Tom and Dylan stood talking with each other inside. There was no animosity between them at all, so far as she could tell. Although Tom did have a bag of ice pressed to the left side of his face and Dylan had a similar bag on his right knuckles.
Both men noticed her at the same time. Dylan smiled broadly when he saw her, sending little flutters through her stomach, but she was confused. Last time she had seen him, he was yelling at her. What had changed in the past forty-eight hours?
Tom seemed more unsure of himself. He was happy to see her, she could tell, but looked as though he didn’t know how to approach the situation. That made two of them, because she wasn’t sure how to act around him either. But, she realized with a jolt, seeing him didn’t make her feel anything at all.
She was grateful to him, in a sense. Not that he’d cheated on her, of course, but that he had been her support system along with Abby after she’d lost Dylan. He’d taught her to open her heart again. She was even grateful, only slightly, that he had ended things. If he hadn’t, there’s no telling how long they may have stayed together otherwise. She offered him a smile, and his shoulders relaxed and smile broadened in response.
She made her way over to them, arching a brow and putting a hand on her hip. “Who wants to tell me what happened?” She used her free hand to gesture between their ice bags.
The men shared a glance and winced at each other before Dylan rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand and said, “Uhh, well, we just, I mean, I—”
Taking pity on him, she interrupted. “Before you give yourself a stroke, Dina already filled me in. You’re both idiots, by the way.”
They winced again and remained quiet. Moving on, she asked if either of them could confirm that they were in Judge Bolton’s usual courtroom, number six, for the proceeding that day.
“Yes. I checked the docket this morning and confirmed,” Dylan answered. “There are a couple of quick motions for other criminal matters on the docket. It shouldn’t be too long after court is in session at nine thirty that we’ll start jury selection and whatever last-minute motions McGuinness’s attorney wants to surprise us with.”
“Perfect. I know we agreed with the judge that the opening arguments wouldn’t be until tomorrow because we planned on getting the pretrial motions and jury selection out of the way today. Hopefully Mr. Carver’s motions don’t take as long as we anticipated. I’d really like to get out of here before five.”
Dylan snorted. “With the number of nitpicky motions he’s filed? We’ll be lucky to get out before six.”
Kelsi groaned dramatically, causing both men to laugh at her.
Dylan stood and passed his ice bag to Tom. “I’m going to head down to the courtroom now—you coming?” His question was directed at Kelsi.
She opened her mouth to answer, but Tom spoke up before she could. “Actually, I was hoping you and I could talk for a minute, Kelsi.”
“Sure.” Looking at Dylan, who still stood by their sides with a frown aimed at her ex, she gave him an apologetic smile. “I’ll meet you down there.”
He nodded, shot Tom a warning glance, and walked toward the elevator bay. She stared after him, confused. His one-eighty was giving her serious whiplash.
“So,” Kelsi said once they were alone. “What did you want to talk about?”
“I wanted to apologize to you, again. What I did, I’m not proud of it, and you didn’t deserve that. Since you left, I’ve had a lot of time to think about how I handled everything, and I was a right dick.”
She sighed. “It’s okay, Tom. Not that you cheated on me, but I understand. You and I—” she broke off, considering her words. “We were good for a bit, sure, but we were just coexisting at the end. We’d gotten comfortable with each other, but there was no passion left.”
“I never meant to hurt you, but I panicked. The longer we went, the more it hit me that I loved you, but I wasn’tin lovewithyou. Once I started working closer with Victoria, I realized the difference.”
She gave him a sad smile. “I know.” Shedidknow. She glanced in the direction Dylan had headed off in. She knew exactly what he meant.
Tom followed her gaze. “I always knew, you know.”
“Knew what?”
“That you and Dylan were in love with each other. I thought after you two had your falling out, that it was my chance. But even after all the years you and I spent together and he was gone, you never looked at me the way you used to look at him.”
She winced, knowing he was right. “No, we don’t, I mean, we haven’t—”
“It’s fine, Kelsi. Really, it’s okay. You two are meant to be together.” He hesitated. “I hope that we can both be happy for each other, and maybe work toward being friends again?”
She smiled but knew it didn’t reach her eyes. “Eventually, maybe.”
Her emotions were yo-yoing too much from her fight with Dylan, worrying about her stalker, hearing Dylan punched Tom, and now this. Kelsi needed at least eight to ten business days to process.
CHAPTER 36
Dylan
