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“I thought I’d never have that. Because of work and because of my accident… because of what it did to me, inside and out.” She hesitated. “And then I fell on the ice in Copley Square and Nick Murphy reached out a hand, and I felt like I’d been looking into his eyes forever, like I’d already lived the life we were meant to lead and I was remembering it backwards.” She shook her head. “I sound crazy.”
“No,” Imani said softly. “We’re lawyers, but we’re people too. We’re women.”
“I guess the short answer is that I fell in love,” Alexa said. “It’s cliche, but it’s true.”
“Smart women fall in love too.” Imani sat back in her chair. “But I hope you’re not settling, Alexa. That you’re not giving everything up because you think no one else will love you. You're an extraordinary woman. I’m sorry you doubted that all these years, but Nick Murphy won't be the only man to love you. You do know that, don’t you?”
Alexa smiled. Imani meant well. “I do know that, but he’s the only man I’ll ever love.”
Imani looked at her a moment longer, set her palms on her desk, and stood. “You should have come to me sooner. I might have been able to help you, to encourage a leave of absence while you worked it out,” Imani said.
Alexa thought about everything she'd learned about MIS, about her own complicated feelings surrounding Leland Walker. Without faith in the legal system, she didn’t belong at the AG’s office.
She rose to her feet. “Probably, but the truth is, I’m starting to wonder if my time here is done.” She held out her hand. “Thank you for everything, Imani.”
Imani shook her hand. “It’s been my pleasure.”
Alexa hesitated. “About my case…”
She’d given Imani the broad strokes of the investigation into her accident and the questions surrounding its veracity. Imani had been largely silent, but Alexa knew her well enough to recognize the troubled expression in her eyes.
“If it ever crosses my desk, I promise you I’ll give it a fair shake. I hope you trust me to do that,” Imani said.
“I do.” Imani was the real deal, someone who believed in the law the way Alexa was no longer sure she did.
“Thank you.”
She turned to leave, surprised to feel tears sting her eyes. She remembered the first day she’d walked into Imani’s office as a bona fide employee of the state of Massachusetts. She’d been so proud, so moved by the weight of her responsibility to its citizens, so determined to do right by them.
And she had. She’d given them her all. She wished the investigators who'd abandoned her case had done the same for her.
A weight lifted from her shoulders as she left Imani’s office. Right or wrong, for better or worse, she’d made her decision, had cast her lot with Nick’s, with the entire Murphy clan.
Now she just needed to tell her parents — and see if the Murphys were willing to cast their lot with her.
23
Alexa’s hand was clammy in his as they walked up the steps leading to the courtyard at the center of the house.
“You okay?” he asked.
She pulled her hand away, tucked the glass bottle of lemonade under her arm, and wiped her hands on her jeans. He knew she’d agonized over what to wear, discarding two dresses and a pair of slacks before settling on the jeans with sandals and a blouse that brought out the blue in her eyes. Her hair was pulled back into a casual twist he looked forward to letting loose later.
“I’m not sure about this,” she said. “Maybe we should wait…”
“We’ve waited long enough.” Nick took her hand and kissed her palm. “You’ve been out of the AG’s office for a week.”
“That’s not very long.”
Seeing her so terrified — Alexa Nash, bulldog prosecutor who struck fear in the hearts of criminals all over the state — to meet his family caused sympathy to surge through him. “I don’t want to keep things separate anymore, Lex. I don’t want to feel like we’re a secret.”
“I think the ship has sailed on that one.”
She hadn’t said much about the conversation with her parents, but he’d gathered that it had been rough. She hadn’t given them details about Nick’s business or the pending investigation against it at the AG’s office, but he knew how it looked that he’d fraternized with the Assistant AG assigned to his case, knew how it looked that he was being investigated by their office at all.
He’d begged her to let him come with her, to explain the situation to her parents, to make clear that his intentions toward Alexa were wholly honorable, but she’d insisted on going alone. She was close with her parents, and she wanted to give them time and space to digest the fact that she’d had to resign her position at the AG’s office, that there would likely be an inquiry into her conduct while assigned to the matter of MIS.
“Okay, we’re not a secret,” he said. “But we might as well be if we have to avoid each other’s families. I don’t want to play it like that. Do you?”
