Page 46 of Love In The Spotlight

He sighed. “When I’m walking out people will be taking pictures if they notice me. I’ll almost always get stopped in the parking lot and asked for a picture. If we were in Manhattan it would happen more, which is why I chose here even though it was out of the way for you.”

“Thanks for that,” she said.

She couldn’t fault him there. “Are you going to be bothered by that?” he asked.

“Not sure,” she said. “I’m used to it with West.”

But being used to it didn’t mean she wanted it to happen when she wasn’t with her brother either.

“I figured as much,” he said. “And with you being all dressed up professionally you look more like I’m having lunch with a lawyer than on a date.”

He’d dipped his head down and said that quickly.

“Could be I did that on purpose,” she said.

Which she had. It was cold out but no snow on the ground. She found her brown suit and put a white button-down shirt on under it with brown ankle boots.

Nothing sexy other than the fit of it on her body.

No one in their right mind would think this was a date and she wasn’t wearing anything she hadn’t worn to work before.

“That’s fine,” he said. “And a good move too. It’s just a first date.”

“But not a first kiss,” she said. “Guess we did things out of order.”

“I’m not one that always played by the rules,” he said.

“I don’t know about that,” she said. “I think you always played by the rules when it came to your career. You seemed to be more passionate than most and it could cloud things, but you still stayed within the rules. Or am I wrong?”

“Not wrong,” he said. “Not when it came to football. Anything outside of that, my parents would say I never followed the rules.”

“Considering your father’s career, I can understand where that might be a conflict.”

He snorted. “More than might be.”

“You never did tell me how your holiday was other than you flew home.”

“Well,” he said. “I texted you that night after a few beers.”

“Oh,” she said. “It was a drunk text?”

He laughed. “Hardly that. A few beers aren’t going to get me drunk, but I haven’t had more than two in maybe a year. I have one or two out when I’m on the road but most time it’s one to be social.”

“How many was more than two?” she asked.

“Three,” he said. “Then I went to bed. Janelle and I were snacking in the kitchen after a long day and talking about things.”

She wouldn’t ask more about Janelle here since she didn’t know if he slipped when he said his nanny’s name or not.

“Things weren’t so wonderful with your parents then,” she said. “I’m sorry about that.”

“Don’t be sorry. I’m never going to be good enough for them.”

Her jaw dropped. “Are you kidding me? You’re a success story in itself.”

“They don’t care about money. I told you that when you asked me about the company and my mother’s formula. To them it’s evil. I have to almost force things on my mother and most of her Christmas gifts were of a practical nature because I can’t stand she’s baking and cooking in pans that were there when I lived at home.”

“West was the same way with my mother. It’s the first thing he did when he had the money. Paid off the mortgage on the ranch we lived in. He did that before he cleared up his student loans or mine and Braylon’s. We were fine with everything. My mother was still home with a lot of kids and West made sure no one went without.”

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