olivia, who had become a fixture here in the office, working part-time after school and dreaming about the day she'd go to law school and follow in Sam's footsteps.

Despite the tireless efforts of Ritchie's mom and his five sisters to fix him up with "a nice girl," he was still single at thirty-three. He was a self-confessed workaholic, and when he wasn't working, he was busy donating his time to local projects, like the soup kitchen at St. Theresa's. At least for now, the occasional casual date was about all he had time for.

As far as he was concerned, unless a person could fully commit to supporting a family, not just financially but emotionally, they had no business starting one. Single parent homes and broken marriages were, in Ritchie's opinion, one of the leading causes for kids dropping out of school and turning to drugs and gangs. Effective intervention programs were pretty much nonexistent, and the criminal justice system was a poor excuse for a safety net. He gave his own parents a lot of credit for successfully raising six children on a tight budget, in an area where teenagers were much more likely to get pregnant or arrested than they were to graduate high school.

Tonight, at St. Theresa's, he found himself standing next to a surly thirteen-year-old boy dishing mashed potatoes and vegetables onto the waiting plates.

"So what's the matter, Joey?" Ritchie asked. He'd taken an interest in the kid lately. Joey reminded him a lot of himself at that age. The kid had a sharp mind, a quick tongue, and a knack for talking his way out of trouble. At the moment, he also had a black eye, a swollen lip, and a bad attitude.

Joey jerked his shoulder toward his older sister.

"Maria did that to you?" Ritchie asked. Maria was the other reason Ritchie had been enjoying spending time with Joey. Joey was just a kid, but his sister was all grown up. Ritchie figured she was probably in her mid-twenties, and other than the fact that she rode herd on her little brother and seemed to spend as much time volunteering as St. Theresa's as he did, Ritchie didn't know much about her. But he liked the way her smile lit up a room, and he wouldn't mind spending more time with her.

"Nah," Joey said. "I just got into it with some guys, you know? Back in the old neighborhood."

"So what's the beef with your sister?"

"I'm grounded." Joey glanced over as his sister walked toward them carrying a replacement tray of mashed potatoes. "Probably for the rest of my life," he muttered.

Maria waited for Ritchie to lift the empty tray, then she slid the new one smoothly into place.

"You're lucky if I let you out again before you're thirty," she said. Her dark eyes flashed, and her skin was flushed from working in the kitchen. She glanced over at Ritchie and sighed, then tapped Joey on the shoulder.

"I'll bet he wasn't running around getting into all kinds of trouble when he was thirteen."

"Just don't ask my mother," Ritchie said. "But if you let me buy you a cup of coffee after we're done here, I'll tell you all about my life as a reformed thirteen-year-old troublemaker."

She flashed one of those smiles that had attracted him the first time he met her, and it looked for a moment like she might say yes. He'd asked her out before on an actual date, but she'd thanked him politely and told him she was too busy. If she didn't want to go out with him, he wasn't going to press it. But hey, this was only coffee.

"I'd like to," she said, her voice sounding a bit wistful, "but I really don't have time tonight. Besides," she said, shooting a withering look at her brother, "I have to keep this one in my sight at all times."

"Bring him with you," Ritchie suggested, and saw Joey perk up.

She laughed, tossing her hair back as she took the empty tray out of Ritchie's hands. "Can't. In case you haven't heard, he's grounded." She turned and Ritchie watched her walk back toward the kitchen.

"Man, she always says no," Joey said. "Why do guys keep asking her out?"

"Because someday she might say yes?"

"She does, you'll be sorry you asked," Joey said, lowering his voice and checking to make sure Maria wasn't in earshot. "She's a real ballbuster."

Ritchie cuffed him on the back of his head.

"Hey!" Joey said.

"Watch how you talk about your sister," Ritchie said.

"Yeah, yeah," Joey muttered.

* * *

It was only temporary, Maria thought later that night as she helped Joey pull out the sofa bed and get the pillows and blanket out of the closet. No wonder the kid hated living here. He didn't even have his own room.

"I promise you," she said. "As soon as I get a little more money saved up, we'll get a bigger place. Someplace nicer," she promised. "And you'll have your own room again."

"Our old place was just fine," Joey said, getting into bed and turning away from her.

Maria sighed. She hadn't realized when she first came back how much the neighborhood really had changed. All she had been able to see was how cancer had turned her young, vibrant mother into a frail woman who looked so much older than her forty-one years. Alarmed, Maria had taken a leave of absence from college and moved back home. Within six months her mother was gone, and, at twenty-two, she was the only one there to take care of nine-year-old Joey. Their brother Tito certainly wouldn't be around to help. There had been a small life insurance policy, but the medical bills and the funeral expenses had used that up. Returning to school to complete her degree hadn't been an option.

Now, four years later, she was more concerned with paying the bills than finishing her art degree and pursuing the career she'd dreamed of since she was a child. And a couple months ago, she was awakened in the middle of night by the police bringing Joey home – drunk and suspected of being one of a group of kids who'd vandalized a neighborhood business. After that, she'd decided she had no choice but to move them out of that neighborhood and get him away from the "friends" who were nothing but trouble.

It wasn't the first time Joey'd had a run-in with the police. Just a week before, Maria had to beg the owner of the same vandalized store not to press charges against her brother for shoplifting. So, she'd sold the house and moved them into a one-bedroom apartment that was way too small, but at least it was in a better neighborhood. With the second mortgage her mom had taken on the house and declining property values, she'd been lucky to sell it for just about what was owed on it.

She'd taken the bedroom in the small apartment herself and set Joey up with a sofa bed in the living room because she hoped he'd soon be bringing home new friends from school. She'd pictured gangly adolescent boys hanging out in the living room eating pizza and having sleepovers, while she retreated to the bedroom and shut her door to mute the sound of their loud voices and blaring video games. But so far, Joey showed no signs of fitting into their new life, and as far as she knew he hadn't made any new friends. And keeping him away from the old ones was turning out to be a lot harder than she'd expected.

She got ready for bed, leaving the door to the living room open to discourage Joey from sneaking out after he thought she was asleep. As she lay there in the dark, she let herself imagine what it would be like to actually go out on a date with that gorgeous guy who volunteered at St. Theresa's. He always had a kind word for Joey, and he didn't get offended or pushy when she turned him down. There was something familiar about him. She'd thought so the first time he smiled at her, but if she'd met him before she was sure she'd have remembered. With his dark wavy hair, quick smile and chiseled good looks he wasn't the kind of man a woman would forget.

Thinking about Ritchie's smile made her wonder what it would be like to have his lips pressed against hers, and those strong, capable hands holding her instead of trays of food. He was probably a really good kisser, and she'd bet he knew exactly what to do with those hands. She sighed, letting her head sink deeper into her pillow, closing her eyes, and willing herself to fall asleep.

Maybe once she got ahead a little financially, moved herself and Joey into a bigger place, felt comfortable that she could actually trust Joey to stay out of trouble for more than five minutes... then, if Ritchie asked her out again, just maybe she'd say yes.

https://youtu.be/9QDlAd2ptSw

Author's Note:

Do you think Maria needs to put her life on hold like this until Joey is older? Or should she make some time for herself, and go out with Ritchie?