She’d never taken a man back to her place. Quite frankly, she wasn’t in the habit of taking men anywhere.
“Julianne.”
Startled, she tipped her phone toward her chest and looked up.
Moira stood in the doorway of her office, some files in her arms. Her hair was secured out of her face with a pencil, and her sweater was wrapped tight around her (the air conditioning in the office was always too high for her). She pushed her glasses up, her big eyes taking in everything with their usual thoroughness.
She knew Moira couldn’t see what she was doing. Of course. Moira, being as sharp as she was, looked at her suspiciously. Then again, her intelligence was one of the reasons Jules had hired her.
Setting her cell phone on the desk facedown, Jules reached for her coffee. “Yes?”
“About your schedule,” Moira began.
Jules silently sighed, setting her cup down before wiggling the mouse to wake her computer up. She pulled up their calendar software. “Okay, I have it up.”
“I got your email asking me to adjust your mornings,” Moira said.
“I see that.” She looked over the next couple weeks leading up to the mediation and trial. It looked so full. She wondered how she was going to manage to squeeze Danny in there. “It seems to all be in order, though I might have you rearrange a couple other meetings.”
“About that,” she repeated, shifting the files in her arms, her brow furrowed with a frown. “I was wondering how far into the future I could expect to keep the mornings free for you.”
“The foreseeable future.” She had around two weeks to the mediation and over a month to the trial if the dates held. A couple weeks before the trial, if they didn’t settle (and Julian Holland never settled) then everything would start gearing up and she’d have to be focused. Her heart began to pound as she thought about the settlement hearing and having to face Julian Holland in negotiation. Her stomach turned, and she pressed her hand to her belly, willing it not to make an audible gurgle.
Moira cleared her throat. “This is highly unusual. Going into a trial, especially one with this much money at stake, you’re usually here every minute of the day, preparing.”
She arched her brow. “I’m going to be amply prepared.”
“I’m not disputing that,” Moira replied. “I’m just puzzled by the change in behavior.”
She set her hands on the desk. “Are you asking me if I’m cracking up?”
“No, you look as competent as usual,” her assistant answered instantly.
“Then?”
Moira’s frown made her glasses slip down her nose a little. She pushed them back up, her lips pursed. Carefully, she said, “It’s hard to anticipate what you need if I’m not informed.”
“Moira, you don’t need to adjust anything.” She sat back in her seat, reaching for her phone. “Was there anything else?”
“Nooo-oo,” the woman said slowly. She blinked at her a few times, as if she was trying to see into Jules’ head, and then she turned around and left, closing the door softly behind her.
Jules waited until she was sure Moira wouldn’t come back in to reopen her note. Feeling like a kid who was doing something she shouldn’t, she reread her list for Jamie. Beyond the bath, she hadn’t been able to come up with anything more, so she’d googled ways to relax and added them to her list.
Bath
Go for a walk
Meditate
Breathe
Listen to music
Scan your body
She frowned. What the hell did “scan your body” mean?” She looked down at herself. She looked like a lawyer, which was exactly how she wanted to look.
She remembered the way Danny had looked at her and how he’d told her she was beautiful, and her heart began to pound again. She pressed her hand to her chest, as if that’d calm it down.