Falling for the Lawyer - By Anna Clifton Page 0,28
you suggesting then?”
“Nothing in particular.”
“Yes you are. These comments are directed at me, aren’t they?”
“Should they be?”
“Why are you being so cryptic?” Alex snapped, feeling irritated and undermined. He was goading her and she guessed it was over her resistance to the paralegal offer.
“If you have gifts you should be worn out by using them all up by the end of your life,” JP declared stridently. “They shouldn’t be put in a box and shoved to the back of the cupboard like an unwanted wedding present.”
“There are lots of ways people can contribute. Are you suggesting women who stay at home and raise children are wasting their gifts?”
“Of course not. My own mother stayed at home. Raising a family’s incredibly important. But for some women there has to be more.”
“It’s easy for a man to say. Men are still expected to take on the role of full time breadwinners while women are expected to manage paid work as well as a family. It’s like having two full-time jobs at once.”
“That’s true but it can be done. There are openings for part-time work now. One of our lawyers came to me yesterday and asked if she could drop back to part-time to spend more time at home. We’re going to team her up with another part-timer in a job share.”
“Mmm,” Alex murmured thoughtfully, “I wonder whether you’ll be feeling as socially progressive when your working wife’s getting home late, the dinner’s not on, the homework’s not done and there are no clean socks. Turn right here. It’s just down there on the left near the big tree.”
JP laughed at her grim picture of his domestic future. “Nevertheless, when I get married I hope I’ll support my wife in her choices and I mean practical support, not just moral support.”
“Even when your toddler’s spraying baby food all over your two thousand dollar business suit from the high chair?”
JP swung into the kerb and switched off the ignition before turning to her.
“You know, for a princess in a tower you have surprising flashes of insight into the real world sometimes. Speaking of the real world, have you made a decision about my offer yet?”
Alex couldn’t answer. His closeness was doing her head in again. And she’d been so sure she was past that; so sure his knowing about her engagement would corral those renegade feelings she’d battled during their first meetings.
“JP … I can’t …” she began but couldn’t go on because he was groaning in exasperation and running his hand through his hair. He threw himself back against his car seat and stared blindly out the windscreen, his jaw set rigid. But then he was turning to her again, his voice barely audible.
“Before you say anything more Alex, I want to tell you a story. Will you listen?”
Alex nodded, relieved she wouldn’t have to say anything more to defend her decision straight away.
“An oncology nurse, Annabelle, worked in a Glasgow hospital about fifteen years ago. She’d married very young and by that stage had a teenage son but she was still young in mind and body and incredibly bright and beautiful. She was passionate about her work and kept herself up to date with medical developments in fighting the cancers her patients were battling. The medical doctors on staff noticed her as a nurse who showed great promise academically and they encouraged her to think about studying medicine at university and becoming a doctor. She was incredibly excited about this Alex, it had been a dream of hers for a long time—one she’d never believed would come true. All she’d needed was some encouragement and support to start to believe in herself.”
“So did she do it?” Alex asked feeling strangely on tenterhooks as JP related his simple story. “Did she become a doctor?”
“I remember the night she came in through the door and I knew something incredible had happened to her that day. I’d never …”
JP stopped then, gazing out over Alex’s left shoulder, looking lost and alone as though he’d forgotten she was sitting right next to him.
“You’d never what?” Alex prompted and JP’s gaze returned to hers.
“I’d never seen her look so happy. Anyway,” JP sighed before he went on, “she made the announcement to my Da and I’ll never forget his reaction—jealousy, possessiveness, anger—every ugly motive you can think of within a marriage was going through his head. He’d always been a miserable, violent bully Alex, from as early on as I could remember. But that night she was