Page 78 of Play the Game
Evan uncrosses her arms, placing her hands flat on her desk and leaning into them, giving Austin a calculated look. “I finished the trial brief yesterday and sent the draft to your email last night, which you know because I put a read receipt on the email, so I know you opened it twenty minutes after I sent it. So, what is it youreallywant?”
Austin opens his mouth and closes it again, like he has no idea what to say to Evan’s uncharacteristic bluntness. Then his eyes harden, and his lips turn up in a smirk, as he drops his gaze to Evan’s stomach. “We should probably discuss your…situation.”
Evan stands straight, one hand going to her belly as she glares daggers at Austin. “My situation?” she says with barely concealed disdain. “My situation is that I’m a seventh-year associate at this firm who has never given anything less than one hundred percent to my job and my clients. What I have going on in my personal life has absolutely no bearing on my ability to do my job or my place on partner track. If mysituation, as you put it, requires me to be away from work for any significant period of time, you can rest assured I will make sure that all of my clients and my cases are handled, and I will go through the appropriate HR channels to document everything accordingly. Was there anything else?”
Austin stares at her, dumbfounded expression on his face that would make me laugh if I didn’t hate this asshole so much. “I think that will be all.” With one last look at Evan’s stomach that makes me want to lunge at him, he turns and strides away.
Evan collapses back into her chair, and I shut her office door before coming back and crouching down in front of her, taking her hands in mine. “Want to talk about it?”
Evan huffs out a laugh. “You mean how I just mouthed off to a partner for the first time in my career and maybe torpedoed my own chances of making partner? I guess we just solved the problem of how we’re going to tell work about all of this.”
I lift her hand to my mouth, kissing her knuckles. “If it’s any consolation, you looked gorgeous doing it.”
She sits up straight, her brow furrowing in thought. “I have no idea what happened—I think I blacked out or something. I saw him looking at my bump with that weird mix of pity and disgust, and I just lost it.”
I study her and am proud as hell at the fire in her eyes, the determination. It’s sexy as shit. “You should totally stand up to Austin more. You’re so fucking sexy when you’re a little bit mean.”
She laughs, rolling her eyes. “There’s really something wrong with you, you know that?”
I shrug, standing and lifting her up, sitting down and settling her in my lap. She stiffens for a minute but then melts into me, and nothing in the entire world could possibly make me happier. “You mean because it turns me on when the woman I like is mean to me? I’m just fucking proud of you, Ev. Austin is a misogynistic asshole. You have no idea how many times I’ve wanted to knock him out for the way he talks to you. The way he always calls you by your full name even though you’ve made it clear that’s not what you want. But even better than me doing that is you cutting him down without laying a single finger on him. It’s fucking hot.”
Evan sighs, leaning her head on my shoulder. “It was so weird. It was like when he looked at my stomach like it was some kind of problem to be solved, I felt…protective almost?”
She sounds so confused that I can’t help but smile into her hair. “I think maybe that comes with the territory, Rhodes.”
She frowns. “What territory?”
I cup her cheek and turn her head so she’s facing me, kissing her, short and sweet. “Parent territory.”
She wrinkles her nose. “I’m not a parent yet. But if anyone is going to have weird and complicated feelings about this baby, it’s going to be me. Not Austin fucking Maguire. You’re not mad?”
I study her. “Why would I be mad?”
She shrugs. “Because I didn’t tell Austin the baby is yours and we’re…whatever we are.”
I shake my head, wrapping my arms around her and laying my hands flat on her belly. “That’s your choice, Ev. All of our most important people know about the baby and know that we’re together. I don’t care about anyone else. We can tell them when you’re ready, or we can tell them never. It’s up to you.”
She narrows her eyes at me, moving my hands over to where the baby is kicking, and the unconscious gesture makes everything inside me light right up. “We’re not together.”
I dropped thatwe’re togetherlike a little test balloon, and her response makes me grin. “I don’t know, Rhodes. That feels a littlethe lady doth protest too much.”
Evan huffs out a laugh. “How are you this well-adjusted?”
I bend, kissing the spot on her neck that makes her gasp. “I’m just that kind of guy.”
Evan blows out a breath, reaching for her coffee and taking a sip. “I like you, Cooper. I really, really like you, and I have no fucking clue what to do about that.”
I steal her coffee and take a sip, grinning at her over the cup. “I think right now we eat muffins, drink coffee, and then we go to the doctor so she can tell us what we already know.”
Evan rolls her eyes, taking the coffee back from me. “You don’t know it’s a girl.”
“I guess we’ll just have to see about that, won’t we?” I say, kissing her neck again, feeling my heart pound when she leans back into me. And by the glow of the candle, we share muffins, talk about everything, and this whole entire morning feels like one big, perfect step forward.
I can’t wait for what comes next.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
EVAN
