Page 71 of Polo Fever
‘No, it did not,’ he says, grimacing. ‘I didn’t break her heart, though. We only had one night together and she graciously told me the next morning it was a huge mistake.’
‘Ouch.’
‘She didn’t hesitate to tell Basilio that she’d had her revenge, though. She was infatuated with him and wasdoing everything she could to get his attention.’ He pauses, his lips curving into a playful smile. ‘I know how that feels.’
‘What?’ I scoff. ‘Are you saying you’ve been sleeping around to get my attention?’
‘The opposite!’ he exclaims, horrified. ‘Do you know how shit I felt when that actress showed up on the polo field? What I knew you must be thinking about me? I felt sick to my stomach. I was about five minutes into that date when I told her nothing was going to happen and this was all a mistake, because there was someone else, someone important to me. I couldn’t sleep thinking that you were out there believing I didn’t care.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Then I’d have had to admit my feelings to both of us. I wasn’t sure they were reciprocated. And the intensity of my feelings for you was scaring me. I’d never had that before. I was trying to get my head around it all myself.’
My heart somersaults at his earnestness.
‘I can’t believe you thought I was saying that I was sleeping around to get your attention,’ he adds with a laugh. ‘I meant I was trying to get your attention by scoring goals.’
‘You thought I was like the High Fives and would be impressed by a higher handicap?’
‘You do know that the handicap isn’t based on goals, yes?’
‘Yes, Mateo.’ I roll my eyes. ‘I was making a generalised statement.’
‘Just checking.’
‘Iwasimpressed, you know, not only by the goals but your skills on a horse in general,’ I inform him, prompting him to sit up straighter. ‘I was impressed by that from the very start. The first time I saw you ride.’
‘But not impressed the first time you saw me drive.’
‘Good thing neither of us believe in sticking with our first impressions,’ I say, tearing off my next bit of croissant.
‘Hey, I was right about you,’ he claims.
‘That I was a naïve city girl who had no idea what she was doing?’
‘That you were the most extraordinary woman I’ve ever met,’ he says, casually pouring me some orange juice as though that’s the sort of thing I hear every day.
Twenty-Three
Ash
It’s not a pair of socks
Sam
Huh?
Ash
It’s not a pair of socks down there
It’s all real
Sam
Wait
What.
