Know When to Hold Him (21 page)

Chapter Thirty-Two

They had to separate in the morning. To pack, to check out of the hotel, but then they were together again, holding hands in the back of a town car to the airport, to meet Franklin Mahoney and fly back to Dallas in private plane style.

“This time, let’s not make the driver blush,” Spencer told Liam with mock solemnity.

“Can we make Mahoney blush?”

Spencer made a screwed up face. “I’m not sure much makes Franklin blush. But we probably shouldn’t…flaunt this…” She made a motion between them. “With all that’s gone on.”

Liam wasn’t quite sure why they needed to hide their relationship from Mahoney, except for the fact that the old coot was-or had been-Spencer’s client. Which should be reason enough, unless again, there was something she wasn’t telling him. Liam knocked his head back against the car seat. He was a caveman, just like she said. He had to let it go. This kind of thinking was leading nowhere good. Only he would try to fuck up the best thing that had happened to him.

After parting ways with Mahoney in Dallas, Spencer and Liam were greeted by a very large man named Phil who could definitely out-caveman Liam. The driver opened the back door to the black sedan. “Good afternoon, Miss Hightower.” He nodded in the direction of Liam. “Mr. Connelly.”

“Thank you.” Spencer slid into the seat next to where Liam had already sat.

“Will you need me for dinner tonight?” Phil asked.

Spencer and Liam looked at each other, both taken aback. It was an excellent suggestion.

“Do you want to go out to dinner tonight?” Liam asked her.

Spencer did a double take in surprise. “Like a date?”

“Exactly like a date.”

“Yes, I would.”

Phil delivered both of them to their respective homes, and, a short time later, Liam was at Spencer’s door with a bouquet of lilies. Stuart had given him a fist bump when he’d seen the flowers.

“Back on, eh?” Stuart gave him a thumbs up.

Liam responded with two thumbs up.

Spencer suggested a local cafe off McKinney Avenue. The hostess was showing them to their table when a familiar and enthusiastic voice called Spencer’s name.

Nora and JT sat side-by-side in a cozy booth, a stack of papers between them.

“Hey, guys! What are you doing here?” Nora was warm and bubbly. JT was the opposite; cool and observant, taking in Spencer and Liam arriving together.

“Oh, my God, did you guys meet up in New York?” Nora’s eyes widened at Spencer, the inflection in her voice leaving no doubt what “meet up” was a euphemism for. “What about the client and the thing and the…” Nora pantomimed two hands rubbing a pregnant belly.

“We called a truce…” Liam explained, reaching for Spencer’s hand.

“That’s what it’s called?” JT drawled.

“Bucky, you got a problem?” Spencer snapped, using his nickname on purpose.

JT’s mouth flattened. “Nope.”

Nora shifted in her seat, nervous to end whatever conflict was going on. “Of course not. We’re going over some stuff for JT’s fundraiser.”

Spencer was surprised. “Fundraiser? When?”

“Cinco de Mayo,” was Nora’s hurried reply. “Perfect, right? Celebrating our freedom from the Mexicans?”

Spencer didn’t want to correct Nora in front of JT so she ignored that. “So it’s official? Attorney general?”

JT nodded and extended a hand to the other side of the booth. “If you want to join us, I can pick your brain and Nora’s all for the low, low cost of dinner.”

Spencer glanced at Nora’s watchful expression. “No, thanks.” She gave Liam a flirty once-over. “This is our first date.”

“First date?” Nora screwed up her nose. “But I thought you guys were having sex.”

Liam just winked at her, and he led Spencer away to their table.

Seated with menus in hand, Liam started the conversation. “I hope you know that JT likes you more than me.”

Spencer stopped reading the menu, where she’d been trying to decide between a healthy salad or a not-so-much chicken fried steak. “What? What do you mean?”

Liam sipped the cold Shiner Bock that had just landed on the table. “He told me that, when we broke up, he’d have to choose one of us to be friends with, and that you would win.”

Spencer rolled her eyes at JT’s ridiculousness and then something occurred to her. “When we broke up?”

Liam grinned. “Crazy, right?”

One of the things Spencer enjoyed about Liam was his confidence. Maybe it was a big ego. But was he saying what she thought he was saying?

The idea that breaking up with Liam was crazy was…terrifying. And, Spencer feared, it was true.

She studied the handsome man across from her. This was right. This was…unavoidable. Meant to be.

But what if they weren’t meant to be? Spencer didn’t want to think about it. Tonight, she wanted to enjoy Liam. Not think about being on opposite sides. Not think about anything but how right this was.

“So since this is our real first date…”

“Yeah?”

“We should probably act like it.”

“What, getting to know you talk and being all nervous and worked up about making a first impression?”

Spencer was charmed. “You were nervous when we first went out?”

His face was adorable, a little shy, a little embarrassed. “Yeah,” he admitted. “Weren’t you?”

“No,” she declared definitely. “It wasn’t a date. It was a business meeting. I was gathering intel on you.”

“But you invited me up.”

Spencer focused on the breadbasket.

“I’m pretty sure you wanted to gather intel in the bedroom…”

“Okay, fine,” she admitted, tossing her hair back behind her shoulder. “It was a business meeting with a potential for a booty call at the end.”

Liam lifted his eyebrows. “When you have business meetings in the future, just remember to clarify what kind they’re going to be. Otherwise, I’ll be insanely jealous and probably punch a lot of your colleagues.”

Spencer wanted to change the embarrassing topic of conversation. “First date question. What were you arrested for?”

“That’s a quick change.”

“We’re getting to know each other. And you said I could ask on our first date.”

“I did. Disturbing the peace and public intoxication.”

Spencer shook her head. “Details. Or maybe there won’t be a second date.”

“Ah. Well, I definitely want a second date.” Liam flashed his teeth. “My second dates are killer.”

“I’ve been told.” Spencer made a motion for him to get on with it.

“I was seventeen. I was making out with a girl in the back of my car.”

“And that was disturbing the peace?” Spencer couldn’t contain her curiosity. “Were you clothed?”

“Mostly. Then her dad came out of the house.”

“With a shotgun? And you were arrested for that?”

“No, I was arrested for running down the street with my pants around my ankles and diving into a neighbor’s back yard. There was a graduation party going on. Let’s say I made an impression.”

Spencer pursed her lips at the double entendre. “And public intoxication?”

Liam shrugged. “Junior year at Mizzou. Big championship party. Most of the team got hauled off, but we were let go pretty quickly. You know. The football team gets special treatment.”

Spencer understood how that went. Senators’ daughters were the beneficiaries of the same kind of treatment in small town police departments. She remembered the night of her only scrape with the law and wondered if she should share…but she decided not to.
This is just our first date
, she reminded herself. A girl had to keep some secrets, after all.

The food came, and a normal date between two attractive and attracted people continued.

And then, as the evening turned late, Spencer did something she never did.

She slept with someone on the first (real) date.

Curled up in her big bed, high above Dallas, Spencer listened to Liam’s heartbeat beneath her cheek. It was steady and sure. She placed a soft kiss on his lucky shamrock tattoo and wondered how a second date could get any better.

…

Liam had promised that his second dates were killer. He debated between several activities, trying to expand his imagination beyond his bedroom. Or hers. Although either would do nicely.

When he pulled his truck up to the location of their second date, “Are you sure about this?” she asked, in a voice of a woman who was giving
him
a chance to reconsider.

Right. He’d show her cocky. “It’s probably not fair, since I am a professional athlete and all.”

“I think I can take a former professional football player. What I lack in size, I make up for in strategy.”

When they finished their round of miniature golf, Liam was pretty sure she had cheated…somehow. His hand-eye coordination had to better than hers… right?

Just to see, he invited her over to his place. To see if he could improve his score.

Several hours later, he stroked the long, lean line of Spencer’s back, gratified to see that his hand-eye coordination had been as stellar as always. At least, his woman wasn’t complaining.

“What happens on the third date?” Spencer asked while kissing him good night.

“You stay.” The words slipped out of Liam before he realized what he’d said. And just like that, the image wouldn’t go away. Her. Him. A house on a tree-lined street, littered with tricycles. Everything he had never wanted, now he would do anything for. Liam thought of Stuart, staying in Texas for forty years all because of a woman. Liam got it, now. Because of her.

Liam analyzed her face, wondering if he’d moved too fast, said the wrong thing. He wanted everything to be right, to close the deal when they were both solid. He watched the flicker of her emotions, knew them so well now—surprise, then confusion then…happiness. He liked that last one. Would do anything to keep that one on her face.

“Let’s do it.” Her voice was so soft he wasn’t sure he understood her. Before he could ask for clarification, she continued. “Third date. Let’s see what happens.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

Spencer sat at her desk as Kenny Rogers started crooning about “Every hand’s a winner.” It was ridiculous how that song excited her. “Yes?” She answered, as a bubble of happiness welled up in her chest.

“Hey, beautiful.” Liam’s voice, low and sexy.

“Hey there.”

“I’ve got some bad news. I have to cancel tonight.” Spencer shook her head. Ever since they’d come back from New York, Liam had insisted on calling everything a date. He brought her coffee-it was a date. Every night they slept together-date. Dinner? Date. She’d stopped counting how many “dates” they’d had, but she suspected he was keeping a count. He seemed strangely traditional that way.

“What’s up?” Spencer asked, trying to focus.

“Mahoney wants Troy in San Antonio for a few days. Orientation, basically. He needs to sign stuff at human resources. So I’m going with him.”

“As you should.”

“I’ll miss you.” Liam was blunt, but Spencer appreciated it. Mostly because she reciprocated the sentiment.

“I’ll miss you, too.”

…

Liam had a bad feeling after he hung up with Spencer. It continued the rest of the day. He couldn’t shrug it off during the quick flight to San Antonio or after he reached the Renegades’ offices. Looming disaster didn’t come with a warning, he told himself, and he wasn’t psychic. It must be leaving Spencer, leaving Dallas. That was the only thing that would explain the dark cloud that followed him.

He had almost convinced himself that he just had a bad case of lovesickness when the phone rang. It was a doctor’s office on the other end of the line.

Liam should have been ecstatic about the news.

Definitively, medically, scientifically, Troy Duncan was
not
the father of Dalynn Kay’s soon-to-be-born baby. Troy had a kick-ass contract with an NFL team, his reputation and cash were locked down tight. Nothing but blue skies from here on out.

So why did Liam still feel like a low black cloud hovered over him?

It must be Spencer
. How she’d take the news. Because, no matter what she said, this was sort of a loss for her. Or, at least, her client had lost. Liam wondered what her response would be professionally. With a negative paternity test under his belt, Troy could, with the assistance of his attorneys, smack down any challenge from Dalynn.

Not for the first time, Liam was glad he’d talked Troy into rejecting George Clayton and Pastor Langford’s advice.

The test was negative. It hadn’t cost Troy anything, and it was the best insurance in the world.

Unless…Spencer had another play up her sleeve.

Which was ridiculous. Wasn’t it?

The game was over, the clock had run out, and Spencer had lost.

She was going to hate that.

Liam was still chewing on the news when he went in for a meeting with Franklin Mahoney. They chit-chatted for a while as two professionals did. They weren’t going to be friends. In fact, if negotiations ever became contentious between the team and Troy, they were likely to be adversaries. Which made him think of Spencer.

And made him bring up the stadium. “It’s beautiful, Franklin,” Liam affirmed. “Really something for the city to be proud of.”

Mahoney lifted his chin in pride. “It certainly is. You know, we almost didn’t get the damn thing built. If it hadn’t been for that Spencer Hightower. “

Liam kept a blank face.

Mahoney continued. “Never seen a girl so young be so good. She’s good at assessing the situation, you know?” Mahoney spread his hands like he was holding a globe. “She analyzes all the sides of a problem. Very astute young lady. Gives excellent advice.” He shook his gnarled finger at Liam. “You should hire her.”

Liam tilted his head. “I don’t have any work for her to do, thankfully.”

“She’s better at sports than you think. Like I said. Very astute. Gave me excellent advice in New York at the Draft.” Mahoney winked. “That’s why I got your boy.”

Electricity shot up Liam’s spine. “What? What did she do?”

“Just pointed out the obvious. How someone with a reputation like your boy’s would help the team. And she was right. You know, my scouts told me that Duncan was the number one pick for a number of teams. There was a last minute scramble for him. Even Zablowski and Williams were pushing hard for him, and you know how they keep things close to their chest.”

“And Pittsburgh,” Liam added, remembering Jared’s reports at the Draft.

“It’s good to go first!” The old man cackled. “Hopefully we don’t get the chance next year. I intend for our first season to see the playoffs. Mark my words…” Mahoney began describing his big Super Bowl dreams, but Liam’s unease intensified. Spencer hadn’t tried to ruin Troy’s Draft chances in New York. He’d bet his new truck that she was the one who caused the last minute mania about him, maybe even pushing Mahoney to pick Troy first.

Spencer had played him. It was a benevolent play, ultimately. But…he couldn’t predict her.

It was why he loved her.