Anything You Can Do - By Sally Berneathy Page 0,3

incredible, that Austin had beaten her, but the words wouldn't come out. She took the cup of water Paula offered and raised it to her lips, rinsing her mouth. Swallowing would have meant a brief cessation of breathing, and she needed all the oxygen she could get right then.

She scanned the crowd but didn't see Austin. That was good, because she was pretty sure she was going to throw up from the extreme exertion, and she had no intention of letting him know how tough the race had been. Moving shakily, she made her way to the sidelines, aware that Paula was talking, but too intent on her own body's agonies to catch the words.

As she concentrated on walking out her cool-down, ignoring her protesting muscles that wanted to rest, breathing fast enough to get adequate oxygen into her system to avoid passing out, Paula's words suddenly penetrated.

"My time?" she gasped, not sure she'd heard right. "Yes," Paula assured her, "forty-two minutes, seven seconds."

Suddenly it didn't matter quite so much that Austin had beaten her because she'd just beaten herself, turned in a personal best. As soon as she was physically able, she planned to shout to the heavens.

Paula grabbed two oranges from a refreshment table and began peeling as they walked. "I see you came in with that gorgeous lawyer," she said, offering a half skinned fruit to Bailey. "Do you have something to tell me?"

Bailey gulped down a piece of orange, greedy for the sugar and liquid to nourish her exhausted system. "Gordon's friend," she gasped. "Thought you weren't interested in lawyers."

"I can admire a thing of beauty while having no desire to mate with it. Anyway, he passed me by with a wave. I think he's interested in you."

Even though it sent her into coughing, gasping spasms, Bailey burst into laughter at the idea. Men like Austin Travers reserved their interest for beautiful women with soft voices and bust line measurements that exceeded their IQs.

On the other side of the path, Austin held his side to ease the stitch and walked around the sidelines, fighting the nausea of overexertion, trying to cool down slowly. Across the crowd, he caught a glimpse of the woman who'd almost killed him.

He studied her for a moment, watched her accept an orange from her friend. When he'd first seen her before the race, stretching her long, sleek muscles, she'd seemed a regal gazelle. She enhanced that image when she ran with long, graceful strides, hair sparking red in the sunlight. Now, however, he knew her to be a tiger, a force to be reckoned with.

If he could just manage to catch his breath, he'd go over and congratulate her on a race well run. Not to mention that she'd pushed him into his best time since the high school track team.

But by the time he got back in control, ready to face her, she and her friend had disappeared into the crowd.

Feeling oddly disappointed, he got a cold soda and wandered through the throng.

"Austin! Over here!"

Austin turned at the welcome sound of Gordon's voice and saw him standing under a large tree, waving. Beside Gordon, Bailey and her friend lounged on the grass. Sunlight dappled Bailey's smooth, sweat-shiny skin and blazed in her hair. However, her gaze was cool and green as she watched him approach.

The combination of fire and ice was daunting and tantalizing. He'd probably be wise to keep on running. Instead he sank to the ground beside her.

"Bailey's trying to make me take up some exhausting sport," Gordon complained as Austin sank to the cool grass, "and Paula Duvall, whom you haven't met and probably don't want to, thinks I should find a decent job."

"Make something of yourself," Paula supplied, laughing, looking up at Gordon. "Better yourself. Become a janitor, wash dishes, dig ditches."

"But Bailey's a lawyer, and you like her," Gordon objected.

Paula sighed heavily, lowering her eyes in mock shame. "I'm partially to blame for her sorry lot in life. From the time we were in third grade, I encouraged her to go to law school. I blame it all on too many Perry Mason reruns."

"What is this?" Austin asked, laughing. "Are we trashing attorneys?"

"Why not?" Paula quipped. "Can you think of anybody who deserves it more?"

"I asked her to marry me," Gordon declared, leaning lazily back against the tree trunk. "She told Bailey I showed good sense in not running or indulging in those other activities that make you sweat, so naturally I asked her to