“Emma, good timing. I’d like you to meet our club president, John Hayes.” He turned to John. “This is Emma Lexington. She’s the representative who’s joined us from Sydney on the exchange program.”
I straightened as I realized who I was being introduced to—the infamous John Hayes, or just Hayes as my colleagues referred to him—best known for his shrewd business sense and short temper. I accepted his extended hand, mimicking the brisk nod he gave me. “I trust you’ve settled in well?”
“Yes, thank you. Mark and the team have brought me up to speed on everything now.” I smiled, but he only glanced from me to Mark and back again.
“Well I should hope so. We’ve got an important week ahead of us.”
Wow, they weren’t exaggerating—this guy was all business. Clearly, niceties weren’t necessary if you were the President of the New York Warriors.
“Of course,” Mark jumped in. “I’ve got Emma joining me at the opening of the SportsPro store this Saturday with Jensen.”
At the sound of his name I stiffened, the humiliation still so fresh. And now the idea of attending the store opening—which until a few minutes ago I had been looking forward to—filled me with dread.
“Good. Good.” He nodded, stepping away from us both. “You’ll have to excuse me, I need to keep moving.”
We both released a long breath, the tension noticeably dissipating the farther away he got. Mark looked back at me. “We should actually get Jensen over here and introduce you.” Standing on his toes, Mark searched the crowd for Will.
“No!”
Not happening.
“I mean, it’s fine…I actually introduced myself to him at the bar,” I said.
Not a total lie.
“Don’t bother him. I’m sure he’s got plenty of people wanting to speak to him.”
“Perfect,” Mark said with a raise of his beer. “You’ll be all set for Saturday then.”
With that bullet dodged, I made my excuses and went in search of Carrie and Dana.
I was ready to get the hell out of there.
CHAPTER FOUR
So it turns out the draft is a big deal. A
huge
deal. Not that it wasn’t back home, but this was something else entirely. It was a spectacle, a production. What should be part of a process to deliver on-field entertainment was entertainment in itself.
The next two days were absolutely manic as literally every area of the business was heavily involved in pulling off a successful
campaign,
as everyone referred to it. We spent long days at Radio City and even longer nights back at the office managing media and planning for the following day.
Thankfully, this meant I had little time to worry about the SportsPro store opening and seeing a certain quarterback again. I didn’t need to get there until midday so on Saturday morning, Julia took me to a delightful little café in the West Village for brunch. We were halfway through ordering when Mark called.
“Hey Mark, everything all right?”
“Hi Emma, yeah, everything’s fine but unfortunately I’m not going to make it today. It turns out they need me at Radio City for the last day after all. Do you think you can handle this one on your own?”
Absolutely not.
“Absolutely! I’ll be fine. Do you need me to come help out afterward?”
“Thanks, but we’re all good. You should enjoy the rest of your Saturday. I’ll have the car come by your place at 11:30, Jensen’s not too far from you so there’ll be plenty of time to collect him and get to the store on time. He’s usually pretty good, but just run through things one more time on the drive.”
“Easy, no problems.”
Mark paused on the other end of the line before going on. “Are you sure? I don’t have much choice but to trust you on this, but it needs to run smoothly. Jensen’s your number-one priority, get him in and out in under an hour and make sure you keep a tight leash on the media—make sure they stay on point.”
I found myself nodding into the phone, even though he couldn’t see me. Clearly this was a test. “That all sounds fine. I’ll let you know how it goes, but don’t worry. I’ve got it under control.”
I so did not have this under control.
So much for my plan of staying out of the way and avoiding Will at all costs.
The car arrived right on time at 11:30 a.m. just as I was contemplating changing outfits for the third time. Really, what do you wear to a work commitment at a sports store opening on a Saturday afternoon?
Racing through the lounge, I stopped in front of Julia. “Do I look all right?”
“You look great—I love your top.” Julia tugged at the silk shirt I had on. “What size are you?”
“An eight.”
“An eight? There’s literally no way you’re an
eight.
”
I frowned at her before realizing. “Oh! We have different sizing charts.” I thought for a second. “I think that means I’m a two…or maybe a four.”
Julia let out a breath. “That sounds about right.” She glanced over my shoulder toward my bedroom. “And just my size, I can’t wait to see what else you’ve brought.”
Grabbing my keys I yelled over my shoulder, “See you later, I’ll give you a call but a drink tonight would be great!”
“Sounds good! Something tells me by then you’ll need it.” She winked, grinning at me as I pulled the door shut. After Mark’s call I’d spilled the beans on my embarrassing introduction to Will. Julia was fast becoming a great friend and as such, she found my predicament suitably hilarious and couldn’t wait to laugh some more at my expense after round two with Will.
As the car made its way through the Saturday traffic, I forced myself to think about how to handle seeing him again. I had no idea how he would react following our humiliating first meeting, but I had a feeling he wouldn’t do the gentlemanly thing and pretend the whole incident never happened. That would be too easy.
I decided I would follow his lead. If he ignored my blunder then so would I, but if he wanted make light of the situation, I could too…at least that’s what I told myself.
The car came to a stop outside an apartment block. “This is Mr. Jensen’s building, miss.”
I was just about to call Will when the car door opened and the man himself stepped in. He looked over at me and his face registered surprise before he broke into a lopsided grin. “Well if it isn’t my favourite Aussie, what a nice surprise.”
His sheer size in the confines of the car was overwhelming and once again I was rendered somewhat speechless. When I didn’t immediately say anything, he leaned over to me and stuck out his hand. “I’m Jensen, I hear you’ve been looking forward to meeting me.”
Right, so he definitely hadn’t forgotten our first encounter.
Choosing to ignore the dig, I accepted his hand and smiled politely. “Will, it’s nice to see you again.”
“The pleasure’s all mine, you make for much nicer company than Mark.”
“He said to apologize for not being here. He had to go back to Radio City.”
“I guess his loss is my gain.” He winked at me and finally released my hand from his grip. Carrie wasn’t wrong about his ease with women. His self-assuredness should have been a turn-off, but for some reason it sent a thrill through me.
Will turned to face me. “So you had a good time at the party the other night?”
“I did, thank you, and I presume you were satisfied with the free food?”
He laughed and nodded. “The food was pretty good, as was the company.”
I raised one eyebrow at him. “I guess being a quarterback and all you’d need to keep your energy up, so the free food thing makes sense.”
He actually managed to look somewhat contrite at being called out. “Yeah, about that, sorry I was a little misleading. It was just so refreshing to come across someone in the room who had no idea who I was.”
I looked up into his eyes to see he was being sincere. “Apology accepted, as long as you promise to keep it our little secret—I’m pretty sure I broke about a hundred club rules by not knowing who you were.”
Will chuckled and gave me a little salute. “Deal, scouts honor. Now, remind me again exactly what I’m doing this afternoon?”
Relieved that the initial awkwardness was dealt with, I immediately relaxed and switched into work mode, giving him the basics of the next sixty minutes.
The car pulled up outside the store and Will jumped out, extending a hand back in to me. Ignoring it, I stepped out, coming to stand almost flush against his body when he didn’t move away. Unintentionally, I inhaled the scent of his skin. He wasn’t wearing cologne, maybe some body wash mixed with his natural scent, but whatever it was made me want to get even closer to him. For an awkward second he didn’t move, but when I looked up and met his eyes he seemed to snap out of it, remembering himself. With a gesture of his arm, he stepped back and made way for me to pass.
Away from him my brain felt less fuzzy, and I made a beeline to the store entrance, wanting to take back some control of the situation.
Inside I was met by a voluptuous women with slick black hair, ample make-up and a dress, which, in all honesty, looked like it was about two sizes too small for her. In her towering heels, I was in danger of taking a giant boob to the face if I wasn’t careful. She narrowed her eyes at me, clearly trying to piece together who I was.
“Hi,” I extended a hand. “I’m Emma, I’m here with Wi—”
“Jensen!” Boobalicious’s eyes lit up as Will followed me in, coming to stand beside me.
She leaned forward, crushing her chest against his as she planted a kiss on his cheek. “It’s so good to see you again. I missed you on Wednesday night.”
Judging by what she considered appropriate daytime attire, I guessed she had been one of the women wearing minimal clothing at the draft party.
“Nice to see you again Candice.” I noticed the way his eyes stayed firmly planted on her face, not dipping to take in the impressive show she displayed across her chest.
Clutching unnecessarily at his bicep, she inclined her head. “Follow me, we’ll get you set up.”
Clearing my throat loudly, I said, “Candice, I’m Emma Lexington, I didn’t get a chance to properly introduce myself before.” I paused as her eyes darted to me, clearly agitated by my interruption. “I’ll be looking after Will today.”
I maintained eye contact, making sure she understood I wouldn’t be fading into the background. I’d had plenty of experience dealing with women like her. If she had her way, she’d spend the next fifty minutes fawning over him and then Will would get the blame from the media when he had to cut his interviews short.
“Emma’s here in Mark’s place. She’s new to the Warriors.” Will looked at me, his eyes widening ever so slightly as he said, “This is Candice, she runs media for SportsPro.”
I smiled at Will, grateful for the introduction. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Candice nodded briskly. “You too. If you’ll excuse us, I need to introduce Jensen to the reporters.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “I’m sorry, maybe I wasn’t clear before when I said I’d be looking after Will. That means sitting in on the interviews.” I shrugged. “Where he goes, I go.”
I could see her rolling her options over in her mind. Now that I’d made my position clear, she had little choice but to play by the rules. She smiled sweetly. “Of course. You can follow us if you’d like.”
Still holding on to Will’s arm, she turned and led him over to a group of waiting reporters. Will looked back, raising an eyebrow as if to say
well played
. I winked at him, I’d played this game before.
Candice introduced Will to the first of the three journalists who would be interviewing him while I stood back, happy not to interfere unless I was needed.
“Careful, Candice will claw your eyes out if you get too close to him.” I turned, meeting a pair of bright blue eyes that twinkled as a devious grin spread across her face.
“I can take her.” I grinned back.
“Clearly, that stare-off was impressive.” She turned to face me properly, her caramel hair swinging over one shoulder. “I’m Olivia Callahan by the way. I’m a journalist for
Sports Day New York
.”
I shook her extended hand. “Emma Lexington, I’m working for Mark Garrity at the Warriors.”
Olivia nodded. “I know Mark. He runs a good team, you’re lucky.” She looked over at Will. “You’ll have your hands full with him, though.”
I laughed. “You’re not the first one to say so.”
#
Aside from having to give the first two journalists a signal that their time was running out, I hung back for the most part. Candice inserted herself into Will’s line of sight between interviews, clearly trying to entertain him with her excess boobage. To his credit, Will seemed fairly oblivious, more focused on the actual job at hand.
Olivia’s interview was interesting to watch. Clearly she had interviewed Will before and they had a good rapport. She was able to draw far more out of him than the other two reporters had without crossing into any no-go zones. When the interview came to a close they both stood, switching to friendly banter until Candice once again inserted herself between the two of them.
Olivia rolled her eyes as she walked towards me, kneeling down to collect her things. “Good luck getting him out of here any time soon.” Olivia and I looked back at the Boobalicious show in time to see Will twisting toward us, his eyes widening ever so slightly, giving me the international rescue signal for social situations. Olivia and I laughed as she started walking backward toward the door. “I’ll leave that one to you.” She grinned, waving over at Will before following her crew outside.
“Will.” I made my way over to the two of them. “You’ve got that other interview in ten minutes, we need to get moving.”
He frowned briefly before catching on. “Oh, shit yeah, I totally forgot about that. We better run,” he grinned down at me before looking back at Candice. “Emma’s real pretty, but she sure knows how to crack the whip.”
Candice looked like she’d swallowed a lemon. Clearly Will finding another woman attractive wasn’t part of her seduction plans.