Love the One You're With(81)

“Let’s just say you have the same someone-killed-my-puppy look that he had when I saw him last night.”

She took a deep breath. “I’m not going to beg you for details, you know.”

“I know. Wasn’t going to give them, either.”

Damn. She let him pluck her beer out of her hand and take a long drink.

Her eyes scanned the huge board in the outfield. It was the top of the fourth. She had an inning and a half. Then it’d be go time.

* * *

Grace obediently stood and let Julie redo her ponytail and apply some soft pink lipstick. She let Riley pop a mint into her mouth. She even let her boss explain to her the mechanics of a good kiss, although she started to tune out right around the time that Camille mentioned the word molars.

It wasn’t a big deal. Movie stars fake-kissed all the time. And most of Grace’s friends approached a first kiss the way they did trying on shoes. Sometimes you tried a pair on just because, even though they didn’t go with anything in your closet.

And the entire stadium would be watching them, for heaven’s sake. It’s not like they were shooting a porno. Just a brief meeting of lips. It didn’t mean anything.

All of which would have made her feel a little better if she didn’t suspect that Cole was starting to get cold feet.

“Are you sure you’re not going to dash out on me?” she asked him for the fifth time. Sometime around the middle of the fourth, he’d checked his phone and gone totally silent. His responses since then had been distracted and jumpy.

And other than letting Riley shove one of her mints in his mouth, he’d done a whole lot more texting on his phone than he had preparing for their moment. Come on, dude. Chapstick? Breath check? Anything?

She lost all hope when Cole helped himself to some of Mitchell’s nachos, his eyes never once leaving his phone.

A public nacho kiss.

Yummy.

“The camera’s here,” Julie said, elbowing her side.

Grace turned, and sure enough, there was a big old camera pointing her way. Probably the one that would put the kiss on the big screen, given the Yankee Stadium logo on the cameraman’s shirt.

There were a handful of other camera operators milling around too. Those guys had the logos of local TV stations on their shirts.

Crap.

The media hounds really had shown up, although, judging by the heated conversation one of the reporters was having with Camille, they weren’t thrilled about the turn of events.

The TV stations wanted Grace and Jake, not Grace and some dude they’d never seen.

Too bad, Grace thought. Jake’s off working on his tan and probably chasing after some gorgeous Costa Rican native.

“Smile,” Julie said under her breath. “You look just a tiny bit socio right now.”

“I feel a little socio,” Grace muttered back as she took deep breaths and tried to banish Jake from her mind.

He didn’t want you. You were just a temporary toy.

There was a loud cheer from the crowd, and Grace blindly watched an angry Boston batter toss his bat and helmet toward the dugout before a teammate came trotting out on the field and handed the batter his glove and hat.

She knew just enough about baseball to know what that meant. Boston had just gotten their third out of the fifth inning.

Which meant …

It was time.

Julie’s fingers found Grace’s biceps, and Julie repeated her previous order, more urgently this time: “Smile. The news camera’s already rolling and that reporter is talking about you.”

Sure enough, a stunning blonde in perfect makeup and an out-of-place coral suit stood in the nearby stands, talking into a microphone and beaming at the camera.

The crowd was too noisy for Grace to catch all of it, but she got the gist. Website. Epic battle of the sexes. Love and war …

Then the reporter turned toward Grace and Cole and began walking their way, taking the steps in that slow reporter march that built suspense. “And tonight marks the final path in this journey. Only there’s a twist! Grace Brighton is in love, all right—only it’s not with Jake Malone. She’s found a new man in her life, and she wants you to judge their chemistry.”

“Is she serious with this?” Grace asked out of the corner of her mouth. “This isn’t The freaking Bachelorette.”

“Just close your eyes and let Cole do all the work,” Julie said. “It’ll be over before you know it.”

Sure enough, Cole was turning toward her, and although she didn’t know him well, she’d swear his eyes were trying to reassure her. It’ll be fine.

Right. How could kissing a complete stranger in front of tens of thousands of people plus an unknown number of television viewers be anything other than fine?