CAROLINA HAD SENT DREW MULTIPLE TEXT MESSAGES, and had even called him a few times, but he kept saying he was busy with hockey stuff and couldn’t find the time to work on her advertising campaign.
He’d actually popped in for the final fittings on a day she hadn’t been here. She’d been at the event center, taking some photos and talking to the event coordinator. Her staff had handled the fitting, and he’d been gone by the time she’d come back.
He hadn’t said a word to her. He hadn’t called her or told her he was coming by, so they hadn’t had a chance to talk about the advertising campaign.
She had the photographer ready to go. All she needed now was her model. A model who was being really goddamned uncooperative right now.
The test photos they’d taken had turned out phenomenally well. With a professional photographer on hand, she knew the real product would be spectacular. Half a day. A few hours. That’s all she needed from him to get this finished.
She paced in her workshop, everyone else having left for the day. She’d known Drew was going to let her down. She should have gone with someone else. Not that it wasn’t too late to do that. But dammit, the whole campaign was lined out perfectly in her head, and the only face and body she saw on there was Drew.
Maybe that was because she was personally involved with him, because she’d slept with him. There were many great-looking models who’d fit the advertising perfectly.
She tapped her pencil on her sketchbook, staring at it and getting nowhere. She pulled up the Travelers schedule. No game today, and yet her phone remained strangely silent, at least as far as Drew. Everyone else was texting and calling her about every last-minute detail, including wanting invitations to the show which was in three goddamn days. As if that wasn’t enough to tighten her chest and make it hard to breathe. But the one person she needed to hear from had gone silent.
She dialed his number, the phone rang several times and then she got his voice mail, which sent her blood pressure through the roof. She knew from looking at his schedule that he had a stretch of home games, which meant he was in town and was going to be here for a while, including for the show, thank God.
If he even planned to show up for that.
She grabbed her coat and shut down the studio, then grabbed a taxi, giving the driver Drew’s address.
She paid the driver, but asked him to wait while she went up to the door and pressed the buzzer. When Drew answered, she waved the driver off.
“It’s Carolina.”
“Oh. Sure. Hang on while I buzz you in.”
She rolled her eyes when he hit the buzzer. She went inside and headed to his door. He’d already opened it and was leaning against the doorway. He didn’t have a shirt on, only a pair of low-slung sweats. His hair was wet, the ends curling around his neck. Despite her profound irritation with him, she couldn’t fight the surge of desire that kicked in as her gaze instinctively followed the droplets of water sliding down his chest.
Forcing her attention to his face, she saw him smiling.
“This is a nice surprise.”
“You didn’t answer your phone.”
He frowned. “I must have been in the shower. Or maybe at practice. I just got home about twenty minutes ago and jumped in the shower right away. Sorry. Come on in.”
She took off her coat while Drew went into the bedroom and came back with a shirt on.
“Do you want something to drink? A beer or a soda or water?”
“Water would be good, thanks.”
He was being formal. He hadn’t hugged her or kissed her. She didn’t like it. It was like they had taken ten steps back in their relationship and she didn’t know what was going on.
He handed her water and grabbed one for himself.
“Take a seat,” he said, motioning to his sofa.
She sat and took a sip of water. “What’s going on, Drew?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you’re ignoring my calls and texts. You’re ignoring me. You came in for your final fitting, and you didn’t even tell me.”
“Oh, yeah, that. I only had a few minutes and you weren’t there. Your staff took care of it, and I had to hurry out of there. I told you I’ve been busy with games and practice.”
“We have the photo shoot to schedule and I’m running out of time.”
He didn’t say anything. She studied him, saw the tension on his face and the way he held his body.
“Tell me what’s bothering you,” she said. “Is it the road games?”
“You’re not really here to talk about hockey, are you?”
“I’m here to talk about you, about what’s been going on since we were last together. You’ve been avoiding me.”
“No, I haven’t.”