Lover in Law (39 page)
EPILOGUE
“Ali?” whispers Anthony, laying a gentle hand on my shoulder.
I open my eyes, marvelling first at the sight before me, father with son cradled under one arm, both looking beautifully delicious, then at the time on my bedside clock. It’s eight-thirty in the morning. At long bloody last, a lie-in. Anthony must have slipped our child a Mogadon!
“It’s breakfast time,” he says softly, opening a chink in the curtains single-handed before passing Jasper over. I take the precious bundle, wriggle up to sitting and position the baby to my breast. Anthony lifts a tray from the floor, places it on the middle of the bed. It’s loaded with a pot of tea and two plates of toast topped with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. This man makes the creamiest eggs imaginable. Luckily I’m treated often. He gets back into his side of the bed, pulls up the duvet, leans over to pick up a slice of toast and looks at us, smiling, with his face and his eyes. A gush of pleasure and love overwhelms me. This isn’t an infrequent phenomenon. It happens at least once a day, a sense of feeling wonderfully alive, blissfully happy, blessed beyond belief.
Anthony’s been around loads since Jasper’s arrival. He’s not taken full-blown paternity leave, but he’s cut right back on his hours. He wanted to do it properly. When his daughter was born eight years ago he was working like a maniac, only really saw her at weekends, by which time he was too exhausted to really enjoy it. With our baby, he wanted to remember every last little bit. Life’s too short, he said.
We’ve spoken loads since about us, how we’ve ended up together. At first I was worried he was doing it to be chivalrous, do the right thing by me, but straight away he put paid to that. “Ali Kirk,” he tells me frequently, “I fell in love with you the first time I saw you and nothing’s changed.” Yes, divorce had made him wary of commitment. Yes, the responsibility of another child made him nervous, but did he have any regrets at the way things had turned out? Not for a second! He’d apparently been so close to telling me how he felt on so many different occasions – when I’d broached him about that blonde bombshell Solicitor Louise, before he’d bit into Adam’s engagement ring, just after we’d won the Scott Richardson case – but he’d held back. “You were pregnant and about to get married,” he said. “I just couldn’t.”
Anthony’s home now feels as much ours as his. Bit by bit I’ve introduced some of my belongings – the chaise longue, a wooden blanket box, a freestanding mirror and a couple of paintings. Nothing dramatic, but it’s been nice to put a stamp on his flat in some small way and there’s been no objection.
I’m thankful for how things have turned out. From day one Anthony and I felt very natural, not at all forced, as it could have been, from the situation. The stresses and exhaustion of parenthood haven’t affected our intimacy. As I pop the last piece of smoked salmon into my mouth, Jasper’s eyes start to close. There’s not a second to waste.
“Mozart time?” I ask.
Anthony putting the tray back on the floor tells me that my subtle question has been understood. I get up, lay my little boy carefully down in his cot and switch on his musical mobile, which gives us a sure-fire symphony-filled fifteen minutes of freedom courtesy of maestro Wolfgang. Anthony’s waiting to pull me towards him as I jump back into bed.
THE END
About the Author:
When I was ten years old I wrote a short story about losing a loved one. My mother and big sister were so moved by the tale that it made them cry. Having reduced them to tears I vowed that the next time I wrote a story it would make them smile. Happily I succeeded and with this success grew an addiction for wanting to reach out and touch people with words. I live in London with my husband and three small children where I work as a TV and print journalist. I tell life stories (some sad, some happy, never dull) and can often be found travelling the globe researching the next big holiday hotspots for readers to enjoy. Since becoming a Mummy anything even remotely sad has me crying uncontrollably. I’m a sucker for a good romance and tear-jerker movies are the worst. I’m that woman in the cinema, struggling to muffle audible wails as everyone else turns round to stare. And I’m pretty sure that one of my daughter’s has inherited this gene.
If you’d like to know when new books are released please drop by my website
http://www.jokessel.com
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Jo Kessel
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Thank you for taking the time to read
Lover in Law
. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. When you turn the page, Kindle will give you the opportunity to rate the book and share your thoughts through an automatic feed to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. If you believe your friends would enjoy this book, I’d be honoured if you’d post your thoughts and put a review on Amazon or Goodreads or wherever else you like to go to find books. If it turns out to make a difference in their lives, they’ll be forever grateful to you. As will I.
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