Page 67 of The Virgin Game Plan (Rules of Love 2)
“And so single,” Adriana adds, then licks her lips. “Oops. I’m sorry, was that inappropriate? I know I shouldn’t say that, but the man really is a hottie.”
Jillian shoots me a love is in the air look. “Maybe you’ll work on the calendar with him and fall head over heels.”
I blink. Did she just authorize love on the job?
Adriana points at Jillian. “Like you and your hubs did.”
Holy smokes.
She did.
She’s not drawing lines; she’s firing Cupid’s arrows.
Ones I wasn’t asking for. Ones I didn’t expect to fly.
I turn to my boss. “I didn’t know you and Jones were one of those work-together-on-a-calendar-and-fall-in-love stories. Those are the best.”
She shrugs sheepishly, smiling the whole time. “It was rescue dogs and cats. We didn’t stand a chance of resisting. Anyway, I was the publicist for the Renegades then, and he was, and still is, the star receiver. So we kind of dated secretly at first.”
Suddenly, I need to know everything. I have to know. All along, I’ve assumed I’d be playing with fire at work if I dated Holden. But was that a wrong assumption?
“Was there any issue at the organization once that came out? Did you lose your job?” How did she navigate that patch of thorns? Now’s as good a time as any to ask. Even though Holden faces the bigger issue, I still want to know how a woman I admire managed that work-love conflict.
“I told my boss when I realized I’d fallen in love with Jones. I thought she’d want me to tender my resignation. But instead, she said to be prepared to handle myself with grace in the public eye, since I was about to be in the middle of it. She was right. And she had faith in me—in my track record with the team, and in my ability to handle the scrutiny. I was damn lucky to work for such a lady boss.”
“That was it?” I ask bluntly.
Why is it that I’m able to talk to women so easily, to dive right into the heart of things, and speak the straightforward truth, but I can’t do this with my father?
Jillian wags a finger at me, all conspiratorial. “Do you like Rafe? Is that why you’re asking—you want to date him? Because I would have no problem with that. I’m not here to police who you date.”
I’m silent at first, processing the words no problem.
Aloud, they make perfect sense, but I didn’t think they were words I’d hear.
I assumed they weren’t, and my assumptions were false.
My boss wouldn’t care if I dated Holden, and a weight lifts from my shoulders, vanishing into thin air.
I feel lighter already. So light I laugh, both wildly grateful for her forward-thinking answer and eager to correct her assumption. “I think Rafe is fantastic, and he’d probably be wonderful, but I wasn’t angling to date him.”
Adriana gives me a serve up the goods look. “Someone else, then? Another athlete?”
A kernel of hope blooms inside me. I picture dates, and daytime, and snaps of the two of us at the Ferry Building.
A reel flickers before me of more than nights—of days.
“Maybe,” I say, lingering on the word long enough to make it clear my answer is actually yes. “But I don’t think anything will happen,” I add quickly. I’d do well to remind myself of the score.
Know your limits.
Holden and I have plenty of limits.
Namely, I don’t fit into his life.
Even if my limits are gone, even if I’m free to see him, his hurdles haven’t disappeared.
He didn’t vault over them in a few short days.
Nor is he likely to. His case is vastly different than mine.
Jillian might be able to wave a magic wand of coolness and ease my worries, but she can’t click her ruby-red slippers and wish away the media circus Holden could face.
Or the consequences my dad might dole out.
Or the perception of the public.
No one can control that, and perception is important to his goals, his career, his family’s future.
Jillian frowns. “Why? Doesn’t he feel the same way?”
“He does. But it’s a complicated situation,” I say, though we aren’t even in a situationship, Holden and me. We aren’t in a holding pattern either. We’re . . . nothing.
Still, it’s a relief to give voice to what’s on my mind, to share it with smart women, even if I can’t serve up the details. “He’s not a client,” I add, quick to dismiss that as a concern. “But someone I’m connected to nonetheless.”
“Love is rarely easy,” Jillian says, tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear. “Sometimes we meet someone, and it feels all twisted up and knotted with other things, and we think we can’t make it work.”
She’s talking my language, speaking straight to my bruised heart. A heart that misses that man. “So what do you do about that?” I ask, even though I don’t hold the cards here with Holden. He does.
