The Home Court Advantage
Page 37

You know, I would just like to point out for the record that I didn’t bring this case; I didn’t put that woman on the witness stand, and I didn’t tell my client to act like an ass**le. Yet, for some reason, I was being yelled at. Sometimes I just loved my job. Judge Channing basically kicked us out of the courtroom at that point so I grabbed my stuff and met Adam outside where he was waiting with Braden. Jess had already gone back to the office. She would be so sorry that she missed this very special episode of Dr. Phil.
“So, tell me, Adam,” I said with a smile, “when you were at law school dreaming about bringing justice to those who had been wronged, did you imagine Vera?”
“Stick around, Braden, you might be needed to defend your fiancée’s life,” he said in a deadly voice. He actually looked rather homicidal at the moment, if I must say so myself.
“What? You can dish it out but you can’t take it? Well, don’t blame me for this bullshit case, counselor. So is Vera going to take Tony back or not?” I asked impatiently.
“Who the f**k knows?” Adam bit out. “Who the f**k cares? I’m withdrawing the charges.” He sounded really angry. In fact, I didn’t think I had ever seen him this angry. He had been really cranky in general lately though.
“All right then. Thank you,” I said, trying to placate him a little. I wondered if something was up with him. I said goodbye to Braden and headed out.
It was nearly Labor Day, and as I made my way back to my office, I thought about all that had happened in the month and a half since Braden had officially proposed. Even though we still had two different apartments we spent every night together. We would pick up Bruno, grab some take-out and go home to relax and have dinner. We would talk, play with our dog, watch PBS and usually make love. It was very domestic and very nice. As we predicted, our parents were thrilled about our engagement but did recommend we not rush the wedding. That was fine by us. We hadn’t even really discussed a date. Actually, we really hadn’t discussed any details. We were just happy being together at the moment.
The only bump in the road was the fact that we still sometimes felt like somebody was following us. Braden had felt it too a few times, so it wasn’t just me. We did tell the police about our mysterious shadow but since the information was so tenuous there really wasn’t much they could do. So every now and then my neck felt prickly and it just felt like someone was watching. A couple of times I even thought that I had seen an actual shadow around a corner that made me feel suspicious but at least there had been no more notes or paper products on our doorstep and nobody seemed particularly worried that our parents had met and gotten along fabulously.
When I got back to the office, Jess was still out but Cameron was there. I sensed immediately that he wanted to talk about something. He looked up like he had been waiting for me to come back. I tossed my briefcase on the floor and, thankfully, it didn’t crash through to the floor below despite the fact that it weighed three tons.
“So, what’s up, Cam?” I asked, spinning my desk chair to face him, opening up the bottom drawer of my desk and putting my feet up. I folded my hands on my lap and tilted my head to the side. I was in my “I’m listening” pose.
“I’m going to be going back to my firm,” he answered, turning toward me. “The thing is, that I like criminal law so my dad is giving me the opportunity to coordinate their pro bono program if I want to. I would take our associates and teach them how to do preliminary hearings and I would schedule them and supervise them.”
“That sounds great! You’ll get to do something you like and stay with your firm. I know that your great-grandfather was a founding partner and everything.”
“Yeah, even though it’s a two hundred lawyer firm it’s still pretty much the family business. Anyway, since I’ll probably be leaving soon, I was thinking, I might ask Jessica to have a drink with me after work if she’s free.”
“She’s free!” I sat up so quickly that I went flying out of the chair but because one heel caught on the drawer, I wound up in a heap on the floor. I got up quickly and straightened my skirt, glaring at my chair like it had been a mechanical malfunction.
“Are you okay?” he asked, rising to see if I needed help.
“Oh, yeah, I’m good. Uh, what I meant was that she’s probably free. If she’s not, you, know, busy.” Brilliant! I was smiling and nodding like a bobble-head doll.
“Okay! Great!” He smiled and turned back to his work, probably thanking the good Lord that Braden had been the lucky guy to snag me. Why was I so freaking awkward? Later that day Jess stopped me in the hall.
“Cameron asked me if I would go out for a drink after work with him,” she said in a quiet voice, sounding very excited. I so wanted to make a girlie SQUEE noise but I managed to control myself. I looked around quickly to make sure that we weren’t being overheard. Although, I’m not really sure why.
“Okay, I’m going to need a debriefing. Braden and I will stay at our apartment tonight instead of at his. You can tell me about it then.”
“I can’t tell you with Braden there! It’s a girl talk thing!” she objected, looking up and down the hallway nervously, toward our office.
“I’ll make him go in the bedroom and wait for me.”
“You’re going to lock your fiancé away in your bedroom?” she asked giving me a look somewhere between amused and incredulous.
“I’ll crack a window and make sure he has food and water. Besides, I’ve got a TV in there and Bruno will keep him company.”
“Okay. We’re going to O’Malley’s. I’m not sure when I’ll be home but it probably won’t be late. I’m not getting my hopes up though. We’ve gone out before and nothing has happened.”
“I have a feeling this is different. He mentioned going back to his firm so he may realize that it’s time to act.”
“I’ll meet you in the ladies’ room at five minutes to six so you can reassure me that I don’t look haggardly.”
“I’ll be there!” We went our separate ways and I tried to look casual. Although nobody was actually in the hallway so it probably didn’t matter.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I met Jess in the ladies’ room at the designated time and did a stall check to make sure we were alone. I made sure to open every door in case anyone was standing on the toilet. You never know. People are weird. I was getting much better at this covert stuff.