Page 68 of The Woman on the Jury

And I found myself feeling a little swoony about that. Especially when I saw two more men hanging outside of my grandfather’s room. Even if I had no idea how he’d managed to get the hospital to agree to that.

I had a short visit with my grandfather, since he was exhausted from, apparently, even more testing that morning.

He was still bruised, but I thought they were looking slightly less dramatic.

The doctor had no answer for me for how long he would be staying there, and I felt like a monster to be kind of relieved that I wouldn’t have to try to find a way to protect him when he was out, and also convince him to keep the shop closed.

“Where’s Miko?” I asked as one of the other guards I was getting familiar with when I walked out of the door to find him waiting there instead.

“Getting the car,” he said.

Then he led me to the elevator with another guard in tow.

It wasn’t until the back door was opening, and I was sliding inside that I realized I wasn’t alone.

“Jesus!” I swore, hand slapping down over my heart where my heartbeat had tripped into hyperdrive.

Cosimo completely ignored me, typing away at his phone.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

Only to be ignored again as Miko pulled away from the curb. He, it seemed, knew where we were going.

I did too, as soon as we turned down the street.

Fifth Avenue.

So I wasn’t exactly surprised when Miko pulled up in front of Saks. He was double-parked but didn’t seem to think anything of it as he rushed out to open Cosimo’s door. Then, in turn, Cosimo came around to open mine.

“Get out of the car, Halle,” he said when I stared up at him.

So, yeah, those were the first words he’d spoken to me all day. Real charmer, this one.

But try telling that to the little sizzle of desire that shot through me as I placed my hand in the one he had extended toward me.

“What are we doing here?” I asked, turning to look at the building.

It was decked out in its notorious Christmas style. I knew that, at night, there would be impressive light shows. As for the inside, though, I had no idea.

It seemed I was about to find out, though.

“You need clothes,” Cosimo said, moving toward the doors, leaving me to rush to catch up.

“I have clothes. In my apartment. I could go grab those clothes,” I insisted.

“No.”

“No?” I asked, stubbornly standing in the doorway he was holding open, so he couldn’t follow me in.

“I can’t imagine that’s a difficult word to understand,” he said, placing a hand to my hip, and pushing me inside, the heat of his body at my back.

The building seemed even bigger inside than it had outside, and with Christmas displays everywhere.

Penguins with red top hats here. Giant nutcrackers there. And twinkle lights everywhere.

I hadn’t even thought about the holidays yet.

And they were approaching with an almost alarming swiftness. I swore Christmas came faster and faster with each passing year. I could barely keep up.

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