7 Months

by Bethany Lopez

  I sighed, “I’m sorry, Cass. I know I’ve been busy. I promise I’ll do better. I want to do this for Nonie.”

  Cass nodded and clapped her hands together excitedly.

  “Victoria had this great idea to have it at Brady’s house,” she said, and my heart sank to my stomach. “No one ever goes there, so Bronagh won’t suspect a thing. Victoria said she’s redecorating his living room, and his kitchen is pretty big, so it’ll be perfect. She’s going to talk to him, but you know, he’ll do anything for Bronagh and Brendan, so I’m sure it won’t be a problem.”

  I nodded absently, sad that although I’d finally get the opportunity to go to Brady’s house, it would be for the shower and not as his invited guest.

  Cass was eyeing me suspiciously, so I verbalized, “Sounds good.”

  “Gaby said she’ll take care of desserts, and Bronagh’s Da and Brendan are taking care of food and refreshments.”

  “What does that leave us?” I asked, then paused when the waitress brought our drinks and took our order.

  “Decorations and games,” Cass replied when the waitress left us. She lifted her Cosmo and took a long drink then murmured, “Mmmm, that hits the spot.”

  “Okay,” I replied, trying to decide which was the lesser of two evils. “I can look online and figure out some games.”

  “Cool. I’ve been eyeing some cool trinkets to give as prizes.”

  “There are prizes?”

  “Sure, for the winners of the games.”

  “Oh…”

  “I can do the games if you’d rather decorate.”

  “No,” I assured her, enjoying the burn of my bourbon as it slid down my throat. “I can handle it.”

  Cass looked skeptical, so I looked at her pointedly and said, “I go up against murders and rapists in court. I think I can handle a couple baby shower games.”

  “Ten.”

  “Ten, what?”

  “Ten games.”

  “Ten games? You want to play ten games at this thing?”

  “Yeah, it’ll be fun.”

  I looked at her like she was nuts and tossed back my drink.

  “You don’t think that’s going a little overboard?”

  Cass reached her hand out and placed it over mine on the table.

  “This is Nonie, Ming. She’s been waiting for this party for fifteen years.”

  I sighed again and turned my hand to squeeze hers.

  “I’ll find ten…”

  “Yay!” Cass shouted, all sweetness and excitement again.

  I couldn’t help but chuckle at my friend, even as I wondered how in the hell I’d find ten games that would be quick and painless.

  “So, did you hear what happened with Nat on New Year’s?” Cass asked, taking a bite of her spring salad.

  “Uh, no,” I replied as I took the onions off my burger and picked up my knife to cut it in half. “I was there when Brady got the call, but I haven’t really talked to anyone since. Is she okay?”

  “Her husband showed up, after pulling a disappearing act for months. I guess he really messed her up.” My eyes widened on hers and my heart clenched at the thought of a man, any man, hurting his wife that way. “Nat held her own though, shot him right in the gut.”

  “Oh my God!”

  “I know. She’s okay, though … recovering.”

  “Well, that’s good. I mean, I’m glad the cops have him and hopefully he’ll see justice, I just wish it didn’t have to happen with Natalie getting hurt in the process.”

  “I’m surprised you haven’t heard from any of the O’Malley’s yet.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Natalie’s pressing charges, she needs a lawyer.”

  Chapter Eleven ~ Brady

  “Your hairiness is getting out of control,” I told Brendan as we got settled at a table in our favorite pub, Callaghan’s. Brendan had started working at Bronagh and her dad’s pub after he graduated culinary school. Then, once Bronagh’s dad decided he was ready to retire, Brendan bought him out and now he and his wife owned it together. “Bronagh lets you come to work like that?”

  Brendan ran a hand over his straggly beard and sighed.

  “We agreed that once the baby comes, I’ll shave the beard and cut my hair,” he replied, and I took in the messy bun that was currently half covered by his beanie.

  “So, I have to look at you like this for a few more weeks?” I asked, not really caring, but taking the opportunity to give him shit while I could.

  “‘Fraid so, bro,” my brother replied, his smile barely visible. Then he leaned back in his chair and asked, “So, how’s everything going with Nat? She freaked?”

  I thanked the waiter who brought us our beer, then turned my attention back to Brendan.

  “She’s healing well. The swelling in her face is starting to go down,” I said, my hand gripping my glass tightly as I thought of how horrible her face had looked when it was completely bruised and swollen. “I’ll tell you, I’d love to get my hands on Zeke … in a room with no cameras.”

  “I hear that, but don’t worry, man, no judge in the world is going to let that asshole walk. You talk to Ming yet?”

  I took another drink of my IPA, buying time, before replying, “Ah, no, why?”

  “Why?” he responded incredulously. “Because she’s one of the best prosecutors in the city, and a family friend. Ming knows Nat, which will make Nat more comfortable, and you know she’d do anything to help out a friend.”

  I did know that, and she’d been the first person I’d thought of when Doobie had talked about Nat needing a lawyer. But, after the way we’d left things on New Year’s, I didn’t think she’d want to hear from me, especially to ask her to take Nat’s case. Not that I thought she’d refuse, but because I knew that she didn’t understand my relationship with Natalie. My protectiveness of her.

  There’d never been anything between Natalie and me. First of all, I’d never fuck around with a married woman. And second of all, after spending the last seven months with Ming, and then the last couple weeks without her, I was realizing that my vision of what I wanted in a woman had changed.

  “Hello … Brady,” Brendan called, pulling me from my thoughts.

  “Sorry,” I replied, then tried to recall his question. “Uh, no, I haven’t talked to Ming about taking on Nat’s case. I was thinking maybe Bronagh could do it.”

  Brendan looked at me suspiciously over his glass.

  “Why wouldn’t you just ask her yourself? I notice you guys don’t talk much, and I know she can come off a bit abrasive, but she’s a great person, and Bronagh’s best friend. You should make more of an effort.”

  Deciding I was done keeping secrets from my brother, I blurted, “Ming and I have been sleeping together since my academy graduation party at your place.”

  Brendan’s face turned red as he choked on the beer he’d just started to swallow.

  I didn’t even pretend I hadn’t timed my confession for that exact moment. I started

  laughing as his eyes bugged out and he gasped for air.

  “Are you fucking serious?”

  I chuckled and replied, “Completely.”

  “How the hell did that even happen?” he asked, totally shocked. Then he closed his eyes and shook his head. “Oh, God, I’m picturing it. Make it stop!”

  “Suck it.”

  “I can’t even wrap my head around this … it’s just too weird. It’s like that time I walked in Brock and Victoria having sex…”

  “What?” I asked, setting my glass down so hard it made a loud banging sound. I looked around apologetically, then leaned in to my brother and hissed again, “What?”

  “Yeah, Jesus, my eyes…” Brendan covered his face with his hands as if reliving the moment. “He’s so much bigger than her. It was like watching a bear attacking a gazelle.”

  “Ah, shut up, I don’t want to hear anymore,” I said, uncomfortable with the picture he’d just put in my head. Then I started laughing. “I be
t he was pissed.”

  Brendan moved his hands and I could see his eyes dancing.

  “Man, he jumped up and started yelling, then chased me out down the hall. I was screaming for him to put his dick away, and he was yelling that I’d better not have looked at Victoria. That was the day I decided it was time to get my own place. I moved out that weekend.”

  We were both still laughing when our food came, and once we were alone again, Brendan prompted, “So … Ming.”

  “It’s over, so there’s no point in making a big deal out of it now.”

  “Who ended it?”

  “Her,” I replied, reaching for the salt, pepper, A-1, and Thousand Island I’d requested.

  “Please don’t put that salad dressing on your steak,” Brendan pleaded, just like I knew he would.

  As a chef, he thought the meat should be unmasked and speak for itself. He said it was an insult to the cook to pour condiments all over their creations. But I thought condiments made everything better. Plus, it was one more way to rile my brother, so, win/win.

  He groaned as I coated my steak in goodness, then decided to ignore what I was doing and continue being nosy instead.

  Tit for tat.

  “We’d agreed to keep it simple. No dates, no telling anyone, just fun … Now she wants more.”

  Brendan nodded as if that explained everything.

  When he began cutting into his steak and didn’t say anything, I got annoyed.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” he said with a half shrug. “I get it. She wants a relationship and you don’t, so she ended it.”

  “Why’s that so easy to understand?”

  “Let’s just say you’re not the easiest guy to get to know,” he said, then pierced me with his green eyes. “Lemme guess, in that seven months, you made zero effort to get to know her better and told her essentially nothing personal about yourself.”

  Now it was my turn to shrug.

  “It was just about sex.”

  “I’m not blaming you, brother, I’m just stating the facts. You’re not a relationship kind of guy.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “It means you’ve probably talked more to me since we’ve sat down here, than you did to Ming in seven months’ time.”

  I didn’t respond, since he was probably right.

  “Brady, you’re the most loving, loyal, unselfish person I know, but you’re very guarded. You don’t let people in. With me and Brock, you’ve always been that way, but you didn’t let Tori or Bronagh in until you knew they were going to be family. Shit, how many years have you known Cal and TJ and them? You talk to them on poker night, but you’d never go out of your way to hang out. Let’s just say you’re the best friend and brother a person could have, but you’re not recruiting.”

  He was making me sound like a dick and I didn’t know how to respond.

  “Is that what everyone thinks?”

  “Who gives a fuck what everyone thinks? What matters is what you think. What matters is whether or not it bothers you that Ming wants to cut you loose. If it doesn’t, well, your relationship will be pretty much what it’s looked like to the rest of us this whole time, but if it does, then you’re going to have to find a way to let her in.”

  I let everything Brendan had said process while I finished my meal.

  I decided to grow some balls and go talk to Ming about Nat’s case myself. If I didn’t, she’d know it was a total cop-out, and I kind of wanted to see her to see how I felt being around her after the way we’d left things.

  Would seeing her make me realize that she was right to end things, or would it make me want to agree to changing our relationship and figure out what that looked like?

  Chapter Twelve ~ Ming

  “Ming, there’s a police officer out here to see you.”

  I looked up to see my assistant hovering nervously outside my door.

  “Send him or her in, please,” I responded calmly, before looking back down at my paperwork.

  I didn’t often have the police come to my office, but it wasn’t the first time, so I wasn’t worried that there was anything wrong … like my assistant obviously was. I briefly wondered if she’d done something to be worried about, then refocused on my task.

  I’d won the case I’d been working so hard on over the last few weeks, so now I was finalizing paperwork so that I could close it. I planned to finish up and actually make it out of the office before bedtime.

  “Ming.”

  My name in that voice had my head swinging up in shock.

  Brady had never been to my office before, and he was the absolute last person I’d expected to see entering it now.

  He was in uniform, and my heart kicked painfully as he walked in and gestured to the chair.

  “Please,” I replied, inviting him to sit.

  Cleanly shaven and looking oddly nervous, he looked so handsome as he settled across from me.

  When Brady tapped his knee with the fingers of his right hand, I prompted, “What can I do for you, Brady?”

  Being on my turf, in my office, in my law firm, made me feel a calm and confidence that I didn’t often feel around Brady. Wearing a slate-gray power suit, with my hair pulled back in a loose bun, my face made up perfectly for court, I gazed at him from behind the safety of my desk and felt in control of the situation.

  I liked it.

  I was worried the next time I saw Brady, I’d be a bundle of nerves and throw myself at him, begging him to take me back.

  This was better.

  “I’m not sure if you’ve heard about Natalie and her husband…” he began, then trailed off as he seemed to try and search for the words he wanted to say.

  “I have,” I said helpfully, not wanting him to feel uncomfortable around me either. “How is she?”

  “Healing,” Brady replied, then lifted those dark eyes to mine and added, “Physically at least. She’s pretty shaken up about what happened.”

  “I bet,” I replied, feeling sympathy for the other woman.

  I knew why Brady was there, and if I was kind, I could just offer my services and give him an easy out. But although I didn’t want him to be uncomfortable around me, I also wanted him to ask me himself. To finally talk to me.

  Even if it was to ask me to help another woman.

  At least it was something.

  “I talked to Nat, my brothers, even Tori and Bronagh, and we all agreed that you’d be her best chance of putting that asshole behind bars. Nat was going to call you, but I said I’d do it … figured after everything, I owed it to you, and to her, to ask myself.”

  “Why’s that?” I asked softly, seeing how far I could push him.

  Brady blinked slowly, then ran his hand over his mouth before taking a deep breath and answering, “Because of what was between us. Because you know I’ve been concerned about Nat, that I’d promised to find her husband, and I failed. She needs you, and I’d hate for you to not take her case because of me.”

  That pissed me off…

  “Do you really think that?” I asked, not keeping the anger out of my tone, which caused his eyes to widen. “Do you really think that I wouldn’t take the case of a woman whose been battered, a woman I know personally, a woman who is friends with my friends, out of spite? Or some sort of petty jealousy? You really don’t know me at all, do you?” That last bit came out as a whisper.

  Brady blinked again, then frowned and said, “No … that didn’t come out right.”

  “Hey, Ming, would you like to join the gang for drinks tonight, since you won your case and all…” Christian stopped talking when he rounded the corner and realized I wasn’t alone in my office. “Excuse me, the door was open. I didn’t realize you were in a meeting.”

  “No,” I practically shouted before he could walk back out. “We were just finishing up here. That sounds great, I’d love to join you guys.”

  Christian hid his surprise at my acceptance. A handsome smile moved across hi
s face and he said, “Great, I’ll be back by in thirty minutes. Does that work?”

  “Perfect,” I replied with an answering smile, then turned my attention back to Brady, who was watching me through narrowed eyes.

  “Here’s my information,” I said, rounding my desk, my arm outstretched as I offered him the business card. “Have Natalie call me as soon as she can and I’ll set up a meeting.”

  Although I could tell by the stubborn set of his jaw he didn’t want to, Brady rose, took the card out of my hand, and slipped it in his back pocket. Then, in true Brady fashion, he didn’t say anything else, just tipped his head and walked out my door.

  He didn’t say anything else…

  “Grrrr,” I growled under my breath, clenching my fists as I walked back to my chair.

  That man could frustrate a saint, and I’d never be a saint.

  Chapter Thirteen ~ Brady

  “Everything okay?” Doobie asked when I got back into the car.

  “I guess,” I replied, wondering how I’d managed to screw everything up so terribly in the span of a few seconds.

  This was why I didn’t talk … I always managed to say the wrong thing. And Ming had taken what I said at face value and jumped in my shit. Quick.

  Hell, I’d never seen her react like that before … It was kinda hot.

  Unfortunately, that douche in a suit came in at the wrong time and I hadn’t gotten a chance to explain to Ming what I’d really meant … Not that I thought she wouldn’t take Nat’s case, but because I’d worried she’d feel awkward because of me. Because she’d broken things off and obviously didn’t want to be around me. Still, I’d wanted to prove I was man enough to go in there and talk to her, and I hoped we’d still be able to be friendly.

  But she’d been cool as ice. All business, not acting at all like we’d ever had a relationship, let alone that she’d been hurt when it ended.

  Then she went and took the suit up on his offer for drinks. I didn’t know what the hell I was feeling about that; I just knew it wasn’t good.

  “Is the lawyer you went to meet with gonna take the case?” Doobie asked, pulling me from my annoying thoughts.