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He was angry, distracted. Probably a little sexually frustrated. She was feeling pretty much the same way.
“Where have you been?”
She turned to find Caleb standing before her, drink in hand and a sloppy smile on his face. Surprisingly, he was all by himself.
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bsp; “I’m sorry, I spotted someone I knew and we talked for a while.” Trying to smile at him, she started walking, heading toward the table where she saw Zoe still sitting.
Caleb kept up with her. “Did I just see you out on the balcony with that baseball player Justin Hawkins?”
Her heart leapt to her throat and she stopped, her gaze meeting his. “Nooo.” She drew out the word and shook her head, her body literally shaking with nerves.
“Huh. I could’ve sworn it was you. Maybe it was someone else.” He shrugged, casting her a doubtful look. “I thought I recognized your dress.”
“Maybe someone else is wearing it? And I thought I was the only one.” She laughed, trying to mask her fear and hoping it didn’t sound fake.
Caleb was too damn perceptive for his own good. She hoped he didn’t start digging deeper and start piling on the questions.
“Well, you’ve been missing out. I’ve been talking to ladies left and right though I haven’t scored yet. I’m close though.”
“God, do you treat this like some sort of sport?” Stephanie wrinkled her nose and couldn’t help but think of Justin. How polite and sweet he’d been to her that first night they’d met.
But had that been the exception? She’d done a little research. He was a known player both on and off the field and had an endless string of women attached to his name. Many of them as famous or even more so than he.
She found that incredibly intimidating, to say the least. How could she compete compared to all of those other women in his life? Not that he seemed to be thinking of any of them when he was with her.
No, his intense focus seemed wholly concentrated on her.
“Of course, I treat it like a sport. It is a game, Stephanie. A game between a man and a woman and ultimately, I always like to be the winner.” Caleb grinned, the expression on his face wicked. “I like to be the one on top.”
“I’m sure,” she said drolly as they approached Zoe. She was frowning at the both of them, her arms crossed in front of her.
“Where have you been? I swear I’ve been sitting here watching Caleb in place of you and getting more than a little frustrated. With everything I’ve observed I could write the damn article myself.” Zoe stood, her overly made up face squinty and drawn.
“Sorry Zoe, I ran into someone I hadn’t seen in a long time when I came out of the restroom and we just started talking.” Stephanie really wanted to tell her boss to take a flying leap but she held herself in check.
“I thought she ran into Justin Hawkins,” Caleb piped up from behind her.
Zoe arched a brow. “Justin Hawkins? But he’s up there on stage.”
They all turned to look at the stage, the discussion forgotten and Stephanie breathed a sigh of relief. Damn Caleb for bringing up Justin again.
An announcer was talking about the generous donations the homeless charity had received this past year and he was focusing on all the good deeds Justin had done for the charity himself.
Justin still stood amongst the same group of people though they were all on stage now and Stephanie figured they must be the top donors.
“He’s one hot piece,” Zoe murmured close to Stephanie and she felt the burn of jealousy low in her stomach at Zoe’s words.
Then she immediately wanted to shout out in triumph, “Yeah, been there done that, still doing it!”
Now was definitely not the time.
“He’s very attractive,” Stephanie answered, still staring at the stage.
“That’s the understatement of the night. I used to have a raging crush on him.”
Stephanie’s head nearly swiveled off her neck as she turned to stare at Zoe. “You did?”
