And frankly, though family was something he’d definitely wanted, he hadn’t anticipated how much Bella Ann would color things between them. He had no idea how to treat Fiona. He was afraid of letting himself care too deeply for her and Bella Ann, yet at the same time he was definitely attracted to her.
He was in a fever for her. She dominated his thoughts during the day when he was supposed to be working and at night he dreamed of making love to her. She was distracting him from his work and making him a complete mess. He was running almost ten miles a day to try to force himself to focus, but all he thought of even then was the way she’d tasted and how she’d felt in his arms.
“Ready?” Jack Crown asked, coming into the dressing room where he was waiting.
“You have no idea,” he said. But he was more anxious about seeing Fiona again than about the taping of the show. Today they were filming in the Hamptons where Fiona had a second house. For the date, they were going to be sailing on a small catamaran.
Alex looked forward to this because it was just going to be the two of them. The nanny was healthy again and would be taking care of Bella Ann. And it was the first time they’d been in contact since their last date. He’d sent her texts and tried to get her to video chat with him, but she said she didn’t like using her computer. Her attitude was almost incomprehensible to him.
“I might have a clue,” Jack said. “These television shows can be tedious. Lots of sitting around waiting for the filming to start. Today should be fun for you out on the ocean.”
“Yes, it should be. But the process is an odd way to go about dating a woman,” Alex acknowledged. “How did you get roped into this thing?”
Jack laughed and shook his head. “It’s work and I never say no to a job.”
“Long way from playing football,” Alex said. “My dad’s a high school coach. We watched your game-ending injury happen on TV . . . that was brutal.” Before parlaying his sports fame into a TV career, Jack Crown had been a star quarterback.
Jack nodded. “That was a long time ago.”
“Does the knee bother you any more?”
“Sometimes,” Jack said. “But I don’t pay much attention to it.”
“Most men wouldn’t have bounced back from that the way you did,” Alex said. He still remembered the quiet in the stadium as Jack Crown lay there unmoving. The Heisman Trophy winner down and out of the game that the pundits had said he’d been born to play.
“Life goes on,” Jack said.
“It does,” Alex agreed.
“We’re ready for you on set,” Willow said, coming over to the two men. “Jack, are you prepared to do your intro?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “Don’t call mema’am.”
“Whatever you say, boss lady.”
She rolled her eyes at him and turned and walked away. Alex noticed that Jack watched her as she did so.
“Let’s go. We’re going to be walking and talking,” Jack said.
“OK.”
“I’m going to ask you about how the first date went and what you hope for this time.”
“Great. I’ll try to be pithy,” Alex said.
That made Jack laugh. “The viewers love it when you talk about your feelings.”
“Must be mostly women,” Alex said.
“Must be,” Jack agreed.
Once they were in position in the cultivated gardens behind Fiona’s house, Willow calledactionand Jack started walking. Alex kept pace with him, glancing around, trying to catch a glimpse of Fiona.
“Did your first date meet with your expectations?” Jack asked.
“It was different than I expected,” Alex said. “But then Fiona isn’t at all who I thought I’d be matched with.”
