For the rest of that day and the two days following, Sarah could not get Colton out of her head. She felt outraged by his aloof, prickish attitude. But worst of all? He’d pretended not to remember ever meeting her at the club.
Had the sex been that unmemorable?
Whatever the case, she’d done everything in her power to get the hell over it but couldn’t. It was time for a little sisterly venting, which was why Sarah called Taylor after work and ranted nonstop the entire way home.
“What a bastard!” Taylor barked through the phone as Sarah marched up her stairs and through the front door. “He pretended he didn’t know what you were talking about?”
“I know, right? Asshole.” Sarah went straight for her little wine fridge under the granite kitchen bar and grabbed a bottle of pinot she’d been saving from her trip to Napa last year. Wine country wasn’t far—about an hour north—but she didn’t get up there often. Or do anything fun very often, for that matter. Work. Work. Work. But it had been that way for as long as she could remember. Set your goals. Work hard. Follow the rules. That was her motto, which made her little indiscretion all the more confusing. Why had she done it?
“I can’t believe I slept with him.” Sarah sighed.
“Aside from the fact that I’m completely floored you didn’t tell me until now, I have to wonder why he would deny it.”
Sarah popped the cork, grabbed a large wineglass, and poured. “There are two options: One, he was drunk as hell and forgot. Or two, he was drunk as hell, and when he saw me, he really wished he hadn’t fucked me.”
“Sarah! Stop it. You’re totally gorgeous, and you know it.”
“I don’t think I’m ugly, Tay. But I can’t ignore the fact that in the dating world, my profession is the equivalent of having a rare facial deformity like a penis growing out of my forehead.”
Taylor chuckled. “Actually, I think a lot of guys might be into that. You do live in the city—lots of kink fans.”
Sarah groaned and rubbed her forehead, grateful for the lack of phallic-shaped bumps. “Well, the story only gets worse—but you can’t tell anyone. Not even Bennett.” Especially not Bennett. If he heard that Judge Wright was blackmailing her with a video, Bennett would insist on intervening because he was a big stubborn asshole with a huge heart, which meant he did what he wanted, when he wanted, including fucking with other assholes who lacked his moral fiber.
God, he was so wonderful. It was such a shame that Sarah had had to remove him from her mental wank-bank after Tay started dating the man. On the bright side, he’d been replaced by Uhtred from The Last Kingdom.
Sigh. Danish Vikings…
Taylor groaned. “I don’t know if I can promise that, Sarah. Bennett and I have a very strict no-secrets rule.”
Damn her. She and Taylor had been friends since they were little. Didn’t that entitle Sarah to a pass when it came to Tay’s marital rules?
“Fine. I didn’t want to tell you anyway.”
“Sarah…” Tay warned with her tone. “It’s not like Bennett would do anything.”
“Really? Even if Judge Wright had a video of me and Colton leaving the bathroom and was blackmailing me?”
“Oh crap. Sarah, why didn’t you—” Taylor’s voice cut out. “Christ. Hold on.”
“Wait. Don’t you dare put me on—”
Taylor put her on hold.
“Thanks!” Sarah groused to no one and decided to take her glass of wine outside to the fire escape—aka urban balcony. The evening view of the picturesque Golden Gate Bridge always helped when she needed to chill out. It made her remember that there was a big, big world out there and today’s problems wouldn’t last forever. But perhaps her contributions to the world might if she worked hard enough. It was important to her to leave this world a better place than she found it.
After a few long moments, Taylor returned. “Sarah?”
Doing her best to keep her wine from tipping, Sarah stepped through the window and took a seat on her fold-out wooden chair. “Thanks a lot, Tay—”
“Sarah, are you sitting down?”
“Uhhh…” The panic in Taylor’s voice triggered Sarah’s blood pressure to drop. “Yes?”
“Good. Because that was Ms. Luci. She said she’d been trying to reach you at your office.”
Why would Ms. Luci want to speak to her?
Taylor continued, “Colton Young is sitting in her living room, claiming you sent him there. To work.”
“What!” Sarah popped up from her chair, nearly dumping her wine. “I didn’t send him to Luci’s! He’s supposed to report to…to…oh fuck.” Sarah set her glass down on the chair, bolted through the window, and beelined for her tiny bedroom decorated in overworked-woman style—law books stacked beside the bed, her laptop on her antique vanity, and a hundred trees’ worth of paperwork in towering piles on the floor. She jerked open the closet door and reached for her hamper, throwing its contents on the floor with one hand. Her black slacks from Monday weren’t there.
Where are you? Where the hell are you? She pivoted on her heel and spotted them flung over the floral, overstuffed armchair in the corner. She set the phone down on the armchair and began digging into the pockets, where she instantly felt a folded piece of paper.
“Sarah! Where the fuck did you go?” Taylor’s barely audible voice came from Sarah’s cell.
Too freaked out to reply, Sarah opened the paper and found what she’d dreaded.
“Fucking shit.” The paper had the name of a homeless shelter in LA, where Colton resided. That meant she’d handed Colt’s attorney the envelope and letter from Ms. Luci. There’d been an address on it, but any idiot would’ve known that it was a mistake. Why hadn’t he said anything? With all of the paperwork required, it couldn’t go unnoticed. How had this happened? Either way…
“Wright is going to kill me.”
“Sarah! Sarah!” screamed Taylor’s tiny voice.
Sarah dropped the paper, grabbed the phone, and sank down on the chair, placing the phone back to her ear. “I sent him to Ms. Luci for his community service.”