talent here.”
A sharp scream cut through the babble of conversation. Paula winced. “And the usual drama. Can I convince you to consider judging?”
“Not right now. It would be more of a commitment than I want to take on.”
“I knew you were going to say that, but if you change your mind, you know how to find me.”
Margot excused herself and went looking for Bianca. She saw her client rushing out a side door.
“What on earth?”
Margot hurried after her and caught up with her by the car. Tears streamed down Bianca’s face as she pulled frantically on the locked car door.
“We have to go! Now! We have to go. How could you? Do you know what they’re doing? Do you?”
“Bianca, what’s wrong? What happened?”
Bianca turned away from her. “Leave me alone. This was a terrible idea. I just want to go home. I want to go now.”
The last word came out as a scream. Margot flinched, then opened the car doors. The drive back to the house was silent except for the sound of Bianca’s sobs.
When they arrived, Margot turned to her. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what went wrong.”
She expected Bianca to yell at her, but instead she drew in a breath and shook her head. “You can’t know. No one can know. It’s just... I can never go back there again. Promise me we won’t go back.”
“I promise. But please, tell me what happened. I want to help.”
“You can’t.” Tears flowed down Bianca’s cheeks. “You can’t. No one can. But it’s not your fault. It’s me. It’s in me.”
With that, she scrambled out of the car and ran toward the house. Margot stared after her, not sure what had happened or what her words meant. You can’t know. No one can know. What did that mean? That it was a secret? Or no one else could understand what she’d been through?
Something from Bianca’s past had been triggered. Something awful and scary. Something that had left scars on her heart and her soul. Whatever it was, it was a powerful force and it had been with Bianca for a long, long time.
Chapter Fifteen
Declan couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so nervous. The whole situation was ridiculous, and yet there he was, with sweaty palms and a burning desire to bolt. Not that he had any idea where he would go or how running away would make anything better.
His reaction—or overreaction—didn’t make sense. Some woman was dropping off her kid for a playdate. It had happened before and it would happen again. There was nothing to be concerned about. Except, she wasn’t just some woman, she was Elijah’s mother, and for reasons that were no longer clear to him, somehow she had become a viable candidate for him to go out with and possibly, eventually, have sex with.
He couldn’t remember all the steps that had gotten him from a need without an obvious solution to an actual woman on his doorstep, but here he was and damned if he wasn’t apprehensive that certain things were going to go badly.
Today was Sunshine’s day off. At least that was something. He wasn’t sure he could have endured her giggling in the background. Not that she would have been giggling, but she would have known some measure of what he was thinking and dear God, he needed a drink.
Given that it wasn’t even noon, he pushed that thought away. He was about to retreat to his office in an attempt to distract himself when Connor came running into the kitchen.
“They’re here! Elijah’s here! I’m going to show him my ant farm before we go for batting practice, okay, Dad? You won’t rush us?”
Declan smiled at his son. “You take as much time with the ant farm as you want.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
His plan was to take the boys to the batting cage for an hour or so, then grab lunch before heading to the gardens at The Huntington where they would spend the rest of the afternoon. Both boys should end the day tired and ready for a quiet evening, which was Declan’s understanding of a successful playdate.
Connor ran to the front door to let them in. Declan followed more slowly, more unsure than reluctant.
He’d met Elijah before. The kid was about Connor’s height, also on the thin side, with red hair and freckles. His mother was a pretty redhead with short hair and an easy smile. She wore jeans and a T-shirt and had a kid-size backpack over one arm.
He tried to figure