Anything You Can Do(36)

Bailey stood in the doorway, trying to take in what Paula had said, to decide if any of it had validity, if it mattered.

"Go on and wash your face," Paula finally said, waving her hand dismissively. "The makeup isn't integral to the situation, anyway. Only if it makes you feel different about yourself."

*~*~*

Austin leaned across the conference table. "Right here in Article Three," he said, pointing with his Montblanc pen. Daniel Lewis, sitting at the other end of the table, scowled.

Sitting next to him, Stafford Morris nodded slowly. The man actually seemed to be considering the merger offer. At least he hadn't rejected it outright, and he hadn't blown smoke in Austin's face even once.

Morris flipped through the papers then folded them and stood. "I'll read through your offer," he promised, "and submit it to the other partners for consideration."

Austin nodded agreeably. "Certainly. I think you'll find it advantageous for both firms. You have some good attorneys, some old-line clients, but you're not taking new ground like we are. The legal field is changing. It's a business, has to be run like a business. We plan to be so large that we'll handle all our clients' needs, have a department for everything. One-stop shopping."

Stafford listened quietly then took a cigar out of his shirt pocket and lit up. Squinting through the smoke, he grinned around the rolled tobacco, leisurely took it from his mouth. "I'll look it over. Daniel—" He nodded to the older man. "Good to see you. Give my best to Rose."

At the elevator Daniel Lewis was distracted by another associate, and Austin seized the opportunity. ''This merger would be very interesting for me," he told Morris. "I applied for a position with your firm when I got out of law school. Gordon and I came in together."

"I remember," Morris said evenly. "You were all wound up and ready to conquer the world. A lot like the young lady I'd just hired, Bailey Russell. I knew one of you was enough, and I was right. It takes Gordon to balance with her."

Austin wasn't sure he was hearing right. "You're saying you hire lawyers on the basis of personality?"

Morris blew smoke just to the right of Austin's ear.

The man was smiling, not with his mouth, but with all the rest of his face. "A law firm's like a family. Everybody has a different role, but they all have to work together. It's not a machine you can plug available parts into." The elevator doors opened and Morris stepped on, turned, and lifted one hand in a wave to Lewis, but his words were for Austin. "You were too damned pushy then. You're still too damned pushy."

The doors closed. After several seconds, Austin blinked, turned, and headed back to his office.

He had lost out on the job because he would have clashed with Bailey, because Morris considered him as pushy as she was, not because he wasn't bright enough or didn't have enough honors or good enough grades. He had been rejected because he tried too hard. He needed to think about that for a while.

Slumping into his chair, he pulled up to his desk and stared sightlessly at the papers in front of him. It was not, he believed, possible to be "too damned pushy" in the legal field. Morris was wrong about that. Anyway, the man was as pushy as they came. He apparently just had a problem with perception.

Austin leaned back in his chair and lifted his feet to his desk. So he hadn't really lost on getting that job. Morris had made a judgmental decision based on his skewed perception of the problem.

Maybe not so skewed after all. Morris was right about one thing. He and Bailey couldn't seem to get along. But that had to be her fault, not his. The other women he'd dated hadn't acted like her. They didn't argue with him every time he opened his mouth. They didn't try to win at every game or sport. They didn't have some smart answer for everything. They didn't make him feel vital and alive. They didn't have big green eyes, soft, full lips, fiery hair, a sleek body—

Austin caught himself smiling. Okay, so Bailey wasn't a typical female, and he got pretty irritated with her sometimes. Nevertheless, there was definitely an attraction. And, damn it, he knew she felt it too, in spite of her inexplicable actions after the most incredible lovemaking he'd ever experienced, actions that had kept him awake half the night trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

He flipped forward in his chair. If he was pushy, then so be it. He'd call Bailey and ask her outright what the problem was. He snatched up the phone and dialed the number for Hoskins, Grier. But when the receptionist answered, he swallowed twice then asked to speak to Gordon.