Page 1 of Raymond's Forever
CHAPTER 1
Raymond Morris looked downat the papers on his desk and sighed heavily as the words began to swim on the pages. He tossed his pen down, propped his elbows on the edge of the desk, and rubbed his temples. He slowly shook his head, and gave himself a massage, then moved his hands around to try to work the knots out of the back of his neck. He jerked when an alarm sounded, quickly shut it off, drew in a deep breath, held it for the count of twenty, before he released it. He reached into his center drawer to pull out another pad of paper, and reached for the phone with that special list before him. Just to make sure of himself, he looked at his watch, did the math in his head, and lifted the receiver of his desk phone to dial.
“Erin’s Way, Julie speaking, how may I help you?”
“Hi, is Ms. Riceman available?”
“She is, may I ask who’s calling?”
“Raymond Morris. She doesn’t know me, this is sort of personal.”
“Okay, she’ll be right with you.”
“Thank you,” Raymond said as he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temple again. He looked at his list, picked up thepen, and waited until the person he called answered. He didn’t have long to wait.
“Hello, this is Erin Riceman. How may I help you?”
“Ms. Riceman, I’m sorry for disturbing you, but I would like to ask you a few questions.”
“What’s that?”
“First, there is nothing wrong, but I am Opal’s father.”
“My Opal?”
Raymond grinned at that description of his daughter. “Actually, I thought she was Denver’s aside from being her own person.” He grinned harder when Erin laughed.
“Yeah, you got that right. What can I do for you, Mr. Morris?”
“Please, call me Raymond.”
“Alright, Raymond, what can I do for you? Call me Erin.”
“I’m going to get right to the point, Erin, I’m tired. I miss my daughter.”
“You’re always welcome to come here to visit.”
“That’s just it, I’m thinking of selling my practice to move to Fool’s Gold. I’m calling you now to see if you have any positions available.” The woman on the other end of the phone remained silent for almost a minute before she spoke. Later, Raymond would recall that he had heard interest in her voice as they continued their conversation.
“What type of practice are you talking about?”
“I’m a lawyer.”
“What kind?” This time Raymond remained silent, and heard Erin sigh. “I already have two that are helping me with a case. One is a federal prosecutor, that has permission to work out of Colorado, the other was a criminal defense lawyer, but she’s now helping Jason.”
“Oh, I do estate planning, wills, probate, and if push comes to shove, I’ll advise, not represent, but advise about divorce. I’ve even taken on a few malpractice cases in my career.”
“Where are you located now?”
“North Carolina. I’m going to be honest here, Erin. I’ve been thinking about moving closer to Opal for quite some time now. I try to talk to her at least once a month, and honestly, I’m tired. Because I’ve been thinking about moving closer to Opal and Denver, I’ve reached out about taking the bar for Colorado. I have an appointment next week to fly in and take the test.” He paused, then sighed heavily and he switched hands and rubbed his other temple. “It will take at least six weeks to get the results back. With your permission, I’d like to stop and see Opal while I’m out there.”
“That won’t be a problem, just call me after your test. Here’s my personal cell number.” She gave it to him, then sighed. “I’ll be honest, I’ll have to talk with Ilsa and Jason, the lawyers, to see if there’s room for you. Even if you don’t practice law here in Colorado, I could always use hands.”
“Hands?”
“Farm hands. I have three ranches, and ranch number four is being built as we speak. Erin’s Way and The Broken Wheel are fully staffed. I need hands for New Double, and eventually RRR.”
“What’s that?”
