Alive At Night (Wildflower Series Book 1)

I WAS REASONABLY CONFIDENT that Juniper had been staring at me for the past ten minutes.

Alright…maybe it had been more like thirty seconds, but it felt like a hell of a lot longer. The heat of her gaze on the back of my neck made it incredibly hard to focus on the files Daphne wanted me to review.

When I couldn’t take it any longer, I spun in my chair. And sure enough—there she was. Caught in the act. Staring at me. She jumped as though she actually thought she’d been inconspicuous.

I stared back at her. “Yes?”

Juniper dramatically put a hand to her chest. A finger played with the frilly neckline of her blouse, which today was a peachy color that offset her chesnut hair. At least there weren’t any more polka dots.

“How do you do that?”

She said it like an accusation.

“I can feel those lasers you call eyes on the back of my neck.” I rubbed below my hairline for extra effect. “You wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to get literally anything done.”

Juniper dropped her hand with a sigh of exasperation. “Why haven’t you just requested a different office already?”

“Are you kidding me?” I swiveled around to point to the cityscape outside the window in front of my desk. “And give up this incredible view? Nah.”

“I bet all the offices on this side of the floor have that view, Julian.”

I shrugged and began shuffling papers. If she wanted to avoid telling me why she was staring, then so be it. But I had shit to get done.

“So…I can’t decide what to text Noah.”

There it was.

I slowly turned to face her again. With her hands folded perfectly in her lap, Juniper watched me with an expectant look in her eyes.

“I’m not going to come up with ideas so you can flirt with my friend,” I said flatly.

“Oh, I already have an idea.”

“Excellent.” I clapped my hands on my knees. “Now that’s figured out, I can go back to—”

“But I need your help with it.”

I squeezed my knees in irritation. “No.”

I’d helped my friends with their dating problems before, but this was different. Firstly, Juniper was not my friend. Secondly, she didn’t even want to date Noah. Hell, she didn’t even know him.

“Just listen,” Juniper said, jumping to her feet and leaning against my desk, making it impossible for me to turn my chair back around. A wave of her sweet-smelling perfume washed over me, clogging my senses. “It’s a win-win situation. You’ll love it.”

I sighed. “I highly doubt that, Violet.”

Did she not realize I hated this entire mess? I hated that I needed her help with Grayson’s case. I hated that I’d given her Noah’s number. And I was definitely going to hate whatever she was about to suggest.

“You love football, don’t you?” She cocked a brow, daring me to deny it as she inched closer.

“Yes,” I said slowly, afraid of what I was agreeing to. There was no point lying, though. We both knew that for a large portion of my life, football was what I woke up every day to do.

And now? Now I was sitting in this cubicle-like office with the one woman who had been annoying me since I hit puberty.

Juniper crossed her arms over her chest, which I realized was directly in my line of vision. She was standing so fucking close that I had to recline in my desk chair to see her face and the mischief brewing there.

“Then I can’t imagine it would be that much of a hassle for you to go with me to the game tonight.” Her bright smile faded by one degree of a sparkle as she added, “And introduce me to your college roommate afterward.”

I immediately started shaking my head. The last thing I needed was to spend more time with Juniper St. James. And yeah, I might love an excuse to go to a game, but I could only imagine the horror that would be Juniper at a sporting event.

“Look,” I said, hoping to level with her because I saw that gleam in her eye that I recognized all too well from high school. It never ended well for me. “Noah is a straightforward dude. You’re overthinking this. Just shoot him a text and tell him exactly what you want.”

“You have zero tact, Julian.” Juniper began tapping her foot on the floor, grating my nerves.

“I have plenty of tact. But I also have a solid understanding of my friends.”

“I’ll buy the tickets,” Juniper offered. Her foot sped up its tapping. “You just have to show up.”

I planted my heel and pivoted to place my toes over hers, locking them down. “No.”

Her lips grew taut, and I knew she was about to buckle down on her tactics because that was what Juniper did when she didn’t get her way.

“I know it’s really hard for you to even consider doing something nice—”

“Don’t come at me with that shit,” I interrupted, feeling heat rise to the forefront. “Stop pretending that I’m an asshole just because I don’t want to go to a last-minute football game with you.”

Juniper pursed her lips. “I wasn’t going to say you’re an asshole.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, just that I never do anything nice, then?”

“For me,” she emphasized, speaking through gritted teeth now, the anger evident in her bright irises. “You didn’t let me finish. Believe me, I know you have the capacity to be nice to other people.” Something as outrageous as hurt briefly shone in her eyes. But then it vanished, her face becoming a tight mask again as she continued. “So I was going to ask why you wouldn’t want to support your friends.”

Her flash of anger momentarily stunned me, and it took me a second to respond. “Friends?”

“Gemma said you have a friend who is a wide receiver for LA. That’s who the Knights are playing, isn’t it?”

Shit, she was right. I forgot Grayson would be taking the field tonight. I could see Noah play pretty much whenever I wanted, but Gray…

After what a shitty mood he was in yesterday, it would be nice to be there for him tonight. And watching two of my old teammates and roommates face off could make for a hell of a good time.

So to my complete and utter dislike, I gave Juniper what she wanted.

“Okay.” I lifted my foot off hers. “But I’m driving, and you’re not paying for me.”

Juniper shrugged, her satisfaction barely contained. “Fine by me.”

Ever since the first day of work, I’d been trying to get back on Tyler’s good side. Well, not even his good side, because I wasn’t sure I had ever been there, so at least his neutral side. But the receptionist couldn’t want less to do with me after our first awkward encounter. Not that I really blamed him.

“Any plans tonight?” I asked, leaning on the heightened part of his desk designed for visitor sign-in logs and one too many candy bowls.

He shook his head, leaving it at that.

This was going great.

I blamed this on Juni. If she just hadn’t been in my goddamn office…

“You?” Tyler reluctantly asked the return question with all the enthusiasm of someone being asked to work overtime on a holiday weekend.

“Thursday night football,” I said. “Just waiting for some—ah, there she is.”

Juniper burst through the double doors coming from the office, and Tyler lowered his voice.

“I thought you guys didn’t get along,” he muttered.

It crossed my mind to lie to him, wash the whole thing over like a bad joke. But I didn’t really do schmoozing, and I didn’t do lying.

So instead, I tossed him a smile and chuckled. “We don’t.”

Leaving a baffled Tyler behind, I fell in stride with Juniper as she marched to the elevator.

“I need to stop at home to change. I assume you have other clothes?” I looked her up and down. “Since you planned this and all.”

She barely spared me a glance while punching the down button. “No?”

I caught her by the arm. “You look like a walking Kate Spade billboard ad, Lily. Not like you’re going to a football stadium.”

Juniper smirked as the elevator doors opened, and we both stepped inside. The air stilled as the doors slid shut again.

“I’m not even going to make fun of you for knowing what that is because that might be the best compliment you’ve ever given me.”

“The point just flew over your head,” I groaned, releasing her. “You’re wearing five-inch heels. You’re going to roll an ankle on all the damn stairs.”

She straightened. “There are a lot of things that I can do in heels, Julian. You’d be surprised.”

I really wished she hadn’t said that. Now my brain was taking detours I didn’t even know existed as it searched for something else to say.

“We can get you something to wear at my place.”

There. That was normal.

“I’m not going to wear your clothes.” Juniper’s face pinched, disgusted by the thought.

“Not even if it’s Noah’s jersey?”

The elevator dinged, and the doors slowly rolled open as Juniper considered. Her heels tapped against the lobby floor as she stepped out, and I followed her. When we reached the front door, she muttered beneath her breath. “Fine, I’ll wear the jersey.”

Feeling a bit satisfied, I grinned.

Fifteen minutes later, we were standing in the entryway to my apartment, and I was really wishing I’d known this was where the night would take us. Because I could practically see the judgment in Juniper’s eyes as she scanned my bare apartment.

“How long have you lived here?”

“A few months. Moved in after the end of law school when I decided I’d stay in Boston.”

“Does your building have a rule about not decorating?”

“I’m going to get you clothes,” I grumbled, pushing past her and down the hallway that led to my room. We didn’t have time for lectures on home decor.

Juniper hollered protests at me down the hall, but I ignored her. If she wanted to wear her princess outfit to the stadium, that was fine, but the shoes had to go. For safety reasons.

When I returned, Juniper was leaning against my kitchen counter, inspecting it like she was afraid it carried a disease on the surface.

“Here.” I threw the clothes onto the counter, and Juniper jumped back. “Shoes, leggings, and a jersey.”

She poked at the leggings. “I’m not going to wear some girl’s clothes you hooked—”

“They’re Gemma’s,” I said, exasperated. “Her rink is around the corner, so she stays here sometimes.”

That surprised Juni. I could see the little tick of annoyance making her eyebrow twitch. She didn’t like that there was something she didn’t know about her best friend.

“I knew the rink was around the corner. But…how often does she stay here?”

I shrugged. “Depends. Sometimes she practices late, and I don’t like her driving home when she’s tired and it’s dark.”

Something softened slightly in Juniper’s expression. If there was one thing we could agree on, it was that Gemma Briggs was important to us. But Juniper’s moment of neutrality didn’t last long. Her eyes rolled up as she snatched the leggings off the counter.

“You’re so overprotective. You know your sister is a competent woman, right? You can’t make her—”

“I don’t make her do anything. I offer her the option, and she sometimes decides to take me up on it.” I threw off my suit jacket, and Juniper’s eyes widened in horror like she thought I was about to get naked in front of her. “Now, can you please change? The traffic is going to be awful.”

“Fine, but I don’t know if these will fit.” She gave the leggings a skeptical glance. “Gemma is at least two sizes smaller than me.”

“Just try them,” I said, giving her a little push toward the bathroom. Leggings stretched, didn’t they? Weren’t they like one-size-fits-all or something? Besides, Juniper was exaggerating their differences. Sure, Gemma had a more slender frame while Juniper had curves I tried not to think about, but they used to always share clothes growing up.

When I heard Juniper mumble something beneath her breath, I added, “You’re being awfully obstinate, considering I’m doing you a favor.”

Juniper’s expression shuttered at that, and she closed herself in the bathroom for an ungodly amount of time. But it allowed me to change, too. I threw on a different jersey—Grayson’s, since Juniper had my Knights one—and slid into a more comfortable pair of shoes because I wasn’t a fucking hypocrite.

Just as I began searching which route we wanted to take to the stadium, Juniper finally emerged from the bathroom. “Okay, I’m ready.”

I wasn’t. I definitely hadn’t been ready for the moment when I glanced up from my phone to see Juniper looking like a completely different person, drowning in my jersey. It appeared like she tried to tuck it into the leggings—which fit, by the way—but the jersey was too long and fell around her hips.

She’d tied her hair up in a high ponytail that bounced when she walked toward me.

“That looks…” I cleared my throat. “Uh, good on you.”

“Wow, don’t sound so convincing,” she drawled, but there was a thread of nervousness there. And for some reason, I felt the need to make it disappear. I wasn’t used to a nervous Juniper, and I didn’t like it. It put me on edge, too.

“Noah will like it,” I said briskly while walking to the door. “Now, come on. Let’s go.”

Juniper nodded as she steeled herself.

“Let’s go.”