Something About You (Just Me & You) (14 page)

Oh,
hell
, no.

Tiny, outspoken women with stubborn chins, big brown eyes
and great legs had never been his weakness.

He only knew that something about kissing her under a white
moon, befuddled by the smell of her perfume and her intense dark eyes, made
coffee dates like this one seem a frittering away of precious time. And that
something
was his new non-negotiable.

**

Sabrina checked her cell phone again.

No text from Gage.

No surprise.

He had assured her he would meet her at the Grab & Go at
eight sharp. It was now ten minutes past the hour. He could have at least given
her the courtesy of a phone call so she would have known he was going to be
late, Sabrina thought crossly. That way she could have at least scampered by
the house and changed clothes before going to the market. She was whipped after
a long day at the Capitol, and after that, she had gone to a soiree at a
four-star hotel thrown by one of Theo’s pet special interests groups in the
Hon. Rep.’s lieu. She felt conspicuous idling by the produce aisles in her most
eye-catching attire — a deep coral jacquard cocktail dress and
dyed-to-match alligator pumps, peach-colored tasseled silk shawl tossed over
one shoulder — while everyone else in the market was wearing jeans and
sweatshirts.

Five minutes later when Gage still hadn’t arrived, Sabrina
moved over to the magazine rack, bored. Then she meandered over to the soup
aisle and stared mindlessly at rows of instant ramen. She was deep in thought
when a woman’s hand reached in front of her and snagged a package of
extra-spicy chicken, and she found herself face to face with Carlton’s sister,
Eva Hayes.

“You know it’s going to be a slow Friday when the highlight
of your night involves ‘just add water’,” the other woman said, dropping the
package into her basket. Her eyes widened with appreciation when she took in
Sabrina’s high-heeled pumps. “Wow, those are some shoes.”

“Mmm, thanks. I can carry them off when I need to,” Sabrina
replied, feeling her shoulders hike defensively. She still wasn’t sure how to
interpret Eva’s haute couture remark.

“My brother told you what I said after your engagement
party, didn’t he?” Eva sighed. “Jerk. I figured he would. Me and my big mouth.
Wait — make that
Carlton’s
big mouth. He knows that whatever I tell
him is strictly off the record. I’m sorry if I offended you, Sabrina.”

Both Hayes twins were bestowed with the exotic kind of
beauty bred by generations of ancestors of mixed race and ethnicity. Eva had
the same caramel-colored skin and slender build as her brother. But unlike him,
Eva put little effort into her appearance. Her unruly inky curls were always
contained in a practical side braid, and her wardrobe seemed to consist of
faded jeans and slightly crumpled khaki shirts, a look Sabrina typically
associated with wildlife photographers. Then again, someone as striking as
Carlton’s sister, whose simmering, exotic beauty brought to mind Romani gypsies
and Uzbek women, didn’t need to worry about carrying off anything.

Eva was also ambitious. She would have given Sabrina a run
for the titles of class valedictorian and “Most Likely to Succeed” in high
school if the two had been in the same grade. But because of the four-year age
difference between them, the two had always been friendly but never close.
Sabrina had stuck with Molly, and Eva had stuck with herself. The Hayes twins
had been brought up by foster parents who cared for Carlton and Eva as though
they were their own children. But while Carlton had easily adjusted to life in
the Corners, bonding with his foster family and making new friends, Eva had
remained a bit of a loner. 

“No offense taken,” Sabrina told her, trying to keep her
tone nonchalant. “You were absolutely right. The thought of me getting married?
What a laugh, right?”

Eva gave Sabrina a level-headed look perfected by
professional journalists all over the globe. “Carlton misconstrued what I said —
no big surprise there. My darling brother has selective hearing. What I told
him was that a woman like you marrying a man like Jackson Sprinkle was a
horrific idea. You’re smart, Sabrina, and you’ve got moxie. My guess was that
Jackson would feel threatened by that and try to nudge you out of the spotlight
so he could hog it all to himself.” Eva’s mouth was stretched grim. “I know his
type. I can sniff ’em out five miles downwind.”

Sabrina had to bite her tongue to keep from telling Eva that
she didn’t know how right she was. “Too bad I couldn’t do the same,” she said
regretfully. “What tipped you off?”

“Oh, c’mon, Sabrina,” the younger woman said incredulously.
“Nobody named Jackson actually
goes
by Jackson. He goes by Jack, unless
he takes himself way too seriously.”

Sabrina didn’t suppress her grin. She regretted not getting
to know Carlton’s sister better. Now that Molly was married, she would be
spending most of her free time with Sebastian. If only Eva wasn’t so
intimidating …

“Well, it all ended up for the best, didn’t it?” Sabrina
tried her best to sound chipper. “So what’s on your plate for this weekend,
Eva?”

“You mean other than this?” Eva made a face at the pile of
junk food — corn chips, green onion dip, diet ginger ale, gourmet cookies,
and various reconstitutable food items — that were piled up in her basket.
“Absolutely nothing. I recently called it quits with somebody myself. He was
amazingly hot. Intelligent. Nice. But I was getting a little too attached.”
Sabrina nodded, pretending she understood why breaking up with a kind, smart,
hot guy was even remotely logical. “What about you?”

“Me? Oh, no. I’m just waiting on someone. My new housemate.”
Saying the word set Sabrina’s teeth on edge, so she quickly corrected herself.
“Actually, he’s just a boarder. He has this ridiculous idea that we should go
grocery shopping together to stock up the house. So here I am, on a Friday
night.”

Waiting …

“Carlton mentioned you were looking for someone to rent one
of the rooms in your house.” Eva looked mildly intrigued. “You must not mind
the company. Me? I’d go crazy if I had to share my personal space with someone
else.”

The free-spirited Eva probably could have had her pick of
successful, intelligent, handsome single men who would indeed want to marry
her. But as far back as Sabrina could remember, Eva had opted for brief, casual
relationships that lasted six months tops. Carlton described it as “hobby
dating.”

“Oh, I’m too busy with work to even notice that there’s
someone else in the house,” Sabrina fibbed. “Very,
very
busy. I suspect
I will be for the rest of my professional life.”

“Yeah, I heard that you’re stuck puppeting Theo Ward this
session,” Eva said with what could have been either an understanding look or a
pitying one. “Some people really have no business running for state legislature
when they let everyone else do all of the real work. I hear a lot of
interesting gossip in my line of work, and one of the juicier tidbits was that
you’re the one who balances the incomprehensible dreck Ward churns out with his
more popular social initiatives. Is it true?” Eva gave Sabrina a direct look.

“I can neither deny nor confirm,” Sabrina said. Eva was a
journalist, she reminded herself. Even if she hadn’t been Carlton’s sister, she
still would have been privy to everything that went on under the Dome. 

“You should think about running for public office one day,
Sabrina,” Eva commented. “God knows you have enough experience — at least
Carlton seems to think so. He has good judgment, big mouth and all.”

Her? Run for office? Eva had to be joking.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Sabrina said sincerely.
“But Theo’s quite the handful at the moment. I can’t even think past the next
legislative session, much less long term.”

“Yup. I imagine that Henry VIII’s wranglers had an easier
time keeping him out of trouble.” Eva’s tone had turned dry.

That week, Sabrina had discovered how her boss’ career could
easily unravel by a single loose thread. On Monday, she had come in after her
coffee break only to bump smack into an attractive, red-haired young woman who
was storming out of Theo’s office in a tearful rage. She had a bad case of
bedhead, and her mascara was running. And then just that morning, a grim-faced
Theo had strode into the Think Tank, tossed Sabrina his cell phone, and
instructed her to have the number changed.

She knew what it meant when a married man gave his mistress
his super-secret, known-to-no-one-but-staff phone number. The Hon. Rep. was
getting sloppy. That he was making his mistresses — at least one of them —
promises he had no intention of keeping. If he didn’t end up blowing his own
cover, someone like Eva would. And then Theo would take Sabrina down with him.

Interpreting the concern on Sabrina’s face as doubt, Eva
assured her, “I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that you don’t have
the experience. You’re thinking you don’t have the political backing that Ward
does. But hell, you can go out and get that. All you’re lacking is confidence.
You could harness that might and make it right.”

Sabrina glanced at the other woman out of the corner of her
eye and gave a discreet nod. Now she knew how the Duke of Buckingham’s lesser
royals felt like when he was humming a victory song in their ears. What Eva was
hinting around at was practically treasonous.

“That’s a really nice thing for you to say, Eva,” she said.

Eva harrumphed. “Look, I’m nice, but I’m not
that
nice. No, the real reason I’m telling you this is because women like us need to
band together and support each other. God knows no one else will.” She studied
the soup again briefly before she tossed another package of spicy chicken ramen
into her basket.

“Women like us?” Sabrina repeated.

“Yeah, Career Singles Not-So-Anonymous,” Eva said with a
wicked little smile. As she headed toward the checkout area, she looked back
over her shoulder and added, “The only thing we’ll ever be married to is our
careers.”

Fortunately, Eva made her exit before Gage showed up. If
Carlton caught wind of who her new boarder was, Sabrina knew she’d never hear
the end of it. That is, if Gage had any intention of showing up. She checked
her cell phone again. It was now eight-thirty. The Grab & Go closed in
thirty minutes. She had better things to do than stand around in front of the
soup.

Just as Sabrina was about to leave, he surprised her by
blowing through the front entrance. Wherever he’d been, it had obviously been
quite the occasion. He was wearing jeans that weren’t quite as faded as the
others, she noticed.
And
his shirt was buttoned up and tucked in. When
he spotted her, his mouth spread into a sheepish grin. Sabrina just shook her
head.

“Don’t worry,” she assured him blithely. “I had no intention
of starting without you.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m unfashionably late. I got hung up,”
he explained.

“Doing what?”

“I was kinda on a date.” His face turned wan. “It turned out
pretty terrible, actually.”

“Now, that’s a pity,” Sabrina struggled to keep the venom
out of her voice. Why would she possibly care what he did in his spare time? He
was just the warm body who wrote her a check at the beginning of each month,
for god’s sake. So Gage had gone out on a date with a woman. A bad date.

Good
, she thought triumphantly. Served him right for
almost standing her up.

“Let’s get this party started before the store closes,” she
said, plucking a green plastic shopping basket from the pile next to the
sliding glass doors.

“Contrary to what the sign outside says, darlin’, we are not
here to ‘grab and go’,” he said as he loosened the basket from her grip and
returned it to the top of the pile. “Our house needs a serious stocking up,” he
told her as he pulled a shopping cart from a string of others. “I’ll drive. You
read.” He handed her his shopping list.

“
My
house, you mean,” she corrected him as he steered
the cart in the direction of the nonperishables.

“Let’s compromise by dropping the possessive,” Gage
proposed. “
The
house. Agreed?”

“Fine,” Sabrina said, feeling more exasperated by the
second. She squinted at the piece of paper he had handed her. “First item is —
I can barely read your writing, by the way — a six-pack of Guinness?” She
hiked a brow dubiously. “I thought we came here for absolute necessities.”

“Beer is an absolute necessity in my world. No worries. I
intend to pick up my share of the tab whenever I buy incidentals.” Gage tried
to pacify her with a congenial smile.

He guided the cart to the cleaning and paper goods aisle,
where they stocked up on laundry detergent, household disinfectants and trash
bags in a variety of sizes to accommodate all the bins in the house. Sabrina
read off the items on the shopping list. She had to admit that he had paid
close attention to their household needs. She would have never thought to buy
simple tide-me-over snacks like peanut butter, jelly and bread.

She paused in front of the feminine hygiene aisle and felt
her cheeks pinken. She had never bought …
really personal stuff
in
front of any man. Not even Jackson.

“Get whatever you need,” Gage told her. When she hesitated,
he went on, “I’ve lived with and around women before. I’m perfectly aware that
they have different bodily functions than men. Therefore, they need to buy, ah,
women-specific stuff.”

“No worries. I have every intention of getting what I need,”
she said. She hastily reached for a box of tampons and placed it in the cart.
Then she hesitated and directed a cautious look his way before quickly grabbing
two more. She was about to lob them into the cart but stopped mid-toss,
distracted by a rack of condoms. The Magnum Extra-Large logo bleated out at her
from the shelf. A hot flush spread from her cheeks up to her temples.