Luckily, I felt confident in my ability to keep it there.
We had developed a pleasant professionalism and I felt good about going into court working together as a team.
We ended the day on a high note, finalizing the last details of our case. I arrived at home, and just as I was putting down my briefcase on the couch the land line phone rang in the kitchen. As I walked over to it I wondered who it could be since Kelsey and I had agreed to only give that number out to family members.
"Hello," I said.
"This call is for Blair Michaels. Is she available?"
"May I ask who is calling?" I replied with suspicion.
"This is Rita from McGuffey Flowers."
"This is Blair Michaels," I said.
"You have a delivery of flowers and we wanted to verify when you would be home for receipt of delivery."
"Oh, uh. Yeah." I was a bit taken aback wondering who they might be from. "I'll be home for the rest of the afternoon."
"Okay," she said. "Expect delivery in the next one to three hours."
"That would be fine," I said. As I hung up the phone I heard Kelsey coming home from work. "You won't believe the phone call I just got."
"Who was it?" she asked.
"Apparently I'm getting flowers delivered later today and they just wanted to verify that I would be here."
"Bizarre! I wonder who hell they are from,” she said.
"Probably just my mom," I said. "After all the case starts tomorrow. She's probably just sending a token for good luck. That sounds like something she would do after all."
"What if they're from Aiden," she said with a sly grin.
"Shut up! They aren't from Aiden,” I insisted.
"Admit it," she said. "You kind of wish they are, don't you."
"Do not," I laughed.
Though the idea did intrigue me.
I wasn’t about to let her know that. "He's not the flowers type."
He wasn’t.
He was buff and tattooed.
That didn’t seem like the flowery type.
"How do you know? Maybe he's developed some panache since he was younger."
"Could be, could be. Or maybe he's just desperate,” I said.
She laughed and disappeared to her room, emerging a moment later in a pair of cut off shorts and a blue tank top.
"How is your case going?" she asked. "Did you say it starts tomorrow?"
"The trial does, yeah,” I said, sitting down on the couch and resting my feet on the edge of the table. "I think we have built a solid case. No, let me amend that. I know we have built a solid case. I feel good."
"Amend?" Kelsey laughed. "Now you’re starting to sound like a lawyer."
"Maybe you’re right." I grinned. "I've had a long day. I'm going to go grab a quick shower."
“Don’t think about Aiden too hard while you’re in there,” she joked giggling.
I raised an eyebrow and after she couldn’t stop laughing I rolled my eyes.
"I’m sorry!” she yelled smiling.
Yeah right.
"Do you want to order Thai for dinner?" she asked as I was beginning to get the hell away from her.
"That sounds great,” I said, heading down the hallway.
I felt much better twenty minutes later, toweling off my hair, having changed into jeans shorts and a tee shirt. The firm had let us go early, and I was thinking of something to do for the rest of the day when the doorbell rang.
When I opened the door, the sight before me shocked me. The bouquet of brightly colored flowers nearly eclipsed the young girl carrying it. Her voice drifted up from behind the mountain of the arrangement.
"Blair Michaels?" she said.
"That's me, but...wow,” I said taking the bouquet from her.
The flowers consisted of a collection of sweet smelling wild flowers in a rainbow of colors spilling out over the edge of a small blue porcelain flower pot. I carried it over to the coffee table and signed for the delivery.
"Thanks," I told the girl, handing her the signed slip.
"Any indication who it's from?" Kelsey asked.
"Like I said, probably my mom." Kelsey reached over my shoulder and plucked the card from the holder. "Hey!" I said, pulling the card back and opened the envelope.
The words printed on the small white card, made my stomach drop out from under me. It didn’t bare a name, but I knew instantly who had sent the flowers.
"What's it say?" Kelsey asked, trying to peer over the edge of the card.
I passed her the card, giving up on the attempt to subvert any information. She looked at the message and read the words out loud.
"You kissed me back. Good luck tomorrow." Kelsey's eyes grew wide as her mouth dropped open. I rolled my eyes as she began to apply playful punches to my arm. "No way!"
"Shut up, Kelsey,” I insisted.
"No way!" she continued. "These are from Aiden!"
"You think?" I said with a dead pan voice.
"And you did kiss him back!" she squealed with enthusiasm. "I can see it all over your face! At least, I hope these flowers aren't from your mom."
I felt no point in denying it at that point. "Yeah, so,” I said.
"Well this changes everything,” she exclaimed.
"How so?" I asked.
"You like him! Come on, Blair this is so meet-cute it's ridiculous."
"What is 'meet-cute'?" I asked.
"That's the story that you will one day tell your grandchildren on how you met. Usually the story is cute. Meet-cute."
"I see,” I said.
"So you kissed him back. Details, details,” she demanded while motioning for me to sit down and tell her the story.
"There's really nothing to tell," I insisted. "I only kissed him back for like a second. Okay, maybe more than a second. Okay, I don't know how long it was, but come on! I've wanted to kiss him for like ever. Literally my entire life since puberty. So he kissed me, big deal. I just don't want to go down that road right now."
"It's just so tragic,” Kelsey said.
"Tragic?" I asked. "That's a bit much."
"No, true love is within your grasp and yet you let it slip away." She sighed.
I raised an eyebrow. "Oh come on."
"You have to call him."
"I do not."
"At least to thank him for the flowers," she said. "It's only polite."
"I'm not going out with him!" I insisted.
"Fine, just let him down easy,” she said. "It seems to me that he really likes you."
“Ugh.”
I waited a full half an hour after receiving the flowers before I called him from my cell phone. In my mind I went back and forth, wondering if this was a genuine gesture on his part, or just another attempt to shatter my resolve, to distract me from the true prize and sweep the job at the firm right out from under me.
I even considered hanging up after I had hit 'send' but I figured he would have already seen that it was my number, and hanging up might be a little bit too much like junior high school.
"Hello, Blair,” he said before I had a chance to speak. "I knew you would call."
"Don't get a big head, Aiden,” I said. "I just wanted to call and thank you for the flowers. That's all."
"That's all? Really?" he asked. Before I could answer he continued. "Actually don't answer that. I figured you would call. I'd like for you to go on a date with me. A real one. I like you, Blair and based on the evidence, I think you like me. I don't think you can say no."
He. Just. Wouldn’t. Give. Up.
Jesus.
I took a deep breath, feeling the familiar edge of confusion engulfing me once more.
"Aiden, I just don't think it's appropriate. We are work colleagues. Regardless of our past friendship it just wouldn't be right for us to go out," I lied, hoping it would persuade him though.
"You have to go out with me, Blair,” he said.
"And why is that?" I asked.
"Because I already made t
he reservations for us in two weeks."
Reservations?
“I don’t know. I’m kind of busy.”
“Busy? You got another boyfriend… Or girlfriend I don’t know about?”
I tried to play his stupid game. “Maybe.”
I obviously didn’t.
“Shit,” he said. I couldn’t stop myself from laugh. “Oh, you’re playing me.”
“It’s only fair.”
“Come on. You had a good time with me when we had dinner last time, didn't you?" he pressed.
"That's not relevant,” I said, taking on my best lawyer tone.
"Wow," he replied. "You’re good. I can't wait to see how you perform tomorrow."
"Likewise," I said.
“So, how about that day? I already made reservations.”
“Ugh. Fine! All right, I gotta go. See you tomorrow.”
“See you then… Beautiful,” he said, and hung up the phone.
I hung up the phone while shaking my head, and turned only to discover Kelsey hovering at the kitchen door having heard my whole side of the conversation.
"Are you going out with him?" she asked.
I shrugged. "It's only to get him to leave me alone,” I explained. "Once the case is over one of us is going to be offered this job. I have to behave with the assumption that it's going to be me. I'm going to say it's a celebratory dinner, to celebrate out victory with the case."
Kelsey rolled her eyes. "Right," she said. "Just keep telling yourself that, Blair."
The next day we gathered our case files and headed over to the courtroom, just half a block from our building. As the senior partners walked ahead of us, I hung behind to catch Aiden as he brought up the rear.
"I wanted to talk to you about our date,” I began.
He quickly held his finger to his lips in an effort to silence me.
"We shouldn't talk about that,” he said in a cool tone.
I felt confused.
"But," I began. "When you sent me the..."
"Shh," he interrupted my thoughts again. "We can't talk about it. Let's just focus on the case okay?"
I wondered what he might be up to as we followed the lawyers down the winding hallway to the room where we would wait.
Was he scared something would happen if one of the partners found out?
What did he think, they were going to get rid of us both?
Maybe they would.
So, I didn’t say anything more and moved on to the case.
The first step in the process, we had been told would be the jury selection. I had experienced this process myself, several years ago from the other perspective, as I had received a summons in the mail sometime during early college. I knew this was an arduous but necessary process that we had no choice but to sit through.
A random pool of citizens had been sent a letter requiring them to be present today. Each of the lawyers would then ask a series of questions. If any of them felt that someone in the pool would not be a good candidate they were then cut from the selection.
Mr. Mahoney explained that for this first case we should observe and learn while the senior lawyers asked the questions. I felt more than happy to do so. I had learned that building a case like we had been doing these past weeks was far more about layering facts and much less about high speed car chases and gun fights, like the television detective shows would have us believe.
I felt excited to get started with the case, having already learned so much from the senior partners.
Finally the judge came and collected us from the waiting area. The jury pool was seated and it was our time to begin the selection process.
I watched in fascination as Mr. Mahoney and his partners asked various questions, and took notes. Across from us on the other side of the courtroom the victim's family sat stoically watching the proceedings.
It hadn’t occurred to me that behind what we were doing held very real consequences.
The family of the victim wanted justice, but we had built a strong case to defend the man accused of that murder. My feelings of confidence began to wane and the butterflies returned. I didn’t want to show my nervousness, so I sat up straight and took a deep breath, trying to pay attention to the proceedings.
I turned slightly to try and catch Aiden's eye, but he remained still, looking straight ahead and watching the primary lawyers. Even having him ignore me made me feel small and nervous. I didn’t understand why Aiden was ignoring me, and I was beginning to feel the pressure of the implications if our case was wrong. If the man were truly guilty then we had been working all this time to defend him. If he is innocent, as our case indicates then the family across the way would not have closure on the death of their loved one.
"You guys doing okay?" Mr. Mahoney asked under his breath during a lull in the proceedings.
"Yes, fine," I whispered, though the truth felt very different.
Aiden also answered in the affirmative, still not showing any indication of attention towards me.
The jury pool had started out with a large group of about fifty people. As the lawyers had asked various questions, they had decided one by one which jurors could go and which would remain. Most of the day had been spent dedicated to this process, but the judge interrupted and asked both sets of lawyers to the bench. They talked for a few minutes and I could see the look of concern on all of their faces.
When Mr. Mahoney returned to their table his eyebrows were drawn together.
"It looks like we are going to have to delay the proceedings," he said.
"What do you mean?" I asked. "What's happened?"
"The remaining jurors are too few," he said. "Several of them had to be released because of various reasons. You witnessed the questions we asked throughout the day. This helps us to select the most impartial panel of jurors. This happens sometimes that those randomly selected fall into a category that makes them ineligible. They'll have to gather another jury pool."
"How long will that take?" Aiden asked.
"At least two weeks,” Mr. Mahoney explained. "The judge will have to contact us with a new court date."
Aiden nodded and I could see the wheels turning behind his eyes.
What was he up to?
I found out, later that night, when Aiden called me on my cell phone. After being dismissed from the jury selection we had all gone our separate ways. I returned home, leaving the courtroom without so much as a second glance from Aiden. I felt more confused than ever, then when I looked at my phone I saw his name.
"Hello," I answered in a cool tone, trying to sound like I had been in the middle of something important.
"I'll have to change our reservation,” he explained. "The new court date falls on the night we were going to go out. I'd like for us to be able to relax and enjoy ourselves. Even if we are just going out as friends."
This was a new angle, I noticed. I also noticed the slight twinge of disappointment I felt at the implication that the date was just as friends.
"Okay," I said.
"How about Friday,” he suggested. "We'll make it a more casual event. Maybe go for pizza or something."
"Friday," I said. "Actually, I'm going to the movies with Kelsey on Friday night."
That part was true.
"Hmm,” he considered. "Assuming that that's true, then it's not a big deal at all. Logan and Travis are going to be in town then."
"Really?" I asked. I hadn’t seen any of his brothers since childhood. "What are they up to these days?"
"Logan is a professional Poker player in Vegas, if you can believe it,” he said.
I remembered his brother's ability to fake us out during our epic battles of practical jokes. "That doesn't surprise me a bit. Gives a new meaning to the last name, Player."
"I guess you’re right," he laughed.
"I heard Travis went into the Army some time back. How's he doing?"
"I think pretty good,” Aiden said.
"That is fantastic,” I said.
&nb
sp; We talked for a while longer and when I hung up the phone I realized that I had relaxed my tone with him without realizing it. Every time I talked to him I felt as if we were those same kids, so easy and comfortable with each other. Taking away the imminent pressure of the case, made me feel a bit confused as to whether or not I should be so stringent on my resolve to avoid going out with Aiden.
Chapter Four
By the time Friday rolled around I felt quite ready for a girl’s night out. We had just received confirmation on the new court date being in a week and a half since a few days had already passed by since our previous court session, and the senior partners had all been scrambling to find work for us.
Kelsey had decided to forgo inviting her actor friends, since she and I hadn’t had much time to hang out since starting at the firm.
I didn’t think much about what to wear and just threw on a cream colored sun dress and a pair of sandals. Kelsey looked spectacular as always in her forest green sleeveless blouse, and trendy cutoff jeans.
We thought about going to see the romantic comedy, but ended up discovering that we both really wanted to see the sci-fi blockbuster. We had both suggested the other movie out of politeness for the other, and we laughed about it as we pulled up to the movie theater.
Much to my surprise I saw just beyond the large group of people entering the lobby, a group of familiar faces. I recognized Aiden of course, and though I hadn’t seen his brothers in years I knew their faces instantly. A couple of girls that I didn’t immediately recognize hung on the arm of each brother.
"Are you kidding me?" I exclaimed as we exited the car narrowing my eyes towards them.
"What's wrong?" Kelsey asked.
"That's Aiden,” I said while gesturing to the group through the glass. "I mentioned that you and I were going to the movies. I wonder if he's stalking me."
"Oh my god,” Kelsey said. "Just relax. Now, which one is Aiden? I don’t remember what he even looked like back in the day.”
"The one at the back of the line, in the blue shirt."
For the first time since we had reconnected I saw that he wore a short sleeved casual shirt, fully exposing his tribal tattoos on his forearm.
Tempted (A Player Brother Romance Book) (A Standalone Novel) (Player Brothers Book 1) Page 6