Page 180 of Alive At Night

“Fine.”

Juniper’s eyes rolled up, but then they returned to mine, and I felt sucked in—trapped by the magnetism between us. When she spoke, it was in a sultry, toe-curling whisper.

“Prove it.”

So I did.

epilogue

“I’M NERVOUS.”

At my words, Julian instantly spun in his desk chair. When he saw me standing at the door to our office, a slow smile spread over his face. Such a one-eighty from a year and a half ago when I first showed my face to Julian outside our office.

Usually, I would welcome his smile. But right now, it was annoying me. Hehadheard me, hadn’t he?

“Did you hear me? I said I was ner-vous.”

I pronounced my words extra clearly for him this time.

Julian still ignored them, sweeping his eyes over my black dress and the blazer I had in my hand, ready to go for court. I’d paired it with an impressive pair of heels, and after fussing over my hair this morning for over half an hour, I gave up and let Julian curl it. It fell in loose waves around my shoulders.

Why was he looking at me like that? His eyes were taking me in like it was the first time he’d seen me in years…when in reality, we got ready for work and walked into the office together.

“I heard you,” he acknowledged. “You’re just very pretty. And I can’t wait to see you walk out onto the courtroom floor looking like the pretty badass you are. I know you’re nervous, but you’re going to do amazing.”

I sagged against the doorframe, exhausted even though the day had only begun. “Honestly…where does your confidence come from?”

“My confidence in you?” He grinned wider. “It comes from knowing you for over half my life. And from working with you for over the past year. You’re very good at your job.”

I sighed, all my annoyance in him washing away. It was odd when he did this—this role reversal. There he was, acting all perky as he gathered his things up on his desk, packing them into his briefcase while I brooded in the doorway, trying to shake the rest of my nerves.

I had confidence in myself, but this was the first case I had taken over at Gardner Law. It was a big deal. When Julian told me how Grayson had decided not to pursue the malpractice case, I understood. We both did. Taking any kind of legal action was time-consuming and energy-sucking, but it would be even more extreme for the Elez-Everetts on account of their high profile. Plus, they had spent so much of last year worrying about Gracie and if she would also have the same congenital heart defect.

Thankfully, Gracie Everett was a healthy baby girl, and Gabriel Everett was a healthy big brother who cared greatly for his little sister. But regardless of their happy outcome, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we had unfinished business. So when Grayson told us that he knew of another family experiencing negligence at the same clinic where Gabe had been born, I told him to have them reach out to me.

They did, and now, today was the day we would finish settling this in court.

Julian wanted me to have the case. It was unrealistic for us to work it together instead of with Daphne or one of the other partners, and Julian encouraged me to go ahead with it without him. I wanted very badly to win this case. It had been a long process, and we were very close to the end. And if all went to plan, there would be a verdict by nightfall.

And then Julian had asurprisefor me.

“This is the best day ever,” he said, grabbing my coat and holding it out for me to slip into.

“I don’t know about that.”

“I do,” he said, still giddy and confident. “I get to watch my girlfriend kick ass in court, and then I get to celebrate with her all weekend. Just her.”

“But what if we don’t pull it off today? Won’t it ruin the weekend?”

Julian shook his head and started buttoning my coat for me. He’d kept his promise to take care of me, and I had to admit it felt nice. The case consumed my brain, making all the other little things feel like big things. Julian seemed to know; he took care of all of them before I could even ask.

“Nothing could ruin this weekend,” he said, again showing off his confidence.

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

“Nope. You’ll just have to wait and see.”

God, he was annoying.

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