by SJ McCoy
Alan’s smile faded. “You’re not seeing him anymore?”
“Nope.”
“But what about Friday night? The date?”
“I won’t be going on that. That’s why I can’t help you with the story. I’ve written something that I think is very good, covering Oscar and Grace as well as the auction. I got you more than you bargained for right there. There’s no need to be greedy and go after TJ as well.”
He narrowed his eyes at her, but she met his gaze and didn’t look away.
“I’m not going on that date, and you can’t make me.”
His phone rang, and he blew out a sigh. “Get out of here,” he told her before he picked it up.
Phew! She’d been saved by the bell. At least from Alan. Next, she needed to talk to Grace and figure out what she was supposed to tell TJ. She couldn’t go on the date with him, but he’d said he’d call her, and when he did, he’d want to know how she’d come up with forty thousand dollars.
~ ~ ~
“Do you feel like playing driver for me this afternoon?”
TJ looked up. He’d been staring at his computer and hadn’t heard Oscar come into the storeroom.
“What’s up with Darren?”
“His kid got sick; he had to go pick him up from school.”
“Sure. I can help out.” It wasn’t as though he was being useful at the center. All he’d been doing was staring at his computer and thinking about Friday night. He kept reliving the few minutes he’d spent with Dani. They might have been up on the stage in front of everyone, but it’d felt so good. He was glad he’d hugged her. Now he knew how she felt, the way her arms felt around his waist.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. Let’s go.”
They walked out back together and got into the limo. Oscar sat up front with him, as he usually did. TJ looked out at the spot where Dani had been when he first saw her. He smiled to himself at the memory.
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. Where are we going?”
“Over to the club.”
TJ started up the engine and pulled out of the little parking lot. It was a few minutes before he wondered what they were doing. “And why exactly do you need me to drive you?”
Oscar covered his mouth with his thumb, but TJ could see the smile behind it. “I didn’t say I needed you.”
TJ gave him a rueful smile. “No, you wouldn’t lie to me. You just choose your words carefully so that I fill in the blanks for myself—and get it wrong. Precisely as wrong as you want me to.”
Oscar shrugged.
“So, what do you want? You don’t need me to drive you. What do you want me for?”
“I just wanted to hang out for a little while. Have you talked to the oldies? You know they’ll be here on Wednesday night?”
TJ smiled. “Yeah. Mom called me this morning. We’re all coming over to your place for dinner, right?”
“Yep.”
TJ frowned. “And you wanted to talk to me about that?”
“I just wanted to see how you’re doing. You know they worry about you. They always interrogate me about how you are.”
TJ smiled. “I know. But I’m doing fine, and you know I am.”
“I do, but they want to know about the mystery woman who paid all that money for you. You know Catherine Lewis told her all about it. And, by the way, Dani saved you there, too. Catherine was hoping to win you for a date with her daughter, Gwen.”
“I thought as much; that would have been awkward. But there’s not much I can tell them about Dani, is there? She paid way over the odds for me and then ran out on me. Grace keeps forgetting to give me her number, even though I’ve asked her half a dozen times.”
Oscar raised an eyebrow at him.
“What?”
“So, you do like her?”
“I want to call her, to find out why she bid all that money—and where she got it from.” He frowned.
“What?”
“You know I lean toward paranoid when it comes to journalists, but I keep thinking that maybe that’s what it’s about. You know they want all the gossip on you and Grace, and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind anything they can get on me. Maybe the magazine put up the money.”
Oscar laughed. “Now that really is paranoid. Sorry to tell you, but I don’t see them forking out forty grand, especially not when they already got an interview with you and one with Grace and they got all the coverage of the auction they wanted.”
“But they might …” TJ shook his head. He knew it was far-fetched, but it was the only explanation he could come up with.
“They didn’t.” He said it with such certainty that TJ turned to look at him. “Keep your eyes on the road, would you?”
“Okay, but you sound like you know, not like you’re just guessing.”
“I do.”
“How?”
Oscar sighed. “Promise not to be mad at me?”
TJ blew out a sigh. “No.”
“I didn’t think you would. That’s why I was hoping I wouldn’t have to tell you at all.”
“Tell me what? Spit it out.”
“I know the magazine didn’t give her the money to bid with because I gave it to her.”
TJ frowned. “Why?”
“Because of Kendra. I knew you hated the idea of having to go on the date with her, so I found someone to outbid her.”
“I see.” TJ drove on in silence. A ball of disappointment settled in his stomach. Why? He should be feeling relieved that it wasn’t about getting a story on him. Instead, he was disappointed—disappointed that she’d only done it because Oscar had asked her to.
“Say something.”
He shrugged. He couldn’t say anything about how he felt. For starters, he didn’t know how he felt. And for another thing, he didn’t want to tell Oscar that the only reason he was feeling so conflicted was because of Dani. Because of the way he felt about Dani?
“Please?”
“What do you want me to say?” They’d arrived at the club, and TJ pulled into the garage. He got out without waiting for Oscar’s answer and ran up the steps to the office.
Oscar caught up with him at the top. “I want you to say you’re not mad at me, mostly. But if you feel like saying anything else, you could thank me for saving you from Kendra. And if you really wanted to open up, you could also thank me for setting you up on a date with Dani. And by the way, wherever you want to go, whatever you want to do. Name it, and I’ll make it happen.”
TJ went through to the bar and poured himself a bourbon.
“I’ll take one.”
He poured another and handed it to Oscar.
“You can’t tell me you don’t like her.” Oscar gave him a mischievous smile.
TJ scowled at him. “I told you. She’s an attractive woman.”
“I won’t argue with you on that one, but there were dozens of attractive women there the other night. You weren’t worried about any of them. You like Dani. Why won’t you admit it?”
TJ took a slug of his bourbon and sighed. “Because she’s a journalist.”
“So freaking what? That’s stupid, and you know it.”
“Maybe, but even if she wasn’t a journalist, I don’t date. I haven’t since I came back.”
“So maybe it’s time to start?” Oscar held his gaze.
TJ wanted to be mad at him, but he couldn’t. Instead, he shrugged. “I’m a mess. She doesn’t need that. Even if she wasn’t a journalist.”
“Drop the journalist thing, would you? You can’t hold what one bitch did against all of them.”
“I have so far.”
“And it hasn’t done you any good. You’re supposed to let go of what you can’t change, right? And don’t hold the sins of one journalist against all of them?”
TJ had to smile. “I think you might be getting your sayings muddled.”
&n
bsp; “Maybe so. What I should have said is that just because one woman behaved in a certain way, it doesn’t mean another will. It doesn’t mean all journalists are that way any more than it means all women are. You know I’m right.”
“Maybe I do, but maybe I’d rather cling to my dumb prejudice than risk getting hurt?”
“Maybe. Or maybe you’d rather give it a go, go out on one date with her. That’s all it is. Just one date. She won’t get a chance to hurt you on Friday night. Take that first step. You can always change your mind afterward.”
TJ held his gaze. “I don’t even know if she wants to go. I haven’t talked to her since she ran out.”
“She wants to.”
“You talked to her?”
“She called Grace. She wanted to apologize for running out. She left because she didn’t know what to tell you about where she got the money to bid from. She didn’t want to lie to you, and at the same time, she didn’t want to land me in it.”
TJ smiled. He couldn’t help it.
“Yeah. I thought you’d like that. If it were up to me, I didn’t want to tell you what I’d done, but Grace insisted. She’d rather you were pissed at me than at Dani.”
“Why?”
Oscar smirked. “Because she says the two of you make a cute couple. So, what do you want the date to be? Where do you want to go?”
TJ shrugged.
“Does that mean you don’t know where to take her, or you don’t want to go?”
He shrugged again. It was probably a bad idea, but he did want to go.
Oscar was still smirking. “You know you’d be making life difficult for me—well, for Grace and the center, if you don’t go. I mean, there’s going to be some interest in what happened between the handsome soldier and the girl who paid forty grand for him. So, even if you really don’t want to …”
TJ had to smile. “Okay, okay. I’ll admit it. I do want to go. Like you said, it only needs to be one date.”
“It does. That’s all. Nothing more—unless you want it to be.”
Chapter Seven
On Wednesday afternoon, Dani sat at the back of the room for a press conference she had no interest in. She was sure Alan had given her this job because he was pissed at her. The woman on the podium was a so-called celebrity she despised. She was one of those people who was famous for being famous. She was launching a new perfume and was courting the press for any coverage she could get. Dani looked out the window. She’d have to come up with something, but she was more tempted to dig into the rumors that the perfume had been concocted in a factory in China than to cover the story the woman was bleating about how she loved Paris and the amazing parfumiers there. Especially since it was all worded so that she never actually mentioned who had created the perfume.
Her cell phone rang, causing a few heads to turn in her direction. Damn. She must have forgotten to turn off the ringer. She snatched it out of her purse and silenced it. She didn’t recognize the number. Whoever it was would have to wait until she was finished here.
She watched the display, wondering if they’d leave a message. When the voicemail indicator appeared, she nodded. Maybe it was important? Important or not, it was a good excuse to get out of here. She’d taken a seat at the back of the room for a reason, and she made the most of it, picking up her purse and quietly slipping out.
Once she was back out in the fresh air, she breathed a sigh of relief and enjoyed the feel of the sun on her back. It made her long to get out of the city for a while. Maybe she should leave for good? She wasn’t sure how much longer she’d have her job. Alan had been lenient with her, to say the least, but maybe she should put them both out of their misery and resign. If she did, she could go anywhere she wanted. Maybe she should strike out and start fresh somewhere else. It was tempting, or it would be if she had any idea where she wanted to go or what she wanted to do.
On the way back to her car, she pulled her cell phone out to check her voicemail. She held it up to her ear and stopped dead when she heard his voice.
“Hi, Dani. It’s TJ. TJ Davenport.”
She smiled. He had to clarify? In case she might know another TJ.
“I, umm. I said I’d call you about Friday. Do you want to give me a call back?”
Her heart raced. Boy, did she want to give him a call back! Even though she wouldn’t be able to go on Friday, she’d love to talk to him. She hadn’t managed to get hold of Grace yet, though, and she didn’t want to go putting her foot in it since she didn’t know what she could and couldn’t tell him about the auction.
“Oh, and don’t worry. I know what happened. Oscar explained it to me. So, err, thanks, I guess. Anyway. Call me.”
The message ended with a beep, and she grinned. Wow. Oscar had come clean. That was awesome. That meant she could call him back, and she could go on the date. Oh, shit. Except, she couldn’t, because if she did, Alan would be all over her to get a story on him. She sighed as she reached her car. Why could nothing ever be straightforward?
She opened the door and slid behind the wheel. Before she started it, her phone rang again, and she snatched it up. It was silly to think TJ might call back so soon, but her heart was racing. It slammed to a halt when Alan’s name flashed on the display.
“Hi. What’s up?” she answered.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“Why?” What did he know? How could he know anything? TJ had only left her a message ten minutes ago, and she hadn’t even called him back yet.
“Where are you?”
Shit. Someone must have told him that she’d left the press conference. “In my car.”
“Because …?”
She blew out a sigh. “Because she’s only droning on, repeating what’s in the press release and spouting her usual platitudes. I can write what I need from the printed materials we have. I’m not going to get anything new by sitting there listening to that.”
“So, you walked out on the assignment?”
“No. I just left a little early.”
Alan sighed. “You realize that you should be kissing my ass instead of breaking rules after the fiasco at the auction.”
“I do, but I can’t help it. Maybe I’m just not cut out for this, Alan.”
He chuckled. “I’d love to agree with you, but you write the best articles of anyone on staff.”
“I do?” She knew he liked her work, but he’d never said anything like that before.
“Yeah, much as I hate to admit it. I’m not going to fire you—yet—you’re one of my best. I’d like to say that, given time, you’ll do great. Unfortunately, I think that given time, you’ll become more and more of a problem and a maverick. Your writing is great, but your ability to follow orders leaves a lot to be desired.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be so difficult. I just can’t care about things that aren’t important to me.”
“And you won’t compromise on the things that are.”
“Yeah. That, too.” She drew in a deep breath. While they were being frank with each other, she might as well lay it all out. “Which segues nicely into something else I have to tell you.”
He groaned. “What?”
“I totally understand if you want to fire me, but TJ just called. I might end up seeing him on Friday night after all, but if I do, I won’t be there as a reporter, and I won’t use anything he says for the article.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve already cut my losses on that one. Just promise me one thing?”
“What?”
“If the two of you end up getting together, promise me that we can have the exclusive and you’ll tell the story of what really happened at the auction. The papers had a field day speculating about it, but luckily for you, Lori and James announced their split on Tuesday, so you’re old news—for now. But if the two of you become an item, I get the exclusive.”
Dani nodded. Lori and James had one of the few celebrity marriages that she
thought was solid. She’d been a little sad to hear their news until she realized that the local papers had shifted all their focus onto it. “I can agree to that.” She wasn’t going to tell him that she didn’t have a problem agreeing to it, because she knew she and TJ wouldn’t be getting together. At most, she’d get to spend Friday night with him. She liked the idea, but it was hardly going to go anywhere.
“Good. Now get your ass back here and do some work.”
“Yes, boss. I just need to make a call first.”
Alan laughed. “You don’t care if I fire you, do you?”
She swallowed. Had she pushed it too far? And was he right? “I wouldn’t blame you if you did.”
“Nor would anyone in their right mind. Don’t make me regret keeping you on.”
“I’ll try.” She hung up. Maybe she should do them both a favor and quit. She had her time off coming up in a couple of weeks. That was never easy. Maybe she should give him her notice before she left. She didn’t need to figure it out right now. She looked at her phone and hit the voicemail button again. She smiled at the sound of TJ’s voice. He didn’t actually say that he was calling about them going out on Friday night. But she had to hope that was what he meant. And it was good of him to let her off the hook, by telling her up front that he knew about the auction.
“Anyway. Call me.” The message ended, short and sweet as it was. He had a sexy voice. He sounded like a man’s man, spoke in short sentences, didn’t waffle around or waste any words. She already knew that from listening to her interview with him—which she may have done a few more times than was necessary.
“Okay. Here goes.” She saved his number to her contacts list and hit dial.
“Hello?”
“Hi, TJ. This is Dani. I got your message.”
“Oh. Hey. Hi. How are you?”
“I’m great, thanks. I have to admit I’m a lot better now that I know Oscar’s told you about the auction.”
“Yeah. And I wanted to thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”
“I wanted to.”
“You did?” He sounded pleased!
“Yeah. I wanted to help out, and when they explained about that Kendra woman …” What was she saying? She shouldn’t be telling him that she’d wanted to rescue him.