Dear Stranger (Paper Cuts #3), page 18
I look between them, hoping one of them would be adult enough to break the ice, but it doesn’t happen. Something tells me the ice is too thick.
Finally, I can’t take it anymore. “Look. You each thought the other one was home to watch Jace. This is just a misunderstanding.”
“We have a lot of those,” Brooks says under his breath, shifting in his seat, still not looking at her.
Without warning, Ellie covers her face with her hands and begins to cry.
He watches her, unmoved. I glare at him, and he lets out a sigh. “Okay, okay. It’s fine. I guess I should’ve told you I was leaving. I thought you were asleep.”
Ellie doesn’t say anything. She simply sobs quietly. I put a hand on her shoulder. “You’re a good mom. You never would’ve left him, had you known.”
“Never,” she says, sniffling. “I think about how scared he must’ve been when he woke up alone. Oh god. Kelly said he’s okay?”
She finally looks to Brooks, who nods, and the next time he speaks, his voice is softer. “Yeah. He’s okay.”
They start to talk about taking him someplace fun this weekend to make up for it, and I smile. I think we might have just thawed the next cold war.
30
I’ve never seen Jace smile so big.
It’s a perfect summer day, with a cool breeze blowing off the ocean and copious amounts of cloudless sunshine. We’re spending the Sunday at Funtown Splashtown, one of Maine’s few amusement parks. It’s our peace offering for the royal screw-up Ellie and I made Friday night. I think Jace forgot all about it the second his mom walked through the door, but I still felt like some retribution was in order.
Now Jace is riding a little boat on Cactus Canyon doing nothing but going around in circles, but he’s pretending like he’s the captain of this pirate ship and having a grand old time. “Ahoy maties!” he calls to us.
“Ahoy!” we call back from our shaded seats on a nearby bench.
I look down at my phone, and the message Tenley sent me.
Tenley: I hope you two are still talking, and that wasn’t a show for my benefit.
I frown at the message. When we came off the BLIND LOVE app, I thought we’d just continue our flirty banter via text. Not so much.
Brooks: Relax. We are talking. We’re at the park with Jace right now.
Tenley: The three of you? That’s great!
Hmm. I’ve tried to sway her to other things, but she seems intent on discussing my relationship with Ellie, as if I’m just one of her cases from the women’s center.
I can only think it means one thing—regret.
But I decide to test her anyway.
Brooks: So when can I get you under me again?
Nothing at first, and then the message switches from “delivered” to “read.” Then, the ellipsis. It disappears and appears a few times before her response shows up:
Tenley: Not sure. Busy.
Okay. There’s definitely regret at play here.
Before I can think of a response, Ellie jumps up and starts taking pictures of Jace, on the ride. “Jace! Jace, baby! Smile!” She snaps the pictures and stares at her phone. “That’s a good one. He’s so cute.”
She walks back to me in her sunglasses and obscenely short shorts, grinning maniacally, oblivious to all the looks she’s getting from fathers with their kids. Collapsing on the bench next to me, she shows me the photo. She’s right. That’s one cute kid.
“Thanks,” she says quietly, as we’re both staring at it. “For bringing us here. I know the tickets cost a fortune.”
I wave her off. “Every kid needs to come to Funtown at least once in their childhood.”
“But I couldn’t do that without you,” she says, her face tilted toward Jace. “It’s all because of you. I know I need to get my act together. I know it. But…”
“I don’t make it easy,” I fill in.
She smiles. “You do not. But you never make anything easy. That’s why I’m glad you’re with Tenley. She won’t take any of your shit.” A blush climbs onto her cheeks. “She inspires me, you know.”
I understand that. Tenley has a way about her. People might not like her, but they respect her, because she says what she means and means what she says. But I’m not sure I can trust Ellie to follow in her footsteps. She says a lot of things. And the last time Tenley thought she was helping, Ellie had only been trying to cheat her out of cash.
“You could probably learn a lot from her,” I say.
“I think we all could,” Ellie says as Jace comes bounding toward her, falling into her arms.
“Mom! That was so fun! There’s no line. Can I ride again?”
“Sure, go ahead,” she says, releasing him to rush off to the canopy where the ride begins. She smiles after him, waves, and then gives me a cheeky look. “So, why were you two together Friday night?”
I give her a hard glare.
“Oh, so you were tapping that?”
Again, I won’t be dignifying that with a response.
She knows that, so she doesn’t bother to wait. She says, “I still think Tenley needs a boring, safe guy. Not you.”
I smirk at her. “And that’s why I always tell you to keep your opinions to yourself.”
“What?” She shrugs. “I can’t help it. She’s just so…”
“Out of my league?”
Ellie points forcefully. “Exactly.”
She’s probably right. I’ve had that same, niggling feeling, ever since Tenley and I decided to take it to the next level. Yes, we like each other. Yes, we have chemistry, and it was off the charts when we hooked up. But the future is anyone’s guess. We could be nothing at all.
I glance down at the message Tenley sent me. I get the feeling nothing at all would be just fine with her.
“She’s a good person. She’s been sending me notes, you know, every so often. Just to make sure I’m okay.”
I give her a sideways look. “Even after you screwed her?”
“I didn’t screw her! I really did want to go for culinary—”
“Right.”
She sighs. “Okay, okay. I wasn’t sure exactly what classes I wanted to take. But I did want to take something.”
“You need to focus. It’s like I—”
“Stop. We’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you, and your love life,” Ellie says, patting my arm. “Or lack thereof. Tenley is too good for you. But don’t worry. All of my friends like you, for some reason I will never understand. Remember Raquel?”
I shake my head. I really have no clue.
“From Denny’s? Remember? She has red hair? She was just telling me how she wishes you’d ask her out.” When I stare at her blankly, she adds, “I’m just saying that, even if it doesn’t work out with your lawyer friend, you always manage to land on your feet.”
Land on my feet. Yes, I’ve always been good at that. Just call me the Bounce-back Kid.
Jace comes running up, into my arms, this time. “Arghhhh.” I give him my best pirate impression. “Shiver me timbers… What do you say we go on the big log flume now?”
I point to the massive structure hulking in the distance.
He claps his hands, showing no sign of fear. Then he looks up at his mom. “All of us?”
Ellie smiles at him, then at me. “Yes. All of us.”
31
I can’t believe I’ve slacked off this much.
Hunching over my desk, I page through mountains of never-ending dispositions and paperwork. Thanks to Courtney Perry’s change of heart and new decision to go for her ex-husband’s jugular, we have quite a bit more work to do.
My only saving grace is that I know the only other person going for this promotion has slacked off as well.
Not that I’ve really thought about the promotion that much. No, instead, my thoughts have been filled with other things.
Such as Brooks’s washboard abs.
His perfect butt.
His…
I grit my teeth for the thousandth time and try to force my brain to behave. It was nothing. It really meant nothing. What matters is that promotion. That’s your key. You can’t forget that you two are in a battle to the death for that partnership.
Because I can guarantee, he hasn’t.
No, this is probably the first rule in the Brooks Gentry playbook. Disarm your enemy.
And I hate to say it, but he had his dick in my mouth. And other places too. So… mission accomplished.
That’s why I’m on high alert. This morning, I came in at six o’clock instead of my usual seven. I’m prepared for whatever attack he might launch because I know he’s going to come at me even harder now. He’s going to try to bring out the big guns, to level me until I scream for mercy.
Not. Happening.
So I’m a little pissed off with myself when Brooks appears, bright and early at seven AM, with two mugs of coffee.
He sets one down in front of me. “Two sugars, right?”
And I’m supposed to melt into a little puddle, just because he knows how I take my coffee? Drop my panties and spread my legs for a pre-office-hours quickie?
Okay, the urge is there.
Dammit.
I stifle it and continue to stare at the paper in front of me, though I’ve read the same word, contested, at least twenty times. “Stop acting all weird. We just hooked up once.”
Make that twenty-one.
He chuckles and starts to close the door. “Relax. It’s just coffee. It’s not that deep.”
I venture a glance up at him. Big mistake. It instantly makes me wet between the legs. How is it possible that he gets more and more gorgeous every time I see him? Same suit, same hair, tumbling over his forehead, same I’m better than you expression. And yet, now more than ever, I want to climb him like a tree. “You don’t need to—”
My eyes fall back to the paper. This time, they land on the word recurrent.
No. It was just one night. It is most definitely not going to happen again. That’s why I gave him his space for the rest of the weekend. I needed to process everything that had happened. And during those two lonely nights, I determined that it was best if we stopped this cold.
I also masturbated more than any human being should, all to thoughts of Brooks’s hard body over me.
Sitting across the table from me and sipping his coffee, so relaxed, so confident about himself… he has no idea that when he sent me that message When can you be under me again? I’d salivated like one of Pavlov’s dogs. It had taken every ounce of restraint left within me to tell him I was busy.
And I’d convinced myself it was for the best.
But even now, I can feel my resolve weakening.
And he hasn’t even said a word about it yet!
So when he leans in and says my name in a way that makes it sound unspeakably sexy, I already know I’m in trouble.
“What?” I snap.
“We have a lot to do,” he says, in a voice that tells me exactly what he’s thinking about. And it has nothing to do with the Perry case. “We should work late tonight.”
My mouth goes wet, because it’s so much easier to picture exactly what will happen, now that I know him intimately. Before, that empty-cubicle fantasy was just that—a fantasy.
Now it’s so real, I can taste it.
And he’s used to women falling at his feet. Obviously, by the way he phrased it. There was no question. He might as well have said, You will stay late with me tonight. I’m sure any other woman would eagerly accept.
I can’t be another one of those.
Luckily, I remember I have other plans, which makes denying him so much easier.
I swallow, hard.
“C-can’t.” Oh my god, did I just stammer? What’s wrong with me? I take a breath to collect myself. “I have to work at the women’s center. I’m helping a new client.”
Of course, Brooks Gentry isn’t one to be shattered by a single denial. He barely registers a ripple. Instead, he makes a tutting noise and taps the file. “Shame. We have so much work to do.”
Who does he think I am, an idiot? I’m not so naïve to think he’s actually thinking about work.
Although … maybe he is. He is right. We do have a lot of work to do. And if I deny him the chance to meet together and tackle it, it could get back to the partners and make me look bad. “I’d have to check my schedule,” I say in a business-like, wooden voice. “But I think I have a few free hours tomorrow morning. We can work on it then?”
He pulls out his phone and starts to go through it. “Tuesday… morning?” He shakes his head. “No, that’s not going to work for me.”
I blink, wondering just what else he has going on then. It’s probably an actual work meeting. No reason to be jealous over that.
And yet I am.
Because I’m an idiot.
I force myself to shrug with indifference. “That is a shame. I guess—”
“I have your schedule here too. And it looks like we’re both free Wednesday night. I’m putting you down.” He jabs in something with his thumb.
I’m putting you down.
My phone beeps with a meeting request. For me. And him. The purpose of the meeting? That’s blank. Allowing me to fill in all sorts of lurid details. Location? Empty also, but I can’t help thinking of an empty cubicle.
I glare at the ACCEPT button.
I’m not going to accept. I’m not going to accept. I AM NOT GOING TO ACCEPT.
Of course I’m going to accept.
Oh God. I really do suck.
“It could run pretty late,” he says with a wink, sweeping out of the office.
“We’ll see!” I call after him, but who am I kidding?
I’ll be counting the moments.
32
Tenley taps on her keyboard, a thoughtful look on her face. I keep looking over the screen of my laptop, wondering when she’ll break her concentration and look up at me.
She doesn’t.
I’ve got to give her credit, because the tension in the room is electric. And yet she’s still poised, intent on her work.
It’s sexy as hell.
Not to mention it’s distracting. But it’s not entirely her fault. Ever since last Friday, I’ve been thinking about things a lot. Rethinking my priorities.
Foster and Foster might be the best law firm in downtown Portland. But there are others. I have a ton of connections from Yale who’d jump to have me if I wanted. I have other options.
But more than that, if I want to be there for Jace—and it feels like I need to be—then putting in the hours of a partner is not what I need right now.
This might be fate.
Impatient, I look up at the clock. I’ve counting the moments, and I’m about to explode. Kurt the janitor was the only person still in the office, but I’m pretty sure even he’s left. I haven’t heard him whistling in the hallways in over an hour.
That means we’re alone. And since we’ve been working for a long time, I think we could use the tension breaker.
Tenley looks up from her laptop. “Okay, I just finished. Unless there is something else you’re working on, I think we’re through here.”
I shake my head slowly. “We’re not done.”
She gives me a curious look, all innocence. But she’s no idiot. She knows exactly what unfinished business we have. “What are you working on?”
Pushing my leather executive chair away from the table, I point to the carpet in front of me. “Close your laptop and come here.”
She gives me a doubtful look. “Brooks …”
“You know you want to.”
She looks out toward the hallway and bites her lower lip. “It doesn’t matter what I want. We’re at work. And the promotion—”
“Hey.” There’s that word again. The one I’ve been hearing constantly. It gets my blood boiling. I fix her with an intense stare. “I know you and I have been going hard at that partnership for months. But what about—for one night—if we just don’t? Frankly, Tenley, right now, I don’t give a shit about it.”
“Right now…” she repeats, as if I’ll change my mind the second I pull out of her.
That might have been me a month ago. But now? Things have shifted.
And I’m ready to accept that.
I smirk. “Fine. You want the partnership? You can have it. The only thing I want is you.”
The doubt on her face deepens, but I shrug and pull my laptop toward me. I dictate the email as I’m typing it. “Dear Partners. I have decided to respectfully bow out of the partnership promotion. Thank you for the opportunity, but let Tenley Bayliss have it, because not only is she an incredible attorney, but she also looks fan-fucking-tastic on my cock. Sincerely—”
She rolls her eyes, arms folded. “You’re so full of it.”
“And send.” I press the button and grin triumphantly. “Sent.”
Her mouth falls open. “You didn’t.”
“I did.” I spin the laptop toward her. “Come see for yourself.”
“You couldn’t have. About me on your—your—” She jumps to her feet and practically throws herself across the length of the table to have a look. Frantic, she reads what I’d written, her eyes darting back and forth.
“Okay, fine. I left out the part about you looking fantastic on my cock, even if it’s true. But I sent the rest of it.”
She eyes are wide. “I can’t believe you did that.”
I motion her forward. “Come here.”
I’m expecting sass—this is Tenley, after all—but I don’t get it. She nods, almost as if she has no other choice. It tells me she knows just what I want, and that she wants it too.
She snaps her laptop shut and slides from the chair across from me, then saunters toward me, standing next to the arm of my chair. There’s a sly little smile on her face, like she’s trying to figure out what I’m up to and is game to find out.
“Why would you do that?” she asks.
I spin to face her and stand. The momentum backs her up, so that her bottom brushes the edge of the table. There’s a strand of hair loose from her ponytail, and I pull it down, coiling it around my finger. “Oh. Did I not make myself clear before? I don’t want the job, I want you.”
