Page 8 of 7 Nights of Sin

"I'm not difficult," he said. "I'm easy. I'm so easy."

"And that's why you're in this situation to begin with."

Kevin winced and then sighed. "Okay, I deserved that, I guess." He tapped his fingers on the table, shifting his position. "It's not true, you know. The shit Christine is saying about me. I'm not like that."

When I met his eyes, it looked like he really wanted me to believe him. I couldn't imagine why. He had been in the spotlight long enough to know that it didn't matter what the truth was. I shouldn't have had to explain that to him.

"Alright," I said with a shrug. "If that helps you sleep at night, then good for you. But you know it's not going to make this any easier."

"Yeah, that's what Kathleen said."

"She's a smart woman. You're going to have to do some work, and you're going to have to rein it in."

"For how long?"

"Until this blows over, and then a bit longer for good measure. Until people only care about your ability to hit a baseball again."

"When you say work, you mean...?"

I had an itemized list just for that. It paid to be prepared. "I mean, photo ops with children, possibly a public apology. Pushing harder for your more wholesome sponsors to trust you. Whatever they bring you, you're going to have to do. Community service out of the goodness of your own heart, and not being seen partying or anything."

Kevin looked less than pleased with what I was saying, but that was too bad. If he wanted me to help him, he was going to have to listen. Otherwise, I was fine with letting him crash and burn.

Or so I told myself.

He sighed again, and when I looked at him, I could tell he was tired. It must have been a rough few days for him, all things considered. Reporters could be vicious about this kind of thing, and I was sure they were hounding him for his side of the story.

That could work in our favor, but it couldn't have been easy to deal with.

"Can we stop talking about this?" he asked abruptly.

I frowned. "What else would we talk about? This is the only reason we're here."

"I don't know. Anything else. My whole life has been this for the last forty-eight hours it feels like, and I just need a break. Tell me about you. You're doing well, clearly. Big shot publicist."

I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to keep myself focused. "We're not here to socialize, Kevin," I said. "This is business, nothing more. We're not friends."

This time when he winced, it looked like I had hurt his feelings, and I wanted to roll my eyes. After everything he'd done, I wasn't going to feel guilty for not wanting to chitchat with him like it was all fine.

"We should at least be friendly, though, right?" he pointed out. "If we're going to be working together. I assume there will be more meetings like this one, and I'd feel a lot more comfortable letting you take over my personal life for the next however long if I felt like you didn't hate me."

I hated when he had a point. Antagonism wasn't going to help matters here at all. I inhaled deeply and let it out on a slow breath. "Fine," I said. "And I don't hate you. I don't think about you enough to hate you."

"See, that's what I'm talking about, though. You say things like that, and it hurts me. I'm hurt, Caro." He batted his eyelashes at me, and I rolled my eyes, leaning away from the table and him.

"You're trying my patience," I said. "And that's not going to lead to me wanting to be friendly with you."

"Why'd you take this job?" he asked, head tipped to the side. "I'm gonna assume you knew it was me before you said yes to it."

"I did," I agreed. "It's a big job. Like it or not, you're a big name." I left it at that. I wasn't about to go into the struggles of my career with someone who didn't understand what it felt like to be passed over in the slightest.

"So it's fame you're after," he replied with a grin. "You want to be known as the one who saved Kevin Porter's ass."

"You're not that important," I shot back.

He just kept grinning. "Sure, sure. So...big, important job, I get that. What else has been going on with you. I don't see a wedding ring. Are you seeing anyone?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" I demanded.

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