Love Proof (Laws of Attraction) - By Elizabeth Ruston Page 0,25
she wanted to do anyway. She wrapped her robe more tightly around her, then slipped back between the sheets. Joe stepped over to the bed and tugged the blanket and bedspread up closer around her shoulders.
“Burke?”
“Yeah?”
“I think . . . that was good, what you did for me yesterday.” She nodded, convincing herself. “Thank you. I doubt Chapman would have done the same.”
“He would if he’d known he could see you in a black bra and panties.”
“Shut up,” Sarah muttered before diving deeper beneath the blanket.
Eleven
Sarah sat up and ate toast and tea in bed while Joe had coffee, eggs, and a bagel at the desk in Sarah’s room. At the same time, he worked on his laptop and made a few phone calls.
“I don’t know,” she heard him say to whomever he was talking to. “At least another day, maybe two.”
He listened, then said, “I can’t talk about that right now. I’ll send you an e-mail.”
“What did you tell people?” Sarah asked when he hung up. “About why you’re still here?”
“I said I wanted to get in some skiing.”
“You don’t ski, do you?”
“No.” Joe dialed his phone and asked for a lawyer whose name Sarah recognized. She took another sip of tea, then leaned back against her pillow and closed her eyes.
“You’re going to have to talk to Luke about that,” Joe said to the person on the phone. “He’s taken over all my cases for a while. I’m on the road now.”
Sarah opened her increasingly-heavy eyes and peeked over at Burke. He was hunched over the desk now, elbow resting on the surface, his forehead leaning against his hand. “Yeah, well, there’s a lot going on,” he told the person. “I can’t talk about it right now. Call Luke. He’ll get you what you need.”
He set his phone down and stared glumly at it. When he looked over at Sarah again, she gave him a small smile.
“Purgatory?” she asked.
Joe nodded.
“Feel like sharing?”
“Not really. How was breakfast?”
Sarah laid her hand on her stomach. “It’s staying down, so that’s good. But I think I need another nap.”
“Do you mind if I work in here?”
“No.” In fact, Sarah was surprised by how much she wanted that. She liked hearing his voice in the background. She liked feeling him close by.
Which should have been reason enough to tell him to leave. But she wasn’t feeling up to that.
Sarah slid back down to horizontal and closed her eyes. But then she turned to her side again and looked over at Joe.
“Are they trying to push you out?” she asked. “At your firm?”
“Yes.”
“So why don’t you quit? I’m sure someone like you could find a job right away.”
As opposed to someone like me, Sarah thought, with the stain of the FBI raid and all the partner indictments following her everywhere on her résumé.
“I will,” he said, “eventually.”
“But why would you keep doing this?” Sarah asked him. “I can understand me, but not you—”
Joe’s phone rang. He looked at the screen and answered the call. “Joe Burke. Yeah, thanks for getting back to me, Todd. I heard Judge Lewis issued an order, and I wanted to let you know that Luke Tanner is handling that for me now . . . ”
Sarah’s eyes drifted closed again while Joe’s familiar voice carried on in the background. One of the last things she thought before giving in to the tired was that she missed this—missed him, missed having him around.
It wasn’t your choice, she reminded herself. You could have gone on like that forever.
He’s the one who broke your heart.
But it was getting harder and harder for her to stay angry about it.
Now all she felt was the loss.
***
When she woke again, Joe was gone. He left the drapes closed and all the lights off, so once again she wasn’t sure of the time. The clock said 12:42, and she guessed it must be afternoon, since she couldn’t imagine sleeping sixteen hours straight. Still, it was worth checking.
Sarah climbed out of bed, testing her legs. They felt better, less shaky. Her stomach felt better, too, and in fact growled a little with hunger. Sarah pulled back the heavy drapes and let the light shine in. The sky was a brilliant blue, and looked particularly beautiful against the snowy white peaks of the mountains.
This place really was stunning, Sarah thought. She would have loved to stand outside and breathe in some of the fresh air. But the only clothes she had were her suit, which may or may