Maybe Baby (45 page)

Leah showed me to the copy room, which doubled as the mail center for this wing. I didn’t spot Trey’s name on any of the mail trays. His office was apparently in a different wing; the law firm occupied the entire top floor.

She got me settled into an empty desk in the corner of her office area, and then showed me how to use the firm’s phone system. My first task was opening the mail and date-stamping each piece.. When she saw that I was a quick learner, she excused herself for a few minutes to go to Central Filing (wherever that was). She told me that Mr. Harmon was over in Mr. Richardson’s office and to pick up any calls that came in.

That reminded me to check my cell; I smiled as I read a text from Trey:

“I hope things are going well on your first day at this very prestigious law firm, Ms. Preston. I forgot to tell you this morning: I love you.”

My heart did a flip-flop when I read Trey’s text message. I realized that I'd forgotten to tell him the same thing. I hit reply.

“I'm guilty of the same thing Mr. Sinclair. I love you! I'm working in Harmon’s wing…is that close to yours?”

Trey replied.

“Harmon’s wing is at the opposite corner. I'll be over there later for a settlement conference. I look forward to ogling you then. I know you'll make me hard”

Blushing, I texted him back.

“Mr. Sinclair, ‘sexting’ at work is not appropriate! I look forward to seeing your hardness. I know you'll make me wet”

Leah returned just as I'd finished sorting the mail and highlighting the case numbers on the correspondence. “Good job,” she said appreciatively. “Now you and I have to prep the conference room for the settlement conference. There will be six attorneys total: three from here and three from the firm of Littleton, Dexter, and Klein out of Tulsa. Oh, and Barry will be there observing, so that makes a total of seven people.”

We went back and forth between the kitchen and conference room carrying coffee carafes, pitchers of water, and an ice bucket filled with ice. There was a credenza against the back wall where we arranged it all.

“They are having a working lunch, these are menus so put one of these at each of the places on the table. We need to have them filled out as soon as they get here so that you can call and place the lunch order,” she advised.

I was back at my desk working on a spreadsheet when I heard Trey clear his throat in the hallway. “Good morning Ms. Preston.” His eyes fell on mine.

“Good morning Mr. Sinclair,” I replied, “The conference room is ready.”

I stood up; Trey scanned me from head to toe, his eyes smoldered. I didn’t get a chance to say anything further to him as the phone on Leah’s desk rang and I reached for it. I winked at him and Trey disappeared around the corner to the conference room. It was Debbie calling to say that the three attorneys from Littleton, Dexter, and Klein were in reception. Leah hadn’t returned from her errand so I told Debbie I'd be right there. Luckily, I found my way through the maze of cubicles to reception and introduced myself to the three gentlemen.

“If you gentlemen would please follow me, the attorneys are awaiting your arrival in the conference room.”

“Anywhere, darlin,” one of them said. "You lead the way and we’ll follow you anywhere.” I was glad that they were behind me and couldn’t see me rolling my eyes. I led them to the conference room standing inside the doorway as they filed in.

“Wish they grew 'em like this in Oklahoma,” another one said eyeballing me, and then he gave me a wink before turning his attention to three of the attorneys from Pierce, Harmon, Richardson & Sinclair, one of whom was glaring angrily at the flirtatious visitor. I flushed, turning to exit and passing Leah outside of the conference room.

“Are you okay?” she asked, seeing my flushed face. I nodded. “Did you get their lunch orders?” she asked. Damn. I'd forgotten.

“That’s all right, I have to give Mr. Harmon a message before they start, and I can do it.”

“Watch out for those cowboys,” I warned her in a whisper.

A few minutes later Leah returned to our office area shaking her head as she set the stack of filled out lunch orders on my desk. “Boy you were right about that,” she said, “they're something else, aren’t they?”

I laughed and nodded.

“The partners will have their work cut out for them today trying to keep those three good ol’ boys on track. Sinclair looks like he’s ready to kill one of them already.”

Oh geez, Trey let it go.

Leah had instructed me to fill in the spreadsheet already set up on a fax form for their lunch order. I started inputting the data and stopped when I got to Trey’s order. He'd requested a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a smiley face drawn next to it. I chuckled.

“What?” Leah asked looking over.

“Oh, uh…Mr. Sinclair ordered a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” I said. “I can’t imagine one of the partners eating a P.B. & J.”

“Mr. Sinclair is the youngest attorney ever to make partner here,” she said, “let alone
senior
partner. He'll certainly make a great catch for some lucky girl.”

I finished with the lunch order and faxed it over, requesting delivery at 1 p.m. as instructed. Just to be safe, I called the deli ten minutes later to make sure that they received the order and instructed them that the P.B. & J required
strawberry
jelly.

Leah told me to take my lunch from 11:30 to 12:30; she would cover the phones and respond to any requests from the conference room. I retrieved my purse and went to the kitchen, getting a yogurt and juice from the vending machine. I sat at one of the tables and checked my phone. Trey had texted again.

“That asshole Littleton will be lucky if my size 11 shoe doesn’t end up lodged in his colon before the afternoon's over! You look great by the way. I’m going to fuck you when I get home. Then we'll discuss your office attire, Ms. Preston. Are you taking good care of our baby?”

I hit reply,

“Chill about Littleton, okay? I look forward to the fuck-fest! My office attire is fine. I’ve received several compliments on it. And yes, taking good care of our baby. Having yogurt and juice like a good girl.”

I finished my yogurt and went back to the vending machine for an apple. When I returned to the table, I had another text from Trey. Damn! He's texting me during the settlement conference?

“I’m sure you have, Ms. Preston."

The tables had turned. It was Trey’s turn to be jealous about the attention I drew. I hit reply:

“How can you be paying attention to this very important conference while texting me???”

I finished my apple and downed the rest of my juice before I heard my phone beep again.

“It’s called multi-tasking, Tylar. I do it all the time or haven't you noticed?"

I giggled while reading his text at the same time Debbie walked in to refill her coffee mug. She looked around to see if anyone else was in the kitchen. I picked up my phone and purse and headed to the restroom. Once inside the stall, I replied to Trey’s text:

“Oh I've noticed with great pleasure, Mr. Sinclair.. I'm heading back to our office now. I'll be serving you your P.B. & J. soon.”

I texted Gina while I was in there asking her if she had any clothes she wanted to get rid of. She responded quickly, saying she would dig through her closet and drop off anything she could find before she went to the club with Ian tonight.

Leah left to take her lunch when I returned to my desk. She gave me a stack of messages that Trey’s personal assistant, Tonya, had brought over for him.

I leafed through Trey’s messages. Greg Sims from Sims’ Private Investigation Services had requested a call back to update progress. There were several messages from in-house attorneys. Then, I saw the last message: Tess Flannery had called this morning
at 10:30.

What the fuck?

Why would she call Trey? She must've heard from Landon about our “situation.” Christ, even I was referring to it now as a
situation
. I put Tess’s message on top of Trey’s stack so he saw it first.

At 12:50, the boxed lunches were delivered to Harmon’s wing by Josh from the mailroom. I filled another ice bucket and met Josh, who wheeled over the sandwich cart. I set the ice bucket on it, grabbed the phone messages, and knocked firmly on the conference room door.

“Come in,” one of the attorneys barked. It had to be Harmon or Richardson; I knew it wasn’t Trey. I opened the door tentatively, holding it for Josh to come through with the cart.

“Gentlemen,” Barry Richardson said, nodding for Josh to put the boxes on the credenza, “we will take a restroom and lunch break now. We will resume our discussion in twenty minutes.”

I helped Josh unload the cart and I restocked the credenza. I turned away from the credenza just as Mr. Littleton brushed against my backside.

Fuck. I hope Trey didn't see that.

When I looked over and saw the angry glint in Trey’s eyes, I knew that he had. He abruptly stood and followed Littleton to the door, taking long, angry strides. I cut him off at the pass.

“Mr. Sinclair,” I called out, waving the pink message slips.

“What?” he snapped, turning to me, and his face softened when he caught my intent. I knew that he hadn’t meant to snap at me.

“Your messages, sir,” I replied, handing him the stack.

He took them, his eyes still locked on mine. I nodded at the messages, turning as he read the one on top. I went over to Mr. Harmon, handing him his messages, then to Richardson. I departed the conference room and welcomed the sight of my desk. Leah returned about fifteen minutes later and asked how everything had gone.

“No problems at all,” I lied.

Chapter 46

I awoke with a start from my nap. I looked at the clock on the nightstand. It was after seven. The room was dark; the sun had obviously set. I couldn’t believe that my after-work cat nap got away from me. Why wasn’t Trey home from work yet? I heard rustling and the sound of ice clinking in crystal. I looked over to the corner of the room and saw Trey in the sitting area. His left arm was draped over the back of the chair, a glass with ice and a couple of shots of amber liquor in the other. I sat up abruptly and switched on the lamp.

“I didn’t hear you come in,” I said. “I didn’t mean to take such a long nap. I wanted to start dinner for you.”

He stood up and came over to the bed. He wore a white dress shirt with his tie loose around his neck. His five o’clock shadow looked sexy and he was in his stocking feet. He sat down on the bed beside me. “Tylar,” he sighed heavily, “I’m not sure that it’s going to work out having you working at the firm.”

“Why?” I asked, puzzled. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, actually it’s
me.
You drive me to distraction. Do you know how much I wanted to throttle Littleton?” He took a long swig of his drink, slamming the empty glass on the nightstand. I pulled the quilt off of me and climbed over to where he sat. I sat down next to him, taking his hand in mine.

“Please know that I didn’t do anything to encourage Littleton.”

“I know,” he said, circling his arms around me, rocking me back and forth. We sat in silence. He tugged on my ponytail, tilting my head back to kiss my forehead.

“I had to tell my partners about our relationship.”

“What? I thought you insisted we keep it quiet?”

“You know as well as I do that wasn’t realistic. Hell, both Richardson and Harmon knew something was amiss today in the conference room. They said I acted like a ‘rutting stag.’ They were right.”

“Why would they say that?” I pressed.

“Jesus Christ, they know me well enough to see how I acted whenever you came around and when another man brushed against your ass!”

“Let me ask you something. Would you have been just as concerned had Littleton done the same thing to Leah or Tonya instead of me?”

“It’s inappropriate no matter who’s at the receiving end of it. The fact that it was you enraged me.”

“I’m really glad to hear that,” I replied. “I think that you had every right to call Littleton on it because none of your female employees deserve that type of harassment. Was anything said to him?”

“Oh yes,” he answered, nodding his head, “Harmon saw what happened too and he called him on it. That’s why I decided to tell the rest of the senior partners about us.”

“What do you mean?”

“The partners saw what Littleton did, and they wanted Janice Landrick to talk to you and make sure you understood that it was being handled. They also saw my reaction and are aware that I called Janice on your behalf for the job. I needed to let them know the extent of our relationship.”

“Do they know I’m pregnant, that we live together?”

He nodded.

“Do they want me out of there? Is it a conflict of interest?”

“Actually, our company handbook does not have a policy regarding fraternization. There are a few married couples who are associates at the firm. Given our relationship, you can never work directly for me. It's also customary for you to sign a statement indicating you won’t hold the firm liable for sexual harassment claims in the future involving me.”

“What?”

“It’s just a precaution, and the only way you can continue to work there.”

“I’ve got no issue with signing that, but what about everyone else knowing about us, you know?”

“No, this is definitely not going outside the senior partners, at least for now. If our status changes, then I’ll want everyone to know you're mine. However, that’s still your call. But I figure once you start showing they'll figure out our deal."

Tears of anger sprang to my eyes. I was shocked at how territorial Trey had become. I'd only worked at his firm for a day, I suddenly felt like he'd cocked his leg and marked his turf with the attorneys at his firm. Before I could comment, the doorman buzzed the intercom. I pressed the button to respond.

“Yes?”

“Gina's here for Ms. Preston.”

“Send her up,” I replied.

The doorbell chimed. I opened the door to Gina, who held a large plastic bag full of clothes. “Where do you want this, in your bedroom?”

“No, Trey’s in there; just leave it here,” I replied, hurrying back to the kitchen before she noticed I was upset. “I have to stir my soup, Gina.”