I couldn’t help the smile racing across my lips when she rolled her eyes.
“We were just talking.”
“I didn’t like it.”
She reared back, blinking at me as if I’d lapsed into another language.
“I don’t get how talking to?—”
“I didn’t like it,” I whispered, leaning closer as her eyes bored into mine. “Yes, it makes no sense. And I had no right to stop you.”
“Then why did you?” Her voice was a breathy whisper and not helping my crumbling resolve.
I reached down and grabbed her hand, grazing my thumb over the soft skin of her knuckles under the bar counter. Her hand closed around mine, our gazes locked as neither of us moved an inch.
“I don’t get much time with you. I wanted those pretty eyes on me and only me.”
She clenched her eyes shut, setting down her glass with a defeated thunk. When she lifted her gaze, I spied the same frustrated heat reflected at me. Heat that wasn’t supposed to have left my hotel room but had followed us anyway.
“As if I’d be able to look anywhere else.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
RACHEL
After two glassesof wine and laughing at Silas and Lee giving each other shit back and forth, I’d almost been able to relax enough to forget about running into my mother on the way here.
Almost.
It nagged at the back of my mind, but with each tiny smile Silas would sneak me as they’d told me stories about when he’d played shortstop in Washington, I’d managed to push her visit and what it could mean far enough out of my consciousness to let go of a real laugh.
“There’s a big candy store around here my daughter likes,” Lee said, a wistful smile curving his lips. He was tall at about Silas’s height, built, but not as broad as Silas. He had dark, cropped hair and blue eyes, with light salt-and-pepper scruff shadowing his jaw.
“My sister would probably like that. She’d sneak candy into her bedroom all the time when she was little, and I still have to watch now that she’s thirteen. How old is your daughter?”
“Six. She stays with my family because I’m always on the road. Now that I’m working for the Bats, I can see her more since I’m based on the East Coast.”
He was a single father? And his daughter stayed with his family, not her mother? I’d never ask and couldn’t after I noticed the sadness flickering over his face at the mention of his daughter.
I was glad Silas had a good friend on the team—or, at least, on the team’s payroll. Most of my friends had scattered all over the country after college, and Auden was the only one I saw on a regular basis.
On nights out or, I guessed, days out like when I’d met Silas, I’d realize how isolated I was. It wasn’t all bad, as staying focused on my sister had paid off. But sometimes, I just wanted to have fun. Not be like my mother and make fun for myself my only priority, but do something for no other reason than it made me feel good.
Like spend time with the man sitting across from me.
Of course, Kent had seated the few of us here from the agency with Bats management, which included their manager and team chiropractor. Silas wasn’t directly next to me but close enough to be in my line of sight the entire night.
And for once, I was allowing myself to look. I’d spot his eyes flick up and down my body, lingering on the slope of the neckline of my dress. Instead of averting my gaze, I leaned closer to the table, knowing the dip of my cleavage would deepen as my breasts strained against my dress.
I was treating myself by playing with fire. The fire I had to avoid if I wanted to keep my job and my sanity.
“Have you guys bid on anything yet?” I motioned to the silent auction items in the back of the dining room.
“I haven’t really looked,” Lee said. “We were about to take a walk over if you’d like to check it out with us.”
I bit back a smile when Silas’s head whipped to Lee, his dark brows pinching.
“Go see if I’m still the high bidder on the spa day,” Gayle said and went back to her huddle with Kent. I’d bet we’d have a part two to our PR campaign by the morning, but I was glad she was distracted enough not to notice any of the potent sexual tension shooting across the table.
