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His eyes heated And a h her belly at the inadvertent double entrendre “You knohat I mean, Wade The plan—”
“The plan is that I have to behave And you’re supposed toforward to the make me part”
Oh, God “You knohat? This isn’t going to work” She was fun, dahthearted at tiht and stuffy, she had no idea
Wait She did have an idea An exact idea
She’d slept with him
Once
On the one single night in her entire life when she’d had tooinvolved To make hts of her life “Listen, I realize we’ve had our differences, but—”
“Differences?” He laughed, then shook his head, still amused
“Fine, so differences doesn’t quite cut it We have to get a-tirooanza, where there was sure to be tons of press If he attracted any of it—and just by being Wade, he ood press
By the end of the two-hour trip to the fauna Beach, they needed to be in sync and looking like lovers Willing to do her part, she practiced a sot her exactly what she wanted, which in this case was Wade’s cooperation Thing was, he didn’t often feel the need to cooperate “You getting in?”
He looked at her for a long beat, all big and built and co which time she held her breath For as kicked back as he was, he was also tough as steel He had to be Catchers were known for their courage and toughness, having as arguably the hardest position in baseball And Wade was the best catcher behind the plate, period He had to command the respect of all the players, ood sequences in those calls, and the ability to change it up and keep the hitters off balance All of whichin both mind and body
Wade was all of those things and s was decisive He tossed his overnight bag into the lih he could have had the opposite seat all to his and looked around “So We have any food in here?”
“No Are you hungry?”
“Starving”
He was always starving Probably because he burned God kne ht training, and the gao Rosa’s?” she asked, na of taking care of him already
“DQ is good”
She’d never rown man with such a love for fast food before But whatever he wanted, she’d get It would make him happy, and a happy Wade was a hopefully coine and they began their trek, heading through toard Dairy Queen
Santa Barbara was a colorful blend of the Spanish history of California and beach living Wade was looking out the , taking it in, giving her his profile as they turned onto Highway 1, heading south The sparkling Pacific was on their right, the green, craggily Santa Ynez peaks on their left, both breathtaking
They stopped at Dairy Queen and quickly got back on the road Wade was quiet as he ate, watching as they left the affluent ho county and the less privileged areas She knew he’d been underprivileged hily hurown up so far from the proverbial train tracks that he hadn’t even been able to seethe tracks
And her?
Well, she’d grown up with a silver spoon in her mouth and everyone knew it It was certainly all Wade knew about her, because it’d been the only thing she’d ever let him see He had no idea that the two of theuess
He polished off two burgers and went to work on his fries “So” His green eyes were relaxed but assessing as theyto tellfor a whole month?”
“You heard?” she asked in surprise She’d been asked to talk him into it
“I ith a bunch of women, Sam They tell all”
“You ith a group of professional athletes, male”
“Who gossippractice Pace heard it fro to you”
Pace being Wade’s best friend and the Heat’s pitcher Henry was their shortstop Gage, their teaer And yes, the supposedly professional clubhouse really was sih school locker room
Sprawled out, relaxed, Wade watched her with a half s She took a careful breath “A month shows stability It’s ”
“So you’re okay with being joined at the hip for a month?”
“If you are”
He considered this “Are there benefits?”
“No”
He sighed “So much for fun”
“Hey, I’m fun” He didn’t say a word, which burned “I am! And I just realized, there are benefits”
He cocked his head
“WellI can be a pretty convincing bitch when I want to be”
“Noooo,” he said with feigned shock “But how exactly is that a benefit?”
“I can scare away all the crazy wo you a break And in return, you can relax knowing you won’t have to take care of y type who bores you within the span of one date”
He arched a brow
“Just calling ’em like I see ’em”
He didn’t say anything to that as he finished his fries, then tossed all the trash into the bag and set it aside He rubbed a hand over his jaw and said another entire boat-load of nothing
“It’s just a role, Wade And it could have been worse We could have lost the endorsement entirely, or they could have traded you”
“They’re that desperate for good press?” He shook his head in disbelief
“Hey, baseball isn’t exactly showing its best foot to the public lately We need this The Heat needs this”
“And your father’s okay with it?” he asked carefully
With good reason Her father was one of the owners of the Heat Her uncle owned their sister team, the South Carolina Charleston Bucks The McNead brothers were fa their way, or more accurately, infamous