Love Proof (Laws of Attraction) - By Elizabeth Ruston Page 0,46
right back where they were now in this kind of stalemate of anger and guilt and yes, a little too much leftover lust for Sarah’s comfort, if she had to be entirely honest with herself?
She stretched out on the couch and lay with an arm draped over her eyes. Mickey hadn’t done her any favor, she realized. Yes, she appreciated the money and getting back to work again, but this had turned out to be a much more hazardous assignment than she knew when she took it. Look at her now, she thought, laid up in a hotel room, wearing hotel gift shop sweats, rehashing a day when she and Joe had kept their hands and mouths to themselves in a Walmart, and ended up sharing a chaste kiss in a mountain medical clinic.
The only thing she needed to decide right now was whether to watch a movie on cable while she ate her dinner from room service, or just eat in silence while she watched a mental repeat of the day. Because either could be equally dramatic.
***
The Salt Lake City airport was busier than she expected for Thanksgiving morning—she assumed most people traveled the day before—but she passed through the security line fairly quickly and headed for her gate.
There was no sign of Joe. She hadn’t seen him since he left her in the hotel parking lot the afternoon before. She wondered if he would even be on her flight after all.
But then she saw him in the distance, looking less like a hardy lumberjack now and more like a person who had slept as badly as she had. His face was unshaven, which was a good look as far as she was concerned, but he also seemed haggard, worn out. And unhappy.
He saw her, too, gave her a quick nod, then found a seat somewhere else.
So he really was going to stick to that “we should keep our distance” thing, she thought.
“I can take some of this, but not all of it.” She’d thought about that statement a lot.
Take what, exactly? she wondered. The sniping and the fighting, or the rare moments here and there when they were actually friendly to each other—maybe too friendly—forcing her and maybe him, too, to remember why they’d been attracted to each other in the first place?
“I just wanted you to remember it wasn’t all bad.” Damn it, Burke, she thought, looking at him now across the gate area, why did you have to stir it all up again? She’d been maintaining—they both had. Why did they suddenly have to drop all the pretense of being Henley and Burke and go back to being Sarah and Joe again?
The gate agent called for boarding, and Sarah waited for Joe to go first. If he wanted his distance, she could give it to him. Fine. Gladly. Take it.
She sat crowded into her window seat by a mother and child, the child way too bouncy and excited about seeing Grandma. Normally Sarah didn’t mind having a few Cheerios spilled on her lap or a sticky hand messing with the armrest between them, but what she really wanted right now was the peace and quiet of a row all to herself, or of the Joe from the previous day—the one who brought her hot chocolate and carried her to the clinic and warmed her toes in his hand—that one, sitting beside her now, offering up a broad shoulder for her to lean against as they both flew home together.
Stop it, Sarah scolded herself. Joe was right. All of this sentimental crap was bad news.
“Seeing family?” the woman with the child asked.
“Yes,” Sarah said, feeling no need to tell the woman she was actually heading home from work.
The woman rolled her eyes. “Us, too. I hate the holidays. Nobody ever comes to us, we always have to go to them.”
Sarah nodded sympathetically.
Nobody ever comes to us, we always have to go to them.
You need to decide how you want things to be.
She wanted things to be easy—that’s what she wanted. But it didn’t seem possible anymore.
***
This is stupid, Sarah thought, watching Joe walk ahead of her through LAX. She wasn’t going to pretend she didn’t know him.
She lengthened her stride until she caught up.
“So . . . have a nice Thanksgiving,” she said.
“Yeah, you, too,” he said.
“Are you going to your dad’s today?” she asked.
Joe nodded. “Your folks?”
“Yeah.”
They walked in silence for a few moments more, then Sarah finally took the hint.