Perfecting St. Patrick's Day

Perfecting St. Patrick's Day

Perfecting Saint Patrick’s Day

Megan Reeves toyed lazily with her pen, staring at the paperwork that threatened to hide her desk from view entirely. Periodically, she would glance over the cubical divider that housed her workspace to check the clock. The hands never seemed to move very far, dragging time out for as long as was possible. Eventually, she gave up on the clock and returned to her work, scribbling frantically and now glancing at her watch.

There was no way she was working overtime on paperwork, not on St. Patrick’s day.

Especially not this St. Patrick’s Day. There had been a time when she would gladly have remained at work for the holiday, for any holiday, for that matter; but that had been back when all her life consisted of was work. It was her only focus, her one passion in life. Then Don’s brother Charlie had started helping them on cases, and she had met Larry Fleinhardt.

And ever since, holidays had become things to look forward to.

Finally, the minute hand of the clock had reached the twelve and it was time for Megan to leave. She haphazardly shoved papers into manila folders and stacked them in a precarious pile in the center of her desk. She knew that the meager amount of work she had gotten through meant there would be even more waiting for her tomorrow, but at the moment that didn’t matter.

She hurried through the rows of desks to the elevator, reaching it just as Colby Granger and David Sinclair did.

“On your way out?” David asked politely. Megan nodded, tapping her foot impatiently as the three waited for the elevator to arrive.

“Got a date with Larry?” Colby queried. Megan didn’t have to look at him to know what look had passed over his face, so she kept her eyes on the small panel above the elevator that indicated which floor it was on and gave only a nod in response to his questions. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw David cast him an annoyed look, and a small smile graced her lips at the sight.

After the exchange, the elevator found its way to their floor and the doors slid open. Megan hurried inside and pressed the button for the first floor, ignoring Colby’s smirk as he and David followed her inside. The elevator took them down to the first floor and she walked briskly through the lobby and out into the calm evening air.

Pulled up to the curb in front of her was shining, black, car. The roof was down and Larry Fleinhardt sat behind the wheel, looking quite comfortable on the leather seat. Megan grinned and climbed into the passenger seat, tossing her purse to the floor at her feet and buckling in as Larry put the car into drive and pulled away from the curb.

“How was your day?” he queried, a soft smile on his face, as they drove through the Los Angeles traffic. His attention was expertly split between driving and conversing. Megan smiled and tilted her head back, her eyes fluttered closed as the wind swept past her face and through her hair.

“Slow,” she replied. “How about yours?” Larry shrugged.

“It was all right. The students weren’t as animated as I’ve grown accustomed to,” he said as he twisted the wheel to round a corner. “I have a feeling they aren’t grasping the material as well as they claim.”

Megan smiled and glanced at Larry, ignoring the hair that whipped into her face. She squinted against the wind and the setting sun to see Larry more clearly, marveling at the beauty in his soft, rounded features.

“Where are we going?” she queried, returning her attention to the road ahead and tossing the intrusive hairs out of her face.

“You’ll see,” was all Larry would say, with a rather mischievous grin Megan rarely saw.

When they arrived at their destination, which turned out to be the local park, Megan couldn’t suppress the smile that was gracing her lips. She chuckled a little as she climbed from the car, pulling her purse up onto her shoulder and following Larry around to the trunk as he hefted a cooler from the small space.

Without a word, he led her through the parking lot and past the gazebos to a wide expanse of grass. He set the cooler down in a shady patch of grass, then pulled a blanket from a bag Megan hadn’t noticed and spread it out on the ground. He motioned for her to sit, and once she had he followed suit. In silence, he removed the cooler’s contents, the first of which was a jug with green liquid in it. Megan leaned forward as Larry set the jug down, a quizzical look in her eyes.

“What is that?” she asked as Larry continued pulling out more and more green food from the cooler. He glanced at the jug as Megan sat up again and caught her eye as he responded, struggling to keep a straight face.

“It’s milk with green food coloring,” he said, his efforts failing and a smile slipping onto his lips. Megan laughed.