Page 50 of The Billionaire Benefactor

Roman drifted off to mingle with a few more of the event coordinators. Every conversation revolved around the Roughnecks and their season, so after a while, he could zone out, answering questions while his thoughts plagued him. He thought about his talks on the phone with Jenny lately. They’d talked about everything from childhood memories to dream vacations. Rarely had football even entered the conversation. While spouting the same party lines about how the team looked this year, his mind kept circling back to Jenny.

“We’re coming off of a season with a lot of injuries, but we’re excited to have everyone back for training camp.”

Could we have had a worst first date? Was Jenny disappointed in me?

“I think the new punter is going to bring things together. Have you seen his averages?”

What else did Mom say to Jenny?

“Hopefully with the new helmet rule, most of the penalties will be called in preseason and everything will settle by the first games.”

Was this whole thing too tough? Should I give up?

What did she want to talk about?

That last thought was the one that kept circling in his brain as Blake drove him to his condo. A country station was playing and the highway was loud, so Blake didn’t start a conversation and Roman didn’t offer up anything. He read through the text conversation with Jenny again.

“This wasn’t the ideal first date, I take it?”

Roman snorted. “I’m not sure it could have been worse. I mean, sure—it could have been. But it was pretty bad. Maybe I jinxed the whole thing by not walking in with her. I really thought it was the right call. I mean, I let her choose, but I may have swayed her into avoiding the press and letting me walk in alone.”

“I get why you did, but do you think she felt like you didn’t want to claim her publicly?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” Roman ran a hand through his hair. “It wasn’t like that. I don’t want her to have to face the press right now. I don’t think they’d be particularly kind.”

“She just lost her husband! How could they be unkind? Or do you mean unkind to you?”

“I told you about the mistress.”

“The one you paid off.”

“Yep. He’d been with her almost a year, it sounds like. Anyway, she doesn’t want that to become public knowledge, but it also means that people expect her to behave like a faithful wife. People are pretty judgmental about how fast people should move on.”

“Who cares?”

“I think she does. Men get a pass on things like this. But more falls on the women when they don’t do what people expect. Anyway, then Mom pulled her aside and said who knows what to her. I bet it was bad though. When I tried to leave with Jenny, Mom stopped me and said something about Jenny not being my responsibility, her kids not being my kids. I’d be willing to bet she said some of the same things to Jenny when she had her alone.”

“Uh oh,” Blake pulled up to his high-rise and flashed his card to pull into the parking deck.

“Uh oh is right. Jenny said we should talk this week. I think this thing is over before it began.”

“Don’t think that way, man. And don’t give up! If you really like her, give it a real chance. Not one night where things went wrong. That’s not enough time to know for sure.” The car was quiet for a minute. “I know I run the risk of you hitting me for this, but I think Jenny’s great. I mean, if you weren’t interested…”

Roman punched Blake in the shoulder, but he was smiling.

“Dude! I’m still driving!”

“And obviously I trust your driving. Though now I may not trust you.”

“I said if you weren’t interested. Gosh. My point was that I think Jenny seems like a great woman. Yeah, she had a rough go of marriage. Yeah, she’s got kids. But she’s beautiful, down-to-earth, kind, and makes killer pizza. Did I say beautiful? Did I mention pizza?”

“You did,” Roman growled. “More than once. I think you may like the pizza more than you like Jenny.”

“You may be right. But it’s a toss-up. Really, really good pizza.”

“I know.”

Blake parked and they headed up to the top floor in the elevator. Roman kept checking his phone. Maybe he should call? She had said she was heading to bed, but maybe she was still up?

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