* * *
Jaxon met Linc at the stadium gym, leaving Macy home to work in a sunlit room she’d chosen to use as her work space. They walked inside together because Jaxon had driven them both.
“So will Lizzie and I be seeing you at the Children’s Benefit Saturday night?” Linc asked.
“Son of a bitch.” He slammed his hand on his thigh. “I forgot all about it.”
Linc chuckled. “Considering all that’s going on in your life, I’m not surprised. But it’s a mandatory event for all players.”
Through the publicity department, the team sponsored an organization that supported kids in foster homes. Meeting and greeting the team in a formal setting encouraged donors to reach deep into their pockets to help the kids, and even if it hadn’t been required, Jaxon wouldn’t have missed it.
But all he needed to do was put on a tuxedo, which he had hanging in his closet, cleaned, pressed, and ready to go.
“Which means I have to spring a formal event on Macy.” He knew from having a sister that women liked to buy new dresses for big nights out. “Wonderful,” he muttered, and then an idea came to him. He paused outside the locker room and dialed his sister.
“Good news only,” Brianne answered.
“Then I guess it depends on your mood. I have a black-tie event Saturday night that I forgot about. I have to tell Macy and she’ll need a dress. Didn’t you once tell me you have a personal shopper somewhere?”
“Yes,” she said with an overly dramatic sigh.
“Can you have her pull things and send them over to the house? Or better yet bring them over herself with shoes and accessories?”
Beside him, Linc coughed.
“Shut up,” Jaxon muttered. “You’d do the same thing if the situation were reversed.”
Linc turned his head to the side. “Because I’m in love with Lizzie. What’s your excuse?”
Bri burst out laughing. “He’s got you there, little brother. Okay, I’m on it, but I’m sure it’s going to cost you big bucks being so last-minute.”
“It’s fine. Thanks for handling it. I’ll call you later.”
He disconnected and ignored Linc’s smirk as he called Macy to let her know she had to dress up for the role of baseball player’s wife.
* * *
For her office, Macy had taken over a room on the lower level of Jaxon’s house with a set of windows overlooking his beautiful property. The custody hearing loomed in the distance, but so far, Lilah had been behaving, calling Hannah on her cell, asking Macy before picking her up from school once during the early part of the week. Not wanting to rock things, Macy hadn’t asked her lawyer to move anything up. She wasn’t ready for a court date. Instead she put her nerves aside and tried to live her life. Which, at the moment, meant work.
With Hannah at school and Jaxon at the gym, her muse flowed in her new surroundings and work came easily, even the back-end coding.
When her cell phone rang, it startled her out of a deep trance. She saw Jaxon’s name and answered immediately. “Hi, Jaxon. Everything okay?”
“Fine. I just…”
“Spit it out,” she heard Linc say, laughing.
“I guess there’s no good way to tell you. I forgot about a mandatory black-tie team fundraising event Saturday night that we both need to attend.”
She groaned. “I don’t have anything to wear for a formal event.” She paused. “Although I could wear the white dress from Damon’s wedding, but it’s not floor-length,” she said, not liking the idea.
“I’ve got you covered. Bri and a personal stylist will be over with dresses this afternoon.”
“Oh!” His words shocked her. “You didn’t have to do that but wow. Okay. That’s amazing. I know what those baseball wives are going to look like, and I want to keep up,” she said, he figured more to herself than to him. “Jaxon, thank you!”
She disconnected the call and was about to dial Bri to find out what time she’d be over when her doorbell rang. She answered it and found her friend standing on the step. “Surprise!”
She grinned. “I just got off the phone with Jaxon. I hear we have dresses coming.”
“We do.” Bri walked into the house and Macy shut the door. “And you should know this was all his idea. Not mine.”
A warm feeling flowed through her at the knowledge. He could have handed her money and told her to go buy a dress. Instead he’d taken care of the situation himself. “This was generous of him,” she murmured. “And I’m grateful because I don’t have a formal gown.”
Bri put an arm around her shoulder. “In about an hour, you will.”
Sure enough, in sixty minutes, the doorbell rang and a young woman named Ari Zanders strode in. Behind her was a man rolling a rack of clothing, long gowns with sequins and other decorative items adorning the dresses.
A jolt of excitement rippled through her. Call her shallow, but she was a woman excited by the opportunity to dress up in fancy clothes and pick her favorite.
They hijacked the master bedroom, and for the next forty-five minutes, she pivoted, twirled, and spun as she tried on each piece, finally settling on a gold dress that wrapped around her body as if it were made for her. A strip of sheer material covered her stomach in a classy way.
“This is it!”
Bri clapped slowly. “I agree.”
“So do I,” Ari said, then called for the man in the truck to take the other dresses back to the store. Ari had come in her own car. Then she helped pin the bottom of the dress for tailoring, promising it would be delivered by Friday so Macy would have it for the event on Saturday night.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Macy said, her hands clasped together.
“It was my pleasure,” Ari said.
Macy glanced in the mirror once more. “I just love
