For a moment she nodded, as if she understood. But then she frowned.
“So you want to leave Atlanta because this can’t be a team like that anymore. You think what happened last night will disrupt the team’s harmony?”
“That’s a partial concern.” He couldn’t do that to the other players and he wouldn’t do that to the Blair family. “I think this group of guys could have a real shot at a championship season and I’m not going to mess it up for them. And team aside, I don’t want to put you in a position where you have to hide out from the media. I know how much you try to avoid the spotlight. And being with me will make that impossible.”
It had sounded reasonable on the way over here in the car. Delaney had been put in an impossible position by the photographs, and no matter how much she said she would take care of the fallout, the media interest had to be much greater than she’d expected.
Nodding, she squeezed her arms more tightly around herself.
“I understand. But for what it’s worth, I’ve dreamed of being a part of a team that worked together, too. No one-man bands where one person made the decisions about what was best for the team without consulting the other.”
He could have handled the rebuke if it hadn’t been for the thready emotion in her voice. Underlying that buttoned-up executive exterior remained the sweet, shy woman he’d made love to last night. And he’d hurt her without meaning to.
Crap.
Her old man had led Rick to believe Delaney would suffer because of the scandal, and he’d been quick to buy into it since he felt guilty for landing her half-naked on all the sports blogs. Rick had assured himself he was doing the best thing for all parties concerned by getting the hell out of Dodge.
But what if that’s not what she wanted at all?
Before he could pull his thoughts together, she planted the barest whisper of a kiss on his cheek.
“Goodbye, Rick.”
5
HIS ARMS MUST HAVE SNAKED around her while she was saying goodbye, because when she attempted to walk away, his hands were on her waist, holding her in place.
“You know, on the other hand, sometimes a good scandal really brings a team together.” He trotted out a completely unexpected response to her words of parting.
And she might have laughed at the absurdity of the comment if her heart hadn’t been breaking. As it stood, she held herself very still so as not to sink into his strong arms all over again and tell him to never let her go.
Although she might have shed her clothes last night, she didn’t plan to shed her dignity today, no matter how much of a life-changing event sleeping with the first baseman had turned out to be.
“Well, in that case, I hope the Rebels can recover from this one and still go on to take the championship without you.” She didn’t say it to hurt him. She really wanted a win for the Rebels who had weathered plenty of personnel changes and “almost but not quite” seasons.
Still, he didn’t release her waist.
“I mean it,” he continued, his thumbs starting a slow glide on the waist of her short suit jacket. “Now that I think about it, sometimes those teams that pulled together the hardest did so because one of their players had a particularly tough year. They want to win for the catcher who lost his father in the middle of the season, or they want to win because they were the laughingstock of last place the season before.”
“You’ve hardly experienced a death in the family.” Although the expiration of her love life after less than twenty-four hours felt like something she’d mourn for a very long time. “You just got caught with a very determined admirer.”
“Is that what you are, Delaney?” He pulled her closer and her heart sped up even though she knew his nearness would only make it tougher to walk away in the end. “My admirer? Because I kind of thought we became a lot more last night.”
Her heart gave one last surge of indignation at being tossed aside for his baseball career and her public image.
“I did, too, until you slipped out of my office this morning without so much as a goodbye before deciding you wanted to leave town—and me—for good.”
“Delaney, if I thought for a second that you wanted to weather the media storm with me—as a team—I would call your father in here right now and demand a new contract for next year.”
The seriousness that she loved about him—loved?—yes, the seriousness she utterly loved about him was evident in his claim. He would really do that.
“You wouldn’t just be staying because the Rebels have a shot at going all the way?” She had to know the truth. If it hurt, she could deal with it. But she hadn’t shed her shyness and her sarong last night to return to hedging her way through life today.
Not when love was on the line.
“I would stay because we have a shot at going all the way.” He squeezed her tighter. “Me and you.”
Now her pulse spiked wildly, her happiness spilling over like shaken champagne in a victorious locker room.
“Then why didn’t you tell me that as soon as you walked in here today?” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him to her, desperate for him. For a future she wouldn’t delay another second.
“I thought you deserved better than to be pressured into a relationship just to make your father keep me on the team.” He kissed her forehead, the soft press of his lips echoing the understanding that flashed across her mind.
“You hoped I would choose you because I wanted you and not because I was backed into a corner.” It was noble and selfless, and just exactly the kind of thing the man she loved would do. “While that’s really honorable of you, Rick Warren, if you ever scare me into thinking you’re leaving again, I’ll trade you to the Alaskan team myself.”
He winced.
“You realize there’s no major league club up there, don’t you?
“You can be the first player contracted,” she assured him, wondering if it was possible for a woman to glow from the inside out. She just might be the first case ever.
“Well, that’s not going to happen, so you don’t need to worry about it.”
“Does my father know about this plan of yours?” She’d ship her dad off to Alaska, for that matter, if he had attempted to meddle in her love life ever again.
“No.” Rick backed her into the cherry wainscoting beside the window, out of sight of the gardeners at work on the flowers. “Although he didn’t seem one bit surprised that we spent the night together. I think he knew we’ve been eyeing each other for a while. I do believe he sees more than he would admit.”
She shook her head. “He let me think you might have slept with me to secure a ticket off the team.”
He shrugged. “Maybe he wanted to see if you were willing to believe the worst of me. But I’m pretty sure that by the time all the smoke blew over today, he was hoping there’d be a proposal in the works.”
She felt the heat crawl up her cheeks. “He is ridiculously old-fashioned.”
“Are you kidding? I think that’s great. And since I’ve been watching your every move for the last year and a half, I feel like I know you very well already.” Rick reached into his shirt and withdrew a clunky gold band with a tiny diamond in the middle and lots of engraving. “Enough to think a proposal isn’t a bad idea.”
“Rick!” She wondered if a more sophisticated woman would tell him not to be silly, and that of course she wasn’t expecting marriage after a single night together. But the look in his eyes told her this was no joke. “I couldn’t possibly—”
“How about we call it a pre-engagement ring and let the media make of it what they will?” A rare grin lifted the corner of his mouth. “You and I can sort it all out at our leisure, but in the meantime, I would be honored if you’d wear my college national championship ring from the year we captured the division I title. I figure it’s a good place holder until I can find a ring more—”