He was sure she’d been busy. There had been quite a few new arrivals in Boston, his friends Rique and Seb two of them. He’d been spending time with both over the last week, since Keith had dropped him off at the hotel. They were helping him deal with the loneliness.
He was staring out the window at the pedestrians who walked the streets, the cars fighting for position. And then glanced over at her. She was navigating the traffic as well as anyone yet, her movements smooth and practiced. He couldn’t help noticing her manicured fingers, the gray nails twinkling with moon and stars.
He eyed her quizzically. “Do all women design their fingernails?”
She raised her fingers to look at them as if she didn’t know where the question had come from before wrapping them around the wheel again.
“Not all. My friend Casey talked me into it the last time we met for a mani-pedi.”
“What is that?”
“It’s a combination of manicure and pedicure.”
“Do your toes sparkle like your fingers?”
The corners of her mouth were twitching. Was she forcing back a smile?
He said simply, “I have missed that.”
She instantly turned serious. “Missed what?”
“The easy way you have when you’re relaxed. You hold nothing of yourself back. Since getting me signed, you have changed.”
“I haven’t changed at all.”
“That first day you met me, you seemed eager to know everything about me. I’ve come to realize it was all about baseball. Now, you want to know nothing. You don’t even want to talk to me. Did you use me to get what you wanted?”
He could see the sparkle of her nails as she tapped them on the steering wheel.
“I could ask the same question.”
He turned to see her more fully, noticed her cheeks coloring pink.
“I did not pursue you. You were the one in a hurry to see me here.”
Now those fingers were gripping the wheel.
“I thought it would benefit both of us.”
He said matter-of-factly, “You do not want to be married.”
Now she turned to him, those cat-like eyes flashing, but there was a chill in her voice.
“No. Not to someone like you. I told you that at the beginning.”
The sound of her voice, even with the deep freeze in her tone, was enticing. He asked, more curious than angry, “What is it about me that offends you? Is it my nationality?”
Her lips pinched tighter as she shook her head.
“Could you please answer me? I am asking a serious question.”
They approached two tall towers, just steps from the harbor, and just as he thought they’d pass by, Alicia turned in and descended a ramp that led to an underground garage. When she inserted a card at the kiosk, the gate ambled up and she drove in, maneuvering around a corner and into a spot marked 26C. He was almost thrown off, thinking I live here? But he was waiting for an answer. He was willing to let the silence consume them until he got one. He didn’t have to wait long. She turned to look at him, but before he could settle his eyes on hers, she turned away to stare at the concrete wall in front of them.
“I don’t like ball players.”
Now it was his mouth that twitched at the corners. “Tell me again what you do for a living?”
“I work for Dan. You know that.”
He did. It was most fortuitous that she was the one who’d sat next to him in Cancun. If it had been anyone else, he might still be sitting there. He certainly wouldn’t be here.
“But you don’t like the men you take care of.”
“I like them fine. In business. I don’t have anything to do with them in my personal life.”
“You don’t want to shit in the kitchen.”
Her nose was scrunched in distaste. “What?”
“Sorry, I could have used a better example. What I meant was the kitchen and bathroom are two separate places. You don’t want to contaminate one with the other?”
“In a way, I guess. But that’s not the only reason. Players are at times juvenile and spoiled, and they are not the most monogamous of athletes.”
The irritation was evident in her tone.
“I see. You have first-hand knowledge of this?”
Before she turned her gaze out the window, he saw sadness color her eyes. He had a feeling there was loss behind the bitterness.
“I’m on the road with the team often enough. I see what goes on.”
“And there aren’t any who keep their vows?”
She said grudgingly, “Most of them do.”
“So, there are a few men who cheat, painting a bleak picture of us in one broad stroke.”
She sighed heavily. “I’m not going to take the chance again that the one I choose will be one of them.”
“I would not be.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her voice was tight, lacked emotion when she said,
“It doesn’t concern me, one way or another. We’ll be terminating the marriage as soon as we can.”
She reached for the door handle, but he stopped her.
“I have a favor to ask.”
“What?”
“I am asking to wait on that. I would like to bring my mother here. I would need you to sponsor her.”
When she looked at him, her expression was mutinous. “That could take months.”
He shrugged. The marriage meant nothing to her, so where would the harm be?
“Would it make much of a difference if we waited a week or a year? You’d have the freedom to do what you wish.”
He didn’t want her dating, not until he knew for sure the marriage was the inconvenience, she thought it was, but he had to face reality. She didn’t want to be married. At least not to him.
There was testiness in her tone when she asked, “Like you do?”
He gave her a pointed look and said, “I will not disrespect you that way.”
She couldn’t disguise the doubt in her eyes nor the fear in her deceptively soft voice.
“As long
