Dropping The Ball - A New Year’s Billionaire Romance - Weston Parker Page 0,5
but I declined any offers from anyone else.
My sparkling grape juice might look like champagne, but no one seemed to have realized it wasn’t. Except for one suspicious waiter who was carrying trays of the real stuff around and kept eyeing my glass like I was a traitor for not having gotten it from him.
A small hand closed around my elbow just before I walked into the ladies’ room. I tensed until I recognized Tani’s voice behind me. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” I turned to smile at her. “I just needed a breather. Are you guys almost ready to leave?”
“Nope.” Jules came to stand in the doorway with us, steadfastly ignoring all the side-eyed looks he got for being just about inside the ladies’ bathroom. He caught my gaze before giving me a deliberate but discreet onceover. “Unless you’re not feeling well, that is.”
He didn’t say it in so many words, but he was asking if I was feeling any symptoms acting up. I shook my head, reaching out to place a comforting hand on his arm. The man had become as protective as an attack dog. If he so much as caught a whiff that the stress was causing any out of the ordinary effects, he’d have me out of there in a heartbeat.
While it would’ve been a surefire way to get out of there, I wasn’t in the business of deceiving my closest friends. “It’s not that. I’m just a little overwhelmed by all the questions.”
Tani gripped my shoulder. “Just give us the signal when you’re ready to leave, okay?”
“Same to you.” She hadn’t been to one of these shindigs in almost double as long as it’d been for me. The only reason she’d even agreed to come to this one was for moral support in case I needed her.
Cash had been an unexpected surprise that had turned her life upside down. Since he’d been the result of a one-night stand, she’d known from the second she found out he was in her belly that she would be raising him alone.
My ever optimistic, “always looking for the bright side” best friend hadn’t batted an eye before saying farewell to Broadway. He might’ve been unexpected, but Cash became the apple of her eye and her reason for being on the very day she learned he was there.
She’d reached out to some of her contacts in the industry, had gotten a job as a secretary for a production company, and never looked back. Sometimes I envied her ability to approach life the way she did.
Even after my diagnosis, I hadn’t been able to accept that I was done with the stage. In my heart of hearts, I’d always wanted to get back to doing what I loved. I just hadn’t thought it would really be possible until now.
When Tani, Jules, and I walked out of the bathroom, I felt someone’s eyes on me. Jerking my gaze up, I saw the same guy who had been eyeballing me for most of the night. He hadn’t approached me yet, but I knew he would.
I didn’t think he would approach because I had a big ego and thought every man who looked at me would come on to me. I knew he would try to speak to me tonight because I knew who he was. Everyone did.
Nathan Biles was a reporter for the New York Times and one of the few journalists who merited an invite of his own to these parties. I had to steer clear of him, even if he was sex on a stick.
At six-five with his strong shoulders and the cleft in his chin, he resembled none other than Clark Kent himself. He even had the same day job.
But a night with him, even if I’d heard he had no problem with a little super-hero roleplay, wasn’t worth the fallout. Yanking my gaze away before he took it as an invitation to come up to me, I spent the rest of the evening sticking closer to my friends.
Nathan wasn’t easily deterred, though. Near the end of the night when I’d dropped my guard some, I suddenly became aware of a looming presence behind me.
I knew it was him before I even turned around. He grinned when I faced him, a predatory flashing of his perfectly white teeth.
“You making a comeback?” he asked without any pleasantries being exchanged.
I faked a smile of my own and raised one shoulder. “I’m not sure, but thanks for asking.”