Chapter 35
~Daley~
The happy buzz I’ve been feeling all day vanishes in an instant as we pull up to Deacon’s house and find a camera pointed at us.
When it’s just the two of us, it’s so easy to forget exactly who he is and the spotlight attached to that.
In the blink of an eye, that spotlight’s glare feels almost blinding.
“Who was that?” I ask once Deacon pulls into his garage and turns the car off.
Without acknowledging it, we both stay in the car until the door has fully closed behind us, just in case we can still be seen.
My skin itches with the uncomfortable feeling of being exposed even though I know I haven’t done anything wrong. Neither of us has.
“I didn’t recognize him.” Deacon’s tone is clipped in a way I haven’t heard before. The closest has been when he talks about his ex-wife’s cheating. “I don’t know what would have brought him here. I’m going to call the team’s publicist and see if he knows anything.”
With the open-plan living space, there isn’t really anywhere for me to go without listening in on his conversation, so even though he doesn’t ask me to leave, I go and use the bathroom instead, trying not to panic.
Somebody has a photo of me in Deacon’s car.
That’s okay, I guess. It’s not the end of the world.
There’s no reason for anyone to immediately assume we’re sleeping together.
Hell, those women at the showcase back home never even considered the possibility when they saw me and Deacon together.
And even if anyone does jump to that conclusion, we don’t have to confirm it. It would just be gossip.
Gossip that will almost certainly make its way back to my son.
My throat constricts as I imagine River being ambushed with photos and questions about me.
What if he’s asked about it and denies it, only to find out it’s true and I’ve been keeping it from him?
I know I’d be taken aback to discover that he’s in a relationship from a third party. He deserves to hear it from me.
But am I in a relationship? We said this was an experiment and we only managed one day together before being caught. If we want to keep going, we might have to do so underneath a much bigger microscope.
My thoughts spiral until I can’t stay still any longer, and I return to the living room to find Deacon sitting on one of the couches, wrapping up his phone conversation.
“Okay, thanks. Yeah, keep me posted, and sorry again for bothering you on a Saturday.”
His politeness doesn’t escape my attention. I’ve never heard him be anything less than cordial with anyone. Damn it, why does he have to be so utterly likeable?
Pressing the button to end his call, he lowers the phone with a sigh. “Nothing’s been posted yet, which makes sense since there’s only one person out there. Why he’s out there, I don’t know. Maybe someone at the museum tipped him off, or that kid at the bowling alley?”
I take a few steps closer, drawn to him the same way I always am. “It’s crazy to think someone who doesn’t know you would call the press because you went somewhere with a woman. What do they get out of it?”
He throws his arm over the back of the couch, his head tipping backwards so he’s staring at the ceiling, as if the answer to that question might be floating somewhere in the air above us. “I wish I knew. This whole celebrity culture has never made any sense to me.”
The open space beneath his arm feels like an invitation and I sink down onto the cushion next to him, leaning into his solid warmth, my head on his shoulder. “I need to tell River. Just in case this somehow gets out, I want him to hear it from me first.”
Deacon’s head tilts to the side, resting gently on top of mine. “Fine with me. The staff takes their phones away from them at that retreat he’s at, though. You won’t be able to get a hold of him until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.”
Right. River warned me he would be unreachable.
I do have an emergency number for the lodge they’re staying at, but this doesn’t constitute an emergency.
“I’ll send him a text now and ask him to call me tomorrow when he gets it.
That’ll give me some time to figure out exactly how to explain this to him.
He’s going to want a bit more information than it being ‘an experiment’. ”
Deacon’s shoulder vibrates beneath me as he chuckles. “Yeah, that might sound a little weird. Are you going to tell him about Vegas? I mean, the fact that we met there, not the details.”
I turn that question over in my head before answering. “I think I have to. Otherwise, it kind of feels like it came out of nowhere.”
“You kind of did.”
His warm lips press against my forehead as his phone dings. When he lifts the screen, I can see a video of a car outside his gate through some kind of security system.
“That’s our dinner. I’ll take care of it. Do you mind setting the table?”
The food from Abbati’s is just as good as when we ate there, and as we linger over the last bites of our meal, the conversation drifts back to my upcoming conversation with my son.
I send the text to River before it can slip my mind, and when I slip my phone back into my pocket, Deacon gives me an encouraging smile.
“If he wants to talk to me before practice on Monday, he’s welcome to call me. I won’t reach out to him first in case he’d rather not discuss it.”
Honestly, I can’t predict how River will react. “He really likes you, which is a good thing, but he’s never met any man I’ve been involved with. It’s going to be an adjustment for both of us.”
His eyebrows raise almost imperceptibly. “Is that what we are? ‘Involved’?”
“I have no idea what to call it,” I admit. “I like you, Deacon. A lot. I’m pretty sure I could fall in love with you with very little trouble. But…”
“But,” he repeats softly, not needing me to finish the sentence. “It’s not just me you’d be committing to.”
“No. It isn’t.” For a moment, neither of us speak. “I guess we could consider this the next stage of the experiment. A change of location didn’t affect the way we feel, so it’s time to introduce another variable: other people knowing about us.”
He reaches over to take my hand in his. “I know it seems like a lot, but maybe it won’t be as bad as either of us fears.
There’ll be a brief burst of attention, and it’ll die off and things can be normal-ish.
We just need to stay honest with each other about what’s going on and how it’s affecting us. ”
“I think I can do that.”
Honestly, he makes me feel like I can. By the time we go to sleep that night, after another round of unbelievably good sex with a man whose stamina is only rivalled by his enthusiasm, I’m feeling as ready as I can be to face the challenge that lies ahead.