Love Proof (Laws of Attraction) - By Elizabeth Ruston Page 0,29
made a much stronger team than either of them with their existing partners. Not that Mickey or Ellen wouldn’t do well, but maybe not as well as Sarah and Joe together.
“You saw how he is,” Ellen said. “He never even told me he was going to get his own car. And I went to all that trouble with the hotel rooms.”
“But you only told us about that this morning,” Sarah pointed out. If she’d thought of it—and had the extra money to spare—she wouldn’t have minded booking a room all to herself, too. So far every move of Joe’s was one she wished she had made.
“Are you and Mickey dating?” Ellen asked.
“What? No.”
“I heard what he said to Joe about stealing his girl.”
“We’re just teammates,” Sarah said. “Mickey likes to joke around.”
“Wish we could switch,” Ellen said. “I think Mickey’s a lot smarter. And he’s obviously a lot easier to work with.”
“Hm,” Sarah answered noncommittally. Ellen could think whatever she wanted.
Sarah escaped into the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. She would save the shower until the morning so she only risked getting her hair wet the one time. She had gotten up early that morning to give it the maximum attention before she had to rush to the airport. Now if it would just behave for the next twenty-four hours, that was one less detail to worry about.
“I hope you brought ear plugs,” Ellen called from the other room.
Sarah had a bad feeling. “Why?”
“I don’t really sleep,” Ellen said. “So you might hear me practicing during the night.”
“Great . . . ” Sarah answered herself in the mirror.
She hoped Mickey and Joe were both enjoying having their rooms all to themselves.
***
At two-thirty in the morning, Sarah had finally had enough.
“Ellen, either go downstairs or shut up.”
“I told you,” Ellen said, as if that made up for all the mumbling and pacing and gesticulating she’d been doing on and off for the past several hours.
Sarah groaned and pressed the pillow over her head once more. She could still hear Ellen whispering, “Yes, your honor, but as you know, the constitutional right to privacy must be always balance the needs of the individual against the interests of the state—”
“Ellen!”
“I’m sorry, I’ll try to be quieter.”
But Sarah could still hear her for the next hour or two until one or both of them finally passed out.
***
“Shit,” Mickey said when he saw her.
“Don’t say anything.” Sarah was still trying to contain her rage. She knew her pale face looked blotchy. She knew the pillow she pressed to her head all night had left her uncontrollable hair even unrulier than usual. And she knew her eyes looked as red and raw as they felt. “That woman is the devil.”
Joe Burke walked up to Mickey and Sarah in time to hear her assessment.
“Took me longer to figure that out,” he said. “By then it was too late to find a new partner.”
“At least you didn’t have to sleep in the same room with her,” Sarah said.
“A gentleman can always say no,” Joe said.
“Are you kidding me?” Sarah said with a harsh laugh. “Are you saying she actually tried?”
“You know how it is,” Joe said, looking from Sarah to Mickey.
“No,” she answered emphatically, “I don’t.”
Mickey wrapped an arm around Sarah’s shoulders and gave them a squeeze. “Too bad, Burke. You should be more careful who you link up with.”
It wasn’t hard to catch the territorialism behind Mickey’s gesture. Sarah wasn’t in the mood. Her nerves felt so close to the surface she was having a hard time being pleasant to anyone. She stepped out of Mickey’s embrace.
“Have they announced the assignments?” Joe asked her.
“Not yet,” she said.
“I’m getting coffee,” he offered. “Want some?”
“Yeah, that’d be great. Thanks.”
“Black for me,” Mickey said.
Joe gave no sign that he heard him.
While Joe drifted toward the breakfast buffet table, Sarah continued to fume. “You’d better pray we don’t go on until this afternoon,” she told Mickey. “Then at least I can go back and get some sleep.”
“You can stay in my room, if you want,” he said.
“Very funny,” she said.
“I’m not being funny, Sarah.”
“What did I say?” she reminded him. “This is not an opportunity to get into my pants.”
She didn’t realize she said it so loudly until she saw a few heads turn in her direction.
One of them was Joe’s. He caught her eye and gave her an amused smile.
Sarah turned her back to him and lowered her voice. “I’m this close to losing it, Mickey,