“Lying? They are lying? Can you involve Human Resources?”
He shrugged. “I’m waiting to see what the outcome is, and it could be any day, week, month or second. It’s exhausting. That’s why I like hanging with you, Blue Bell. You distract me.”
Goddamn it—my entire body flushed red. “Did we just become friends?”
“Ha. Yes. Yes, we did.” He continued looking at me with warmth in his hazel eyes and my knees threatened to buckle. That wouldn’t do. I focused on Pico and his awful walking etiquette. The damn dog weaved back and forth so fast he also took me down with him. I stumbled, and Brigham reached out with his massive hand and curled his fingers around my elbow. “Woah, careful there.”
“Yeesh. Thank you.” The fact I almost fell caused me to feel light-headed—not the brief contact from my forever man-crush. “So,” I started, cleared my throat and needed to change the direction of my thoughts. “What do you do?”
“I uh, work in sports.” His voice seemed different. Less friendly and more distant. “Why?”
“Just learning more about my new friend and trying to brainstorm a way we can fix your situation. I might be small, but I’m sneaky. Deceptively sneaky. Never engage in a prank war with me, because I will win. Always.” I made sure to look as stern as possible, and he responded with a lopsided grin.
My heart turned gooey at his playful expression.
“Big words, Blue Bell. Those are big words.”
“Shit. You said sports. Does that mean you’re stupidly competitive? Like, you give yourself a prize for cleaning your plate and that second place is the first-loser type of guy?” I cringed and pretended to scoot farther away from him. “I’m rethinking our friendship already.”
“You never gave me a chance to,” he said, moving closer to me as a group of teenage girls approached us. He reached out and put an arm around my shoulders, and all the air left my lungs when he pressed me against his side.My god. The muscles. The scent. The warmth.
Wait, why is he doing this?
“Brigham! Oh my god, it’s you!” one very pretty girl said, holding up her phone and taking pictures of us. “Can I get a selfie with you, please?”
The other girls started asking rapid-fire questions and soon, there was a circle around us. It happened so fast. Like, less than thirty seconds and we had no clear escape path. I tried moving, but his grip on me tightened and it hit me. Brigham had fans. Fans who knew his name.
Oh god, what does he do? Some sports ball star?
“Ladies, please, no photos today. I’m out with someone and I want to respect her privacy.”
Wrong thing to say, man.I could’ve told him that. Every pair of eyes moved in my direction like a weirdToy Storyscene and various emotions stared back at me. Anger, confusion, jealously, sadness. I stood where they wanted to be. “Who is she? Is she your girlfriend? You’re dating?”
Brigham started walking forward and picked up Pico so the poor guy wouldn’t get trampled. “We need to tend to the dogs. Maybe another time.” He pushed forward without stepping on anyone, and it wasn’t until we got a block away that he set Pico down and gave me the saddest look. “I was hoping you wouldn’t find out about that part of my life.”
“The part where you probably play sports ball and have fans?”
“Yes.” He pinched his nose and his eyes looked darker. “Do you watch baseball?”
This time I laughed hard. “No. Sports are not my thing. Not even a little bit. Soccer has the black and white ball and tennis is the small yellow. That might be the extent to which I know anything that involves balls.”Oh my god.I hit my forehead. “I said balls.”
“You did,” he said with humor in his voice. The dark expression left and I was glad. “Now you know.”
“That you play with balls for a living?”
He barked out a laugh, and I decided it was my new favorite thing. Making Brigham happy. “That I’m a well-known athlete.”
“Yeah. I guess I do know.” I started walking again. “Good thing I really don’t care.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yup. Why would it? If you make me play anything athletic, I will refuse and throw an entire fit about it. And if you make me watch it against my will, I will get revenge, and I warned you about that. So, yeah…I’m good.”
He opened his mouth a couple of times, but no sound came out besides a relieved sigh. “Okay then.”
“Glad it’s settled. Oh, look out, Pico is trying to pee on you.”
Chapter Four
