Page 17 of Caught Looking

I turned to face him. “And you think trapping a woman against her car is making better choices?”

“No. I think there’s a photographer on the other end of the parking lot taking our picture.”

I saw the warning he was trying to broadcast to me through his eyes and relaxed so this looked more romantic and playful and less…well, what it really was. A fight. All this would be for nothing if Owen read headlines about our parking lot argument first thing tomorrow.

And the truth was, I didn’t want to fight with Seth. I was mad at Owen, frustrated that Seth had anything to do with him, and annoyed that we were pandering to cameras instead of living our lives.

“I’m not kissing you,” I whispered.

His gaze dropped to my lips. “I don’t want your fake kisses.” His eyes moved over my face, finally returning to lock with mine, sending an electric jolt through me from the intensity of it all. “When we kiss I want it to be real.” He pressed a long, soft kiss to my forehead instead. I wanted to melt into him, to soak up whatever this softness was. Seth was confusing but one thing was becoming abundantly clear: he was honest. Then he whispered so quietly I barely heard it, “Just once, I want to know what real feels like.”

5

SETH

Annalise glared daggers at me from the field. Which was fine as long as no one realized that’s what was happening. Not that there weren’t plenty of targets. When Rhett and I asked to stay behind after our Sunday afternoon game to watch the Tangerines, Isaac gave us the thumbs up. But then Kate, our team fairy godmother, got wind of it and insisted the entire team stay and cheer on our sister team. Four of our guys really needed to get back, so we put them on the charter I scheduled for Rhett and me, and the team made their way to the game.

Along the way the media picked up on the change and now it was a full-on frenzy. There were cameras on us from every direction. Broadcast cameras, cell phones, a DSLR or two. I kept a smile on my face no matter how much venom she shot my way.

I think the wink was what really pissed her off though.

“What did you do?” Rhett growled in my ear so no one else could hear.

“Told her the truth.” I tried to move my lips as little as possible.

“About?”

“The things our little problem child would say when we went golfing.” Fuck, I hated the way her face had fallen. Hated myself for gritting my teeth and going along with fuck-face Owen’s games. At the time it had been so simple. Play along, keep my name off his radar. Not become another fake name he tossed around for sport.

I saved myself when Annalise never had the option. Not that she would have taken it. No, in my place she wouldn’t have laughed or gritted her teeth. She would have called him out.

I felt about two feet tall. Of all the things I’d done with my life, all the regrets I had, this was quickly becoming my biggest.

“Fuuuuuck.” Rhett let the word become a sound.

“And then there was a photographer watching us so she couldn’t blow up like she needed to.” And proceeded to avoid me like the plague for the rest of the week. Not that it was hard since we both got on planes and were in hotels a couple of days later. I thought about going to her hotel so we could talk, but I didn’t want to make a scene and I sure as hell didn’t want to make her feel cornered.

At least the photographer at the diner had been good for something. Photos of us eating, smiling and laughing, along with one grainy photo of me kissing her forehead, had spread like wildfire across the internet this week. That forehead kiss in particular was fueling a frenzy of its own.

Playboy baseball bachelor Seth Butler off the market?

Soccer phenom Annalise Ryan puts an end to Seth Butler’s wandering ways.

Real life romance? Have two of the greatest athletes of our generation found love?

That last one was a massive stretch. Clickbait. Not that I didn’t enjoy being labeled—even if only for a click—a greatest athlete of our generation, but that was going too far.

But at least it made it look like Annalise and I were well on our way to a serious romance. It would keep Owen on the straight and narrow. If I had to endure standing here with a smile on my face while fans kept turning around to snap my picture to share on their social media of choice, I’d do it.

Annalise brought up penance. She was right. I was doing penance. Only it wasn’t her. It was this. I felt like a bear at the zoo.

“Hope is home next weekend. She wants you both over for lunch.”

Rhett was dating Hope Crawford, a professional cyclist. It meant that they were apart more than they liked, but they made the most of the time they were together. “You sure you want me taking up her time?”

He shot me a look. “I didn’t invite you. She did.”

I’d better bring presents. “I’ll be there.”

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