Page 113 of The Devil In Denim
Their faces were serious.
Maggie’s stomach dropped and she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to stand.
“What happened?” she demanded. From somewhere she found the ability to control the sudden terror rolling through her and got to her feet, her eyes searching Alex’s face for an answer.
“Well, it wasn’t quite—” Alex started but then Mal cracked and started laughing. Alex rolled his eyes. “Jeez, where’s your sense of occasion?”
“Just put the girl out of her misery, A,” Mal said.
“Okay.”
Maggie stared up at him and then closed the distance between them with three angry strides. “You were trying to game me?” She whacked him. “Why would you do that?”
“Because you’re cute when you’re angry,” Alex said. And then he grabbed her and pulled her closer. “How do you feel about kissing the owner of a major league baseball team?”
“Is it you?” She looked over at Mal and Lucas, ignoring the crazy beat of pleasure in her veins at the feel of his hands around her waist. “Because those two are mighty pretty.” Lucas grinned at her and she felt an answering grin spread over her face as joy rolled away all the nerves. They’d done it. They’d kept the Saints.
“You could kiss all three of us,” Mal said.
Alex’s hands tightened and she looked back at him, startled by the possessive grip. “Over my dead body,” he growled, and then he kissed her and everything else went away for a time. Too short a time. Not long enough to figure out if he was just doing it to keep up appearances, before they were broken apart by a wave of congratulations from the other owners emerging from the conference room. The MLB executives then hurried them into a press conference, leaving her once again standing next to Alex, blinded by camera flashes and wondering what the hell happened next.
What happened next, as it turned out, was one hell of a party at Deacon Field. Maggie drank champagne and celebrated with the rest of them but she did it distractedly. Every time she let her focus go for even a second, her eyes sought out Alex in the crowd. Finding him laughing or smiling at an endless procession of people. But not at her. He didn’t come to find her.
She accepted another glass of champagne from Shonda and tried to stop herself from watching him.
Hana appeared through the crowd with Shelly and the two of them joined her, clinking glasses triumphantly.
“Congrats, sweetie,” Shelly said. “Here’s to girl power.”
“And judicious blackmail,” Hana added with a smirk.
“Yes,” Maggie said, watching Alex talking to a woman she didn’t recognize.
“Oh, honey,” Hana said. “You have got it bad.”
Maggie wrenched her attention back, feeling heat flare in her cheeks. “What? No, no. I don’t. It’s all pretending, remember?” She gulped more champagne desperately.
Hana laughed, brown eyes dancing. “If you believe that then I’ve got a lovely bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. So why don’t you go over and take that man somewhere and make up with him?”
“He’s still the boss.”
That earned her a dismissive chop of Hana’s hand. “You’ll figure that part out. There’s plenty to do here. You don’t have to work with him all day every day. Besides, if the last week has been any indication, you’re just going to be miserable without him. So you might as well admit it.”
“Yeah, miserable,” Shelly said, slurring the words a fraction. “You’ll work it out. He’s a good guy. And hot,” she added with a decisive nod. “That’s a pretty good combination. Go get him.”
“You two are drunk. You’d think anybody was hot.”
“We managed to snag ourselves two pretty hot dudes,” Hana pointed out. “Got ’em to marry us—or close enough in Shelly’s case—and everything. We’re very good judges of character. So listen to us.” She gave Maggie a little shove. “Off you go. Or girl power will have to be reactivated to sort you out too.”
Wow. Now there was a threat to spur her into action. She really didn’t need Hana and Shelly cornering Alex and trying to resurrect her love life for her.
“All right,” she said. “I’m going. You two go and find those cute guys of yours and behave yourselves.”
“They’re hot, not cute,” Shelly corrected.
“Mine’s both,” Hana said, looking smug. She linked arms with Shelly and they headed off to hunt for their men.
Maggie returned to watching Alex.
