Something About You (Just Me & You) (40 page)

Gage froze momentarily. Sabrina had been listening to
everything. He hadn’t felt this nervous since his first day on the job. He
willed himself to speak.

“Whoa. It seems that our old friend from the House of
Representatives is back. Wonder what she has to say today. You there, House?”

At first, Gage heard nothing but silence. Then the familiar
husky timbre of Sabrina’s voice was coming at him in stereo.

“I broke up with someone not too long ago,” she told him.
“He was everything I’d been searching for.”

“Yet you done the poor hombre wrong,” Gage said with a
dramatic
tsk
. “You confuse me, House.”

“Oh yeah? Imagine how he feels,” she responded dryly. “I’ll
wager it’s a lot worse than I do right now, and I feel like sh — I feel
awful.”

“So tell me about this guy.” Gage felt himself begin to
relax. He kicked back in his chair and put his feet on the edge of the desk.
“What was it about him that makes you give him such mad props?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Gideon shaking
his head and slapping a palm across his forehead.

“At first, it was the small things,” she confessed. “He
really made a first impression. First, he pissed me off — that’s how he
got my attention. Then he made me laugh. He’s a wonderful ballroom dancer. He
bought me the best hot dogs I’ve ever eaten. He taught me not to take myself so
seriously.”

“Sounds like you snagged yourself a stellar dude, House.”
Gage kept his voice even. “Do go on.”

“He’s also one of the most selfless people I’ve ever met.
He’s made sacrifices that most people can’t dream of making, and he made them
out of love, without expecting a single thing in return. That’s what really
sealed the deal.” Sabrina’s voice broke just a little.

Gage found it difficult to continue. He couldn’t even
swallow.
So this is how it’s going to be.
She was making it impossible
for Fitz to keep up his ballsy bluster.

“So then maybe you can explain this ‘love ’em yet leave ’em’
phenomenon to all of the perfectly decent, willing single dudes out there who
want to settle down. Because hey — we’re clueless.” Something compelled
Gage to make her keep talking. As long as she did, he had a chance in hell of
figuring her out.

And finding out where everything went wrong.

“I can’t speak for every woman,” she began tentatively. “I
can only speak for myself. I’ve never had a man love me before — at least
not like this. I couldn’t believe that his love for me would last, so I called
it off in the most cowardly way. You can’t imagine.”

“Oh, I think I probably can,” Gage assured her, thinking of
the letter she’d left behind.

“Your SHB probably isn’t too different from me, Fitz.” Her
voice had taken on a forlorn note. “She was trying to protect herself.”

“Still sounds like your garden variety cop out to me.” Gage
kept his voice even.

There still was something Sabrina wasn’t telling him. What
was it? Their on-air discourse was only confusing him more. And it made him
miss her all over again.

“I’d probably feel the same way if I were you.” There was a
pregnant pause. Then she said, “I guess the real reason I called was to tell
you that nothing about the way she feels about you has changed. Believe that if
you believe nothing else.”

Gage did want to believe her. But far more than that, he
wanted to forgive her. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Gideon
motioning to him to move it along.

“I do,” he said. But he heard nothing but silence on
Sabrina’s end. “House, you still there?”

More silence. She’d hung up.

“Okay, next caller!” Gideon jumped in quickly. “We got
ourselves a single dude on the line — thank god.”

Gage conjured up his Fitz persona and took another couple of
calls. One was from a car salesman who had just cracked his fourth beer of the
morning after finding out that his former girlfriend had hooked up with his
boss. The second caller was in the process of emptying the contents of his
ex-fiancée’s lingerie drawer onto the street from their fifth-floor condo.

The weeks after New Year’s were always prime dumping season,
Gage thought.

He pictured Sabrina sitting behind her desk at the Capitol
chewing on her lower lip nervously while she decided how much of her soul to
bare on air. She’d always desperately wanted to tell him something. She still
did. Moreover, she wanted him. He could hear it in the small breaks in her
voice.

He was willing to meet her halfway this time, but that was
all. The rest was all up to her.

“That was way heavy,” Gideon informed him gloomily during
the next commercial break. “Keep it up, Fitzgerald, and we can kiss our ratings
goodbye.”

Gage glanced out the window at a low-lying nimbus of
formless gray, a sure indicator that the weather was about to change. He had
lived in the Midwest long enough to know exactly what those clouds meant.

“Screw the ratings,” he said.

Sabrina tried to keep busy for the rest of the day. If she
allowed herself any downtime, she was likely to dwell on Gage. Theo had farmed
out the oldest Wardling’s homework between her and Violetta for
double-checking. Sabrina redlined a science report, replacing each “dolfin”
with “dolphin” and helpfully writing in the margin that in Japan, the mammals
were hunted for their meat.

So Gage was back in Austin. He had to be staying someplace.
Where?
The Chateau was the most likely place, although surely Molly would have said
something to her. Unless he’d gotten back late last night. There was still the
matter of his belongings. He’d eventually want to move them out. That could be
uncomfortable if both of them were in the house at the same time. Maybe she could
sleep on Carlton’s sofa for a couple of days.

The rest of the Think Tank was empty. Moira and Carlton were
probably at committee hearings. Or maybe not, Sabrina thought, remembering the
way the gray light seemed to fill the fishbowl like cloudy sediment when she
took her last coffee break. She checked her watch. Was it really almost four
o’clock? The only thing she could hear was Theo rattling paper around inside
his office more loudly than he usually did. While she was returning a call, the
phone at the front desk squawked, and she could hear Violetta discussing
something with Theo.

As Sabrina was placing the phone back in its cradle, she
jumped at the sound of Violetta clearing her throat from the doorway.

“Theo wants you in his office,” the receptionist informed
her. “He asked me to fetch you. Just so you’ll be forewarned, he sounds—” She
hesitated and gave Sabrina a fretful look.

“Pissy?”

“‘Put-out’ is a better word for it.” Violetta rolled her
eyes. “He took a long call from someone named Benold during lunch.”

Terry Benold, a prominent family law attorney, had a
reputation of securing lucrative divorce settlements for scorned society wives
and gold diggers with prenups. So it had come to this, Sabrina thought
sorrowfully. She wished Jill had waited until after session ended to file.

“You know the Hon. Rep.,” Sabrina told Violetta. “His rattle
is worse than his strike.”

She was going to hate this part. The part where negotiations
between Theo and Jill ceased, and he became demanding and clingy. She was glad
she was still wearing her no-nonsense “Floor clothes,” an inauspicious black
wool suit, patent pumps and, heaven help her, a pearl choker. She found Theo
sitting behind his desk examining large drawings of the elaborate stucco
condominiums she’d seen on the cover of the construction brochure. When he
didn’t look up, Sabrina cleared her throat.

“Come in for a spell, Chief.” He paused to look at her
briefly before studying the pictures again. “I was admiring the latest Tide
Brothers Construction endeavor.”

“Epic,” she commented as she leaned over the desk to inspect
a drawing of a swimming pool that spanned the rooftop. “Does it come with its
own ski dock?”

Theo gave her an irritated glance, shuffled the papers to
the side, and clasped his hands in front of his desk.

“Counseling isn’t working,” he informed her somberly.
“Jillian and I have decided to divorce. I thought you should know.”

It could have been Sabrina’s imagination, but he looked
slightly relieved.

“D’you mean to tell me that Jill didn’t fall into your arms
when you revealed your xeriscaping plans?” she asked. “I don’t see how your
personal decisions are any of my business, Theo.”

The words came out more pointed than she intended, but she
was still smarting over the Hon. Rep.’s “own private Iowa” remark. He appeared
not to notice.

“On the contrary, they are,” Theo went on. “I’m going to run
in the next election. It might be a bumpier rodeo, because voters favor a
married candidate over a single one, even if the single candidate is an incumbent.
A divorce could hurt me in the polls, and if it hurts me, it hurts you. You
like being my Chief of Staff, don’t you, Sabrina?”

“It’s pure magic.”

“Great!” Theo slapped his hands on his desk, immune to the
wariness in her voice. “We need to work on our game. Increase the visibility of
our platform. Why, this could be a real challenge!”

“We could refile my omnibus bill,” Sabrina suggested,
struggling to keep her hope in check. “Pep it up with a catchy campaign slogan,
something voters can’t forget. How ’bout ‘Women and Children First’?”

“No, no, we need new ideas,” Theo said with a dismissive
wave. “According to some political consultants, the whole ‘eco-friendly’ craze
will have run its course by then. Of course, we’ll want to keep up the whole green
image — that can’t hurt us, Chief. But ‘urban revitalization’ is a lot
sexier. That’s what we should run with. Speaking of which, I’ve arranged a
supporter meeting for you with Jed and Josiah Tide tomorrow so you can all do
some brainstorming. Stylus that into your smart phone. The rest of the
builders’ association members want face time with you too, of course. You meet
with—”

Suddenly, the room began to sway. The office looked much
smaller, most of its free space engulfed by the large expanse of Theo’s desk.
Sabrina could feel the triple latte she’d gulped down that morning eating away
at the tender lining of her stomach. 

I probably should have eaten that empanada …

She tried to keep her eyes trained on Theo. She could see a
man’s lips moving, but they didn’t belong to the Hon. Rep.; Jackson’s face
filtered into her mind with dizzying clarity, as did the decisive tone in his
voice.
I’ll want at least two children. We’ll start trying immediately,
given your age. I’ll tell Theo that you’re resigning if you don’t want to do it
yourself. Sabrina? Are you listening to me?

“Sabrina.” Theo clapped his hands to get her attention.
“Earth to Chief!”

She still felt a little out of it from the intensity of the
flashback. With a strength she didn’t know she possessed, she shoved the memory
and all of the feelings it evoked back down into the unreachable recesses of
her mind. Finally, she found her voice.

“No,” she said firmly.

Theo straightened himself in his chair and squinted at her.
“The hell—? What do you mean, no?”

“No to the meetings. No to the Tides. No to everything.”
Sabrina felt her mouth moving, her words directed from a part of her that had
long been dormant. “If I’m in any way, shape or form forging public policy for
the state of Texas, it’s going to benefit the people, not the Tide Brothers’
wallets, and I’m claiming ownership of it, too. I’ve just made a big decision,
Theo.”

“When?” He looked perplexed.

“Thirty seconds ago.” Sabrina took the deepest breath she
had ever taken and said, “I’m running for your seat in the next election.”

An amused smile played on his lips. “Good one, Chief. For a
second there, I could have sworn you were serious. Joke’s on me, right? Now
let’s get back to—”

“—I’m not joking, Hon. Rep.,” Sabrina cut in firmly. “I think
you know me well enough to know that I’d never joke about something like this.”

The astonishment on Theo’s face was replaced with
displeasure. He pushed his chair away from his desk slightly to survey her
critically.

“I’m gonna shoot straight with you,” he said. “You’ve been
ornery as hell lately — more ornery than me, and I’m the one getting phone
calls from that viper, Terry Benold. Now you walk into my office and spout some
nonsense about usurping my position in this legislature? What the hell happened
in Iowa?”

“This has nothing to do with Iowa.” Sabrina didn’t know if
that was entirely true, but even if it wasn’t, Theo had no business knowing
about it. “And I’m not trying to usurp you, Theo. I’m going to put myself out
there and let the voters decide if they want me to represent them.”

“Dear lord,” he groaned. “Next I suppose you’ll tell me that
you’re jumping party lines.”

“Didn’t even cross my mind, actually,” she said, her voice
still cool. “I’m running as an Independent candidate.” 

“Say
what
—? An Independ—? Are you out of your
ever-loving—?” At a loss for words, Theo opened and closed his mouth a few
times, then shook his head in disbelief. “Excuse me, hello?” He gave her a look
to indicate that she was clearly off her rocker. “You do know how politics
work, right? Men like the Tide Brothers, they’re the ones who decide who can
run for office, and I can assure you, they’ve already laid their bets on a
known quantity. So who’s going to fund your war chest?”

“The people who want to see me get elected.” Sabrina
realized how naïve the words probably sounded as soon as they were out of her
mouth. “I’ll take my campaign grass roots. I have friends and neighbors who’ll
support me. I have a
lot
of them, in fact. I’ll throw fundraisers. I’ll
appeal to advocacy groups. I’ll go door to door if I have to. If I still don’t
raise enough money, I’ll take out a second mortgage.”

“Just to be clear, you do not have my blessing to run for my
seat,” Theo told her mindfully through gritted teeth.

She shrugged. “I didn’t expect you’d give it to me.”

“I guess that means we won’t be working together anymore.”
He put on his downtrodden face, having decided to try a different tactic. “Oh,
well. We had ten long years. Most marriages don’t even last that long.” He
looked up at her hopefully. “You’ll at least stay until the end of session?”

Sabrina sighed. “Jesus, Theo. I’m not so cold that I’d leave
my coworkers in a lurch.”

“Good, then.” He seemed relieved. “After that, we’ll say our
goodbyes and go our separate paths. I wish you well in your future endeavors,
Sabrina.” He stood up and extended his hand. Sabrina stepped forward and gave
it a firm shake.

“I suppose I should say thank you,” she said, immediately
suspicious. He was “validating” her feelings again. To what end?

“But about this whole Independent candidate idea of yours?”
he went on, shaking his head. “You don’t have the reputation or the clout,
Chief. You’ll never be able to pull it off.” He retracted his hand and flicked
imaginary dust from the cuff of his jacket.

Up until that point, Sabrina had been ready to take back
everything she had said. To tell the Hon. Rep. that she had been kidding around
after all. But his final statement, punctuated with a gesture so cursory and
dismissive, steadied her resolve.

She looked him square in the eye without blinking and said,
“Yes, I will.”

She didn’t bother to wait around for his response. Instead,
she turned around and strode toward the door.

“Sabrina, wait just a minute here!” Theo bawled from behind
her.

But she was already out of the room. She gathered her coat
and bag hastily before he could tag her on her way out of the office. Nothing
more needed to be said. Not that she trusted herself to speak, at least not to
Theo. She needed to be away from everything and everyone.

Legislators and their staffers loitered in the Annex
talking. Committee hearings were just letting out for the day. Sabrina spotted
Carlton and Moira trudging down the hall. She started to lift a hand to get
their attention but stopped. She wasn’t in the mood to fill them in on what
just went down in Theo’s office. Then she noticed that the loiterers were
staring into the fishbowl.

Was it—?
Really?
Surely it couldn’t be. There was
nothing in the weather forecast that hinted at this. Sabrina walked up to the
glass and marveled at the large flakes of snow that drifted down into the
outdoor rotunda like feathers. If the weather held out all night, tomorrow
would be one of Austin’s rare snow days.

She took the elevator to the main rotunda. Pushing open the
heavy doors of the Capitol’s grand south entrance, she was greeted with a blast
of frigid air that she hadn’t felt since she’d left Iowa. She pulled her coat
around her tighter and walked down the steps that led to the majestic grounds.
She paused and looked behind her. The sight of the snowfall cast against the
dusky pink Capitol and a deep bluish-gray sky filled her with awe and
melancholy.

Nola would have stood up and cheered, Sabrina thought. But
she didn’t feel like patting herself on the back. She’d actually gone and done
it. She’d tossed away an established career as Theo’s Chief of Staff as though
it meant no more to her than one of his biodegradable cups. He had been right
about a couple of things. She didn’t have his reputation or his clout. But she
had announced that she was running for his seat, and she wouldn’t back down.
Couldn’t.
At least Carlton and Violetta would get behind her, and possibly Moira too.

Otherwise, she was on her own.

The Capitol building was rapidly emptying as people made a
beeline toward the parking garage. Between the sound of doors opening and
closing, she could hear the soft sound of snowflakes hitting her shoulders. Now
the stuff was coming down faster, salting the grounds and its monuments white.

Sabrina couldn’t bear the thought of going home to an empty
house one more time. Or watching television in Gage’s room with her cup of tea
and a carton of whatever takeout food happened to suit her fancy. Most of the
local restaurants would be closing up shop because of the inclement weather
anyway.

A long-ago memory suddenly swept into her mind so fleetingly
she had to cling to it tightly before it blew through her like the March wind.
It was a mild spring day, and everyone in the Corners community had gathered at
Ella’s to celebrate the Fontaines’ sixtieth wedding anniversary. Some of
Grandma Ella’s former boarders, now elderly themselves, had even showed up.
Nola had brought a large dish of her chicken and dumplings to contribute to the
potluck dinner. The neighborhood children gave Ike and Ella handmade cards
drawn in crayon and fistfuls of flowers plucked from their parents’ gardens.