Trinity
Trinity rushed around, packing and gathering the stuff she’d need for a few days at Ace’s place, after her shower. She texted Beck to let her know that she was running late and to let her client know that she’d be in shortly.
She rushed into her office and found Beck standing by her desk with a file folder and a cup of coffee. “Bless you,” she breathed, tossing her briefcase into the corner, and taking the coffee from her assistant.
“Late night?” Beck asked, bobbing her eyebrows at Trinity. She giggled and shook her head.
“No—not the way you’re thinking,” she admitted. “Ace didn’t get home until really late and I ended up falling asleep with Bella and spending the night.”
“Mmm,” Beck hummed. “You spent the night with your niece?” she asked.
“Technically, no,” Trinity admitted. “I slept in Ace’s bed but nothing happened.” Beck made another humming noise, letting her know that she didn’t buy her story and Trinity grabbed the file folder from her assistant’s hand. She had a feeling that nothing she said was going to change Beck’s overly active imagination about what had happened the night before. She planned on leaving out the part where she was going to be staying over at Ace’s place for the next few nights, but she didn’t seem to know of a way around it.
“I need to get a move on with my day, Beck,” she insisted. “I have to leave early again today.”
“Why?” Beck asked.
“Well, because I don’t have any afternoon appointments and I promised Ace that I’d sit for Bella again. She can’t go to daycare today and he had a late afternoon meeting, so I offered to help,” Trinity said. She buried her nose in her file folder and didn’t bother to look up at Beck. She was certain that she’d find her assistant’s knowing smirk staring back at her. “Don’t look at me like that, Beck,” she warned.
“How would you know how I’m looking at you, boss?” Beck asked. “You haven’t looked me in the eye in the past three minutes.” Trinity sighed and looked up from the paper that she had been pretending to study.
“Fine,” Trinity spat, “is this better?”
“Much,” Beck said. “Now I can see that you are lying to me. You like him, don’t you?”
“Like who?” Trinity asked, playing dumb.
“You like Ace,” Beck insisted. She wasn’t going to let this go and the sooner Trinity agreed to liking her sister’s ex, the sooner she’d be able to get on with her day.
“So what if I do?” Trinity asked. She sounded a little more defensive than she hoped to and Beck giggled.
“I just want you to be happy, Trinity. But he’s your sister’s ex,” Beck warned.
“I know all about my sister and Ace,” she said. “But Charity took off with another man and sealed her fate. Why shouldn’t I have my chance with him if that’s what I want?” she asked.
Beck held up her hands as if in defense, “You can do whatever you want, boss. Just be careful.”
“Will do,” Trinity agreed. “I appreciate your concern but I’m a big girl and know how to handle myself. Now, I don’t want to keep Mr. Brown waiting much longer. Is he here?”
“Yep,” Beck said. “He’s in conference room one.” Trinity gathered her papers and files and headed off down the hall.
“Thanks, Beck,” she called over her shoulder.
* * *
Trinity got to Ace’s place just in time for him to hand off Bella and leave for the casino. “She’s been good all day—no fever or anything. She’s sleeping now but should be up in about an hour for another bottle.”
“Got it,” Trinity said. “Don’t worry about us—just have a good meeting,” she said.
“I won’t be too late tonight,” he said. “Also, I had another cell phone delivered, so you have my number if you need me. How about I bring us home some dinner?” he asked. Dinner sounded innocent enough but was it really? If she agreed to dinner would he get the idea that it was a date?
“You’re overthinking things, Trinity,” he breathed. “It’s just dinner. You have to eat, right?”
“Um, sure,” she squeaked. Why was she acting like a nervous teenager around him? He just asked her to move into his place to help take care of his daughter. He wasn’t asking her to prom or anything like that, still, here she stood acting like a teen girl with a major crush on the hottest guy in class, which was ridiculous.
“Dinner sounds great,” she agreed, trying for casual.
“Good,” he said. “What do you like?”