“So, Mom,” he says, wiping his mouth with his napkin, “what brings you to town?”
Deirdre gingerly sets her fork on her plate. “I need a reason? I can’t just visit my kids?”
Maya raises a brow. “Youcan, but you definitely don’t.”
“Must you always have an attitude, Maya?” Deirdre slumps back in her seat and looks at Keith, lips turned down, as if this proves some sort of point. “I swear her goal in life is to give me grief.”
Maya glares at her wineglass as if the alcohol is to blame for this.
Not wanting things to escalate, I turn toward Keith. “What do you do for work?”
Beside me, Elliott subtly nods, as if he’s impressed with my ability to pivot. Being Logan’s teammate has taught me how to skillfully de-escalate almost any disagreement.
“I’m a travel photographer,” he replies with a small smile. “I was just on assignment withNational Geographicin South Africa, actually. It was breathtaking.”
I cringe internally.Now I feel bad that I assumed he owned a gym or something.
“Wow. That’s impressive,” I note. “I’m sure you’ve been to a lot of cool places, then.”
With a chuckle, he sets his napkin on the table. “Jordan, Cambodia, Singapore, London. It’s incredible, but it gets a bit lonely. That’s why I feel very lucky to have met this lovely lady to share my travels with.”
Deirdre lowers her head, blushing at the compliment. If I didn’t dislike her, it’d be sweet.
“Do you do shows or display your work at galleries?”
“We’re headed to one in Seaport after dinner tonight,” he announces. “Sorry, I thought Deirdre mentioned it. You’re all more than welcome to come, of course.”
My gut twists painfully, and I can almost feel Maya’s fury growing.
“So that’s why you’re here,” Ava says, her usually bright voice dulled.
“It was a last-minute thing, sweetheart,” Deirdre reassures her. “I would have visited anyway. Right, Keith?”
My phone rings loudly, startling us all and earning annoyed looks from nearby diners. I slip it out of my pocket to silence it. As Mark’s name flashes on the screen, my heart thumps heavily against my sternum.Deep breaths.He told me he’d call when he had an update after the meeting.
“You can take the call if you need, babe,” Maya says, nodding at my phone. “I know you had to cancel on him to be here.”
I shake my head. “I’ll find out what he needs after?—”
The damn device vibrates again, this time in my hand.
Maya laughs softly. “It’s fine. If he’s calling you twice, it’s got to be important.”
With a quick kiss to her temple, I excuse myself from the table. The only benefit of this pretentious restaurant is that there are multiple private rooms in the back. I flag down a server, who confirms the last one is empty, and duck inside before calling Mark back.
It rings twice before he answers. “Devils want you. They’re willing to trade the Bobcats Peter Knight and Lyle Cunningham plus two draft picks.”
Lungs seizing, I fall into a chair. “Wow. Okay. You really waste no time, do you?”
“You don’t pay me to shoot the shit,” he replies with a chuckle. “Anyway, the Bobcats obviously wanted first-round draft, and…”
He launches into the nitty-gritty details of the meeting, each one making my head pound harder. Although the trade would be after the season is over, other moves happening around the trade deadline will factor into the way the final deal looks. Right now, thirty general managers are working to make the best moves and trades for their respective clubs. It’s a bunch of grown men working on the same puzzle—yet not knowing what the puzzle looks like—and all the while, they think they’re playing Monopoly. So it’s hard to wrap one’s head around. And considering I’m a large part of why the Bobcats consistently win, year after year, the Devils will have to come up with agoodincentive in order to make it happen.
Angling forward with my elbow on my knee and the phone to my ear, I run my free hand through my hair. “So it’d be a three-way trade, pending the Bobcats acquiring the rights to a forward prospect from the Titans, who they can then trade to the Devils along with me.”
“More or less,” Mark confirms. “But things are looking good.”
I shift on the surprisingly uncomfortable chair and force a deep breath. “Let me know if there are any other updates, okay?”
