A few minutes later, with her doubts pushing aside her anger, Athena stood outside the conference center. She checked her phone for his location. Still inside.
She smoothed her shirt over her middle and entered the building, pausing in the grand lobby. Sparkling chandelier, black stone shiny underfoot, tall plants and cozy sitting areas with leather chairs… Voices and laughter drifted in from several conference rooms.
Would he get a room under his own name or an alias?
She headed toward the check-in desk, tentatively circling past a few open meeting room doors to buy herself some thinking time. A sign on a tripod said SPCSN: Sunshine: Parents of Children with Special Needs. Various sessions were listed below in smaller font.
Long tables stretched across the room to her right, with an aisle down the middle that led to the lectern. In a second room, a cluster of people were seated near the center.
She continued past, then slowed her steps, processing what she’d seen.
Wide shoulders. Longish black hair that touched the edge of his Dragons jersey.
Dragons jersey?
Chadwick?
She stopped. No.
There was no way.
She tried to keep going, but found herself taking several steps backward so she could peer through the doorway again.
His deep voice reached her. Too low for her to make out the words, but she understood the soothing tone.
She stepped inside without thinking.
As though feeling her gaze on him, Chad looked up, dropping the hand that had been rubbing the back of a tearful woman in her fifties. Others in the room followed his attention, and soon a dozen sets of eyes were on her. Some were wet or rimmed with red, and a box of tissues rested on one of the tables.
“Sorry,” Athena said uncertainly. Everything she’d planned to say to Chad fled, along with her anger.
No, she was still angry. If he was speaking at a conference or whatever it was, he could have let her know.
But he wasn’t speaking, was he?
What was this? Did he have a child? She’d sensed something out of sync with his playboy persona. Was it fatherhood?
Maybe everything she’d assumed about him was wrong. Maybe he was the father of a special-needs child and she’d just walked in on his big secret.
But the most worrisome idea whirling through her head was that maybe—just maybe—her crush wasn’t that out of place after all.
By the time Mullens caught up with Athena she was in her arena office, slamming her hand down on a hole punch, her brow furrowed.
He watched from the doorway as she yanked the papers out, ripping a few in the process. She let out a cute growl, then took a new sheaf of papers and shoved them into the device. Before she could destroy that batch, he slipped into the room and gently laid a hand over hers. He took the stack, culled it down to half before completing the job and neatly setting the papers on her desk.
“Sorry I missed the shoot,” he said quietly, taking a step back.
She planted her right hand on her hip and tipped her head, looking at him with those dark eyes. The stage makeup they’d put on her was for the most part wiped away, but her lashes were still thick and long, creating big-eyed pools that gutted him.
“Why?” she asked, her tone just as careful as his own.
“What?” He’d been expecting a fight and her calmness left him off balance. “Because it’s important to you.”
“No. Why did you skip out? I know you were there before our shoot time. I missed shopping for card readers with my sister because I stuck around waiting for you. Why’d you leave before I arrived?”
“Oh.” He rubbed his eyes and exhaled, suddenly exhausted. “I messed up my schedule. Right place, wrong time.”
Whenever he dealt with something connected to his late sister, Evonne, he got a little fuzzy in the head and messed stuff up. He felt like he was a scared, lost kid all over again.