Legally Addicted - By Lena Dowling Page 0,65
for it to gain some material advantage, just as much as someone like me who grew up in poverty needs to be judged on what they’ve achieved for themselves and not their humble beginnings.
‘Go on.’
Brad kept up a stony expression, trying to keep the cautious optimism that was beginning to rise up in check. But at least they were talking, and Georgia had been the one to initiate it.
‘When I asked you for the funding for the addiction centre, I know it made you doubt whether I could see past the wealth to your true worth, and made you wonder if that’s all I was ever interested in.’
‘So you’re saying the fact I had money meant nothing to you. It was a fortunate co-incidence?’
‘No. In the beginning I didn’t think I could care about you. I didn’t think I could care about anyone, and so to start with it was partly about the money, that, and pissing Caro off, but then I got to know you and my feelings changed. I started to…’
‘Started to what?’
‘Started to… I’m sorry I…’
‘No you don’t. You can’t always bolt when the emotions get too big.’
Georgia took a couple of steps back, but Brad stepped in closing the gap, taking her by the arm, gently, very gently, so that if she had wanted she could have thrown him off with one movement. But she didn’t try to push him away.
Brad was right about that, and so was Miriam. She ran. That’s what she did. It had started with running from Jake, a necessity for self-preservation, but then she had run from any guy who got too close. But not this time. She stopped and looked up at Brad again.
She met his eyes.
‘I started to care about you, okay. Even though I could barely admit it to myself most of the time, I started to care about you a lot. I started to think about a word that starts with L that I can’t say, and I was worried that you might say it to me.’
‘And that scared you?’
‘Yes.’
‘I had started to care for you too, you know, Georgia. That’s why I reacted, possibly overreacted, when you asked me to fund the centre. I thought I’d misjudged you.’
‘But the thing is you didn’t misjudge me, Brad, you were right. A big part of it was about the money for the addiction centre; not all of it, but I just wanted to make a difference for people growing up like me, and for people like my mother, so much that I didn’t stop to think about how you would feel about being asked for the money.’
‘You said some of it. What about the part that wasn’t about the money?’
‘It was about you. I started to — ’
‘Fall in love with me?’
He finished her sentence for her, doubtful Georgia would be able to say the word, even though it seemed to be written all over her face.
‘I didn’t say that. I said, I started to think about you in terms of a word that starts with L.’
Brad chuckled.
‘Alright, I’ll play along with you, Georgia. When was the last time you ever thought about this word starting with L that you can’t say in relation to any other person?’
‘Never. You’re the first.’
‘So what do we do now?’
‘Can we take it as read?’ she asked, looking up at him through her lashes.
He laughed.
‘Spoken like a true lawyer. So I can take it as read that we love each other, is that it?’
‘Yes. Take that as read,’ she said, still carefully avoiding saying the actual word, he noticed.
‘That’s all I’m going to get, isn’t it?’
‘For the moment. One day I might be able to say it. But I do know that if I ever do, you would be the only one I’d say it to.’
When Brad took her in her arms she did her best to let her lips do the talking in a way that would make him understand just how much he meant to her, even if she couldn’t articulate the four-letter word that terrified her more than anything.
As Georgia kissed him, Brad opened his eyes to steal a look. The way she clung to him and the urgency of her kiss told him everything he needed to know.
He pushed past her and locked the door to the office, flicking down the blinds.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Gathering evidence.’
‘Of what?’
‘Whether my conference table will hold up as well as the one in the shelter boardroom.’
She laughed, letting him walk her backwards