b. Our love brought us back to each other.
c. My heart beats for her.
Lexie is a. Fun.
b. Smart.
c. Big-hearted.
d. Beautiful.
A tic pulled at the corner of the smile she kept glued on her face. She looked up at the amusement shining from the depths of his dark green eyes. She’d blackmailed him into playing her boyfriend. Either he was exacting revenge, or he just wasn’t smart enough to follow a simple outline. Both were problematic.
He rubbed his hand up and down her bare forearm, warming her skin with his big palm. “What’s not to love about Lexie?”
“I always say that, too.” Her mother laid her head on her husband’s big shoulder. “Don’t I, John?”
“Yes, Georgie,” he answered, and kissed the top of her head. “You say that about all the kids.”
No one but Lexie seemed to notice that Sean hadn’t directly answered the question.
“That was messed up,” he said as they walked to the parking lot half an hour later. “I don’t like lying to John and your mother.”
She looked up at him out of the corners of her eyes. Dusk settled on his forehead, and a chilly breeze tousled locks of his dark hair and turned his cheeks red. He’d put on a long wool coat but left it open enough for the wind to ruffle his tie. “It’s okay if you decide to lie to your mother about us, but not okay if I decide to lie to my parents.”
“It’s not the same. I lied to save your ass from Hoda and Kathie Lee.”
Her car lights flashed twice as she pressed a button on the keypad. “And I literally saved your ass from a hockey stick.”
“That was just talk. It wouldn’t have happened.”
“We will never know that now.” She stopped by the driver’s side door. “Do I need to resend the memo?”
“Nope.” He patted a side pocket in his gray overcoat. “Got it right here in my e-mail.”
“You went a little off script.” Several strands of her blond hair blew across her face, and she shoved them behind one ear. “It’s important that you stick to the bullet points tomorrow. Sylvia pounces on the slightest inaccuracy. Real or perceived,” she said, referring to the Seattle Times reporter.
“You just worry about Lexie.” He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against his chest. “In case the world is watching,” he said, but kissed her like they were alone. Warm and wet, sucking the breath from her lungs and starting a fire that burned from the tips of her toes, all the way to the top of her head. Just as suddenly he released her, leaving her in stunned silence as he walked away. The wind kicked up the single vent at the bottom of his coat as she raised a hand to her lips. Her fingers felt especially cool against the hot imprint of his kiss, lingering on her lips long after he faded into the dusky evening.
The Seattle Times had a daily circulation of over two hundred and thirty thousand, with three times as many online views. The morning after the leak had first appeared, the views had almost doubled. By the time Lexie and Sean sat down in his condo, the anticipation had grown so big, the story was being held for the cover of the local section of the Sunday edition, circulation of over eight hundred thousand.
“It was love at first sight,” she gushed to reporter Sylvia Navarro. Lexie placed a hand on the front of her cashmere sweater, made from the underbelly of cruelty-free Mongolian goats. “Too bad I didn’t trust it at first.” She and Sean sat on his gray leather couch, one of his arms wrapped around her shoulders, with the observation deck of the Space Needle in full view in the windows beyond. The perfect setting for the star-crossed lovers. “We just thought the odds were stacked against us.” The condo was decidedly modern, inside and out. Cold steel, stark white walls, and slate tiles that definitely could use some color.
“You say you two met in Pittsburgh when Sean was playing for the Penguins.” Sylvia’s slick black hair fell over one shoulder as she glanced at the notes in her lap. “When was that exactly?”
“September,” Sean answered, just as she’d outlined in section three. He wore a green dress shirt and charcoal slacks, the perfect complement to her deep blue sweater and black pants. If Lexie had been allowed to stage the apartment, too, she would have added touches of red and sunny yellow and several area rugs made of long, toe-curling shag.
“What day in September?” The reporter looked up, and if her dark gaze seemed to linger a bit in Sean’s direction, Lexie couldn’t really blame the woman. He was big and handsome, his cheeks shaved smooth of his usual daily scruff. The color of his shirt made his eyes seem a deeper green, and he smelled like musky soap, rich and intoxicating.
“Sixteenth.” And Sylvia didn’t appear to be immune to his certain brand of intoxication. “A full month before I agreed to do Gettin’ Hitched.” She paused as if in deep reflection. “I’ve had time to take a good hard look at my actions, and I know now that I was running from my feelings for Sean. When I agreed to do the show, I’d convinced myself that our relationship was over. My feelings were raw and our relationship seemed so impossible, and the show was a distraction from the pain I felt inside.” She laid her head on his big shoulder. “When I signed the contract, I honestly thought I could fall in love with Pete, but my heart still belonged to Sean. I never should have participated when my judgment had been so clouded with pain.”
“What did you think when you saw Lexie on reality TV, competing to be the wife of another man?” Sylvia asked Sean as she checked the battery life on her digital recorder.
“Shock. Anger.” He chuckled. “But I never thought she’d actually win.”
Lexie lifted her head and looked into his face. “I’m very competitive.”
“I know. Inherited from your dad’s side.”