Love's Verdict by Carsen Taite

Author:Carsen Taite [Taite, Carsen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781635550412
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2018-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

The elevator doors opened and Carly, thankful the press had been restricted to the lower floors of the building, led their group to the lobby of the eleventh floor of the Frank Crowley Courts Building. Shelby hung back, walking beside Landon, but Trevor stayed close, whispering last-minute questions in her ear. She wanted to tell him to shut up because his nervous tone on top of her persistent internal voice whispering that this was a big mistake was threatening to make her head explode. But it was her job to handhold, to guide, to reassure, and she wasn’t going to fall down on the job today. Big risk, big reward. She silently chanted the words as she pulled Trevor off to the side, out of the earshot of any of the people wandering the halls of the courthouse.

“Listen to me. You’ve got this. All you have to do is go in there and be yourself. You know, the self that walks out onto the football field in that insanely large stadium and keeps his cool while tens of thousands of people, not to mention millions more watching from home, cheer you to victory. They don’t just do that because they love the game, they do it because they love you. You’re personable, authentic, and likable. Everyone either wants to be you or be with you. Remember all this when you go in there, and use all those superpowers to get them to hear the honesty in your account.”

He nodded and stood a bit straighter. “Got it. You know, you should be a coach.”

She smiled, pleased her lack of football knowledge hadn’t gotten in the way of the pep talk she’d rehearsed that morning. “I’ll take that as a compliment. Now, let’s review the main points.”

“Listen to the questions, and make sure I understand them before answering,” he said, ticking off the point on his fingers. “No offense, no defense—just the facts. The only emotion I should show is the sorrow I feel at the loss of someone I cared about. If I’m in a jam, I can call a time-out, but I only get one, so try not to use it.”

“Good,” Carly said. And it was pretty good for a layperson, despite all the sports analogies. Truth was, he could call all the time-outs he needed, but once he used one to talk to his lawyers, the chances he was getting indicted went up sharply, so she’d cautioned him not to ask for a recess unless things were going way south.

“Maybe when all this is over, we can have dinner and, you know, talk about something besides indictments.”

Carly stared at Trevor’s hopeful expression, hesitant to dash his expectations so close in time to his looming testimony. Thankfully, Landon chose that moment to walk up with Shelby tagging close behind.

“Are you ready?” Landon asked.

“I am,” Trevor said with a lot more confidence than he’d displayed moments earlier. Carly took in the trademark smile he usually saved for the cameras and decided maybe she’d read too much into his dinner offer.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.