Free Something About You (Just Me & You) by Lelaina Landis Page A

‘To a career woman like Sabrina March, marriage is
like haute couture. Either she can pull it off with impeccable elan, or she
looks completely ridiculous in it’.”
    “I take it I fall in the ridiculous category,” Sabrina said
stiffly.
    Evangeline Hayes, a journalist for the Lone Star Monthly ,
had a way of cutting directly to the chase that often involved the use of
imaginative metaphors. But unlike Carlton, who could turn socially correct on a
dime, she had absolutely no filter.
    “Eva does have a point.” He looked at Sabrina sheepishly and
shrugged slender shoulders draped in fashionable lightweight wool. “Marriage
doesn’t really become you, Sabrina.”
    She retreated to the Think Tank to ponder. She tried and
failed to remember the first time she and Jackson kissed. The first time they
slept together was woven somewhere in a busy tapestry of receptions and
election year events. She couldn’t remember that either. At least not in great
detail. She suddenly wished the day were over. She needed hot cocoa and a hen
session in Molly’s kitchen, only Molly was still in Paris.
    “Marriage doesn’t become me,” Sabrina said, staring at a
pile of correspondence.
    “Sabrina!” Carlton hissed, popping through the doorway.
“Theo’s inbound!”
    “Shit!” She lunged toward the cartons labeled “Austin
Sustainables” and pulled a biodegradable coffee cup from one of the boxes. Then
she deftly peeled the lid from her latte, poured the contents into the cup, and
hastily stuffed the offending Styrofoam in the bottom drawer of her desk, where
it joined a half-dozen others. The biodegradable container immediately began to
wilt at first contact with fluid.
    Charisma had been an abstract concept until Sabrina first
laid eyes on the Hon. Rep. Theodore Ward at an inaugural reception at the
Austin Club. The freshman legislator had walked into the room with a stunning
blond wife draped on his arm, and every quark in the room seemed to go haywire
with energy. Theo hadn’t been particularly policy smart at the beginning of his
career, but he was naturally blessed with a statesman’s stature and the gift of
gab. Sabrina had been a lowly research assistant at the time and young enough
to be impressed by appearance. She could tell by the way Theo effortlessly
worked his way around the room that he would wind his way up the political
pecking order in a similar fashion.  
    “Carlton, my man! Where’s my distinguished Chief of Staff?”
Theo brayed happily as he strode into the office, his car keys clattering
against his briefcase. The smell of Hermes Un Jardins Sur Le Nil snaked
its way into the Think Tank. “Sabrina!” Theo yelled. “Come in here and show me
that pretty face.”
    Grasping the flaccid coffee cup and Theo’s planner, she
walked toward his office purposefully, smoothing wrinkles from her
coffee-stained skirt with her free hand. Theo was already inside, unloading the
contents of his recycled leather briefcase onto his desk: manila folders, law
journals, pocket parts to various statutes, energy drinks, and Clif Bars.
    “Armed to the teeth with caffeine and schedules, I see.” He
glanced at her amicably, then set the empty briefcase aside and sank into his
big leather chair. “Only my Chief of Staff is this organized first thing on a
Monday morning.”
    “I seem to recall that’s the reason you hired me, Theo,”
Sabrina said, sitting down in a smaller chair in front of his desk. The cup in
her hand was rapidly becoming soggy.
    “True.” He leaned back and put his feet on the edge of his
desk. “You sure made an impression on the Tide Brothers.” He tossed out the
name of one of his biggest campaign donors. “Just the other day, Josiah Tide
told me, ‘That wingwoman of yours is a rare breed. She has too much ambition to
be stuffed in a trophy case’ — and this was after you dumped his
general counsel on a luxury cruise liner.”
    “Gee, Theo. Warm my heart,” Sabrina said dryly. Now the