Legally Yours (10 page)

One Month Later

“Do I have to go?” Julie stood staring at the
clothes hanging neatly in her closet. She was no more interested in
fashion than she'd ever been, but she was woman enough to want to
look presentable for her first date since the whole Matt
debacle.

“Of course you have to go,” Lily said from
her perch on the bed. She was home for Christmas break, and Julie
was thankful for the distraction.

In the weeks following her blow out with
Matt, lots of things had changed at the office. Chip Gordon’s
secretary, Judy, who had been the one leaking details to the
Albright firm, had been let go, and Julie had been reassigned to
work with David. She wasn't quite sure whether they'd done that as
a reward, since David was the easiest attorney in the firm to work
for, or if it was a demotion, since Clay, with his oversized ego,
took finesse and patience and therefore a more mature and skilled
person to serve as his assistant. Either way, she was grateful not
to have to deal with Clay on a daily basis anymore. Though she
would have been happier if he’d turned out to be the source of the
leaks.

After giving his full report to Mr. Mitchell,
Matt had flown out for D.C. the very night of their argument. She
supposed she should be grateful, since that meant there would be no
awkward moments between them at the office. That didn't mean there
was no awkwardness, however. Since word had spread through the firm
of their argument faster than Poison Ivy on a boy scout's arms, she
was met with sympathy from the women and speculative glances from
the men. Nothing overt, but clearly the knowledge that she'd been
sleeping with visiting corporate counsel had changed the way her
colleagues perceived her. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. At
least they no longer called her the Ice Queen behind her back.

To her relief, she'd learned that what had
sealed Judy's fate hadn't been anything she'd told Matt—according
to Cissy, who had listened in on Mr. Mitchell's conversation with
Matt, it had been a tip from Clay of all people. Which Clay made a
point of telling everyone all the time, painting himself as the
hero of the story. So, it seemed that Matt had been telling the
truth when he said that he hadn't been using her to get information
about the leaker from her.

And just yesterday, David had mentioned in
passing that Matt had left his position at RFG. So, there was no
longer any chance that she'd run into him in a professional
capacity. She wondered briefly if he'd taken another job as a
corporate lawyer or if he'd finally decided to go into private
practice like he’d confided to her he wanted on their first night
together. Of course, it didn't matter one way or the other since
there was no chance they'd run into one another again. D.C. was too
far from Birmingham for that.

She wasn’t sure if she felt relief or
sadness.

Her thirtieth birthday had come and gone. And
there were things on her list that she hadn’t been able to get to.
But since she couldn’t think about the list without thinking of
Matt, she’d tried to ignore them both.

“Come on, Julie,” Lily walked over and
scanned her sister's closet. “It's one date. You don't even have to
see the guy again if you aren't interested.”

When Lily had asked if she'd be willing to go
out with her high school friend's older brother, her first response
had been a resounding no. Not only was she still getting over her
break-up with Matt, but she'd just signed up to take the LSAT again
in preparation for attending law school next fall. So even on the
off chance she wanted to see this guy again, she'd have no time for
dating. Casual or otherwise.

“I don't have anything cute to wear,” Julie
said, knowing she sounded like a whiner but not caring.

But Lily would have none of it. “Hang on a
sec, I think I have something that might fit you.”

And, as it turned out, she did. Two hours
later, dressed in her little sister's form fitting deep red dress
and fuck me slingbacks, she was perched on a high barstool sipping
a Cosmopolitan. She felt like an actress at a
Sex and the
City
casting call. But at least she felt sexy, which hadn't
happened since Matt left town.

Glancing at her watch, she wondered what the
rule was for late dates. In school they'd talked about the fifteen
minute rule, where you were allowed to wait fifteen minutes before
you were allowed to walk out on a late professor. Her date was
already nearing the ten minute mark, so she’d give him a few more
minute but that was all. Still, he'd just moved to Birmingham, so
maybe he'd gotten lost.

She was checking her phone to see if maybe
he'd texted her, when she felt someone staring at her.

Raising her eyes, she felt the breath stop in
her chest, as if a switch had been flipped.

Matt.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded,
before he could say anything.

God he looked good. His hair was a bit
longer, as if he hadn't bothered to get it cut in a while. She was
surprised to see it was curly when it wasn't cut quite so short. He
was wearing a white button down shirt, and khakis. No tie. No
jacket. It was more casual than she'd ever seen him. Well, that
wasn't quite true. She felt her tummy flip at the memory of just
how gorgeous he was without any clothes on at all.

“I live here now,” he said with a crooked
grin. The little lines around his eyes that appeared when he smiled
seemed a bit deeper now. As if he'd been smiling a lot of late.

“You live here in this bar?”

“No,” he said seriously, climbing into the
chair opposite her. “Here in Birmingham.”

Ignoring the way that revelation made her
heart constrict, she frowned. “I'm sorry, but I'm expecting
someone.”

There was no way in hell she'd let Matt ruin
this blind date for her. She conveniently forgot that she'd been
considering walking out on her date a few minutes ago.

“Oh?” Why the hell was he smiling? "I'll just
keep you company before he gets here.”

She was somewhat mollified that he assumed it
was a man she waited for. At least the dress and the fuck-me
slingbacks were sending the right message. To the wrong guy, but
still...

“I wish you wouldn't” she told him, her voice
sounding desperate to her own ears. “I mean, I don't want him to
see me with...”

“What's the big secret, Jules?” His eyes
scanned her face. “Are you afraid he'll be able to tell how we feel
if he sees us together?”

“What are you talking about?” How did he know
how she felt? He hadn't even bothered to call her since he’d left
town. And she hadn't told a single soul about how far gone on him
she'd been. How she'd fallen in love with him while he was seducing
every last inhibition out of her.

“I'm talking about the fact that you've been
pining for me every since I went back to D.C.”

“I have
not
been pining!” she almost
shouted.

“Come on, Jules,” he smiled ruefully. “If
you're anything like me, mine is the first face you think of when
you wake up in the morning, and the last face you see before you
fall asleep at night.”

“If you have some kind of obsession problem,
I'm sorry to hear it...” she began, but he interrupted her.

“That's just it,” Matt said, reaching across
the table to take her hand. The contact was electric and Julie
immediately tried to pull her hand away. But he was stronger. “I am
obsessed. You might even say I'm in love.”

“Don't patronize me,” she said frowning. If
he was going to sit there and lie to her to her face, then date or
no date she was out of here. “I have to go.”

But as she stood to leave, he shook his
head.

“Still as stubborn as ever, I see. I guess
I'll have to go with Plan B.”

“What's Plan B?” she asked before she could
stop herself.

“I am,” she heard a voice behind her.

She turned to see her sister standing at
their table.

“Lily?”

“Julie, there is no blind date,” her little
sister informed her. “Well, there is, but your date is Matt.”

“What?” Her sister had lied to her? What
the...?

“Don't blame Lily,” Matt said. “She did it as
a favor to me.”

“Well, more a favor to you, Julie,” Lily
said, her expression serious. “I've gotten tired of seeing you
isolate yourself in the name of taking care of me.”

That stung. Even if it was partly true. But
this wasn't about Lily. It was about Julie and Matt.

“I don't blame Lily,” she said to Matt, who
still held her hand. “This stunt has your fingerprints all over
it.”

But if that bothered Matt, he didn't show it.
“I can live with that. But I had to find a way to talk to you. And
since you've been screening your calls and you've denied every
friend request I've sent you on every social networking site known
to man, this was my last option.”

“You wanna talk? Talk.” She finally got her
hand out of his and crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive
position. “I'm listening.”

***

Now that he had the floor, Matt felt a jab of
fear in his gut. This was the most important speech of his life. If
he didn't get this right both he and Julie might regret it for the
rest of their lives.

No pressure.

He stopped himself from running a hand
through his hair. No signs of weakness, he told himself.

“I know you think I slept with you to seduce
information about the leak from you but that wasn't how it was at
all.”

At the mention of them sleeping together,
Julie's eyes darted to her sister.

“What?” Lily asked, rolling her eyes. “Like I
don't know you two did it? Please.”

Seeing both Julie and Matt's glares, she
threw up her hands in defeat. “Okay, I guess my work here is done.
I'm outta here.”

When she was gone, Julie turned back to
him.

“So, anyway, I didn't sleep with you for any
reason having to do with the leaks.”

“Then why?” she asked. She seemed genuinely
puzzled that he would find her attractive enough to sleep with her
for her own sake.

“Because,” he said, a little desperately.
“Because I love the way you fill out a pair of tweed pants. Because
seeing you stand up to Clay is about the ballsiest thing I've ever
seen anyone do. Because I've had a crush on you since law
school?”

She stilled.

“What?”

“It's true,” he said, not daring to look away
from her gaze. “I can even tell you the moment it happened. It was
in Middleton's contracts class. When he called on you and tried to
trip you up with that question about non-compete agreements. The
way you answered the question and then anticipated what he would
ask next was the sexiest thing I've ever seen. Especially since he
was such a dick about the fact that you didn't fall into his
trap.”

“He was a jerk,” she said with a reluctant
smile. “I can't believe you remember that.”

“Julie, I remember every encounter we've ever
had. I was dating Susan then but I couldn't help feeling that zing
of attraction for you. I couldn't cheat on her, but I couldn't help
how I felt either. Did you know she broke up with me the week
before you quit school? I was trying to give you some time before I
approached you. Your parents had just died and you were trying to
swing law school and raising your sister at the same time. I didn't
want to complicate your life any more than it was. But before I
could even work up the courage to ask you out for coffee you were
gone.”

She shook her head. “I can't believe you even
noticed me back then. But why didn't you say anything when you met
me again at the firm?”

“I was there to find the leaker. Not to start
an affair with my main suspect's paralegal. Believe it or not, I
didn't want to act on my attraction for you for the very reason you
hate me now. Because I didn't want you to think I was sleeping with
you to get information about Clay. I was planning to wait until I
had enough proof on my own. Until I saw your Before Thirty List
that night. Then I was too turned on to think or care about the
goddamn leak.”

He smiled ruefully. “And once the deed was
done and I'd agreed to help you with your list, I convinced myself
that I could sleep with you and continue trying to catch the leak
without any conflict of interest. Which was, of course, the dumbest
thing I've done in years. In my defense, I planned on telling you
about the leak before I went to the partners. But you overheard me
talking to Mitchell before I could do it.”

“So, it wasn't because you didn't trust me?”
she asked softly.

Seeing that she was bending a little, he
stepped closer. “God no,” he said, gently cupping her upper arms,
and running his hands down her arms to twine their fingers
together. “I just didn't want to bring you into the whole sordid
business. There's a reason why spies don't get a lot of praise. It
takes a lot of lying and sneaking around to sniff out the truth. In
a lot of ways I've been just as dishonest as Judy was. I just
happen to work for the side with more power.”

“That's not true,” Julie said, kissing him
softly on the lips. “What Judy did was wrong. Yeah, RFG isn't
exactly blameless. But they deserve to have local counsel who
doesn’t share secrets with the enemy camp. If it starts being okay
for law firm staff members to betray their clients then no one
wins.”

“Well, at least I don't have to worry about
siding with Goliath against David anymore,” he said, pulling her
against him. “Starting next month I'm hanging out my own
shingle.”

Julie pulled back to look at him. “You are?
That's great! You'll be the best plaintiff's attorney in D.C.”

“Not D.C.,” he corrected, kissing the end of
her nose. “Birmingham.”

“You mean you were serious? You do live here
now?”