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“Well, I figured I was pretty safe that a professional baseball player probably wasn’t going to turn me into a nice ottoman cover. I mean, I’m sure that kind of thing would have made national news and I don’t think his team would have him down here trying to organize volunteering with children.”
James snorted. “You’d like to think.”
“Yeah, you would.” She plopped down onto the sofa. “God, I’m so stupid. I mean, I looked for a ring. I asked. I honestly thought if he was taken, his teammates or publicist would have said something when he was flirting with me since that kind of seems like a PR nightmare.” She dropped her head against the back of the sofa. “How can I work in this field and be that naïve?”
“Oh honey, who can blame you, really? We see some shitty things. You just wanted to believe in the fairytale.”
“Fairytale,right. Well, he definitely wasn’t that. And the sixteen voicemails he left me over the weekend proved it.”
“Sixteen? Yikes, that’s a bit excessive.”
“You think?” She snickered. After the first half dozen calls, she’d turned her phone off. Unfortunately, with his team volunteering, she hadn’t been able to delete his number, but lord knows it had been tempting.
A giant black SUV pulled up in the parking lot. She stood up to get a better look. Four women dressed in designer clothes exited the vehicle.
“You’ve got to be freaking kidding me,” she mumbled.
“What?” James asked.
“That’s his frickin’ wife,” Peyton squeaked. Oh god, why was she here? She eyed the back hallway. Did she have time to make a break for it before they walked in?
“Go to your office, honey. I’ll see if I can figure out why they’re here. Go,” James ordered.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Yes, go, quick.” James pushed her in the back, and she stumbled toward her office.
She paced around the small space, waiting for James to come tell her it was safe to come out. Several minutes later, James walked in and winced. “Apparently they are here to volunteer?”
“What? What do you mean they’re here to volunteer? Doing what?” She looked around the office. This couldn’t be happening. Why? Why? “What did you tell them?”
“I asked what they had in mind. She said something about adding some flare to what the guys were doing, whatever the hell that means?” James shuddered. “They scare me, and that’s hard to do. You have to go out there.”
“What? No, I don’t!” Peyton grabbed her friend’s arm. “Seriously James, I can’t. I’m not cut out for this kind of thing. I’ll confess and I don’t want to ruin this woman’s life with some frickin’ Bill Clinton moment of what constitutes cheating in their relationship.”
James’ lip quivered as he tried not to laugh.
“It’s not funny,” Peyton growled.
“Clinton moment? Really? Come on, that was good.”
“James, seriously.” Peyton widened her eyes and stared at him. “Help me.”
“Okay, okay. Call shithead and tell him to get his ass down here and tell his wife she can’t volunteer because it’s fucking ridiculous.”
“Oh god, I don’t want to call him, but it is ridiculous. Do these people not talk? I mean seriously. She just rounds up a bunch of other wives, comes on down, and no one thinks to tell them it’s a bad idea. What is wrong with these guys?”
She took a deep breath. “Okay, first things first. I’ll call sleazeball and tell him to get his wife. Then I’ll try to encourage her not to volunteer.” She picked up her phone and turned back to James. “Can you go back out there and make sure no one is going to steal her car or try to rob them or anything?”
James squeezed her arm. “It’ll be okay, honey.”
“Sure it will.” If only that were true.
James closed the door behind him as she stared at the phone in her hand. She could do this. After one deep, fortifying breath, she pulled up Simon’s number and hit dial.
“Peyton, baby. I’m so glad you called me back.”
“Nope, we aren’t doing this. The only reason I am calling is because you wife is here with some of the other wives, and they want to volunteer. You need to fix this, Simon.”
