“Because, we’re friends, Athena. We go way back. That’s what friends do. They help each other out,” he answered, understanding how weak the words sounded even as they left his mouth. She sighed and took a long sip of her beer before moving her stool closer and angling her body towards him, leaning in close.
"Nate," she said gently, "we're not friends. Not really. We may have been back in the day, but that was a long time ago."
“That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?” he asked, rather lamely, if he did say so himself.
“No, honestly, I don’t. It’s not like you’ve used any of your success or influence to help me out with my career, right?”
“No, but—” he started, his face growing hot with embarrassment.
“No,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken, “you haven’t. And that’s okay. I don’t hold it against you. But if it’s all right for you to do what you think is best for your career, then I need to be able to do what’s best for mine without worrying that it might hurt your feelings. You have to see the logic in that, right?”
“I... I guess I didn’t look at it that way,” he said sheepishly.
"And you have everything going for you," she continued, "you have a good family name, an established career, and you're a man. The way things are for you, at least now, you've got it made. Winning this competition, this is a lucky break for me. This might be the only big break I get, and I'm going to take it."
“That makes sense,” he said quietly. It was a stupid answer, not nearly enough considering everything she had just said, but it was also the only thing he could come up with.
“What’s more,” she continued, really on her soapbox now, “if you were really my friend, you would be happy for me. You would recognize that this is a big deal for me and you would be supportive. That’s what friends do.”
Nate sat stock-still, trying to figure out the best way to eat crow. He hated being wrong, hated losing an argument, but there was no denying that she was right. He was about to bite the bullet and tell her that when his phone buzzed on the bartop. He grabbed it, grateful for the distraction. While Athena looked on, clearly exasperated, he read one of the more surprising emails he’d ever gotten from his agent.
“What?” Athena asked, responding to the expression on his face, “What’s the matter?”
"Well, I wouldn't exactly say something's the matter. I think it falls under the heading of another lucky break, if you want to know my opinion on the matter."
"Okay, what is it? Spare me the fanfare and tell me what we're talking about here," she answered. She sounded annoyed, but she couldn't hide the excitement on her face. It was a good look on her, and it made it hard for him not to get excited about it too.
"I just got an email from my manager. Apparently, people loved the ‘spark' between you and me with those reporters."
“The spark, huh?” Athena asked dryly, a small smile on her face, “Is that what they’re calling it?”
“It is, and they want to capitalize on it. Looks like they want us to take this thing to social media. Some kind of a reality-TV thing, to play up the rivalry.”
“Are you kidding me? Why would we want to do a thing like that? It makes us seem like a joke, doesn’t it?” Athena asked, disgusted by the prospect. Nate raised an eyebrow, folding his arms over his chest.
"Better be careful, darlin. You were the one talking about a leg up, right? A lucky break?"
“Yes, but—”
“But nothing. The kind of free exposure this could give you, it could be a game changer. Either you want the recognition, or you don’t. And if you don’t, maybe it’s time for you to ask yourself how much you really want this thing.”
“Point taken,” she answered grimly. “I’m in.”
6
"Come on, Gretta! You’ve gotta hold that thing like you mean it! Remember, you're the one in charge when you're in this ring. In charge of the rope and in charge of everything else too. You keep that one rule straight, and you'll be good as gold."
Athena stood a few paces away from her girls, watching Nate with hands on hips. The camera crews were in the barn today, and they were all but impossible to ignore. Everyone and their mother, Nate included, had promised her that the camera crews, producers, and the rest of the staff with them wouldn't get in the way. In reality, they had only been in the barn for fifteen minutes, and they were already getting in the way.
“Well, now, pretty boy really does eat this stuff up, doesn’t he?” Shelly asked, coming up next to Athena and mimicking her posture.
“What, the attention? He really does seem to, doesn’t he?” she agreed distractedly.
Nate was definitely turning on the charm, there was no doubt about that. The girls clearly loved him, with Gretta currently beaming in the spotlight of his attention. He was all laughs and had everyone laughing along with him, with one glaring and notable exception. He had hardly said a single word to Athena.
Once again, he was treating her like she had the plague or something. He was acting like even getting near her was going to contaminate him. It was almost funny, how annoyed and frustrated she was by it. Or at least it would have been funny if it hadn't been so damn annoying.
She had thought the two of them were past this. Sitting next to each other in Gus’s Tavern, they had hashed it out and, she had thought, parted ways as friends. Now, he was acting like that conversation had never taken place. He had a smile and a word for everyone in the barn except for her. She might as well have been a ghost.
“Well, nuts to that,” she muttered to herself, shoving her hands in her pockets and walking out to where he was still working with Gretta.
“This little lady giving you trouble, Nate?” she asked in her most cheerful voice. If she was being honest with herself, there was a modicum of flirtation there as well. If she was being even more honest, the flirtation was part of what she missed when he ignored her. Whether she liked it or not, her mind kept going back to that stupid game of flag football. That game, before he found out that she was his competition in the festival, had been full of undeniable sexual tension, even if he had been afraid to touch her. At the time, she told herself that it had been a nuisance to be borne. Now that he was treating her more like a pariah and less like an object of desire, she realized that hadn't been the case. There was at least a part of her that had enjoyed it. Whatever else, it had sure been a lot better than the perpetual cold shoulder.
“I’m giving him so much trouble, Miss Athena!” Gretta announced, beaming up at them both with a self-satisfied expression.
“She’s being a little gem, is what she is,” Nate laughed, speaking to Athena directly for the first time that day.
“Well, that’s good,” Athena said with a smile, reaching out and ruffling the top of Gretta’s head lightly, “I’m glad to hear I’m rubbing off on them.”
"Are you now? I didn't realize it was your influence I was seeing here," Nate said, one eyebrow raised. Athena felt a little, unwanted flutter in her stomach. The flirtatious spark was back in his eye, and as much as she wanted not to care, she did. He was endlessly charismatic and almost impossible to dislike. When his attention landed on a person, when he really turned it on, it was easy to feel like the most important girl in the world. She gave a little shiver, opened her mouth to respond, and was promptly interrupted.
“Oh. My. God. I knew you were here, like, I knew it, but I still can’t believe it’s true!”
Athena glanced behind her, then reluctantly moved aside so that the newcomer to the conversation could join in. Said newcomer was very blonde with a tan that couldn’t possibly be natural and a dangerously low-cut top.
"Looks like it, ma'am. Either I'm here, or this is one hell of a dream," Nate answered, once again heedless of his answer and the presence of children. Athena cleared her throat pointedly but didn't get so much as a glance in her direction in response. This woman was enough to push Nate into ignoring her again. She also seemed to enjoy the idea of
Nate's flirtation at least as much as Athena had. And without any of her reservations, too.
“A dream, huh?” the woman asked, wrapping her bleached hair around the tip of a finger and smiling, “I’ve been called a lot of things, but never a dream.”
“But that’s a crime, sugar!” Nate answered easily, “Maybe you just haven’t been spending time with the right kind of people.”
“Well, now, there’s an idea. You might just be right about that.”
Rolling her eyes and feeling a little sick to her stomach, Athena gave up and walked away, rejoining a now harried-looking Shelly. She was busy talking to a man Athena didn’t recognize, who was gesturing wildly while he spoke.
"Athena, thank God," Shelly said as soon as Athena was in earshot.
“What’s the matter?” Athena asked, “What’s going on here?”
“This gentleman is—” Shelly started before being neatly cut off by the unknown man.
"I'm Blaine Crawford, Nate's agent." He stuck out one beefy hand and, when Athena offered hers in return, he swallowed it up and shook so hard it was almost violent. Athena took a quick inventory of the man and decided she wasn't a fan. His suit looked like it probably cost more than her car, and he wore a gold ring with some sparkly stone on his pinkie. It was more than that, though. She wasn't so superficial as to write him off based on his appearance alone. It was something else, some feeling she couldn’t articulate. When it was all said and done, she simply didn't trust him. Still, she put on a sweet, friendly smile and gently reclaimed her hand.
“Hello, Blaine Crawford. What seems to be the trouble?” she asked, careful to keep her tone friendly and her voice even.
“No trouble, not exactly. I’m only wondering when this lesson is going to be finished. I was under the impression that it would be done by now.”
“It’ll be finished soon,” she assured him, “sometimes it goes over by a bit. I’m sorry, did you need to see Nate?”
“Need to see you both, actually,” Blaine said with a nod, “we’ve got some business to hammer out.”
“Um, we do?” Athena answered, confused and a little annoyed, “I’m sorry, but I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about producers, honey. The producers for this little web series we’ve got cooking. They’re here, they’re waiting, and they’re getting impatient.”
“Blaine!”
Nate's voice carried across the barn as he sauntered towards them with a grin on his face. Athena's skin prickled, and she couldn't tell whether it was with pleasure or irritation. She was definitely annoyed, now more than ever, but that smile of his made it hard to stay upset.
“Here he is!” Blaine shouted, holding his arms out like he was expecting a hug, “I thought you’d never take your leave from that pretty young thing. You never do stop, do you?”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about, hoss,” Nate answered, giving Athena a sideways glance. She thought she saw a flicker of embarrassment there, maybe even guilt, but she couldn’t be sure. It was dangerously easy to see a thing simply because you wanted it to be so.
“All right, all right, play it close to the vest if you like. It’s all the same to me.”
“It’s not exactly all the same to me,” Athena interjected, a frown on her face, “I wouldn’t mind knowing who she was.”
“She was nobody, honestly,” Nate said, rolling his head and cracking his neck. He looked pained, like it was just about the last conversation on the planet he wanted to be having, and Athena couldn’t help bristling some. If he thought she didn’t have a right to ask, he was sadly mistaken.
“So then why was that nobody in my barn?” Athena pushed, watching his face closely, “We’re trying to teach those girls, Nate. We’re not there to be on display.”
“You have to understand, sweetheart,” Blaine interjected smoothly, his voice positively dripping with condescension, “people get excited to see this man. Especially people of the female persuasion. They’re going to be drawn to him and if they know he’s around, they’re going to show up. Just think of it as part of the business. His adoring fans, if you will.”
“Well, in the future, I’d like to keep his ‘adoring fans’ out of my barn. It’s not the place for it. Not around the kids.”
“Fine, fine,” Blaine said dismissively, shooting Nate a look that said the two of them were the only rational ones in this conversation,” but for now, let’s get this show on the road, shall we? Don’t want to keep those damned producers waiting for much longer or they’re going to start foaming at the mouth.”
“Did you know about this?” she asked Nate quietly as they trailed after Blaine, who was leading them out of the practice barn and towards the offices.
“I might have heard something about it,” he answered, looking forward instead of at her, “guess I forgot to mention it.”
“Guess you did,” she said, shaking her head as they stepped into the offices.
Athena had to steel herself when she saw the three men and one extremely thin woman sitting around a table with a stack of papers in front of them, all of them doing their best to talk over one another. At the sound of the opening door, all four of them looked up, plastering phony looking smiles on their faces.
“Here they are!” the woman exclaimed, “Our two stars!”
"Sorry, we were with the kiddos,” Nate said, pulling out a chair for Athena and motioning for her to sit. She did so but remained on the edge of her seat. She wanted to know she could make a quick escape if that was what she needed. She was well and truly over her head now, and she didn't care for the feeling at all.
"No matter," one of the men said briskly, "this meeting isn't even on the record. Let's think of it as more of a fact-finding mission."
"Fact-finding?" Athena echoed, looking from the producers to Nate uncertainly.
"Exactly," the man answered, apparently pleased to see how quickly she was catching on, "so we can work out the narrative. I've got to say; I love the energy between the two of you. We all do. It's spectacular, as is. We just need to work out how best to capitalize on it."
"I'm certainly glad to hear you say so," Nate answered easily before launching into a stream of ideas about the best way for them to proceed with the "show." Although Athena knew she should pipe up and say something, she couldn't seem to make herself. Instead, she sat back and watched as Nate worked his magic. She couldn't imagine ever telling him so, but she was in awe of how masterfully he was commanding the room. No matter what these people brought up, he seemed to have an answer for them. It started to look like the whole thing was going to be over and done in five minutes flat until the producers finally hit on something that seemed to make Nate bristle.
“There’s only one thing missing in all of this,” the bird-like woman said, leaning forward and looking at them with a level of intensity that made Athena shift in her seat.
“What’s that, now?” Nate asked, flashing her his million-dollar smile.
“This stuff is all great, but it’s not getting personal enough. We want to know about you. About both of you. More importantly, we want to know the real deal about the relationship between the two of you.”
“But that’s not what any of this is about,” Nate answered, some of the good cheer going out of his voice, “people aren’t interested in our personal lives, Patricia. They’re interested in our skill—that’s why we’re having this competition in the first place.”
“Come on, now, Nate,” Patricia cajoled, “you don’t really believe that, do you?”
“I do, yes. That’s exactly what I believe.”
"Well, the CEO of your potential sponsor, Athreal, feels otherwise. He might be running an athletic company, but he’s got plenty of ideas about the entertainment industry. He specifically requested that this series ‘go behind the curtain.' He wants people to get a look at what makes the two of you so dynamic, if you catch my drift. I think it's going to mean big money down the line."
> “I don’t know if it matters, but I’m game.”
After saying it, Athena was just as surprised as the rest of them by her assertion. She hadn’t planned on saying it, not really. She had only been looking for a way to throw in her two cents, become part of the conversation. She had wanted to make herself appear competitive, and, perhaps, to show that she might be a better bet than Nate in the long run.
For his part, Nate looked like he could happily duct-tape her mouth shut. The glare he bestowed upon her only lasted for a moment, but it was enough to speak volumes. When he fixed his gaze back on the producers, the smile returned, but this time it didn't reach his eyes.
“Looks like you’ve got one of us on board. As for me, I’m going to need to hash things out with legal before jumping all in. Sound good to everyone?”
The question was met by a chorus of enthusiastic agreements, and the producers got up and left with no additional fanfare. That left Athena and Nate alone, the two of them still so close to each other that she could feel the warmth coming off of his body. She scooted her chair away from him, all of a sudden highly aware of their proximity.
“You’re ready for the big leagues now, is that it?” he asked quietly, giving her a strange smile that made her fight the urge to squirm.
“I... I guess I am.”
“Things could get pretty interesting, then,” he said, stepping closer. She was torn between the desire to put some distance between the two of them and the devious urge to close the gap. She settled for staying put, looking up into his face and trying to steady her breathing.
“I don’t know,” she said truthfully.
“Very interesting,” he repeated, “depending on what my lawyer says, that is. Until then, I guess we’ll just be keeping to public places.”
He turned and left the offices abruptly, leaving Athena alone and with a head that was spinning. For a moment, she had been sure that he was going to kiss her. Even more surprising, in spite of all the reasons why she knew she had to keep her distance—the fact that he’d be leaving soon, the fact that he was her competition, the fact that she needed to keep her head in the game and not act on impulse…
The Cowboy’s Rodeo Rival: Grant Brothers Series Book Three Page 5