Reasonable Doubt by Carsen Taite Read Free Book Online

outweighed their obvious differences in the looks department? Maybe he was her brother, pressed into service escorting his homely sister for a night on the town. Escort. Maybe he was being paid. Sarah shook her head. She knew she shouldn’t be so shallow, but her generalizations were based on years of observing human behavior.
    The next couple was more suitably matched. The taller of the two faced away from her, but Sarah could still tell her charcoal gray suit was a custom cut by the way it framed her slim hips and tight butt. In contrast to gray suit’s close cropped brunette hair, the other woman’s blond waves hung loose and free. Blondie wore a stunning maroon cocktail dress, and shoes that added four inches to her height, but still wouldn’t bring her eye to eye with gray suit. Entranced, Sarah watched their interaction. The blonde kept glancing away as others passed by, occasionally stopping to pull someone else into their circle. Gray suit still stood with her back to Sarah, so she could only imagine her reaction to each interruption, but the stiff way her shoulders hunched each time Blondie looked away signaled she wasn’t pleased. After a few moments, the blonde mouthed “I’ll be right back,” kissed gray suit on the cheek, and dashed off to a group of people gathering near the stage. Sarah watched Blondie until she disappeared into the crowd. When she looked back toward gray suit, she was gone.
    Time for that drink. She looked around, but Danny was nowhere in sight. She must still be waiting at the bar. Deciding it was time to stop people watching and start assessing the dateability of the women in attendance, Sarah started walking through the crowd. Based on looks alone, the dating pool was stocked with potential, but she wasn’t sure how to approach any of them. This wasn’t like a bar where there was a better than average chance the woman next to you was up for a hookup. And she wasn’t here for a hookup either. Sarah sighed. She was utterly inept when it came to anything other than simple pickup lines. She should just find Danny, have that drink, and spend the rest of the evening observing.
    Decision made, she cut through the throngs of people until she finally found the bar. Danny was standing off to the side, drinks in hand, talking to none other than gray suit, and Sarah stopped in her tracks at the sight. From behind, gray suit was attractive, but the full frontal was breathtaking. Ellery Durant was as handsome as she remembered, from her warm eyes to the way her face crinkled into a smile at whatever Danny was saying. Excited about the prospect of a second chance to win her over, Sarah squared her shoulders and strode over to where Ellery and Danny were talking, convinced she was going to make a better impression this time around.

    *

    Ellery would rather be anywhere else. She glanced around the beautiful bar, at all the lavish food and well-dressed women, and felt no affinity with any of it despite the fact that just last year her firm would have probably been a headline sponsor of just such an event. Now, the only reason she was here was because April had goaded her into coming, promising that they would leave early and hole up somewhere decidedly unpublic for the rest of the evening.
    She resisted looking at her watch, certain that every ten-minute interval was crawling by in half-time. Instead, she made a game out of watching the other women in the room interact with each other in a timeless social dance. April’s sorority was throwing this shindig and, although she wasn’t part of the committee putting on the candidate forum, April had insisted she had to be here to support her alumnae sisters. “It wouldn’t look good if I missed. So many of them make referrals to the practice,” she’d said.
    Ellery got it. When you offered a service, you had to sell yourself first. It had been the same with her law practice. Lots of glad-handing, sucking up to people with money and power in hopes