Summer Attractions (28 page)

“Oh, trust me,” Jemma retorted with glee, “she’s thrilled.”

Jemma couldn’t believe she’d forgotten.

Her first morning back, she flew into the
Five Points
morning meeting, all bashful smiles and a litany of
stay calm, you’re cool; stay calm, you’re cool
, running through her head as she careened into her normal seat around the big round table they used for meetings.

Duncan raised his eyebrow at her. “Keane,” he drawled, “so kind of you to join us this morning. You’re looking . . . rested.”

The truth was, Gabe had stayed at her apartment last night and as it turned out, he had rather . . . inventive alternatives to the alarm clock. However, without the convenience of the snooze button, there was nothing to keep her on schedule, and she’d pulled into the parking lot with only a few seconds to spare.

After five very necessary minutes in the Starbucks line downstairs, she was only four and a half minutes late to the Monday meeting.

The good news was that after she’d done such a good job in Rio, she knew had a bit of a free pass.

The bad news was that she’d totally forgotten that the Los Angeles’ Rams first home preseason game was this week. Against the Miami Piranhas.

The team that had selected Colin first in the last NFL draft, the team he would be making his debut at quarterback for.

There was that normal excitement in the thought she was going to see him again, because she loved
him—not the way he wanted, but all the same—but also a little tremor of something else. She was going to have to do it in a professional capacity because in just two days, he was stopping by
Five Points
. Not just as her friend, but as
Colin O’Connor
, Heisman-winning, brand spanking new NFL quarterback.

She didn’t know how she could have forgotten. She lifted her coffee cup to her lips, very aware of the slight tremble in her hand, and then realized the space around her had grown alarmingly quiet.

“Jemma,” Nick barked out, the rasp of his voice a little harsher since the knife in his stomach. “Duncan asked if you’ve talked to Colin.”

Sometimes she really hated how her personal and professional lives had collided.

“I’ve been a little busy.”

A month ago, she wouldn’t have been so blunt about it, but she’d also done a lot of
really
good things in the last few weeks, and it wasn’t like anyone around this table needed the reminder. Or maybe they did.

“Right, okay, well, we’ve been planning in your absence. Just because you’re the most familiar with Colin O’Connor doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t be too,” Nick said testily.

Jemma nearly reminded him that he was still supposed to be resting
.
He supposed to be restricted to only four hours per day in the office, but everyone knew it was lucky if he only worked eight.

Nick outlined the plan for Colin’s visit to the
Five Points
offices, the day after the preseason game.

Colin had pulled strings with his organization so he could stay past the normal departure of the rest of the team. Jemma knew it hadn’t been easy, but he’d done it for her. Jemma glanced around at her co-workers and wondered if any of them had ever suspected their friendship was only a friendship.

Thankfully, the meeting finally ended and Jemma was able to dodge the many curious looks and head back to the corner of the office she and Nick worked out of.

Nick had a corner office with a life-size cardboard cutout of Stephen Curry and framed pictures on the walls of him and countless other sports stars: Rory McIlroy, Tom Brady, Serena and Venus Williams, Adrian Peterson. Like she’d really needed another reminder of the experience that separated them.

Or
had
separated them. She very much planned on framing that first selfie she’d taken with Kimber.

Jemma glanced at her own cubicle, located within shouting distance of Nick’s doorway, and ignored the picture on her
desk. It was her and Colin at her graduation the year before, his arm around her, both of them beaming into the camera. She’d never considered that picture in any way equitable to Nick’s collection, but with a little distance, she wasn’t sure how different they really were.

“Is this going to be too weird for you?”

Jemma glanced up and Nick was standing in the entrance to the cubicle, one of those infuriatingly blank expressions on his face. Next he was probably going to ask her to fetch him a coffee, even though he’d promised he wouldn’t do that anymore. And that she’d get to write stories and her own byline.

“Weird?” she asked, because she didn’t really want to answer the question. Delay was the only course of action. Nick was like a rat with a succulent piece of cheese when he wanted to know something. And Cardinal Rule #1 was that he didn’t ask if he didn’t want to know.

“You and O’Connor.”

“You mean, because I’m dating Gabe.” Another good method of unsettling Nick was to be even more forcefully direct than he was. She glanced up at her boss and held his gaze firmly. So much for her believing that he hadn’t accurately guessed their situation earlier. He’d probably known it five minutes into her first job interview.

“Right.”

It was too early to have this conversation. Jemma only wanted to open her laptop and start sorting through the many emails she’d ignored while she’d been in Rio.

Which illustrated just how much she didn’t want to talk about it. Especially with Nick.

“Colin and I are friends. We’ve only ever been friends,” she said steadily. “It’s not going to be a problem.”

“Good, good.” Nick looked more unsettled than she’d ever seen him. She wasn’t sure if it was the conversation or that he was still recovering.

This was the first time she’d seen him up close since the incident, and now that she looked, she realized that he didn’t look good. His dark, rumpled hair was even more of a mess than normal, some tufts standing nearly on end, and there were deep dark grooves under his gray eyes. He was normally a handsome man, put together and direct, kind of like the weapon that had been shoved into his gut. But Jemma knew from looking at him that he wasn’t okay.

“I should be asking you the same question,” she said. “Are you even supposed to be here?”

“I’m here four hours a day.”

Jemma made a scoffing noise and that weaseled the first tiny smile out of him she’d seen that morning.

He shoved a hand through his hair. Jemma tried not to be mesmerized by the electrocuted look he was currently sporting. “This is a big event. Your articles brought in a bunch of readers. Our numbers are crazy. If we can capitalize on this visit with O’Connor, we’ll solidify this position.” He paused. “Duncan finally agreed to the live video interview.”

She smiled at the pride in his eyes. Nick had been lobbying for something more than the recorded podcast interviews that he’d become popular for. “We’re setting up my office for the piece. Come look.”

Jemma followed him to his office, struggling to ignore the way he walked—slow and careful, like he was trying to hold himself together.

The Stephen Curry cutout had disappeared and the old camel leather couch had been replaced by two navy blue captain’s chairs. Sound and camera equipment and thick cables snaked across the floor.

The wall of Nick and sports stars he was so proud of had stayed. She rolled her eyes. “Your ego is truly out of control,” she said, but it was fondly. She couldn’t tell him she was worried about him, but seeing a part of him, so perfectly preserved, laid some of her fear to rest.

“If you’ve got it, flaunt it,” he said, with a smug, slanting grin in her direction.

“You’re quiet,” Gabe said after swallowing a mouthful of General Tso’s chicken.

Jemma gestured with a pair of chopsticks. “First day back in the office,” she said vaguely. “You know how it is.”

He set his chopsticks down and gave her a reproving look. “You can just say it, you know,” he said. “I know he’s coming here.”

“Sometimes I wish you were a little stupider,” Jemma admitted with a wry smile.

“Then you wouldn’t love me,” he said. And it was probably true.

“He’s going to want to meet you,” she said before she lost her nerve.

All afternoon that was all she’d been able to think about. Colin was going to want to meet Gabe.

Not
want
. Demand, probably. Playfully but seriously. He was all about protecting her, watching out for her. He’d want to meet the man she’d lost her heart to, even if it wasn’t him.
Especially
if it wasn’t him.

“Of course,” Gabe said, returning to his takeout like this was perfectly normal. Totally okay. Nothing weird to see here at all.

“Just . . .
of course
?” Jemma yelped a little. She tried to not get over dramatic, but she didn’t see how he could act like this was all commonplace.

Gabe set his chopsticks down again and shot her an amused look. “If you and I only managed to ever be friends, just friends, and you fell in love with some guy in another country in only a few weeks, I would sure as hell want to meet him.”

“I just . . .” Jemma couldn’t get the words past her suddenly uncooperative throat.

Reaching over, Gabe tugged her hand into his, cradling it. “I’m not an insensitive asshole,” he said. “I’m not going to rub it in, or be a dick to him. I can be civilized, you know.”

“I know,” Jemma said, punctuating with an eye roll, tugging her hand away and trying to return to her dinner though she wasn’t that hungry. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Believe me, I know what it feels to lose you.” He stuffed another mouthful of chicken into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “I can’t imagine what it might feel like to want you and never have you.”

Colin was only a year removed from the man in the photograph on her desk, but he also felt like a stranger as the elevator opened, and Jemma saw him standing there.

He’d always been handsome—tall and strong and so ridiculously all-American, a local boy made good even though he wasn’t local at all—but he’d grown into himself over the last year. There was confidence and certainty in his blue eyes, in the nearly arrogant curve of his jawline.

But then he smiled dopily at her, and he was still that unsure boy, looking for a partner in his first college class. She didn’t even remember walking over to him, but his arms were around her, strong and sure, and she nearly cried into the soft fabric of his polo shirt.

It was an embarrassing display, but Jemma reminded herself as she pulled back to look at him, to really see him, that they were best friends. Everyone knew they were best friends.

His blue eyes were missing the desperate shadows of only a few months before, and Jemma felt an inescapable wave of relief nearly bury her. He was
okay
. He didn’t hate her. He’d maybe even began to get over this.

Over her.

“It’s so good to see you,” he said softly.

And it was so good to see him too, especially without that all-too-familiar nauseous roll of guilt.

He let go of her and looked over her shoulder to where she knew Duncan and Nick were standing, by the reception desk. She wouldn’t normally be included in this greeting party, but Nick had dropped by her office yesterday and acted like it was a matter of course. Nothing out of the ordinary. And Jemma was grateful.