Page 37 of A Chance at Forever
Breathless, her face flushed and eyes sparkling with vivacity, Victoria loaded Rusty’s arms with vintage clothing. Caught up in her excitement, he followed her up and down the aisles until she’d finished making her selections and paid for them.
As Rusty pulled into traffic, Victoria commented, “It’s been a long time since I’ve had so much fun. Thanks for indulging me.”
“My pleasure. Are you hungry? I’ll treat you to dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf, if you’d like.”
“I’m starving, actually, and I love Fisherman’s Wharf.”
After they’d been seated at a table near San Francisco Bay and a waiter took their order, Rusty showed Victoria the pictures and the video he took of her. Her laughter and happiness ended abruptly. She drew away from him in horror as her face drained of color. Abject fear turned her eyes into stone slates.
“Please don’t share those pictures and the video of me online,” she whispered in a raspy voice. “Please…” Victoria gasped for breath, and her hand flew to her chest. “I can’t…breathe. I can’t…breathe…”
Rusty recognized the signs of a panic attack. He jumped to his feet and pulled Victoria’s chair away from the table. With gentle force, he pushed her head between her knees. “Breathe, Tori. Breathe with me. In…out…in…out. That’s it. In…out… Listen to my voice. In…out… You’re doing great. You’re okay. I’ve got you.”
When she recovered, he handed her a glass of water. She gulped it and looked at him with misery and tears glistening in her eyes. “Please… I’m begging you…”
He pressed her cold hands between his and warmed them. “I hate social media. I swear, Tori, I’m not on any platforms. Here, check my phone for yourself.” Rusty pushed it toward her.
With trembling fingers, she swiped his screen and perused his apps.
“Google me,” he encouraged.
She did as he asked and, satisfied, returned his phone to him.
“To further prove my integrity, you can program your number into my phone, and I’ll text you the pictures and the video. Then you can delete them from my gallery. All except this one.” He showed her his favorite snapshot of her playing with the floppy hat.
Victoria studied him a moment before she nodded. She took his phone again and punched in her number. After she’d texted the pictures and the video, she deleted them. With a smile, he used the picture he liked as his lock screen.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, glancing at the curious diners staring at her. “For causing a scene and embarrassing you.”
“It takes more than a panic attack to embarrass me. Try throwing a football straight into the arms of your opponent.”
She managed a wan smile. “Tell me about it.”
Their seafood feast arrived, and in between bites of sampling the food on each other’s plates, Rusty described the worst game of his career.
“I threw so many interceptions and got sacked so many times I’m surprised I didn’t get traded.” He ended his story and swallowed a piece of blackened grouper.
Victoria remarked on his hands devoid of any jewelry. “You have three Super Bowl rings, but you don’t wear one.”
He went still as the levity left him. In order to fund Alex’s biomedical research at the University of Colorado, Rusty had auctioned his rings. “No.”
She must have interpreted the closed expression on his face correctly because she dropped the subject. “May I ask you a personal question?”
“Only if we’re friends. Are we?”
She tilted her head. “After what you’ve done for me today, I could hardly say no.”
“Okay, then. Shoot.”
“Why don’t you date? I mean, you’d be quite a catch for some lucky woman.”
If anyone else had said that to him, he’d be offended. Since he intended to keep Victoria in the friend zone, he didn’t mind answering her question. “For that very reason. I don’t want to be someone’s ‘catch.’ Like I’ve been baited, hooked, and reeled in because I’m a former pro-football player. I haven’t met a woman I would trust with my life.”
Victoria toyed with the wild rice on her plate. “I see.”
“My turn. What happened between you and your ex in New York City?”
Color suffused her cheeks, and she bit her lower lip. “Alan’s catch of the day.”
