Bluegrass State of Mind(23)
Chapter Six
Kenna walked up the street, passing the bank building, which she was pretty sure had been there for a hundred years. She came to a stop just past the bank. The building was a light tan with moss-green trim. In front of the building was a sign that read Rooney Law Office. There looked to be just the right amount of space to add Mason Law Firm underneath.
Kenna opened the glass door and stepped onto the thick tan carpet. The office was quiet and smelled of lemon oil. A welcome area stood over to the right with a brown leather couch and two upholstered, burgundy armchairs. A coffee table held an assortment of magazines ranging from the American Bar Association to Field & Stream and, of course, Southern Living. A head popped around a doorframe from behind the desk placed in the middle of the room, and a pixie of girl shouted, "Be right with you, hon."
Kenna looked around at her potential new office. There appeared to be a conference room right behind the waiting area. On the other side of the room was an archway that led back to more rooms. The room was painted the lightest of moss greens. The overall impression was very clean and professional but also very masculine. Kenna's eyes went back toward the pixie’s direction when she heard a loud thump, accompanied by some odd phrases meant to convey frustration and anger. Kenna made a mental note to ask Will about “being as useless as tits on a wild boar.” Kenna heard one more thump, which she was pretty sure was something being kicked. The pixie reappeared with a look of momentary exhaustion. The girl looked no more than twenty and had tousled blonde hair styled into a fashionable boy-cut. She had a cute round face that still had a little baby fat in the cheeks. She was a couple inches shorter than Kenna and a good thirty pounds lighter. She looked a lot like Tinkerbell.
"Hi ya. Can I help you?" she asked.
"Yes, my name is McKenna Mason and I was hoping to have a word with Mr. Rooney about renting an office."
"Oh! That would be so cool. We have a ton of offices for you to choose from. Have a seat and I'll tell Henry you're here." Kenna watched as the pixie sat down and pushed some buttons on the phone. A couple of seconds later she was telling Henry there was someone interested in renting space.
"He'll be right out. I'm Tammy, by the way. I'm the only employee here, so if you do rent the space you'd share me as your secretary. Oh, and here's Henry now."
Kenna looked to the left and saw a man not much older than she coming toward her. He was tall, probably close to five eleven, and had black hair slicked back and held in place with some kind of hair product. He wore olive-colored pants with a little shine to them and a very sharp crease down the middle. A white dress shirt with monogrammed cuffs and shiny brown loafers finished off the look. Kenna knew exactly what type of person Henry was. He fell into the sleazy ambulance-chaser category. Not all of them were bad, but it took a certain breed of people to be able to do that. When he leered at Tammy's breasts for a second before turning to leer at her own breasts, Kenna's suspicions were confirmed.
"Well, hello there. I'm Henry Rooney."
Kenna was a little skeptical about taking the hand he stuck out for her to shake. She fought the impulse to pull out the hand sanitizer from her purse. She took his offered hand and shook it. When he didn't let go right away, she squeezed it tighter, never taking her eyes away from his.
"Tammy said you were interested in renting some office space. I'd be more than happy to have you move in with me." He gave a wink and instead of dropping her hand, he started to make soft circular motions with his thumb.
Kenna smiled her sweeter-than-honey smile and squeezed his hand tighter, digging her nails into the fleshy part of this palm. "McKenna Mason, and remember Henry, I'm from New York. I'll just pepper spray you and then kick you in the nuts if you don't let go of my hand right now."
Henry dropped her hand, and this time when he smiled, it was one of humor and not a sales pitch. Kenna heard Tammy give an unladylike snort from her desk and was pretty sure she had judged the situation correctly. Henry probably wasn't a bad guy. He just liked to see how far he could take things. She had a feeling that if she told him he wasn't half as bad as some of the attorneys she worked with in New York, he'd get his feelings hurt. At least she was on familiar ground here. Poor Henry, he had no idea who he was dealing with.
"It sure is nice to meet you, McKenna. Let me show you around." He reached around her, put his hand on the small of her back, and guided her through the archway from where he had come. He led her to the first door on the left, which shared a wall with the lobby. "This is the second conference room. The bigger one is out front. And over here," he turned her to her right, "are the offices that are available. This first one is mine, but you can choose either of the other two if you'd like. There are some upstairs also, but I'd like to fill these first."