Free Juliet's Law by Ruth Wind

passionate.”
    â€œYeah, that’s the weird part. I would have said they loved each other a lot.”
    â€œIt struck me as something a little different.” He turned his lips down in thought, and Juliet found herself admiring the angle of his cheekbone, the grace of his throat. She looked toward the cerulean sky instead.
    â€œPossessive,” he continued. “They possessed each other. Claude bagged an upper-class white woman with a social conscience, a pretty woman with a lot of heart who’d make him look good wherever he went.”
    â€œAnd Desi?”
    He hesitated, then quirked an eyebrow. “She got herself somebody good-looking enough for her tastes, and exotic enough to give her cachet, and made sure he was an artist to piss off your parents.”
    Juliet laughed. “Very acute observation, Mr. Mad Calf.”
    â€œIt’s a kind of love, meeting needs like that. Relationships are complicated things.”
    â€œMy parents taught us that very young.”
    â€œThey sound like pretty complicated people.”
    â€œMmm. Complicated is one word for it.” She shook her head. “Or dysfunctional.”
    He looked down at her. “Why do you say that?”
    â€œThey’re just…very intense. It’s a very intense relationship. They fight and make up and swear the other one is killing them and then they go off on some big trip and they’re crazy about each other again.” She shook her head. “It would be exhausting to live like that.”
    â€œAnd it wouldn’t leave a lot of energy for the children,” he commented.
    â€œBingo.”
    â€œStill, love is a complicated thing, as you said. Why do we fall in love? It would be nice if it was always with someone who would be good for you, who’d take care of you, bring out the best, all that—but how often does it really happen?”
    â€œAre you speaking from experience?”
    His smile was wry. “Definitely.”
    She frowned, thinking of Scott. Whom she had notbeen thinking of enough. Was that a relationship based on love or need?
    Until recently, she’d believed she loved him, but maybe it was more been a matter of convenience and suitability. He was a lawyer, she was a lawyer. They both liked having someone to go out to dinner with and to accompany each to various business functions. They’d traveled to appealing spots together on vacation—the lesser known islands of Hawaii, the less-Americanized east coast of Mexico, Belize. They understood the demands of the work schedule of a busy professional and neither was particularly upset when the other had to work.
    Tidy, convenient, pleasant.
    Or was that fair? He’d stuck by her after the rape. But it was still just a very polite relationship in ways.
    The very opposite of her parents’ relationship. But was that what she really wanted? Maybe it was possible to have something somewhere in between.
    A thick tension rose in her chest. She felt guilty, not loving him after all he’d done. She wished she knew why she didn’t.
    â€œHere we are,” Josh said, gesturing toward a stone house nestled close to the mountain rising behind it. It was made of reddish stone, with a small turret on the ground floor and a small second story. A deep wooden porch was furnished with chairs and a table, and a pot of winter-brushed marigolds stood in the middle of the table. Homey. A dog barked from a front window, only visible in silhouette.
    â€œI see you have your dog, too.”
    â€œJack,” he agreed. “Told you, it’s regulations.”
    The door burst open and Glory rushed out, her long licorice hair scattering free over her arms and back. “Hi, Princess! Come in. We made tea, me and my grandma.” She flipped her hair. “Hi, Daddy. You can have some, too. If you want.”
    â€œGee, thanks.”
    The dog came leaping out, too, a mutt of indeterminate parentage with long red