“Are you going out tonight after work?” she said after we had finished talking about who was going to qualify for the Champions League places in the English Premier League. She knew more about soccer than most men, and, unsurprisingly, rugby, seeing as her family was obsessed with the sport.
“Probably,” I said. “I don’t have much else to do this evening. Except maybe get on Tinder and swipe right a few times.” I really had never done that.
There was that laugh that went straight to my gut. Making her laugh was becoming the top item on my to-do list. Her eyes crinkled and her mouth widened, and she’d usually bring up a hand to cover her mouth. It was sweet and sexy and addictive to hear.
“Then you’re a sad old man and you need to come out with us so we can cheer you up and make you feel young again.”
“I’m thirty-five. I’m not dead.”
She chuckled. “I know. You proved some things do get better with age.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
The number of staff in the office had depleted, which was what happened on a Friday. Jackson was away on a short honeymoon, but the other Callaghan siblings were around, including Payton, Ava’s middle sister and my colleague.
“Court finished?”
Payton nodded, taking a long drink of what was probably cold coffee. “Finished as in over and done and we won,” she said. “That hideous case from hell is over with, thank fuck.” It had been a tough case and our client had stood a chance of losing. However, Payton was good at her job and she’d engaged a decent barrister too, so it looked as if the night’s excuse would be celebrating.
“You have a free week then?” I said. I’d worked with Payton for the best part of three years. Although I was head of department, she was an equity partner and therefore had more influence over decisions that were made. However, she was more than happy to play at deputy, preferring to get stuck into complex cases as she was a superb technical lawyer rather than the managing of the department. She was also on the verge of burning out and needed days off away from the offices. The problem would be getting her to take them.
“With a million other things to do. Coming to the to bar to celebrate?”
I shook my head. “I’ll see you in Whisky Ginger in an hour. I just have to send a few emails. Let me buy you a cocktail or two to celebrate.”
“Sure,” she said, her attention on her twin who had the office next door to mine and was currently wearing glasses he had no need for as a fashion statement. I shook my head at him and he shot me the bird.
Forty-five minutes later I was changed and heading over to Whisky Ginger, the usual choice of bar for after work drinks. The Callaghan Green crew stood out a mile, half of them peering at the soccer fixtures as it was a big weekend, coming towards the end of the season, the other half on their second or third drink and I noticed the tray of shots being passed around. Payton was talking to two of the fee earners, no Ava with her. I scanned the bar, which was already packed, and spotted the long blonde hair.
Ava wore a short dress and boots, her legs bare and long. My eyes were fixed on her, as were the eyes of the man she was talking to.
“Why are you looking at my sister like that?” Max’s voice said into my ear. We were about the same height and the same size, both equally into weights and playing rugby.
I closed my eyes and inhaled. There was no use in lying. “Because she’s hotter than hell in a heatwave,” I said quietly. “And she’s talking to a guy I know is a dick.”
Max shrugged. “She’s my little sister whose shit I cleared up. Stay away. It makes me uncomfortable.”
“Or what?”
“Or I don’t know. You’ve just split up with someone. Go fuck a few randomers. Get Andrea out of your system. Just not with my sister. Although feel free to save her from the dick over there. She’s got bad enough sense to leave with him,” Max said, his attention caught by Victoria, his girlfriend and now cohabitee.
I watched Max strut off to meet her and my eyes landed back on Ava as if she was a magnet. She turned her head away from the dickwad she was talking to and looked across the bar. On seeing me, her lips stretched into a broad smile that she had and her face lit up. I hadn’t compared Ava with Andrea, my head didn’t work that way, but there was one huge difference: Ava loved being happy, and being happy meant living for the present. Our night together had been without strings or fears and there had been no awkwardness when I’d left the following morning. I liked that. I liked her.
I lifted my drink that Max had passed me in a silent cheers to her and watched as she disengaged herself from the dickwad. She shimmied through the crowd in my direction. Men watched her: the long blonde hair made her a beacon and the rest of her held their attention like flies to sugar, just as she’d said.
“Elijah,” she said.
I remembered how she’d said my name as she’d come.
“Thank you for giving me an excuse to escape. That seems to be one of your main purposes in my life.”
“What are the others?” I said, realising I was desperate to hear them.
Her blue eyes danced wickedly. “I can’t tell you here in case my brothers have the place bugged.” She wrapped her hand around my bicep, soft fingers pressing onto me. Max was engrossed with Victoria, and Seph too busy in a drinking game with three girls who were surrounding him. I suspected he’d be going home with at least one of them later.
“Do you want another drink?” I walked us towards a slightly darker corner. Max hadn’t deterred me from Ava. He had the same job to play as big brother as I did, but he knew she was more than capable of making her own decisions.
“In a bit,” she said, keeping contact with me. “I swear your bicep’s gotten bigger since the other week.”
