Page 57 of If We Never Met

"I told Nikki I'd let her play the breakup however she wanted. I just didn't realize she was going to smear Keira." Keira could be hurt, he realized, and his silence wouldn't help. "I'll think about what I want to do."

"Okay. Let's talk about your progress. I'm getting a lot of queries from team management."

"Tell them I'm working the rehab. Dr. Cole is coming up next week to check my progress. After that, I should know more."

"I will pass that on, but now I'm just asking for myself."

"It's up and down. The range of motion is getting better, but not as fast as I would like. I feel strong. I feel like there's improvement, but I don't want to over-analyze it. I want to just stay focused on getting better."

"I'm glad to hear you're feeling optimistic."

"I'm not sure I'd go that far," he said dryly.

"Give me a call after you talk to your doctor next week."

"Will do."

"If you need me to speak to Nikki's agent, I can also do that."

"No one controls Nikki. She'll do whatever she wants to do if it works for her benefit. But I appreciate the offer. I'll be in touch."

As he set down his phone on the console, he blew out a breath of frustration.Why the hell had Nikki gone off on Keira?He didn't care what she said about him, but to bring Keira into it when Nikki knew there was nothing going on between them…

Clearly, Nikki hadn't completely believed that, or even if she had, she'd just thought the story would be better if she played the betrayed woman. She wasn't completely wrong, either. He did have feelings for Keira. But their lives were not in the same place. It had been difficult enough to work things out with Nikki, who traveled as much as he did. But Major League Baseball didn't make its way through Whisper Lake.

He'd never be able to finish anything he started with Keira, so he couldn't start it, even though he really wanted to, even though his dreams were filled with her image, even though he could hear the sound of her laugh in his head.

He should talk to her about the lies Nikki was telling. But she wanted him to keep his distance. He had to make an exception for this.Didn't he?

As he drove out of the parking garage, a van immediately followed him. The man behind the wheel was the same man who'd gotten the first shot of him. He pressed his foot down harder on the gas. He wasn't going to talk to the press until he spoke to Keira.

He grabbed his phone and punched in her number, but she didn't answer. He tossed the phone onto the console and then decided to lose his tail before he tried to find her. The last thing he wanted to do was bring more trouble to her, although he had the feeling that trouble was going to find her whether he brought it to her or not.

Chapter Fourteen

As Keira leftthe boutique through the back door just after four, she was shocked to find two photographers staked out in the parking lot: one middle-aged guy and a young twenty-something male. They'd been at the Lakeshore Bistro for Nikki's setup, but she'd thought they left town. They started shooting photos immediately, calling out question after question.

"Are you having an affair with Dante DeAngelis?"

"Are the two of you a couple?"

"Why did you betray Nikki?"

"Is Dante going to be able to play baseball again this season?"

She hesitated, wondering if she should try to answer any of their questions when the younger man asked,"When did you and Dante start having sex?"

No way was she talking to them! "No comment," she said, as she hurried toward her car. She quickly opened the door and got inside.

More shots were snapped as she drove out of the lot, her heart racing and her palms sweating.Wasn't Nikki a better subject than she was? Or Dante, for that matter? Why the hell weren't they at the rehab center, chasing him down?

Probably because they knew Dante wouldn't tell them anything. They might have thought she was an easier target.

Thank God she hadn't actually said anything. She'd been tempted, but that would have been a mistake. They would have spun her words around and made something else up.

As she drove away, she made a quick turn, then another. She knew this town like the back of her hand, and within minutes, she was able to get away. She was shocked that anyone would want to follow her. It seemed crazy, but Dante had tried to warn her that the tabloid press could be relentless. She might be a nobody, but she'd gotten caught in the middle of Dante and Nikki, and they were both celebrities. Hopefully, the press had gotten enough shots to be satisfied for now. She couldn't imagine that this story was really that interesting. There had to be celebrity breakups and plenty of legitimate threesomes to write about.

Putting the press out of her head, she headed toward the east shore, to the cabin where she'd met up with Dante several days earlier. A new stove was being delivered between five and seven, and she needed to sign for it and oversee the installation. This was another job she probably should have turned down, but her friend had trusted her to take care of everything and had insisted on adding an extra percentage point to a future sale to make sure she was compensated for her time.

---