“Not my job. My career. He says it makes me a liar and that I’m too smart and beautiful to waste my life on something like publicity.”
She blinked at me. “And what did you say?”
I shrugged, and this time when I reached for the bowl, she gave it to me. “I called him a moron jock and stomped away.”
“Good for you.”
I nodded, feeling vindicated. But with that reassurance also came a wave of yearning. “Up until that point, it had been really great. A little weird—”
She perked up. “How weird?”
“Silent.”
“Like granny sex?”
“Even grannies make more noise than we did.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Well, you were at work.”
I nodded, but my thoughts were on the way he’d released. Eyes closed, face wreathed in bliss, but not a single sound. “He’s a really private person. I know less about him than I do any other player on the team.”
“So it makes sense he wouldn’t go all caveman, grunting away.”
True. But it seemed to be more than that, as if he was used to keeping everything personal absolutely silent. Which, given his obnoxious sister, seemed strange to me. She was all about blowing her own horn and his, given that she was his publicist.
“So tell me again how you got from hot sex to your life is a lie.”
“I don’t know. It was so fast, I wasn’t even dressed yet.”
“Ouch.” She pulled the bowl back. “What are you going to do?”
I dropped my head against our garage sale couch and stared at our stained ceiling. “My job. What else can I do?”
“At least you’re not going to quit over a guy.”
“As if!”
She pointed the wooden spoon at my face. “You’ve done stupid things for a guy before.”
I had. I’d joined the cheerleader squad to attract guys, which ended up being fun, but so much of a time suck, it hadn’t worked out. I’d thrown myself into the AV club for a particularly hot Star Wars nerd. The only good thing about that had been making out during the movies. And then my biggest stupid move was getting a job at an Indian restaurant because Boyfriend #3’s parents owned it. I still hated the smell of curry.
“That was ages ago,” I said with a sniff. “I’ve grown.” Still, I knew I had a core-deep yearning for a guy who would love me to the exclusion of all else. One with broad shoulders who would protect me, and a sweet disposition so I could tease him. But most important, he had to love me so fiercely that nothing could get between us. Obviously, that fantasy man did not exist, but it didn’t stop me from wanting him.
“So Connor’s all hot and cold…because why?”
I wrapped my arms around my now-full belly and tried to figure that out. “I think he’s trying to sabotage me doing articles on him.”
Bailey scraped up the last of the mac and cheese. “Why?” she said around the last bite. “Don’t they all want press?”
“He’s weird that way. He hates the attention.” I rolled my head to stare at her. “Which under normal circumstances would be just fine by me. But it’s my job to create publicity and Connor’s the one everyone wants to know more about.”
Bailey snorted. “Everyone wants to know? Or just you?”
Couldn’t it be both? “Joe DeLuce asked me to do something different to get people talking about him.”
“I don’t think you should mention silent sex in the women’s bathroom.”
I shot her a dirty look as I grabbed my wine. “Funny. It’s about him trying to improve his batting average.”
