Chapter 35
Kelsi
Kelsi walked up the stairs of the courthouse’s back entrance, where the prosecutor’s office was located. She’d delayed this meeting as long as she could, but now she was risking running late for their jury selection.
She took a deep breath, trying to settle her queasiness over seeing everyone who witnessed her humiliation a few months ago. Kelsi knocked on the glass door until the security guard noticed her and got up to let her in.
“Well, hello there, Kelsi! Where you been, girl? It’s not the same around here without you!”
“Hi, Miss Dina!” Kelsi smiled at the older woman.
Dina was a courthouse legend. She’d worked there for the last thirty-odd years and never ran out of stories to tell about the cases she’d seen in her days.
A defendant who killed his brother and sister-in-law before fleeing the state, leaving his car as a decoy at the Norfolk Airport, then bus-hopped until hiding in a homeless shelter in Chicago?
She’d cuffed him. A defendant who pretended to be dead for his entire jury trial, laid out on the floor with his tongue lolling out?
She’d held exhibits over his face while he gave no response, so he knew what was being presented to the court.
A defendant who’d launched himself at the judge, only to find out the judge was armed? She’d held the judge back.
“You did not.” Dina’s smile as Kelsi held out the nondescript white paper bag eased some of Kelsi’s nerves.
Dina snatched the bag and pulled out a chocolate croissant from the bakery up the street.
It was Dina’s favorite place, but she hardly ever treated herself.
So, whenever Kelsi went, she made it a point to bring something back for her.
She took a large bite from the croissant, eyes closing as she chewed. After swallowing, she cracked one eye at Kelsi and smirked at her over her croissant. “Your man is a certifiable hunk, honey.”
Kelsi paused and snorted. “No, Dina, Tom and I are one hundred percent done. He is in no way my man. And he is most definitely not a ‘certifiable hunk.’” Kelsi made sarcastic air quotes.
Dina slapped her thigh and guffawed loudly at that for a minute longer than Kelsi thought the situation warranted. Finally, she settled down, wiping away a tear at her eye. “No, Tom is definitely not a hunk. I meant Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome.”
“Dylan? You’ve met Dylan?” She fully turned to look down at the older woman. “And how did you know he’s my man?”
“Oh, he came by earlier and we got to chatting.” Her mouth was so wide with her smile that it had Kelsi on alert.
She narrowed her eyes at Dina. “You just happened to start talking about me? How did I come up in your conversation?”
She laughed. “Well, the conversation started with his fist hitting Tom’s face, and after Tom told me not to tase him, everything came out.”
Kelsi’s mouth hung open and she pinched the bridge of her nose as a headache began pounding behind her eyes. “Do I need to go bail him out? Is Tom okay?”
“Oh, honey, don’t worry. Your man is upstairs in the office. After the one hit, they seemed to get along fine. Even laughed with each other when they went up the elevator. So I pretended it never happened and didn’t radio it in.”
Kelsi couldn’t help laughing with her, even while her nerves ratcheted upward at dealing with both of them, especially if they were already coming to blows. She gave Dina another hug before walking to the elevator bay, heels clicking across the floor as she went.
The entire ride up the elevator she braced herself for the tension she was about to walk into.
When the elevator doors opened, she hurried into the commonwealth’s attorney’s reception area.
The receptionist waved lazily at her in recognition before buzzing her through.
Kelsi took a deep, steadying breath, and opened the door.
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’t in love with you. Once I started working closer with Victoria, I realized the difference.”
She gave him a sad smile. “I know.” She did know. 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.