Even the Score(36)

I liked her. I liked her a lot, in fact. Since she’d started working with me, I could feel the electricity zapping in the air as soon as I stepped out of the elevator. If she was out meeting with a client, I found myself staring at the elevator, anxiously waiting for her to get back. If she was sitting in her office, I’d been making up excuses to knock on her door or walk by to get paper from the storage room that I didn’t even need, just so I could catch a glimpse of her through the crack of the door.

It was an unnerving feeling, really. I hadn’t been interested in any other woman since Blaire and I had started dating over a decade ago. It also didn’t feel like the best idea to have the first woman I was interested in postdivorce be my new partner, but I couldn’t control it.

When the elevator doors slid open, just like the few days before, Ellie’s desk was empty. I heard chattering coming from Danicka’s office, so I quietly went to mine and immediately looked for my daily e-mail with my schedule on it. It wasn’t there.

I leaned to my left, where I could see straight across to Danicka’s office. “Hey, El!” I hollered loudly.

Immediately she jumped up from the chair and hustled over to my office. “Sorry, Andy. I didn’t hear you come in.”

“No problem, I just got here. Do you have my schedule for today yet?”

Ellie pinched her eyes shut tight and gritted her teeth. “I’m so sorry. I was celebrating with Dani this morning, and it totally slipped my mind. I’ll go do it right this second.” She turned to rush from my office.

“Ellie!”

She whipped back around so fast I thought she was going to keep spinning and drill herself right into the floor.

“Celebrating what?”

“Oh!” Her eyes lit up and she clapped her hands together. “Remember last week when you told me you’d heard that Kyle Keegan had fired his agent and was shopping around?”

I nodded.

“And remember you told me that he’s been turning down agents all over the country? You said you even called him but couldn’t get a firm yes or no for an interview?”

I nodded again.

“And remember when you said you were—”

“Ellie,” I interrupted. “Today, please.”

“Sorry.” She shot me an embarrassed grin as she tugged on the sleeve of her button-down shirt. “Guess who has an interview with him today? Dani! He’s coming. Here. In an hour. Eeeeek!” She made fists with her hands, hopping up and down excitedly.

My head jerked back as all the muscles in my upper half tensed. “He’s coming here?”

“Mm-hmm, in an hour.”

“Holy shit.” I sat back in my chair and gawked at Ellie with my mouth open in disbelief.

“Okay.” She smiled awkwardly after a minute of me staring at her, expressionless. “I’m gonna go get your schedule ready now.”

I wasn’t really staring at her, more like through her. Kyle Keegan was a baseball player who was only four months into his rookie season as a hard-hitting right-handed first baseman, and he’d already hit twenty-two home runs. He was well on his way to possibly breaking the rookie home run record by an American League player. That record had been standing since 1987, six years before Kyle was even born.

I got up from my desk and made my way over to Dani’s office as calmly as I could when what I really wanted to do was sprint across like an excited kid running toward the pool on a hot day.

Her door was open about halfway. “Knock, knock . . .” I said, knocking quietly as I opened it and walked in.

“Who’s there?” she answered without looking up from her computer.

“The agent who doesn’t have a meeting with Kyle Keegan.”

“The agent who doesn’t have a meeting with Kyle Keegan who?” She couldn’t hide her smile as she turned my response into a joke.

“Very funny, Douglas,” I said sarcastically as I sat in the chair across from her desk. “When did you manage to score this interview, and why didn’t you tell me?”

She finally looked over at me as she licked her lips and shrugged. “I was working late one night last week, and I felt a little brave, so I made a call and told him I’d love to talk to him while they’re in town. He was really quiet the whole time I was talking. At one point I thought he’d hung up.” She reached up and tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear, revealing tiny little silver hoops. She had cute ears. Who the hell had cute ears? They were weird little cartilage-filled skin flaps that hung off the sides of your head, yet hers were adorable.

“Yo! Earth to Andy . . .” Dani waved her arm in the air, catching my attention and bringing me back.