Love Proof (Laws of Attraction) - By Elizabeth Ruston Page 0,33
would be good.”
Ellen made a face as she pulled open her purse. She obviously didn’t like giving up control. She took her time removing the envelope and counting out four fifties.
“But you’re coming to lunch with us, right?” she asked.
“Sure, we’ll come for a beer,” Joe said. “What do you say, Sarah?”
Sarah noticed the “we.” Somehow in the last few minutes she’d gone from being Mickey’s companion to being Joe’s. She wasn’t sure when the shift had happened, but she knew it had.
And she didn’t mind.
“A beer sounds good,” Sarah said. “Come on, Mickey. We’ll even find you some cigarettes if you need them.”
Then it seemed natural to follow Joe to his car, rather than to go with Ellen and Mickey.
“How about that steak place near the hotel?” Ellen called after them.
“Sure,” Sarah said. She and Joe continued walking.
“Mind if we make a stop first?” Joe asked her.
“No.” She didn’t mind anything at the moment. It felt good to be back around someone who wasn’t freaking out, wasn’t rehashing everything that he’d said in front of the judges, practically begging Sarah to tell him again how great he had done and that no, he didn’t screw up.
“How’d it really go?” Joe asked her.
“So-so. Yours?”
“It had its moments.”
Sarah looked at him and smiled. “Were you any good, Burke?”
He shrugged. “Good enough. You, Red?”
“I think so.”
He reached down for her cold hand and pulled her in closer. “Wish I could have seen you.”
***
Joe parked in front of the Walmart.
“Okay . . . ” Sarah said.
“This will only take a minute,” Joe told her. He waited until she came around her side of the car, then slipped his hand in hers again.
“You think this is okay?” she asked him, holding up their joined fingers.
“I think so,” he confirmed, “don’t you?”
She shrugged, trying to appear indifferent. But the truth was, her heart was pounding. And she wasn’t sure what to do about it. She also wasn’t sure what had happened in the last ten or fifteen minutes to take them from where they’d been with each other that morning, to where they were right now.
Once they were inside, Joe tugged her toward the left, into the clothing section. He wandered a few aisles before finding what he wanted.
“Take your pick,” he said, “although I think this one looks nice.”
He let go of her hand and reached for a soft pink fleece hat hanging from the display rack. He pulled it gently over her head.
“Maybe you don’t like pink,” he said.
Sarah looked in the nearby mirror. “Pink is fine, but it’s kind of cliché for redheads.”
“Try blue,” Joe said, handing her a replacement.
He kept his arm around her waist as they both looked at the hat in the mirror. Sarah found it hard to concentrate.
“Blue’s fine,” she managed to say.
“Here, try these on.” He handed her the matching one-size-fits-all gloves. “Get the whole set for five-ninety-nine.”
The gloves looked more like a child’s size than an adult’s, but as Sarah pushed her fingers into them, they expanded to fit perfectly. She wriggled her fingers to model them.
Joe stood in front of her and gently tugged on the hat, pulling it lower around her ears. And with him that close, that kind, after a whole string of kindnesses all morning long, Sarah couldn’t resist twisting her gloved fingers in the lapel of his suit jacket and pulling his mouth down to hers.
Their hunger for each other shocked her. As if they’d both stood coiled, ready, waiting for the other to make a move. Joe captured her by the hips and pulled her hard against him as Sarah locked her hands behind his neck. He was at least half a foot taller, but in her heels she narrowed the distance. He spread his hands along the sides of her ribcage, practically lifting her body into his. She pressed against the length of him, feeling the unmistakable hardness that pressed back, and she kissed him, devoured him, made out with him there in the Walmart accessories aisle, both of them in their suits, Sarah in her powder blue hat and gloves, Joe with his hands buried now in the ends of her hair, tugging her head back while he took her mouth, neither of them caring who in that town might see them or what they might think.
Finally they came up for air. The two of them stood staring at each other, panting. “We were supposed to meet those guys,” Sarah said, surprised she could even think anymore.