Page 76 of The System

Carina laughed again, took another step toward her, and Kieran breathed her in then. Carina smelled sweet, and all Kieran wanted to do was be the woman to kiss her goodnight.

CHAPTER 23

Carina’s doorbell rang, which was unexpected because she was supposed to pick Kieran up at her apartment, not the other way around. She walked downstairs and checked the peephole with a smile, thinking maybe she’d gotten her wires crossed, and when they’d texted, Kieran had actually said she’d pick Carina up, but the smile dropped from her face when she saw Amalia standing at her front door.

“Amalia?” she said when she opened it.

“Hi. I know I just stopped by, but you’re on my way home.”

“Is everything okay?”

“You just left this in my car the other night, and I thought I’d drop it off for you,” Amalia replied as she held out the bottle of wine from the party.

Carina hadn’t opened it that night. She hadn’t shared it with Kieran because she’d stupidly taken Amalia to the party when she hadn’t wanted to go at all. After the talking she got from the judge and recusing herself, she’d had to talk to her boss about her friendship with Kieran. She’d left out the part that she had feelings for the woman because he didn’t need to know that. Then, she’d explained that while she hadn’t done anything to risk losing her case, she also understood why the judge wanted her removed and that it would help for her not to be involved with any appeals later. Jason was a decent guy, so he’d asked her if she was okay, which he didn’t have to do. She’d told him that she was but that she still wanted to remain friends with Kieran. Now that she wasn’t on the case, he’d told her that it would be fine and had asked her to review the case with the new prosecutor taking it over.

While that had made her feel good, it wasn’t until he’d told her that Frank Richard hadn’t filed his complaint and that Jason thought he didn’t have a leg to stand on even if he did because Kieran had emailed him explaining that they were nothing more than friends and that Carina had acted ethically in every sense of the word. He’d let Carina read the email, and that had made her smile.

“Carina, can I say something off-the-record here? As a friend and colleague who’s known you for almost twenty years?”

“Sure,” she’d replied, handing him back the printout of the email.

“If there is something else going on between the two of you, or there might be now that you’ve recused yourself, that would be okay.”

“Sorry?”

“Just make sure your dates are good, meaning nothing happened before you were off the case.”

“We’re not… Nothing has happened.”

“Okay. I don’t need to know, but I met my wife on a case. She was the arresting officer on the only murder in town that year, and I got assigned to prosecute. We had to keep things under wraps until after the case was over, and it got complicated, but arresting officers aren’t supposed to date the attorneys prosecuting their cases. Our first date was the day after she testified at the trial.” Jason had laughed. “So, I get it. That’s all I’m saying. We were ethical. We kept what was happening between us out of court. And I know you did the same.”

“I did,” she said.

“Good. Well, that’s all I have to say about that.”

She’d left his office, and when Dylan had suggested she go to the party, she’d stupidly invited Amalia, who had asked her out again, because, despite what Jason had told her, Carina knew she still needed that space from Kieran. Kieran hadn’t ever been with a woman, and that came with other complications. She’d felt the layers upon layers of complications weigh on her and had gone the easy route, asking Amalia to the party because there were really no complications there. But then, there Kieran was, standing there, holding Carina’s favorite bottle of wine while Amalia was offering her a beer, and instantly, telling Amalia that she didn’t see things going any further between them had seemed like the easiest decision in the world to Carina. Amalia had driven them back to Carina’s place that night, where they’d said goodnight and goodbye.

“Oh. You didn’t need to bring this over here,” Carina said, taking the bottle from her.

“Like I said, you were on my way,” Amalia replied.

“Well, thank you.”

“Sure. No problem.”

They stared at each other for a long, awkward moment before Carina’s eyes went wide at the sight of the car pulling into her driveway.

“And it looks like you have plans tonight,” Amelia added. “I’ll leave you to it. Have a good night, Carina.”

“Oh, it’s not–” Carina shook her head. “She’s not–”

“Hey,” Tinley said as she approached the front door. “I was going to go in through the garage, but I saw you here.”

“What are you doing here, Tinley?” she asked.

“I’ll see myself out now,” Amalia said and took a few steps back before she turned and hurried to her car, which was street-parked.

“She’s hot,” Tinley noted.

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