Love Proof (Laws of Attraction) (11 page)

Sarah looked up and met his gaze.  “Thanks.”

“Sure thing.”

They hadn’t spoken very much.  Just a few words that morning at LAX,
then a few more as they waited in St. Louis to switch planes.

She wasn’t sure why they didn’t talk, but she also didn’t mind.  The
two of them weren’t competing against each other directly—teams from each
school would be randomly assigned teams from other schools to go up against in
the preliminary rounds—but Burke felt like her competition nonetheless.  She
had sat through three of his and Ellen’s practice arguments, and was impressed
with him each time.

He never seemed to feel rushed or nervous.  The guest judges could bark
questions at him one after another, and he always took the time to offer a
patient explanation of why the judge’s point was a good one, but didn’t change
the outcome Joe was arguing for.  He always acknowledged any case law that
seemed to hurt him, but then explained why it didn’t apply to this situation.

Sarah listened to those answers carefully, using them to prepare her
own arguments for the other side.

Joe sat in on a few of Mickey’s and her rehearsals, too, Sarah noticed,
although he always left before they finished.  She assumed he was doing the
same thing she was, scouting the arguments for the other side so he could
better prepare for the competition.

But now all that preparation was over, and it was time to see how far
they could all get.  Preliminary rounds would begin the next morning, with the
top two teams advancing to the finals on Saturday.  There would be an awards
banquet Friday night, announcing the finalists, then another banquet Saturday, then
everyone would leave Sunday morning to return to their classes the next day.

“Trying to steal my girl?” Mickey asked as he came over to stand too
close to where Joe warmed Sarah’s hands.

“Not your girl,” Sarah reminded him, “and I’m freezing.  Thanks,
Burke,” she said, starting to withdraw her hands.  He gave them one more
squeeze before he let them go.

“Ready?” Ellen asked, holding up a key.

“You go ahead,” Joe said.  “I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

Ellen scoffed.  “What do you mean, you’ll see us tomorrow?”

“Seven AM breakfast at the school, right?” Joe said.  “I’ll see you
there.”

He stepped up to the rental counter while Ellen continued gaping at
him.  “Joe, what are you doing?  Let’s go.”

He told the man behind the counter his name, then turned back to Ellen
and answered her with that same calm voice Sarah had heard him use on judges
trying to rattle him.  “I’m taking care of this myself.  Don’t worry, it’s my
own money.  I’ll see you all tomorrow.  Have a good night.”  He offered that
last sentiment to Sarah alone.

“But . . . what about the hotel?” Ellen asked.  “We’ll see you there,
right?”

“Nope, taking care of that, too,” Joe said.  “I stopped sharing rooms
when my brother moved out.”

Ellen had a few more things to say, but Joe ignored her.  Instead he slipped
Sarah a relaxed smile before turning around again to deal with the rental
agent.

“Come on,” Sarah said, tugging Ellen by the arm.  “It’s too cold to
keep standing around.  Let’s get to the hotel.”

As the three of them walked toward the exit that would lead to the
garage, Sarah looked back one more time and saw Joe watching her.  She gave him
a single, approving nod.  Then she turned and followed her classmates out the
door.

***

“I have
had
it with that guy,” Ellen said as soon as she and
Sarah were alone in their room.  Sarah tried to seem busy unpacking her clothes
and hanging them in the closet.  “You have no idea how obstinate he is,” Ellen said. 
“I’ve had to fight him on absolutely everything.”

“Like what?” Sarah asked.  She couldn’t remember any fights she’d had
with Mickey.

Ellen counted them off on her fingers.  “Who should brief which
arguments.  Who should lead at the oral argument.  Which cases we should
include and which we should wait for the judges to bring up.”  Ellen shook her
head.  “It’s too long to go into.  I wish I had your partner.”

Funny, Sarah thought, she’d been thinking the same thing about Joe. 
From what she had seen of him during practice, the two of them would have made
a much stronger team than either of them with their existing partners.  Not
that Mickey or Ellen wouldn’t do well, but maybe not as well as Sarah and Joe together.

“You saw how he is,” Ellen said.  “He never even told me he was going
to get his own car.  And I went to all that trouble with the hotel rooms.”

“But you only told us about that this morning,” Sarah pointed out.  If
she’d thought of it—and had the extra money to spare—she wouldn’t have minded
booking a room all to herself, too.  So far every move of Joe’s was one she
wished she had made.

“Are you and Mickey dating?” Ellen asked.

“What?  No.”

“I heard what he said to Joe about stealing his girl.”

“We’re just teammates,” Sarah said.  “Mickey likes to joke around.”

“Wish we could switch,” Ellen said.  “I think Mickey’s a lot smarter. 
And he’s obviously a lot easier to work with.”

“Hm,” Sarah answered noncommittally.  Ellen could think whatever she
wanted.

Sarah escaped into the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. 
She would save the shower until the morning so she only risked getting her hair
wet the one time.  She had gotten up early that morning to give it the maximum
attention before she had to rush to the airport.  Now if it would just behave
for the next twenty-four hours, that was one less detail to worry about.

“I hope you brought ear plugs,” Ellen called from the other room.

Sarah had a bad feeling.  “Why?”

“I don’t really sleep,” Ellen said.  “So you might hear me practicing
during the night.”

“Great . . . ” Sarah answered herself in the mirror.

She hoped Mickey and Joe were both enjoying having their rooms all to
themselves.

***

At two-thirty in the morning, Sarah had finally had enough.

“Ellen, either go downstairs or shut up.”

“I
told
you,” Ellen said, as if that made up for all the
mumbling and pacing and gesticulating she’d been doing on and off for the past
several hours.

Sarah groaned and pressed the pillow over her head once more.  She
could still hear Ellen whispering, “Yes, your honor, but as you know, the
constitutional right to privacy must be always balance the needs of the
individual against the interests of the state—”

“Ellen!”

“I’m sorry, I’ll try to be quieter.”

But Sarah could still hear her for the next hour or two until one or
both of them finally passed out.

***

“Shit,” Mickey said when he saw her.

“Don’t say
anything
.”  Sarah was still trying to contain her
rage.  She knew her pale face looked blotchy.  She knew the pillow she pressed
to her head all night had left her uncontrollable hair even unrulier than
usual.  And she knew her eyes looked as red and raw as they felt.  “That woman
is the devil.”

Joe Burke walked up to Mickey and Sarah in time to hear her assessment.

“Took me longer to figure that out,” he said.  “By then it was too late
to find a new partner.”

“At least you didn’t have to sleep in the same room with her,” Sarah
said.

“A gentleman can always say no,” Joe said.

“Are you kidding me?” Sarah said with a harsh laugh.  “Are you saying
she actually tried?”

“You know how it is,” Joe said, looking from Sarah to Mickey.

“No,” she answered emphatically, “I don’t.”

Mickey wrapped an arm around Sarah’s shoulders and gave them a
squeeze.  “Too bad, Burke.  You should be more careful who you link up with.”

It wasn’t hard to catch the territorialism behind Mickey’s gesture. 
Sarah wasn’t in the mood.  Her nerves felt so close to the surface she was
having a hard time being pleasant to anyone.  She stepped out of Mickey’s
embrace.

“Have they announced the assignments?” Joe asked her.

“Not yet,” she said.

“I’m getting coffee,” he offered.  “Want some?”

“Yeah, that’d be great.  Thanks.”

“Black for me,” Mickey said.

Joe gave no sign that he heard him.

While Joe drifted toward the breakfast buffet table, Sarah continued to
fume.  “You’d better pray we don’t go on until this afternoon,” she told
Mickey.  “Then at least I can go back and get some sleep.”

“You can stay in my room, if you want,” he said.

“Very funny,” she said.

“I’m not being funny, Sarah.”

“What did I say?” she reminded him.  “This is not an opportunity to get
into my pants.”

She didn’t realize she said it so loudly until she saw a few heads turn
in her direction.

One of them was Joe’s.  He caught her eye and gave her an amused smile.

Sarah turned her back to him and lowered her voice.  “I’m
this
close to losing it, Mickey, so don’t push me today.  And I’d better see you
doing your rosary or whatever that is for an afternoon slot.”

But when the schedule for the preliminary rounds was finally announced,
Sarah groaned and dropped her forehead against Mickey’s chest.  “Ten-thirty? 
Why?”

Mickey wrapped both arms around her and pulled her in close.  Sarah
lifted her head up again and gave it a hard shake.

“Okay, we can do this,” she said, extricating herself from Mickey’s
arms.  “I just need about fifty more cups of coffee.”

She went in search of Ellen to get a ride back to the hotel.  Both of
them still needed to change and get ready.

Ellen was busy arguing with Joe.  “I
told
you you should have
stayed with us!”

“What’s the problem?” Sarah asked.

“Our argument’s not until eleven,” Ellen said.  “We’d still have time
for one more practice, but Mr. Defiant here is at some hotel way on the other
side of town, and won’t be able to get back until right before we go on.”

Joe looked at Sarah and shrugged.

But there was something about the look he gave her that she didn’t
quite understand.

“Ellen, we need to get ready,” Sarah said.  “Let’s go.”

“In a minute,” Ellen said.  “I want to go look at the list first.”

“We already know who we’re all paired with—” Sarah started to say.

“I can take you,” Joe interrupted.

“No,” Ellen told him.  “You’ll be too late.  Just go back and change
and meet me here as soon as you can.”

Joe ignored her and kept his eyes on Sarah.  “Ready to go now?”

“Yes.”

The idea of getting away from Ellen even for the space of a short car
ride to the hotel sounded too good to pass up.  Even being free of Mickey for a
little while would be good for Sarah’s nerves.  She needed quiet and solitude,
without people picking at her and talking to her.  Burke didn’t seem to need to
fill the air with noise.  And he wasn’t constantly touching her the way Mickey was
lately.

“I’ll meet you back at the hotel,” she told Mickey.  “The three of us
can ride back together.”

“Okay, but I’ll need at least an hour to do my hair and makeup,” Ellen warned
her.  “So try to be out of the bathroom before I get back.”

Try not to strangle you with my bare hands,
Sarah thought, but she was too tired to bother
answering.

“Ready?” Joe asked her.

Sarah led the way from the room.

Once they were in the car, she leaned her head back against the seat
and closed her eyes.  “I hope this isn’t too out of your way.”

“It’s not,” he said.  “My hotel’s right next to yours.”

Sarah looked over at him.  “But I thought you were way across town?”

Joe gave her a look back.

“Oh,” she said, smiling for the first time that day.  “You just don’t
want to have to practice again.”

“Would you?”

“God, no,” Sarah said.

They rode in silence for a few minutes before Joe said, “I tried to get
you, you know.”

“What do you mean?”

“As a partner.  I was going to ask you at our first Moot Court meeting,
but Hughes beat me to it.”

“Really?”  A warmth flushed over Sarah’s face.  But her nerves were
still too raw to enjoy the sensation.  She felt ready to jump out of her skin.

“So I did the next best thing and signed up for the same competition.”

“Joe, are you serious?”

“Hundred percent.”

“That’s . . . nice.  But why?”

“You’re great at this,” Joe said.  “I like watching what you do.  I
think we would have made an unbeatable team.”

“I like watching you, too,” Sarah admitted.  She leaned back against
the headrest again and closed her eyes.  “Oh, well.”  She tried to make it
sound light, but the regret actually felt heavy.