Free McIver's Mission by Brenda Harlen Page A

promised to help me clear out the spare
bedroom upstairs so we can turn it into a nursery for the baby," Colin
told her.
    Shaun didn't know whether to be impressed by his
brother's quick response or ticked that he'd managed to turn the situation to
his own advantage. But he managed a smile for his sister-in-law.
    "That's so sweet," she said, lowering
herself onto the swing beside her husband.
    "That's me," Shaun said dryly. "A sweet
guy."
    Colin laughed. "Of all the adjectives I could
think of to describe you, sweet would not be one of them."
    "This from the man who wants me to clean his
house."
    "And paint," Colin added.
    Shaun just glared at him.
    * * *
    After Carly's birthday party, Arden resolved that the best
way to deal with Shaun was to avoid him. She usually faced a problem head-on,
but she had no idea how to handle Shaun. He'd said that he couldn't be in the
same room with her without thinking about the kiss they'd shared, so she
decided not to be in the same room with him. It seemed like a simple solution.
The problem was, it didn't stop her from thinking about that kiss.
    But she figured the more time that passed, the easier
it would get. All she had to do in the interim was avoid Shaun.
    Unfortunately she had less than forty-eight hours to
test her strategy before she crossed paths with him again.
    It was just before ten o'clock Monday morning and she
was at the courthouse filing documents for an upcoming hearing when she saw
him. He was standing outside Courtroom Four talking to Warren Blake. Whatever
they were discussing, their conversation seemed heated, almost antagonistic.
    She should have taken her documents and made her
escape, but she couldn't help lingering a moment to observe the two men. She
knew Shaun didn't like Warren, which wasn't surprising since they were destined
to be on opposite sides of the courtroom all the time.
    "Is it the assistant district attorney who has
you looking all dreamy-eyed, or the other guy?"
    The question startled Arden out of her reverie. She
turned to Marcy Crawford, the young associate she'd hired only two months
earlier.
    "I'm not dreamy-eyed," Arden denied,
stuffing the papers she'd been holding into her briefcase.
    Marcy just grinned. "It must be the other guy.
He's coming this way."
    Arden glanced up, saw that Marcy was right.
"Damn," she muttered under her breath.
    "Waiting for me?" Shaun asked when he'd
joined them.
    Arden flushed, embarrassed that she'd been caught
loitering in the courthouse, wondering if he'd seen her watching him.
"Actually, I was waiting for Warren."
    Shaun scowled. "You're kidding."
    Arden laughed. "Yeah, I am."
    Shaun turned to Marcy and gave her one of his
trademark killer smiles. "Shaun McIver," he said, offering his hand.
    Marcy looked pretty dreamy-eyed herself as she smiled
back at him. "Marcy Crawford, and I'm very pleased to meet you."
    "Marcy's my new associate," Arden said,
annoyed with Shaun's flirtatious manner and Marcy's predictable reaction. It
shouldn't matter to her; she shouldn't care. In fact, if she was smart—and she
liked to think she was—she'd be trying to set Shaun up with Marcy. It might get
him off her back. The idea held little appeal. Suddenly she wasn't so
sure she wanted him off her back.
    "Do you ladies have time for coffee?" Shaun
asked.
    "I wish I did," Marcy told him. "But
I've got a pretrial in ten minutes."
    "Arden?" Shaun asked, turning to her.
"I wanted to talk to you about something, if you've got a minute."
    No . All she
had to do was say that one simple word and she could go back to her office and
back to her plan of avoidance. But her brain and her mouth were obviously
having some kind of communication problem, because when she opened her mouth to
respond, she said, "Sure."
    "I don't think they have Jamaican Blue
Mountain," Shaun said as they made their way down the stairs to the café.
    "As long as it has caffeine." She assured
herself that she had agreed to this meeting only because he said they