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“I believe you have stricken our verbose lawyer speechless.” Justice Henrick laughed.
“Dad, we need to get going. Junior needs to get to bed.” Emery reminded Joseph.
“Let me hold my grandbaby,” Clarice said.
“You wake this little monster he’s going home with you tonight, Clarice.” She frowned.
“That won’t do,” Clarice said. “We have dinner plans.” She kissed Emery on both cheeks. “We will see you tomorrow for dinner.”
Emery smiled and hugged them both.
“Kathryn, it was lovely to meet you. My brother speaks highly of you. He enjoys when you are in town. I hope we see you again.” She kissed me on the cheek and readjusted Junior. Jordan took him from her arms.
“I’m going to get them into the car. I’ll be back.” Jordan said.
“I hope I see you again.” Joseph wrapped me in a warm hug. He shook the justice’s hand and hugged Clarice.
“How long are you in town for?” Clarice asked.
“Just until Monday waiting for the decision.”
“Well, maybe we can keep you here longer,” Justice Henrick said.
“Oh, I hope not. There’s many people waiting for that decision, sir.”
“You’re correct. We’ll have that opinion on Monday.”
“Chief Justice Hendrick, it’s good to see you.” A man I recognized, tall, dark, and a politician, held out his hand to Justice Hendrick.
“Henry, good to see you. I’m glad you’re here to support Jordan.” Clarice said with a smile. The man embraced her.
“Have you met Kathryn Jones, lead counsel on the Fullerton case?”
“I have not had the pleasure, but certainly have heard lots about her work. I’m Henry Schulman. It’s nice to meet you.”
I recognized him immediately from the news. A few weeks ago, he and a few of his colleagues staged a filibuster over the education budget.
“Nice to meet you, Senator Schulman. Your amicus brief was helpful in this case. I appreciate you writing it.” I said.
“Not nearly as nice to meet you in person. I was happy to help. My staff and I have a personal stake in this case. I’ve read your arguments on this case. It would be a shame if they didn’t rule in our favor.” He looked over at Chief Justice Hendricks, who pulled his wife closer to whisper something in her ear.
“We are going to leave, darlings. It was wonderful to meet you tonight.” Clarice said and patted my hand. “Sorry, Henry. We have dinner plans and we’ll be late to if we don’t leave now.”
“It was nice to see you here, Ms. Jones” Chief Justice reached out and gave me a firm handshake.
“Henry, we’ll see you at Lilly’s birthday party next month?” Clarice asked.
All this talk of putting children to bed, birthday parties, and family events made me miss my own family. Jordan was very lucky.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Henry agreed and firmly shook the Justice’s hand. “Good to see you, Benjamin.”
Henry and I watched them walk away. “Good people, the Hendricks.”
We looked at the painting we had walked to. Henry pulled two drinks off a tray of the server who walked by. He handed me one.
Henry was a little older than me and was from Tennessee. He was a newer senator yet, had made the news a few times in the last few months for progressive legislation he had helped to pass. I took the drink and thanked him. He looked me over approvingly.
“So Jordan’s finally put all this out there. I’m glad for him.”