He likely did. It was probably noted in very large bold type in that envelope he dropped off for me last night.
“Here’s her bio in short form.” Kurt faces me head-on. “I’ve known Eden since the day she was born. Her dad, Walt, and I met when we were kids. She was enrolled in the honors program in a high school in Chicago. She was all set up to go to Ohio State for dance, but had to bow out for personal reasons. She earned her degree at Harvard Law. If any of that rings a bell, you’re looking at an old friend.”
I reach for the edge of the bench to steady myself.
“Does that clear things up, Dylan?” Peggy taps her finger on my hand. “Is she the Eden Conrad you used to know?”
I look past Kurt’s shoulder to where she’s standing. I study her face. My gaze finally lands on her neck and the star-shaped sapphire pendant hanging from a thin silver chain.
She used to wear that pendant for good luck. I always thought it made the color of her eyes appear more vibrant. It still does.
“I’m the Eden Conrad he used to know,” Eden says softly.
“Is there any reason why we can’t proceed at the end of the month?” Peggy asks Eden.
She shakes her head. “I can’t think of a reason. Can you, Dylan?”
I can think of a million reasons why I can’t do this, but I can’t get a word past the lump caught in my throat.
“That’s settled.” Peggy leans back in her chair. “We’re in recess until the thirtieth. Good luck with the surgery, Kurt. I’ll see you two back here in fourteen days.”
***
By the time I’m out of the courtroom, Eden is gone.
A million reasons why I can’t go toe-to-toe with her in court morphed into a million questions that I want to throw in her perfect goddamn face.
That face.
Once I realized I was looking at the girl I knew from high school, I saw pieces of her in the woman I fucked last night.
It’s there in the mesmerizing blueness of her eyes, and the way she tilts her chin and those lips. Those beautiful full lips that have always tempted me.
Lips that I finally kissed last night.
I close my eyes against the assault of emotions.
I fucked Eden Conrad and didn’t even know it.
My phone vibrates in my pocket. I watch as the elevator doors open and a group of people rushes on.
I should be one of them. Typically, I’d be halfway back to my office by now with a plan to fill the unexpected free time I have today with billable appointments.
I reach into my pocket to fish out the phone, but my fingers land on something else.
I smooth my thumb over the face of the watch that she left at my apartment. I yank it out and stare down at it.
I have no idea what the hell is going on, but there’s only one person who can tell me.
It’s time to return this watch to its rightful owner.
Chapter 6
Eden
I’ve been in New York City less than seventy-two hours, and I’ve already tipped my life upside down.
I knocked Dylan Colt’s life sideways.
That wasn’t planned.
None of this was planned.
My mission was simple. I came to Manhattan to help Kurt. He called me asking if I would be willing to spend a few weeks in the city taking over one of his most important cases.
Kurt Sufford has always been like an uncle to me. Three years ago, he gave me a job in the Buffalo office of Sufford, Lake & Chisholm.
This is the first time he’s requested I come to Manhattan to help him with a case.
“Eden?”
I glance over my shoulder to find Noelle Sufford standing in the doorway of my bedroom.
Technically, it’s her second bedroom. Noelle is letting me crash in her spare room while I work on her dad’s case.
I may be three years younger than her, but she’s one of my closest friends.
A frown settles over her lips. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Dr. Sufford,” I shoot back with a smile.
I was there when Noelle graduated from medical school. At just thirty-five years old, she’s working toward her goal of setting up her own practice one day.
Noelle’s brother, Marcus, is one of the most respected pediatricians in Manhattan. Noelle didn’t follow in his footsteps. Plastic surgery is her passion.
“I didn’t expect you to be here.” She tucks a piece of her red hair behind her ear. “Dad said you two had a court date today.”
As soon as Judge Mycella called recess, Kurt was on his way out of the courthouse. In the Uber on the way back to the office, Kurt received a call from a potential character witness for Troy Alcester.
I offered to take the meeting.
That will happen twenty minutes from now in an apartment two blocks from here.
I misjudged the time it would take me to get across town, so I stopped in here for a refresh of my makeup and a glass of cold water.
Noelle takes a few steps closer to me. She’s dressed in a pair of black pants and a short sleeve sweater that’s the same shade as her green eyes.
“I’m on a break. Shouldn’t you be at work?” I question with a perk of my brow.
“I came home for an early lunch today.” She sighs.
Our schedules have kept us from spending much time together in person the last few years, but we’ve made up for it by FaceTiming.
I know worry on my friend’s face when I see it.
“You trust the doctor performing your dad’s surgery, don’t you?” I ask, narrowing the space between us with a few short steps.
“She’s a brilliant cardiologist.”
I squeeze her hand. “She’ll do her job. Your dad is the most stubborn person I know. He’s going to come out of this better than ever.”
“When did you get to be so wise?” Her gaze narrows. “There was a time when I was the one comforting you.”
Noelle never left my side during the worst time of my life.
I’ll do everything in my power to help guide her through this.
“It’s my turn to take care of you.” I wrap my arm around her shoulder.
“I’m here for you too.” She leans into me. “If you need an ear, I have two.”
Telling her about what happened between Dylan and me last night would help me sort through what I’m feeling, but I need to handle this on my own.
I’m the one who went home with him and got into his bed.
Now, I have to face the consequences of not confessing that I was the girl he knew in high school.
The same girl who thought she’d never see him again.
***
Two hours later, I step into the afternoon sunshine flooding the streets of Manhattan.
The meeting I just wrapped up couldn’t have gone any smoother. I spoke to a woman who is going to take the witness stand to sing the praises of Troy Alcester. She’s not my star witness, but her words will set the stage for the slam-dunk I intend to deliver before the judge makes her final decision.
When Kurt and I first sat down to go over the case, he may have neglected to mention that our opposing counsel is Dylan Colt, but he did drop a bombshell in my lap about his client.
Trudy Alcester’s closet isn’t just filled with designer handbags and shoes. The woman has some hidden secrets that I have every intention of uncovering.
Kurt’s private investigator discovered new information two days ago. The continuance we were granted today will give me enough time to prepare a case that will level the playing field between my client and his estranged wife.
Nothing is fair in love and divorce.
I realized that during the first case I handled after I started working at Sufford, Lake & Chisholm. I watched a couple who had been together more than twenty years go at each other in a courtroom in Buffalo like two rabid animals crossing paths in a dark alleyway.
I fish my phone out of my tote bag when it starts ringing
.
I answer immediately when I realize it’s Kurt’s assistant calling.
“Ms. Conrad? Is that you?” she asks before I say a word.
“It’s me,” I answer with a smile. “How are you, Mrs. Burton?”
I don’t know her first name. I’m not sure Kurt does either. He told me that he’s called her Mrs. Burton since he hired her more than ten years ago.
“Stressed.” She lets out an exaggerated sigh. “The attorney representing Mrs. Alcester is looking for you. He came down here shortly before noon. I told him you were out of the office. He waited around for more than thirty minutes. He’s called three times since he left.”
I’m not entirely surprised, although I didn’t expect Dylan to make an in-person appearance at my office. “I see.”
“He’s persistent.” She emphasizes the last syllable. “I told him I couldn’t give out your cell number without your permission, regardless of how urgent he thinks the matter is.”
“I appreciate you not sharing my number.” I start down the sidewalk in the direction of Noelle’s apartment building.
“Of course,” she says curtly. “He said he had something to give you. I told him you were in a meeting and I wasn’t sure when you’d be back to the office. I didn’t know if you’d return at three or four or…”
“I won’t be back today,” I say in a rush. “I have another meeting.”
“You do?” Her tone shifts from frustration to curiosity. “I have your schedule in front of me and I don’t see anything.”
“This is Buffalo business. I have a Skype meeting in fifteen minutes with my team back home to go over our open cases.”
I resist the temptation to remind her that I told her about it this morning.
“I’ll be taking that out of the office.” I slow my pace. “If Mr. Colt calls again, tell him he can leave the item with you.”
I glance down at my bare wrist.
I didn’t realize that I left my watch at Dylan’s apartment until I was getting ready for court this morning. I’d ducked out of his place after he fell asleep.
“I did suggest that.” I can hear the smile in her voice. “He told me that he couldn’t do that. He wants to hand whatever it is directly to you.”
Dylan has always been aggravatingly persistent.
“If he calls again tell him that it’s not an urgent matter and I’ll see him in court next week.”
“You sound as if you know what he wants to give you.”
I know a lure when I hear one. Mrs. Burton is looking for some inside information. I’m not going to tell her that I left my watch in Dylan’s apartment after I had sex with him.
“Please relay the message to him,” I say as I wait to cross the street. “I’ll be back in the office tomorrow. I’ll see you then?”
“I’ll be here bright and early.”
Ending the call, I tap my shoe against the sidewalk as I wait for the light to change.
I expected New York to be an exciting break from my boring life in Buffalo. The city has already delivered that in spades.
Chapter 7
Dylan
“Wait just a fucking minute, Colt.” Barrett Adler, my oldest and most annoying friend, spits those words out with a laugh. “Let me get this straight. You want me to drop everything so I can go home and search for a yearbook from high school?”
Glancing at my phone, I scrub my hand over the back of my neck. “I need it. Just do it.”
“Find your own goddamn yearbook. I’ve got an afternoon of meetings ahead of me.”
I fall into the chair behind my desk. “Jesus, Barrett. Did you forget that I tossed mine in the trash? I need you to courier your copy to me.”
I take the phone off speaker and raise it to my ear.
“What the fuck is going on?” he asks as the sound of traffic seeps in.
He’s left his office at Garent Industries in downtown Chicago. He’s on the move.
“Eden Conrad,” I say her name because I know. I fucking know that’s all I need to say and he’ll clue in.
“I don’t know where the hell my yearbook is.” He mutters something under his breath I can’t make out. “I’ll head home and search for it. It’s in a box somewhere. I’ll find it.”
I close my eyes. “Listen, Barrett. Thanks.”
“No need to thank me. You’ll have it in your hands by tomorrow morning.”
Ending the call, I drop my phone on my desk.
A quick knock at my office door lures my gaze up, but before I can tell whoever is on the other side to go away, I’m looking at my partner, Griffin Kent.
I point out the obvious to him. “You’re supposed to wait until I say ‘come in’ before you open the door, asshole.”
Griffin breaks into a smile. “It’s nice to see you too.”
“Close the door,” I spit out.
He slams the door shut with a push of his foot.
The dark gray suit on his back and designer tie around his neck is expected. The ever-present grin on his face is new. It was planted there by his fiancée, Piper Ellis when she walked into the reception area of our offices and his life last year.
He scratches the side of his nose. “Are you sick?”
I know where he’s going with this so I skip past the list of annoying questions that he’s about to ask and I get to the meat of the matter. “Do I need to be ill for my partner to lend me a helping hand?”
I had Gunner direct all my work-related calls to Griffin this afternoon. I also instructed him to send a drop-in appointment Griffin’s way even though it was with a prospective client that I’ve been trying to charm for the past month.
Griffin and I met in college. We propped each other up through law school,
It’s been hard work to get to the point we are at today, but we did it side-by-side through the good times and the bullshit.
I trust Griffin almost as much as I trust Barrett. The big difference is that Griffin knows the bare basics about my past with Eden. Barrett lived through it with me.
“I’ll always pitch in when you need me to.” He settles on one of the leather guest chairs in front of my desk. “Seeing as how this is the first time you’ve ever had Gunner send a prospective client my way, I’m curious. What’s going on?”
I can tell him about Eden now or wait until he looks over the Alcester case file and spots her name himself.
We back each other at every turn. It’s not uncommon for me to cover a call or a meeting on one of his cases if he’s tied up. He’s done the same for me.
“Kurt Sufford is having heart surgery.”
I start there because it’s a far cry from confessing that I’m going head-to-head with Eden in the courtroom.
“You’re pushing your work at me because of him?” His blue eyes study my face. “I had no idea that you two were close.”
My lips curve into a smile. “You’re an ass.”
He shoots me a toothy grin. “You’re hiding something. Spit it out, Dylan. What’s happening with the Alcester case? Do you need my help?”
Handing the case over to him would be the easy way out, but I don’t do easy, or simple. Challenge is what gets me out of bed in the morning.
I can handle the case. Shit, I can even handle Eden in the courtroom.
What I can’t handle is that I fucked her last night, and I felt something more than a satisfying orgasm.
“Kurt brought his co-counsel to court this morning.” I lean back in my chair. “You’re not going to believe who it is.”
“It’s not Darren Macon, is it? That guy is a weasel. I swear to God he lied to the judge’s face during the Campbell trial. I almost lost that case because of his bullshit.”
“It’s Eden Conrad.”
His eyes narrow. “Say again.”
“Eden Conrad is representing Troy Alcester from here on.” I tap my fingers on my desk.
“The Eden Conrad you went to high school with?” he questions. “How the fuck is that even possible?”<
br />
“You tell me,” I say jokingly with an exaggerated chuckle. “Apparently, she’s a lawyer and Troy Alcester is her client.”
Griffin bolts to his feet. “I’m taking over the case.”
I follow suit, rising from my chair. “Like hell you are. I’ve got this.”
His arms cross his chest. “I know enough about your past with this woman to see that this is a disaster in the making. We owe it to Trudy Alcester to give her our best.”
“I am our best,” I point out. “I’ll see this through to the end.”
“When’s your next court date?” He glances down at his watch. “I’ll get Joyce to work her magic so I’m available for that.”
Joyce, Griffin’s assistant, is a miracle worker, but her time is better spent keeping his current cases in order.
“I’ve got this, Griffin,” I stress again.
He rakes a hand through his brown hair, anxiety dictating his movements. “Have you two talked outside of the courtroom?”
Telling Griffin that I took Eden to bed last night serves no purpose, so I keep that information to myself.
“You need to put the past to rest with this woman.” He drops into responsible partner mode. “It’s best for the Alcester case.”
I’ll win the case regardless of what is happening between Eden and me.
“I’m down the hall if you need anything.” He manages a half-smile. Worry is knitting his brow.
I offer the only words I can think of to reassure him that I won’t let my past with Eden impact the firm’s reputation. “I have a solid case. Trudy Alcester is going to come out of this a very wealthy and happy woman.”
“That’s the end goal,” he says with conviction. “Get the job done and I’ll buy you a beer to celebrate.”
I toss him a curt nod.
I’ll get the job done. Eden Conrad may have owned me last night, but she doesn’t stand a chance against me in the courtroom.
VERSUS Page 3