“All right! I’ll start tonight. We’ll schedule that meeting for as soon as you guys can do it.”
I was overloaded with excitement and possibility as the guys made their way to say hello to other people that they knew. Jason walked off but not before giving Lauren a sweat-covered hug, which she pretended to not like but secretly loved, I could tell.
“This is going to be so much fun.” I beamed at her, surprised to see that her vodka and cranberry drink was already empty.
“You’re really good at this, you know.” She smiled.
“Thank you.” I felt like I was glowing from the inside out.
Nothing had ever made me feel more personally fulfilled or confident. I never questioned if I was good enough to do this job or if someone might be better at it than I was. That never mattered to me. There was more than enough business to go around, and I planned on being one of the best.
“Who was the guy at the bar?” Lauren asked.
I’d already forgotten all about him.
“Oh. Some guy named Logan,” I said without looking at him.
“Baseball player, right?”
“How’d you know that?”
Lauren remembered everyone. His face was probably stored in a file in her mind labeled Potential Kidnapper. I stopped myself from laughing.
“I recognize him. He was at the baseball party the other night.”
“He seemed nice. Offered to buy me a beer,” I said and waited for her reaction.
“Don’t let him hand you one that’s already opened!” she started, and I shook my head.
“I know the rules, Mom,” I teased because, apparently, roofies helped you get kidnapped easier. Made you compliant, pliable, and forgetful.
“Do you think he knows who you are?” She rattled the ice in her glass around before sliding it away.
“I’m not sure,” I said because I wasn’t. “He did say we hadn’t formally met before, but I don’t know what he meant by that. So, maybe he’s seen me around?”
A waitress arrived, carrying two drinks—another beer for me even though mine was still full and another vodka and cranberry for Lauren. “From the guy in the hat,” she said, pointing toward Logan, and he tipped his glass in the air in our direction.
“Thanks,” I said to the waitress.
Lauren waved Logan over before I could argue. “Might as well see what he wants,” she said.
I figured we might as well. What’s the worst thing that could happen?
Gave His Blessing
Christina
“You two know the guys in the band?” Logan was at our table before I could blink twice. He moved his body in between Lauren and me, placing his drink on our table as he introduced himself to her, shouting over the music.
“They’re her clients,” Lauren offered a little too quickly.
She was clearly trying to shove Logan off onto me, but I didn’t want him. At least, I didn’t think that I did.
My brain couldn’t have cared less about any of that because all it focused on were Lauren’s words.
My. Clients.
“They are my clients,” I agreed a little too loudly. Something about saying those words out loud to other people made me feel so satisfied. “Thanks for the drink, by the way.”
“Yeah, thank you,” Lauren added as she sipped hers through the tiny straw it came with.
I always thought those were for stirring and mixing, not actually trying to drink through, but what did I know? I rarely drank hard alcohol.
“Not a problem. So, the band is your client?” Logan’s brow furrowed as he turned toward me. “Fill me in. I’m lost.”
“I handle all their social media,” I said before quickly wondering if he had ever looked at their stuff online before. It wouldn’t look like I had done a very good job if he had. “Or at least, I will after tonight.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything”—he laughed—“but their accounts are pretty bad.”
I sat up straighter in my chair, my back rigid. “They just need a little help,” I said, feeling defensive of the guys already.
He leaned a little closer to me, as if he wasn’t already close enough. “I’m sure you’ll be just what they need.”
I couldn’t tell if he was being genuine or sort of smarmy since he came off a little of both.
“You were at the party last week, right?” Lauren asked, and he reached for whatever he was drinking and finished it off. “At the baseball house?” she clarified.
“I was.”
“I thought so. Hey, I’m going to go to the restroom. I’ll be right back.” She gave me a grin like she was somehow helping me out by leaving us alone, and I wanted to roll my eyes at her but didn’t.
“I saw what happened between you and Cole.” His dark eyes were focused right on mine.
I tried so hard to read him but failed. It wasn’t like I trusted my judgment when it came to guys at this point anyway.
“Oh,” I picked at the label wrapped around my bottle. “Yeah, sorry about that.” I found myself apologizing even though I had nothing to be sorry for.
Logan laughed. “Knowing Cole, I’m sure he deserved it.”
I knew that was supposed to make me feel better, but it didn’t. All it did was make me was wonder what else he knew about Cole that I didn’t. Why would Cole have deserved it? The Cole I’d thought I knew never did things to cause a scene. And even though girls constantly threw themselves at him, they usually didn’t walk around, slapping his pretty face.
“He did,” I said, pushing my lukewarm beer away. I’d lost my taste for it. “Deserve it, I mean.” I noticed another guy who looked sort of familiar, staring at us from across the bar. “Do you know him?” I asked, nudging my head in his direction. “He’s been watching us this whole time.”
Logan turned and craned his neck to see, a scowl appearing on his face before he dropped it. “Mac. He’s one of my teammates.”
“You don’t like him?” I asked as I watched the guy switch between looking at his cell phone and us.
“Why would you say that?”
“The look on your face,” I said, not wanting to dig up trouble, but I wasn’t going to pretend like I hadn’t noticed the scowl. “And the fact that you two aren’t hanging out together.”
“He’s one of Cole’s cronies,” he said the words with disgust.
I figured out one thing pretty quickly that I knew I was right about—Logan was not a fan of Cole’s.
“Cronies?” I questioned. “Guess that’s why he’s staring,” I said, annoyed with how it didn’t seem possible for me to go a single day without Cole being brought into my life.
“He’s also not old enough to be in here.” Logan took a step away from the table, and I placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
“So what? Don’t get him kicked out. That will cause problems for you on the field. Who cares if he’s in here?”
Logan faced me, his hard features softening. “You’re right; you’re right.”
“I’m back!” Lauren announced. She looked between the two of us, picking up on the fact that something had happened in the minutes she was gone. “What’d I miss?”