“You don’t. Honestly.”
“Honestly, I do. But you can’t do it for her. She has to do it herself.”
“And you’re not willing to help?” He rose from the table and faced her. “I sensed it about her drinking. You know what’s happening but you won’t do a thing to stop it.”
“What are you talking about? I’ve talked with her time and again about the drinking. I’ve asked her to stop, begged her to stop. I’ve spied on the condition of her bar. But short of calling her an alcoholic and dragging her off to AA, what can I do? I can’t hold her hand twenty-four hours a day.”
“Maybe you don’t want her to succeed.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard. You admitted that the two of you are in competition with each other. Maybe you’re afraid that if she cleans up her act and makes something of her life, she’ll come out ahead.”
“I don’t believe I’m hearing this,” Savannah murmured.
“Is it the truth?”
“No, it isnotthe truth. The competition doesn’t go that far. It’s never reached the point of having a winner or a loser.”
“Susan thinks she’s the loser.”
“Well, there are times when I thinkI’mthe loser, so we’re even.” Bowing her head, she put two fingers to the ache between her eyes. “I don’t want this. Not today. It’s been a long week.” She shifted her fingers to her lips, then slowly looked up. “I do love Susan, Sam, but I’m not her keeper. Say the word and I’ll do what I can to help, but I won’t run her life for her. I’m too busy running my own.”
Sam didn’t want to argue any more than she did. “The weekend’s here,” he said quietly. “You’ll get a rest.”
With a smile and a skyward glance, she said, “Lord, I hope so.”
***
By ten o’clock, Savannah was sound asleep in Jared’s bed. After her talk with Sam, she had met with several of the other lawyers in the division about incidental cases, cleaned things up in her office, gone to aerobics class for the first time that week, then stopped home for an overnight bag.
Jared had taken one look at her face and put her to bed. Curled against him, she had fallen asleep almost instantly. When she woke up, it was to the sound of his voice sifting like warm sand from the speaker on the wall.
“It’s two o’clock, and you’re taking in a little country in the city at 95.3 FM, WCIC Providence. That was the Bellamy Brothers with ‘Santa Fe,’ and this is Crowell and Cash. I’m Jared Snow, and I’ll be kickin’ around with the coolest of cool country sounds until six. In the heart of the night, stay with me.…”
Savannah yawned, then grinned and stretched. She liked waking up to Jared’s voice. Better still, she liked waking up to his body, but that was a special treat, reserved for special times.
Feeling incredibly revived for the middle of the night, she pushed the blanket back and slipped from the bed. Pausing only to freshen up in the bathroom, she was soon on her way downstairs. A week before, she would have been appalled to think of running around WCIC Providence in Jared’s flannel shirt. But she had become familiar enough with the house in the heart of the night to know that Jared would be alone in the sound room.
The headphones were around his neck, and his eyes were downcast, directed at a stack of papers when she entered the office. He didn’t see her, so for a minute she simply stood and looked at him through the glass wall.
He was a beautiful man, she thought, though his beauty had come to be tied up in her mind with thoughtfulness, gentleness and intelligence. She didn’t know much about the details of his past. They had spent so little time together that the depth of her feelings shocked her. But she couldn’t ignore them. When she thought of him, her heart swelled. So did the nerve endings deep in her belly. And when she looked at him as she was doing now, she felt excitement mixed with the same inner peace she had associated with him from the start.
Glancing up then, he caught sight of her and broke into a brilliant smile. It was all the invitation she needed. Crossing the office, she entered the sound room and closed the door firmly behind her. Then she went to where he sat and slid an arm around his neck.
Hugging her to his side, he turned his face up for a kiss. She gave him one, and at his silent coaxing, a second. He would have liked to go on like that for a while, except that he knew he’d want more pretty quickly. So he left it at two kisses and asked, “How’d you sleep?”
“Just fine.”
“I thought you’d be out of it for the night. You were exhausted.”
“The week finally got to me, I guess.”
“You could have slept longer.”
She shook her head. “I woke up to your voice and an empty bed. It was lonely up there. I thought maybe you were lonely down here.”
He slid a hand over her back. “I was.”
