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She didn’t ask him to repeat himself, and Alex didn’t try. But in spite of his fears that the accidental slip would make her run for the hills, she had softened. The tension melted away from her, and much of the anxiety she’d come into the room with had vanished.
“We can try it under one condition,” she said finally.
He let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. “What’s that?”
“We can’t tell anyone.”
For a second the request confused him. Why on earth would she want to keep it a secret? Weren’t secrets part of the problem, part of what upset her so much about Matt?
She must have read the confusion on his face because she gave his hand a comforting squeeze. “It’s not a shame thing, I swear. But you are famous, and I’m not ready to subject my life to that kind of outside scrutiny. I still think I introduced you to Olivia too soon, and she’s one person. I’m not ready to let the whole world in on this until we’re sure it’s something. And there’s my job. I can’t keep being an umpire if we decide to make a real go of things. Can you say conflict of interest?”
“Right. Of course.”
“So we play it out through the season. If we decide come fall that this is…whatever it is, if it’s anything…then I’ll resign from the league and we can take it public. Okay?”
Well, when she was all perfectly logical about it like that, it was hard to be offended by her desire for secrecy. She wasn’t trying to hide him away, she just wanted to know what they had was real before she upended her whole life for him.
Fair was fair.
“Okay, I think I can handle that.”
“Good.”
“Now can I make a request?”
She stared at him, her nervousness apparent. “Sure.”
“Take off your pants, woman. I’m exhausted and I want to get inside you before I fall asleep.”
“How can I resist such a charming offer?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
One week.
That was the precise amount of time Alice’s perfect happiness lasted before it all got shot straight to hell. She should have known to expect it. She had expected it, right up until Alex told her not to worry. He’d made her believe they could really do this, and one week was all it took to show her what a fool she’d been.
The picture was pinned to the locker room door when she showed up for work. It was a gritty snapshot, the kind of quality one might expect from a camera phone, but there was no doubt about the contents. Her and Alex in the front seat of his rental truck.
K-I-S-S-I-N-G.
Karl was the first person she saw when she stepped inside, a smug, triumphant smirk on his face that clearly said, Not so perfect now, are you?
“What the fuck are you looking at?” Alice snapped, yanking the picture down.
“Donovan wants to see you.”
Alice’s stomach fell. She hadn’t thought it would be possible to feel any worse than she had when she saw the photo, but clearly she’d underestimated how shitty this day could get. If Donovan wanted to see her, she was willing to bet it wasn’t so he could tell her which base she’d be on that afternoon.
She hiked her duffel bag up higher on her shoulder and elbowed past Karl, who intentionally stood in her way. The prick was beside himself with joy knowing how bad this fuckup was going to cost her.
Hadn’t she and Alex been careful? In the week since they’d decided to make a go of it, they’d divided their time between his hotel and her house. The picture the photographer caught had been such an innocent thing. She and Alex had shared a dinner at his suite and he’d dropped her back at her car. It was a quick good-night kiss. They hadn’t even had sex that night.
But someone had known they’d be there.
Someone had been waiting.
Which meant the secret was out, and it sure hadn’t come from her. And there was a small club of people who knew their secret, which limited the options as to who had spilled the beans.
