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No one had stopped to ask what she wanted. If she was unhappy living in their village by the sea. If she wanted to stay in the community she’d grown up in. Instead, they’d heaped their own unfulfilled and forgotten dreams on her shoulders.
“How did you end up in England?”
“An international internship program. In my second year of law school, we had to secure an internship. One of my professors recommended me for Nettleton & Thompson.”
He tilted his head to one side. “You didn’t want it?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
She took another sip of wine. She’d never told anyone how she’d really felt as her career had progressed at lightning speed.
Who better to tell than a man you’ll never see again?
“I was excited about the internship. About living and working in London for a summer. But it was just supposed to be one summer.” She smiled slightly. “My mother flew over for a long weekend the summer I had my internship. She was so excited for me.” Her smile faltered for a moment. “Probably more excited than I was,” she admitted softly, not wanting to meet his eyes. To admit he’d been right. With a quick inhale, she continued. “We crammed so much into those three days. Tower of London, the British Museum, Buckingham Palace. We were supposed to go on the Eye, but it was closed for a private event.”
Silence descended.
“What happened to her?”
“An infection. The February after my internship, she caught pneumonia. We thought everything was okay. But four months later she had a lung infection.” She swallowed hard. “She didn’t make it.”
A hand settled over hers. Startled, her head snapped up. Griffith gazed at her with something akin to compassion in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Rosalind.”
He squeezed her hand before releasing her. She took a moment to work past the lump in her throat before she spoke. “I had gotten a job offer from Nettleton & Thompson the month before she passed. Everyone in my town was so excited for me, including my mom. I think because I enjoyed the internship everyone just assumed I would be equally excited about the job offer.”
“But you weren’t.”
“I just never imagined myself working somewhere like that. Or with clients who could afford a place like Nettleton & Thompson.”
“But you didn’t want to let your parents down.”
“No.” She pushed a tomato around her bowl with her fork. “Especially after my mom died, doing something else felt like a betrayal. My parents worked hard to save up for me to go to college.”
“What would they have said if you had told them you wanted something else?”
Surprised by the question, she set the fork down and leaned back in her chair. She stared out over the garden, over the silver light of the moon casting a glow over the roses, the shimmer added to the water splashing down from the fountainhead into the pool.
“I don’t know. They would have encouraged me to go after my dreams. But,” she added as she looked at him, “they would have been disappointed. It sounds so simple. Do what you want, accept your parents might be sad or not fully accept your choice.”
“It’s not simple.”
Griffith’s voice whipped out, harsh and guttural. She didn’t take it personally. She had a pretty good idea of where his pain lay, of the reason behind his hurt.
“No. It’s not simple at all.”
“So all work and no play for Miss Sutton?”
“Hard to advance in your career if you’re off playing.”
“Is that why you are...were,” he corrected as one corner of his mouth lifted, “a virgin?”
“Pretty much.” She sighed. “I dated. But never long enough for me to feel comfortable with things going to the next level. And then I just decided to wait until...”
Her voice trailed off. She’d been about to say she had decided to wait until she found a man she thought she might spend the rest of her life with. That wouldn’t have gone over well.
