Something About You (Just Me & You)

by Lelaina Landis

  “—Stop!” Sabrina commanded. “I don’t need the gory details.”

  “She’s threatening to take her story to Eva Hayes at the Lone Star Monthly, Chief,” he whined. “Carlton’s sister! What do we do?”

  We? Who was this “we” Theo was talking about? Sabrina’s temples pounded. Other Chiefs of Staff worried about smoothing things over when their bosses made a gaffe at a speaking engagement. Why couldn’t the Hon. Rep. have gotten a DWI like a normal public official?

  “I’m your lead executive assistant, Theo, not your ‘fixer’,” she said sternly. “I can only give you my best advice. The first thing you’re going to do is check out of your office and into a hotel. Not the Four Seasons, either — someplace closer to your own neighborhood. If the press gets wind of this, you’ll never live it down. Secondly, you make an appointment with a counselor.”

  “A divorce attorney?” Theo sounded alarmed. “Don’t you think that’s premature?”

  “No, a marriage counselor.” Sabrina’s head had started to thud. “Remember, Jill holds all of the cards right now. She wants to know that you’re making an honest effort to get back into her good graces.”

  “But this other woman—” Theo whined.

  “—I’ll figure the rest out when I get back to Austin,” Sabrina interrupted him firmly. “That’s all I can do for now. Besides, it’s not like I can hop on a plane from Iowa in the next few hours.”

  For a few moments, there was nothing but stunned silence. “Iowa?” Theo finally repeated with disbelief. “What the hell happens in Iowa after the Caucus packs up its tents? Oh … Iowa.” He finally snapped to. “Big Red. The shock jock. I take it you’ve been given a tour of his tough paper route.” He sounded thoroughly displeased.

  Sabrina bit her lip before she said something truly nasty. “I didn’t come here on a lark,” she told him instead. “I’m tending to important personal matters. And right now, I need my downtime. So the way I see it is like this. I can either help you get out of this ridiculous and highly unprofessional situation you’ve gotten yourself into or—” She used the same contemplative tone Theo did when addressing fellow legislators who were wavering during a vote on one of his bills. “—I can wait for Carlton’s sister to call, and I’ll tell her — very innocently, of course — ‘Gosh, Miss Hayes, I don’t know anything about Representative Ward’s private life. I suggest you talk to his wife about that’.”

  She leaned back in her chair, propped her feet on the corner of the table and studied the nubby yarn of her wool socks. She had played her trump card.

  “You really learned how to play this game, didn’t you, Chief?” he asked.

  “Only from the best.” Sabrina kept her tone breezy.

  Theo chuckled mirthlessly. “You have the heart of a true politician.”

  “Gee, thanks, Hon. Rep.” Why did the compliment make her feel slightly sleazy?

  “You gave me some advice, and I’m gonna take it, because I trust you with my very reputation, Sabrina. Now I’m going to give you some advice, and I hope you listen to it carefully.”

  Here we go, she thought. This was it.

  Theo’s come-to-Jesus talk.

  “You are a woman.” Theo pointed out the obvious.

  “I didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter.” Sabrina propped her phone to her ear with her shoulder and moved to the coffeemaker.

  “We men, we get in the ring and duke it out. But for a woman like you — a gal with a high-powered career — your career is more like Monopoly. You have to keep passing ‘Go.’ You can’t let yourself go to jail.”

  She paused with the coffee scoop in hand. Had Theo just compared her livelihood to a board game? “Where might ‘jail’ be?” she asked.

  “Jail isn’t a where, Sabrina. It’s a who. This Fitz character? He gives me pause.”

  Sabrina scooped out three heaping servings of coffee and dumped them into a filter. “You know something, Theo? The last time I had this type of discussion, it was with my father on the night of my first car date.”

  “I’m just saying that I understand the mutual attraction,” Theo said, trying to play up their simpatico. “You’re alpha to his alpha. That is, until you end up in his own private Iowa. Then everything changes.”

  Sabrina shoved the coffeepot onto the burner and turned the machine on. Without her morning caffeine, she felt a splitting headache coming on. “If you have something to say, just say it, Theo.”

  “This thing between you and this Fitz guy could derail you if you’re not careful,” he warned. “You want somebody who gives you a little thunder and lightning between the sheets? I will not throw a single stone. I’m hardly in the position to. But boxing and Monopoly have two different sets of rules. If I play a little dirty, I’ll probably be the one left standing. Every single move you make is analyzed when you’re in the public eye. If this thing between you and the shock jock is serious…”

  Sabrina had grown tired of weighing the importance of Theo’s cautionary tales.

  “There is no ‘thing.’ There never was,” she said. But putting her feelings aside, she was telling Theo the truth. To describe her connection with Gage as a lusty encounter the same way she would Molly’s flings with bad boys felt demeaning.

  “Well, thank Christ for that.” Theo sounded relieved. “It’s just that when you’re a woman of, ah, your particular age—”

  “—I think the word you’re looking for is ‘childbearing’,” she supplied in a dry voice.

  “Yeah, that,” Theo agreed quickly. “Chief, mind if we get a little personal?”

  “Shoot.” As if she had any choice in the matter.

  “Get married, if that’s your druthers. Find another pedigreed stiff like Sprinkle, one who won’t give you any lip. But Big Red isn’t the one for you. Stick with him, and in two years you’ll be completely out of the loop. You’ll be waking up to two a.m. feedings, stumbling around in the dark to find your robe in a cluttered house—” Sabrina looked at the sink, which was overflowing with dirty dishes again. “—and it won’t give you the warm mushies like those grocery store novels Jill reads. You have a bright future, Sabrina. Once I finally hang it up, you could go far as long as nothing stands in your way.”

  Theo’s voice had taken on a subtle mesmerizing tone. Sabrina felt the back of her neck begin to tingle. It was as though he had crept right into her head.

  All of this was worth it. It has to be worth it, she told herself after Theo hung up. Gage hadn’t spoken the L-word again. He didn’t talk about marriage or babies. But she felt the weight of his love in his eyes and the gentle rumble of his voice. Maybe she’d be a short-lived obsession, like Lacey Adams. Or maybe they’d end up having the same conversation she’d had with Jackson almost verbatim. Until then, she’d be good to him.

  She loved him. What other choice did she have?

  **

  Gage came into the kitchen with four large grocery bags to find Sabrina scowling at the cell phone in her hand.

  “Catching up with the homegirls?” he asked, referring to Molly and her mother.

  “Theo called,” she explained with a listless sigh. “I don’t want to go into it, but suffice it to say he’s on tenterhooks, and that means I dangle along with him. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t ever apologize to me because you have responsibilities, honey.” Gage put the bags on the table. “Hell, I took a leave of absence from the station and all it took to replace me was recordings of myself. You’re golden if you’re needed in real time these days.”

  “I’m not sure I’m quite as golden as you think.” She looked unconvinced as she stuffed the phone back in her bag. Whatever Ward had said to her, it had her rattled, Gage thought.

  “What is all this?” Sabrina peered into one of the grocery sacks. “Gage, there are enough cans in here to stock a bomb shelter.”

  “It gets brutal here during winter.” He began shelving cans in the pantry. “And I probably won’t always feel like going out to ea
t after you go back to Austin. You will eventually have to go back, and I think we both know that.”

  Sabrina plucked a box of macaroni and cheese from one of the bags and paused to look at him with her great, wary eyes before she put it in the pantry with the rest of the dried goods. Something about her slight hesitation and that look set off a distant alarm.

  Gage knew that look.

  He tried to recap their conversation the night before. He’d been deliriously tired both emotionally and physically. He’d probably run his mouth off about something. Whatever that something was, it had made her body to tense up and recoil away from his slightly.

  But he knew one thing. Telling her he loved her wasn’t one of them.

  She loved him too. He’d heard her whispering into his ear softly.

  Or had he just dreamt it all?

  Gage cast an eye around the kitchen. Despite Sabrina’s cleaning jag earlier in that week, the place was starting to dirty up. He traced the pervasive smell of scrambled eggs and corned beef hash to a cast iron skillet he’d left on the stove. He watched her carry it to the sink, which was overflowing with other dirty pots and pans plastered with grease and remnants of yolk.

  Everything about the scene was wrong, he thought.

  Sabrina looked out of place standing in this shabby kitchen, surrounded by his grandmother’s collection of porcelain travel plates and pineapple print wallpaper that had long since lost its cheer. She shouldn’t have been wearing one of his old sweatshirts, her hair scraped up with a clip, cooking his breakfast and then doing the cleaning up.

  Like him, she had worked hard to make a respectable life for herself. Damned if he’d let her settle for anything else but the best he could possibly give her — even if that wasn’t much.

  She was about to reach for the dishwashing detergent when he reached around her and turned off the faucet.

  “Don’t.” Gage told her gently. “I’ll hire one of the local women to come in tomorrow and clean up.”

  “You don’t need to do that,” Sabrina protested.

  “Yes, I do.” He wrapped his arms around her waist. “I don’t want you to get into any bad habits. You’re the Chief of Staff, remember? You won’t have time to play domestic diva once you get home and hit the ground running.”

  “It hasn’t been that bad. I learned how to cook macaroni and cheese from scratch,” she said. “That’s a good skill to have in a pinch. Like Nola always says, you have to know how to make a good sandwich before you learn how to make the bread.”

  Gage smiled. He got a kick at the earnest practicality in her voice.

  “Something tells me I’m going to love your mother.” He laughed and planted a kiss on the back of her neck. Standing there with her in his arms watching blinding drifts of snow coming down outside the kitchen window, he realized that the moment was almost perfect. It would have been perfect, had it been any other time and place. And had he been in a different state of mind. He hadn’t exactly been himself lately.

  “I’m still in here somewhere, Sabrina,” he murmured into her hair. “Things will change.”

  She struggled out of his grasp. “I know they will,” she said. Gage noticed that her voice was lower and raspier than normal.

  “I thought you’d like to drive into Des Moines with me from now on,” he said. “See a movie, do some shopping, whatever you like. You’ve been cooped up here in Walden long enough.”

  “I’d love to, but—” She stopped mid-sentence and stared at his chest.

  “What is it, darlin’?” he asked, tipping her chin up with his forefinger.

  “Nothing that needs to be your problem. Theo has a way of getting me worked up.” Gage had noticed that Sabrina’s demands at work frequently left her irritated and exhausted but never worried. But this morning, she was.

  “Theo Ward is a career politician,” he reasoned. “You don’t get where he is without mastering a certain level of manipulation. And if it’s your problem, it’s my problem, too.”

  A new emotion spread across her face, one that he hadn’t seen before. It looked a lot like guilt. There was something else she wasn’t telling him. He was sure of it.

  “Thank you for being so understanding about this, Gage,” she said. “I have to proof some press releases and get them back to Carlton tomorrow. I’ll need to get to the coffee shop before the morning rush, or else I’ll—”

  He planted a palm on each side of her face and kissed her quiet.

  “You don’t need to wind out the tale, darlin’. I can drop you off in the morning on my way out. The weather’s supposed to be hellish.”

  “No, please don’t.” Her voice sounded slightly panicked. “What I mean is, I don’t know what time I’ll want to leave or come back or — Gage, just go without me. I’ve become a really good driver.”

  “Thank god for Fargo,” he said with a smile.

  “Yeah.” She coughed into her hand and then cleared her throat. “D’you want to go to Nicki’s tonight for dinner? I was so looking forward to seeing the lake.” She gave him an eager look.

  “Take your bells off, baby.” He looked at her with paternal concern. “Your face looks flushed, and I don’t like the sound of that cough.”

  “Really, Gage—”

  “Hmm, I thought so,” he said, laying a hand across her brow. “Feels like you have a fever.”

  “That’s ridiculous.” Sabrina tried to suppress another cough. “I never get sick. I can’t get sick.”

  “Something tells me the little microorganisms that have invaded your lungs would beg to differ. Humor me and jump into your pajamas. I’ll make a food run. After that, it’s straight to bed. No fooling around.”

  “Absolutely none?” An impish smile tugged at her mouth. “You’ve given me no hope to live.”

  Gage grinned at the simmering, seductive look she was sending his way from underneath those long lashes. He’d needed to be close to her in every way, and she hadn’t just obliged; sensing his need for physical closeness, she’d initiated contact, and she’d done so freely and quite creatively. Their sex life together would never get boring, and he knew that to be a fact.

  “Well, maybe we can fool around a little,” he told her with a wink. “I’ll reserve judgment for when the time comes.” He slung on his jacket and searched around for his car keys.

  “Gage?” Sabrina asked. He could still see the heat of attraction in her eyes, but there was a hesitant look on her face that he couldn’t interpret. Then he saw that she was shivering slightly.

  “What is it?” He paused in the doorway. “Are you cold? D’you need me to turn up the heat?”

  “No. You’re right. I don’t feel well. Before you go, I want — I need you to tell you that — never mind,” she sighed and snuggled into his chest. “Just hold me for a little while longer.”

  Gage did just that. Sabrina pressed her cheek against the flannel of his shirt, closed her eyes and sighed. Never had he met a woman who made him look forward to spending his life with her forever. He could always predict she’d be unpredictable. A day might come when he could interpret her moods like he would words in a book, but she’d always be like a second language to him, never completely familiar and slightly difficult to read.

  She would always be his biggest challenge.

  As Gage got into the Tahoe, the unsettled feeling he’d felt in the kitchen resurfaced and became stronger. He backed the vehicle onto the snow-packed street, put it in drive and drove away slowly. He didn’t want to put any distance between them right now. He wanted to be with Sabrina every minute.

  Because when she stood in the kitchen stammering and shivering in his arms, he couldn’t shake the strange feeling that she struggling not to tell him goodbye.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Sabrina sat huddled in a chair at a corner table, sipping her mocha latte and half-heartedly nibbling the corner of a currant scone. Her tonsils were as swollen as ripe figs, and a fever raged under a clammy brow. Gage hadn’t been please
d when she had insisted on venturing out to the coffeehouse, but she had to get the press release talking up Theo’s bills in by noon or Carlton would be in fits.

  She read over the draft once more before she hit “Send.”

  There is the path of lesser resistance, she reminded herself. Money was no longer a problem now that she’d paid off the loan on the house. Plenty of women took pride in the sense of accomplishment they derived just from being wives and mothers. She plopped her chin in her hand and traced the star pattern on the Formica tabletop with her nail. It wasn’t as though she couldn’t have a job at all. She could work flexible hours at Ella’s, maybe do some consulting work on the side. She and Gage would need a second income so they could afford a bigger house in Shady Oak Hills to accommodate their growing family.

  Shady Oak Hills—?

  Sabrina blinked and snapped out of it, appalled. Here she was, sitting alone in a tiny coffee shop in Walden, Iowa, undone by the power of her own irrational persuasion. She hadn’t finished her first cup of coffee. Of course she wasn’t thinking straight.

  She sipped the steaming liquid and idly scrolled down her inbox, passing over emails from Theo and Carlton with frantic-looking subject lines until she got to the end of the queue.

  From: molly@lechateauduparker…

  To: sabrina@lascasadimarch…

  Subject: You’ve Arrived

  Dearest Brini,

  I got no advice for you, sweetie. Honestly, did you really need it?

  I have to confess something. I had my doubts that you’d survive the flatlands. The Buckeye State. No, wait. Ohio’s the Buckeye State. What’s Iowa? I can’t remember. It has the word “eye” in it. Or maybe “corn.” Forget it. I’m too lazy to Google it. You’re probably thinking that if you see another snowflake, that’s one too many for this particular incarnation. Gage’s problems are no doubt weighing on your mind, too. But you’re still there, tractor pulls and all.

  Welcome home, sister of mine.

  Welcome to the world of mature, adult love. Think of your relationships with Jackson and the kayakers as training wheels for the scary part. The part when you finally learn how to keep your balance. Are you ready for what happens next, Sabrina March? Gage’s priorities will change — a lot. Facing the D-word (See? It remains my bête noir, even though the two of us became intimately acquainted when I lost my parents) makes you think about what you’ve done with your own life. It also makes you think about what you want in your future. There’s only so much we can do with the time we have. So if you and Gage want the same things out of life, you’re almost all the way there.