Page 79 of Angel In Armani

“You found time for Sara,” Alex said. “Which is a good thing,” he added when Lucas stiffened.

“All right, so now you know,” Lucas said. “Can we change the subject please?”

Alex nodded but Sara suspected that Lucas hadn’t heard the last of this just yet. Well, that was between the two of them.

“Sure,” he said and turned his green eyes on her. “So Sara, has Maggie turned you into a batting champ yet?”

“No, I’m pretty bad.”

Maggie wagged a finger at this. “Actually, no, for someone who hasn’t done this before, you did good.”

“Careful, Maggie will infect you with baseball cooties before you know it,” Alex said.

Sara smiled. “It’s … not so bad.”

“She sounds underwhelmed,” Alex said to Lucas. “You’ve obviously been slacking off. You’re meant to show off more. Impress her with your baseball team and big stadium.”

“She’s already impressed with me, she doesn’t have to care about baseball,” Lucas said, his voice more easy.

Some of the tension dissolved from Sara’s shoulders. “Don’t pick on Lucas. It’s not his fault I don’t know much about baseball. Besides, I’ve been learning lots at spring training.”

“Don’t learn too much,” Alex said. “It might be refreshing to have someone not affected by baseball insanity around here. And you must get along like a house on fire with Lucas’s family if you don’t like baseball.”

Lucas went stiff again. She looked up to see him looking oddly uncomfortable.

“Ah. I take it you haven’t met the Angelos yet?” Alex said. “Lucas, are you keeping Sara a secret from everybody, not just us?”

“I’m not keeping secrets,” Lucas said coolly. “Some of us like a bit of privacy. It’s not like you and Maggie would’ve announced your relationship so soon if your hand hadn’t been forced.”

Alex held up a hand. “I was joking. Ease down.”

Sara felt her teeth catch at her lip. “We’re just taking things slowly,” she said. “It’s only been a few weeks.” Beside her, Dougal whined softly, his ears lowering.

“I’m not going to get into this right now,” Lucas said. “Look, Sara needs to get ready for the flight later. So I think it’s time we got on our way.”

Maggie looked unhappy. “Lucas, don’t go. Alex is being his usual idiotic self. If you and Sara don’t want to be public yet, then we’ll keep our mouths shut. But you need to think about this. The press has been leaving us alone here for the moment while the team is in Florida, but that’s not going to last forever. And it only takes a picture at the wrong moment and everyone will know.”

“I’ll worry about that when I have to,” Lucas said. But he didn’t look quite so defensive, and he smiled crookedly at Alex. “Sorry, A. It’s been a long week.”

Alex ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, too. You’re right, it has been a long week. I promise, my lips are sealed. You might want to give Mal the heads-up though.”

“I will,” Lucas said.

Maggie stepped back. “It’s a pity, though. If you were going public you could’ve brought Sara as your date to the ball.”

Sara’s stomach tensed all over again. Of all things, a goddamned ball. The only images the words fund-raiser and ball brought to mind were beautiful people in the very expensive clothes and jewels that she’d seen in the papers. She couldn’t afford even one-tenth of one of those gowns.

“It’s okay,” she said quickly. “I don’t mind. Lucas can go. I have two left feet, anyway.”

“No, you don’t,” Lucas said. He was frowning again. Damn.

“A ball means photographers and pictures in the papers, doesn’t?” Sara said. “So, really not a good idea. It’s okay, really. Plenty of time for balls later on.”

Maggie’s eyes narrowed. “There would only be pictures if you arrive or leave with Lucas. We’re keeping the press out of the actual event.”

“Who else would I be going to the ball with?” Sara said, confused.

Maggie smiled suddenly, and the expression was so full of satisfaction that Sara had a vision of her holding a fairy godmother wand and saying, abracadabra. Only in Maggie’s case her wand was more likely to be a baseball bat.

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