Page 34 of Caught Looking

It took me all of two seconds to discover which one was which. The guest room was simple. A king-sized bed with a basic blue comforter and a dresser with a mirror.

Then there was Seth’s room.

The room was at least three times the size of the guest room, with a king-sized bed and a floor-to-ceiling wooden headboard that had nightstands and lamps built into it. There were doors on either side of the headboard. The far door led to the walk-in closet. The other to his sleek bathroom.

My bag sat waiting on his bed.

It was an awfully big bed to have all to myself. I let Seth be a gentleman last night because he was right. I didn’t want to rush into anything on a late night with the paparazzi camped out a few feet away.

But now that we’d kissed and confessed, now that we had this gorgeous condo all to ourselves, I didn’t see much of a point in waiting any longer. Not when we were both very interested in finding out just how explosive our chemistry really was.

Roscoe came trotting through, sniffing through Seth’s clothes, pressing his nose against the glass door. I peeked out at the balcony. It was a cozy outdoor space with a high wall, a grill, two lounge chairs, and an umbrella.

And in the corner a raised bed of turf. For Roscoe.

My eyes started to sting so I stepped away. Maybe it wasn’t new. Maybe the guys had dogs and so he’d had it added ages ago.

But I knew in my heart that along with the security and cleaned apartment, this was another thoughtful consideration he’d taken the time to work through while I was at practice.

And damn did that make me like Seth even more.

No one had taken care of me in years. Not since I was fifteen. And even before that, soccer dominated so much of my life that I was rarely home. I loved my parents. They wholeheartedly supported me and my career. But I’d essentially become an adult at fifteen. My parents weren’t like other parents. They were always there for me physically, but emotionally, not so much. I used to call them robots. It was like they were each missing the emotion chip. They didn’t argue. They didn’t cry. They never got mad.

And sometimes that made me feel out of place because I felteverything.I was driven to succeed. I had passion overflowing from my veins. They didn’t understand me.

So I threw myself into soccer. It was a demanding life. The circuits. College ball. The National team. I’d been in two Olympics so far and one World Cup. I hadn’t started or been prominent, but my abilities had risen to the point that it was inevitable this next go-round if I stayed healthy.

I hadn’t noticed how isolated I felt until that stupid bed of turf caught my eye. Jeri lived with Nan and Phoebe. Not because she needed to split the costs, but because they did. And because she wanted to be surrounded by people she cared about.

I was an island.

When I got sick I stayed home in bed alone. One of my teammates might drop off food or medicine on my doorstep, but nobody came in. Couldn’t risk the whole team getting sick. When I was sad I had Roscoe to keep me company. When things went wrong, I handled it.

Was that why I went along with the fake boyfriend setup? The idea of managing Owen exhausted me as much as it scared me. It was easy to lean into Seth. And to my surprise, he took on the weight.

Janet knocked on the door to let me know I was welcome to use the balcony. So I let Roscoe out to explore while I grabbed a glass of wine. Seth’s fridge had been freshly stocked with a variety of food and drinks. Including the bottle of white wine. The night air was humid and hot, but it was nice to be outside breathing fresh air after such a rocky day.

It was hard to believe I woke up laughing at videos of Seth walking Roscoe. So much had happened that it felt like a week had passed instead of a single day.

But Roscoe distracted me by excitedly sniffing every single inch of the balcony from the living room to Seth’s bedroom. Then he stopped and peed on his special square of fake grass.

“That’s definitely new,” I muttered to myself. The man had employed an army of people to make my life nicer and safer.

And he planned to make me a special dinner when he got home.

An ache formed in my chest that had nothing to do with the wine warming me from the inside out.

I was falling for Seth Butler. Falling hard.

10

ANNALISE

Janet’s signature knock rang through the apartment a moment before the door opened and Seth came through grinning. Roscoe ran straight to him for pets. “Hey bud. Like the place?”

My dog licked him then ran through the condo, burrowing back into the couch.

“Need anything else?” Janet asked.

---