“Just helping out a hungry lawyer.” She arched a brow, her voice calm and maybe a bit derisive. “I found him in the fridge, searching for food like a starving teenager.”
“Yeah.” James brightened. He could play along with this. “And then Tori came in for a drink and was like, hey man, here’s my leftovers, and you can have them.”
Tori turned to look at him, and though she smiled, her eyes clearly said shut up and that he was a terrible actor.
Ryan’s expression didn’t shift, nor did his tone. “That was nice of her.”
“Anyway, if you’ll excuse me, gentlemen. I need to get back to work.”
She left the lunchroom, leaving James alone with his cousin.
James cleared his throat. “I was just bringing this to my desk to eat while I work—”
“You’ve been calling her Tori.”
Damn. Had he?
“Yeah? I guess I picked it up from hearing Kris call her that.”
“Oh, is that it?” Ryan arched a brow. “You sure it isn’t something else? You guys carpooled for a while there.”
“We did.” James nodded, shifting the plate of food to his other hand. God, why wasn’t he a better liar? “She had car trouble.”
“You’d better not be moving in on her, cuz.”
Fuck this. They weren’t kids in high school, even if Ryan wanted to act like it.
James met his cousin’s gaze squarely. “And what if I was?”
Chapter Seventeen
Ryan reared back,surprise flickering in his eyes. Whether it was because James had confronted him on his bullshit or he’d basically admitted to seeing Tori, who knew?
“You’re already together.”
“She has zero interest in you, Ryan. Be a grown-ass man and move on.”
Ryan’s face reddened in a way James had never seen, and unease stirred in his gut.
This wasn’t an anger thing. That was humiliation in his cousin’s eyes.
“You’re going to regret this.”
James didn’t flinch from his cousin’s hard gaze. He wasn’t backing down this time, no matter how much his cousin wanted to sputter and threaten.
Clearly, the man wasn’t used to not getting his way.
“Oh, and, Ryan, once this case is over, I have no intention of staying in litigation. I’ve got an offer to move over to trust and estate. They’ve made it clear there’s an open door for me if I want in.”
Ryan’s eyes rounded. “Seriously? After all I’ve done for you? You’re abandoning me to go into that probate stuff? All over a trashy piece of ass?”
James saw red at the derogatory reference to Tori. While the inclination to respond with violence was there, he clenched his jaw and took a couple of slow breaths.
“You really want to have this conversation here? At the firm where you recently became a partner?” James gestured to the doorway, where literally anyone could walk in at any point.
Ryan flinched, seeming to realize exactly where he was. He adjusted his tie and stood.
“That’s right, I am a partner. Which means you should watch your back.”