“So, you and Ben, huh? Will you be traveling with him the rest of the season?” She looks to Leanna for a moment. “The team goes to New York on Sunday, right? For a game on Monday?”
Leanna nods but stays silent.
“And then on to Oklahoma City after?” Eva shrugs. “I forget. It’s hard to keep up.”
Realizing I’m still shredding my bread into little pieces, I immediately stop. “I’ll stay in California.”
Her brows arch. “Oh yeah? Not serious then?”
“Eva,” Leanna warns.
Eva groans. “What? Jesus. Is blondie here incapable of speaking for herself?”
“My name is Raelynn,” I correct her with a hard tone.
“Rae-lynn, holy smokes. Where did you get a name like that?” She peruses me from top to bottom as she speaks then holds up her hand once she lands on my cowboy boots. “Wait, wait. Don’t tell me—”
“Texas,” we say at the same time.
She grins. “No shit. I’m from San Antonio.”
“Then you must be secretly rooting for the Spurs.”
She winks. “Don’t tell my boyfriend.”
“I’m actually from Pine Hill, right near Maken.”
“Are you really?! I’ve driven through Maken a thousand times. Didn’t know people really lived around there,” she teases.
I laugh, and Leanna leans forward.
“Oh so now you’re playing nice?” she asks.
Eva winks and sips her champagne. “Just for tonight.”
“Well grab a chair already,” Leanna says, pointing to a free one nearby. “The third quarter is going to start soon, and you’re blocking our view.”
Eva pulls a third chair up on the other side of mine then retrieves champagne for Leanna and me from a passing waiter.
“Here.”
“Oh, thanks.”
I hold it out, unsure of what to do with it.
“It won’t bite,” Eva teases.
I roll my eyes and take a sip. It’s ice cold and delicious. Unfortunately, I can’t drink much of it or I’ll be in trouble after the game. It’s hard enough navigating the LA bus system stone-cold sober.
I figure one glass won’t hurt me though, and something tells me I shouldn’t turn down Eva’s fleeting bout of kindness, so I drink it slowly as we chat. Eva and I have more in common than I first assumed. She was a bookworm in high school as well—“dorky,” she says, though both Leanna and I agree that’s impossible. Looking at her now, I can’t believe she could have been anything other than a beauty queen. She swears she didn’t come into her looks until she was older, after high school, when she moved to California to start college at UCLA.
“A talent scout found me one day while I was window shopping, and the rest is history.” She shrugs.
Leanna leans forward. “I hate to inflate Eva’s already massive ego, but she’s actually a pretty popular model. She just got back from Milan fashion week where she opened for Moschino and closed for Fendi.”
I know next to nothing about fashion and even I recognize those brands.
“That’s really cool.”
She sips her champagne like it’s no big deal.
“Tell that to my parents. Even with the amount I make on campaigns and shoots, they’re still pissed I dropped out of college. They’re both lawyers, and it’s almost embarrassing to them to have a daughter whose job it is to look pretty.”
Impossible as it may be, I actually feel bad for Eva in that moment. I see a fleeting moment of humanity behind her glacial green eyes, and I aim a supportive smile her way.
She shakes her head and downs the rest of her champagne before changing the subject altogether.
“So are you guys going to the after-party for Brent’s birthday?” Eva asks, wiggling her brows suggestively at me. “I mean, you’re not exactly dressed for it, but it’s not like it matters. With that face, no one’s paying attention to your clothes, believe me.”
I blush and shake my head. “Probably not. I mean…I don’t even know who Brent is, so I doubt I’m invited.”
She grins. “Brent’s my boyfriend, so if I say you’re invited, you’re invited.”
“I promised my nanny I’d be back right after the game,” Leanna says, and I suddenly feel like the biggest idiot on the planet.
With everything else going on, I haven’t asked Leanna about her baby girl. In fact, I almost forgot for a moment that she was pregnant back when she was in Texas. She looks amazing now, toned and slim.
She meets my eyes and grins before grabbing her phone. It takes her half a second to pull up a whole album of photos of her daughter. She passes me the phone and tells me to scroll.
“That’s Amara. She just turned one last month.”
Amara is such an adorable little baby, pudgy-cheeked and beautiful. She looks so much like Leanna, and when I tell her, she beams proudly.
“Yeah, she could be my twin. I wasn’t sure how Trey’s family would take that. I knew deep down, they were a bit nervous to have a mixed-race grandbaby. Not that they’re narrowminded or anything,” she adds hastily. “I think I was just worried they would want their grandchild to look like them, to fit in seamlessly with their family.” She shakes her head. “I shouldn’t have worried though. Amara is so loved. I swear when we’re all together, I barely get to touch her. She’s passed from one person to the next, smothered with kisses. Trey’s mom is especially helpful.”
“Okay, booooo,” Eva says, waving her hands like a referee. “No we are not lapsing into baby talk. Yes, Amara is cute as shit, but put the photos away, call your nanny, and tell her you’ll be late tonight—you’re going out!”
When Leanna starts to protest, Eva holds up her hand. “Come on. You never go out after the games! You and Trey are like Mr. and Mrs. In Bed By Nine PM. Don’t you want to show Raelynn a good time? Besides, if you don’t come with us, she’ll be left alone with me, and we both know that won’t end well for her. I’m very good at encouraging people to misbehave. She’ll end up dancing on a table or arrested or something.”
I’m not exactly sure how I end up at the club alongside Leanna and Eva, but it definitely had something to do with Eva’s top-notch persuasion skills, paired with that first glass of champagne I had back in the private suite. It went down a little too easy, and then there was another ready to take its place as soon as I finished. Who was I to turn down free drinks? Kayla would be so proud of me.
To be clear, this wasn’t really part of my original plan. That was very simple: I was going to show up at the game, watch Ben, reconnect with Leanna, and then schlep back to the bus stop in front of the Staples Center and return to my bed, all nice and cozy and tucked in by midnight. Then Eva finally convinced Leanna to go to Brent’s birthday party, and Leanna said if she was getting dragged out to a club, there was no way I was escaping it. To be sure I made it, she insisted I ride with her, which worked in my favor considering I would have had to take the bus otherwise.
Though I’m nervous about how this will all go, I reassure myself with the fact that I wouldn’t have even had a chance to talk to Ben if I’d followed my original plan. As soon as the final buzzer blared, Los Angeles fans went wild, and Ben disappeared through the dark tunnel toward the locker room. Leanna told me how it usually works: they go and shower, dress, and then they’re required to do a bunch of postgame press. Depending on the game, it can last a while, which is why most of the time she doesn’t wait for Trey.