Mick filled up a glass with ice, water, and a wedge of lime, then went into the living room and turned on the television, propped his feet up, and stared at the screen for a while, flipping through channels and not really seeing anything.
A knock at the door had him grabbing his cell phone to look at the time. It was one in the morning. Who the hell was at the door this late? He rolled his eyes and hoped one of the guys on the team hadn’t gotten kicked out by his wife.
He took a look through the peephole, surprised to see Tara standing outside. He opened the door and pulled her in.
“What the hell are you doing out this late?”
Her eyes widened. “I came to see you.”
Mick shut and locked the door. “You should have called me.”
“I’m sorry. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. Bad time?”
“No, it’s not that. I just don’t want you out on the streets or wandering around in this parking lot late at night by yourself.”
She stepped in and slid her fingers into the pockets of her jeans, looking as uncomfortable as he felt. “Oh. Well, thanks for your concern.”
“You want something to drink?”
“Whatever you’re having.”
“Water with lime.”
“That’ll suit me just fine.”
He fixed her a drink and brought it out to her. She was still standing in the same spot as she was when she walked in. “You can sit down, Tara.”
“I don’t know if you want me to stay or not.”
He handed her the drink. “Sit down.”
She did, taking a seat in his oversized chair, not on the sofa with him. Okay, so it was going to be like that.
She stared at the television for a while and he let her, figuring she’d come here to say something. He sipped his water, watching her, knowing she was thinking, organizing her thoughts. She always went quiet when her brain was working, when she was thinking about what she wanted to say or working out a plan of action.
He finally gave up and found them a movie to watch.
“Mick, I’m sorry.”
He muted the TV and gave her his attention. “I’m sorry, too. This thing between Alicia and me tonight was very last-minute. Liz called—”
She held up her hand. “It doesn’t matter. You don’t owe me an explanation.”
He pushed off the sofa and came over to her, dropping to his knees in front of her chair. “Liz called and said this was very last-minute,” he continued, needing her to hear him, telling her the story of how Alicia’s fiancé had fallen sick and she didn’t want to tell the world about her fiancé and her pregnancy without some support. “I was nothing more than a glorified bodyguard to keep the press from knocking her over.”
Tara pulled her knees to her chest. “You were very nice to her. I saw how close you stayed to her. I’m sure she appreciated it.”
“She’s a nice kid. But she’s a kid, Tara. She’s twenty-two.”
Tara’s lips lifted. “Some of the women you’ve dated haven’t been much older than that.”
She was right about that. “I’ve reformed. I like more mature women now.”
She snorted. “Gee, thanks.”
“You know what I mean.” He slid his hands over her knees. “I should have called you and given you a heads-up. I wasn’t even thinking that we were attending the same event as you. I was just operating blind here, assuming I was going to do this good deed and tell you about it tomorrow. I didn’t want to call and bother you with something trivial like this when I knew you were busy with work.”
Tara leaned forward and tangled her fingers in his hair. “I know. And then you ran into me, and I acted like a giant bitch about it all.”
He gave her an impish grin. “I’m going to assume it just means you care about me.”
“If I didn’t, you wouldn’t have seen me act like a giant bitch.”
“So we’re good?”
“We’re good. And I’m really sorry. I acted petty and jealous and I don’t know why. It’s a very ugly side of me, and I don’t like it. Did I mention I was sorry?”
“You don’t need to be. Next time I’ll give you a heads-up when Liz tosses some stunning, sexy young babe at me.”
Tara mimicked a knife stabbing repeatedly into her heart. “You’re killing me here, Mick.”
He laughed and stood, pulling her into his arms. “Just kidding.”
She leaned against him. “No you’re not. It’s likely to happen again. It’s your job to do these promotional things. I need to learn to live with it.”
“No, it won’t happen again. No one needs to be on my arm but you.”
Tara swallowed, her throat gone dry. She tried to say something, but what retort could she come up with for that statement? Instead, she reached up and cupped the back of his neck, drawing his lips to hers. Enough had been said, and they were already headed into dangerous territory. Kissing was a much better idea.