Falling for the Lawyer - By Anna Clifton Page 0,26

be derailed, just postponed for a few years.

Yet despite talking to Simon on the phone every other day, Alex had struggled to find the right moment to raise the subject with him. It would simply have to wait until they were face to face. Then she could make him understand how important JP’s offer was to her.

And so she dreamed and stewed and prayed that JP wouldn’t raise the issue again until the road with Simon lay clear. Meanwhile JP swept in and out of the office day after day like a shifting tornado.

He was beside himself with work. Endless streams of emails with long attachments were toppling into his inbox by the hour. Client requests for appointments had blown out to six weeks. She and Vera were both flat out trying to keep on top of his practice commitments. The little spare time he had to discuss anything with them at the end of the day, if he even turned up at the end of the day, was complicating the whole process too.

When he did manage to find a few minutes to go through matters with her Alex was staggered at his ability to focus on one pebble at a time when a whole cliff-face of boulders was coming down on top of him. But business was the strict order of the day whenever they were together. Never again did he allow their discussions to get close to personal. And she certainly wasn’t expecting the call from him that came in late one evening as she was packing up for the day.

“I want you to come somewhere with me, on your way home. I’m illegally parked outside the building so you’ll have to hurry.”

“Where?”

“I’m doing a couple of hours in a community legal centre tonight. I used to volunteer there when I was living here years ago.”

Alex bit her lip. “I shouldn’t. I’m having dinner with my parents tonight.”

“What time are you due there?”

“Seven-thirty.”

“I’ll have you there by then. I can drop you off. No problem.”

“You don’t even know where they live.” She smiled at his easy resolution of all obstacles.

“Where do they live?”

“Inner West.”

“I can get you there. Come on, come with me. You’ll see how the little people need the law as much as the corporate giants.”

Alex hesitated but the problem was she desperately wanted to go and see how a community centre worked. Everything at Griffen Murphy Lawyers catered for wealthy clients and she often wondered about the people who couldn’t afford to pay their senior lawyers over five hundred dollars an hour—who looked after them?

It was not ideal that she’d be alone with JP but how hard could it be to maintain a professional distance, just as they had over the last week? Then in a couple of hours she’d be at her parents’ house and it would all be over.

“Okay. I’ll go with you. I’d really like to.”

“I thought you would. Hurry up then.”

Within twenty minutes of climbing into the passenger’s seat JP was pulling into a side street of the city’s southern outskirts and parking the car. Alex got out and looked around. They were in the middle of one of the most socially disadvantaged areas of the inner city. The legal centre they stood in front of was no more than a run-down shop front.

“What’s up?” JP asked as he came around the car to meet her on the footpath.

“I wasn’t expecting this.”

“What were you expecting? Griffen Murphy Lawyers?” he teased, his mouth lapsing into an amused grin.

“No,” she laughed. “But a little more than this.”

“These places run on the smell of an oily rag. If volunteers didn’t man the joint it wouldn’t open. There’s some funding but it’s meager. Are you ready?”

Alex nodded. JP wandered into the centre to greet a woman behind the front reception desk.

“Jonathan McKenzie!” she screamed, and lifting her wiry physique out of her chair ran into the reception area to throw her arms around his neck. “You’ve come back to us.”

“Couldn’t keep away, Marie.”

“So they finally let you escape their clutches in London, eh?”

“I couldn’t stand another winter there if you want the truth. Marie, I’d like you to meet Alex Farrer. She’s my PA.”

“Alex, really nice to meet you,” Marie cried again, turning on Alex and pumping her hand vigorously for a few seconds, her mass of tight black curls bobbing around her intelligent, fine boned face. “If you’re working with Jonathan you’ll need nerves of steel.”

Alex couldn’t help smiling in delight at the irresistible