couldn’t spend the whole night with her heart racing over every little look or gesture or touch the two of them might find secret ways to exchange. They agreed to stick with their partners for the evening, and go through the banquet the way they would have if they never met.
It was a stupid agreement, Sarah thought, glancing back at Joe and finding him once again watching her with the same hungry expression she’d seen on his face all afternoon long.
Sarah checked her watch. Then she held up two fingers, meaning they only had to stay two more hours.
Joe pointed to the exit.
Sarah shook her head.
He pointed again, and she laughed. And then went in search of Mickey before the poor guy drank so much he passed out before the ceremony.
Although in Sarah’s heart she knew he was right: they really didn’t need to hear the announcement to know their team wasn’t advancing. Oral argument would never be Mickey Hughes’s strength. And even though Sarah thought her own performance had gone well, her scores would be averaged with Mickey’s to determine the team’s ranking, so that was the end of that.
Although she had to agree with Joe: winning the competition wasn’t nearly the best thing that could have come out of it. She’d already gotten more out of that trip that she ever could have dreamed of.
***
“Congratulations, Number Seven,” Joe told her as soon as they were alone again in his car.
“Nice job, Eight.”
The two of them grinned at each other. Even though neither of their teams advanced, the judges gave out individual scores, too, and both Sarah and Joe made it into the top ten.
“That’s not bad, huh?” Sarah asked.
“A lot better than I expected,” Joe said.
“What should we do to celebrate?”
“I think you know my answer to that.”
Just hearing the way he said it made Sarah’s insides flare with heat. She wondered whether the seats of the rental car folded down.
“Tomorrow’s Saturday,” Sarah said.
“Uh-huh.” Joe had her hand in his, and was swirling his thumb against her palm. She found it very difficult to think.
“Final arguments in the morning, then the luncheon, then another dinner tomorrow night.”
Joe didn’t say anything, just began stroking higher up her arm.
Sarah gasped on a laugh as he scooped his hand inside her jacket and began stroking the breast he found there.
“Joe?” she managed to get out.
“Hm?”
“Let’s skip all of that. Stay inside.”
“Sounds good.” He pressed his mouth to hers and unbuttoned the top of her blouse. Then he slipped his hand inside the fabric until he found bare skin.
Sarah moaned.
Joe pulled his hand free and started the car.
Sarah leaned her head back, too aroused to keep her eyes open. She wanted the ride to be over, wanted not to have to walk across the hotel parking lot, in through the lobby, take the elevator upstairs. She wanted to be instantly transported now, straight into his bed, straight into his arms and not leave there for hours and hours.
“Sarah?” Joe said after a while.
“Hm?”
“Congratulations. You really deserved that.”
She looked over at him and laid her hand on his arm. He rested one of his hands on top.
“You did, too, Joe,” she said. “I’m really happy for both of us.”
It was one of the nicest nights they had together, in a whole series of amazing nights. Nights followed by days in which Sarah fell harder and harder for him by the minute. And she thought he fell for her, too. Didn’t he tell her so?
But it was all over seven weeks later. And Sarah still didn’t understand why.
Sixteen
Sarah woke on the Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving feeling better than she had in days. Her body didn’t ache the way it had, and she felt well-rested instead of lethargic from all her hours in bed.
She went into the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face and brushed her teeth. The dark circles under her eyes were gone. She still looked paler than normal, but she hoped a little food and tea would help.
While she waited for room service, she booted up her laptop. She hadn’t checked e-mail since Monday morning. There were the usual garbage messages she deleted without reading, but a few of them grabbed her attention.
The secretary she shared with three other lawyers in the firm had e-mailed her several sets of scanned documents, all with the subject line “Mason Manufacturing.” Sarah opened one of them and found purchase orders and other internal documents and memoranda. She would have plenty to read over