“She did. I assumed you told her about our…situation and she was giving me fair warning.”
“It was the thing about friend that gave it away, wasn’t it?”
“That did cause some suspicion.”
She shifted in her seat, as if suddenly uncomfortable and shot him a guilty look.
“I… I needed to talk to someone about it.”
“And if I have the same need?”
There was an edge to his voice.
She couldn’t tell him not to spill the secret, only to be discerning about who he told.
“Then I ask you confide in someone who’ll go to the grave with that secret. Casey will.”
“Maybe I can talk to Casey, as well.”
“And put her in the middle?”
“I think she is already there.”
He was right. She’d done that all by herself. She should have kept her mouth shut and dealt with it like she expected Mateo to do.
“You can always talk to Mac.”
“About my feelings for you?”
She jumped up from the couch, not wanting to hear that he had them.
“You better get back to studying. I’m packing it in for the night. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She all but ran from the room, hoping to outdistance the feelings for him that were growing in leaps and bounds.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Alicia was back at her desk by ten o’clock the next morning, Mateo the proud holder of a Massachusetts learner’s permit. It seemed a bit crazy that he had to go that route, but it was the first step in acquiring a license. They’d made the appointment for the driver’s test and she’d bitten the bullet, letting him drive to meet Seb half-way between Boston and his place in Norwood. She was sure she’d lost ten years of her life. She didn’t know how people did it for a living, with teenagers who thought they were invincible. It wasn’t for the faint of heart.
Seb was really helping her out by keeping Mateo company. The icing on the cake was that Seb was going to take Mateo out driving, teach him how to parallel park, give him some time behind the wheel on the highway, and let him drive up and down the quieter streets of a smaller town, said he was a pro, having done it before with his sister. Allie had been relieved if not outright pleased. Seb had somewhat of a lead foot and she didn’t want Mateo to pick up any bad habits.
She glanced up at the vent over her desk. The heat was working full tilt, sending out a stream of hot air, so she shrugged out of her jacket, hung it carefully over the back of her chair, and rolled up the crisp, sleeves of her newly laundered, white blouse and got down to work.
She checked her schedule again for good measure, mentally assessing how to parcel her time as efficiently as she could, having decided she was going to get back to Mateo’s condo in time for dinner. She had yet to go over his finances, show him how to write out a check, how to keep the register up to date, explain how the debit card worked, and she was going to do that tonight. Now that she was aware she’d shorted Mateo because of their circumstances, she’d promised herself she’d make a concerted effort to be there for him. It didn’t mean she’d been able to give him twenty-four-seven attention, but she’d give him what little time she did have. She just wasn’t sure what it would cost her in man-hours or emotion. The more she got to know him, the more she respected and liked him. The biggest hurdle she had to clear was the longing. It was becoming an acute ache. If Scarlet hadn’t interrupted that kiss last night…she suddenly realized what tune she’d been humming. She dropped her head into her hands, the words to Roberta Flack’s “Feel Like Making Love to You” still circling her brain.
She pushed her hair back off her face, took a deep breath, and checked her daily planner.
Her day was punctuated by two appointments and she had to fit all her other work around them. She had the eleven o’clock staff meeting with Dan, which was held every Monday for a summarization of what had been accomplished the prior week and the setting of goals for the current one. Then there was a meeting with Mac at two. The new manager had all her reports, but he wanted to go over them in person, and she’d been more than willing to oblige but it would probably take most of the afternoon. The reports included scouting notes, her decision-making process, and her opinion of every player’s performance. Her goal had been to produce a championship team, not an adequate one, and she’d looked at not only each players’ physical abilities but their mental skills as well. She’d already built high standards into the culture, and her motto had become performance through execution and consistency. There were certain characteristics she keyed in on the baseball ability side of the equation, such as talent, skill, awareness, and intelligence. The other side contained the personal traits that she needed the player to bring to the field, things like competitiveness, accountability, dedication, leadership. And she was always looking for athletes who could make the others around him better. Some things could be taught, others couldn’t.
The hour before the staff meeting would be devoted to the development plans she’d put off, thinking she’d have time to finish them before spring training, but she knew Mac would want to review them. He’d want to go over the specific outlines she wrote for each player, dissect what she expected them to work on, what their strengths and weaknesses were, and what they’d need to do to secure a spot on the roster. He’d do his own in-depth exploration of their skills and character as he got to know them, but this would give him a start in that direction. She’d amend and adjust as the Grapefruit League got going, and there’d be a
