Head Over Heels

by Crystal B. Bright

  “Your husband doesn’t mind you traveling so much?” He would leave out the part about her being in a hotel room with a strange man. He didn’t want to scare her.

  “No.”

  Thane’s heartbeat slowed.

  “Because I’m not married.”

  His pulse accelerated again.

  “And that was a tired way of asking me about my relationship status.”

  He shrugged. “Oldie but a goody. Boyfriend?”

  “No, and—”

  “Girlfriend?”

  Kari placed her fork down on the table. “Thane, since you asked, I have three distinct rules regarding my dating life.” She held up her hand and raised her index finger. “I don’t date athletes.” She raised her middle finger. “I don’t date anyone younger than me.” Then she raised her ring finger. “And I don’t mix business with pleasure.”

  “Okay, so let’s dissect each one of the restricting rules.” So far he enjoyed learning about Ms. Kari Meyers.

  “I don’t find them restricting. They’re my rules to live by.” She shuffled lettuce around on her plate.

  “So the athletes thing. You’ve loved sports all of your life. You work in an industry where you’re around athletes all the time. Why wouldn’t you consider dating them?”

  “Oh, I did. Many, many years ago. It didn’t work out for me.” She shook her head.

  “One bad apple, huh?”

  She nodded. “Since then, I decided to stay away from them. They travel a lot. I would have to travel a lot. It wouldn’t work. I need stability in my life.”

  “Why is that?” He offered her a roll from a basket covered with a napkin.

  She shook her head. “Every woman wants a sure thing. If she says she doesn’t, she’s lying.”

  “Okay, fine. So let’s talk about the age thing. You look about my age.” Although her face and body made her look like she’d graduated from high school yesterday.

  “Try four years older.”

  Thane’s eyes widened. “You’re twenty-six?”

  Kari nodded. “I find that younger men are immature. They want to party and drink.” She stared at him for a moment before dropping her gaze to her plate.

  Thane knew she looked at him suspiciously because of his bad behavior the night of his mother’s funeral. He hadn’t been himself that day, and the alcohol hadn’t helped.

  Before she took another bite, she explained herself. “I don’t blame young guys for acting crazy. But that craziness can manifest itself in other ways.”

  “Such as?” He stopped everything to hear her assessment of his entire sex and age group.

  She cleared her throat before speaking. “Younger men are impulsive. They don’t look before they leap. They don’t stop to smell the roses.”

  “You’re saying we don’t take our time.” He tried hard not to smile, but he felt his lips pulling to the sides. Then a subtle warmth washed over his body at the same time her face flushed a deeper rose color.

  Kari smoothed her hand over the back of her neck. “This seems like an inappropriate conversation to have with—”

  “A client?” he asked. “Or with a man?” Thane felt like he held his breath until she answered his question. When she didn’t respond right away, he followed up with, “Take your time. I’m a very, very patient man.”

  Kari shook her head. “I can’t talk for all women, but for me, I need someone who’s going to be a partner in life. I have no interest in raising a man-child.”

  He felt his body go cold. “The day of my mother’s funeral, I was in a bad place. I needed to forget about the day, so, yes, I overindulged. That’s not me. I don’t drink like that, and I’m disappointed in myself that I did. It still bothers me that I was rude to you.” He wiped his mouth. “I saw the hotel’s video of me kissing you and pushing you into my room. That was wrong and disgusting.”

  “There’s a video of that out there?” She covered her mouth. “You need to sue the hotel and have whoever on the staff that leaked that video fired. You came here expecting a modicum of privacy, and they clearly breached that trust.”

  Thane blinked. He liked her fiery spirit, her fight and determination. He hadn’t thought about the whole angle about the security footage being leaked. Again, he chalked it up to being a celebrity. She saw him as more. Kari saw him as a person.

  “Oh, that reminds me.” She stood and went to her purse that sat on the coffee table. From a side pocket, she pulled out a business card.

  Thane stood as she came back to the table. Had he known she had planned on getting up, he would have stood up with her.

  “Here’s the name of a real estate agent friend of mine. She sells homes and does rental property. She would keep her mouth closed about any dealings with you. If you plan on staying here any longer, I would suggest you give her a call. Otherwise you’ll be constantly bothered by reporters and photographers.”

  “And agents.” He held out Kari’s chair for her before taking a seat. “Thanks for the tip, although I doubt I’ll be here for very long.” He picked up his fork but kept his gaze down. “After my mother, um, she left me Sharp, her clothing business. But I won’t be able to stay to run it.”

  “Wow. A clothing boutique. That’s nice.” Kari placed her hand on the table, dangerously close to his. “Too bad you can’t keep it open.”

  Thane couldn’t help but stare at the short distance between the two. It would take the slightest effort to twitch his little finger to brush against her hand.

  What the hell was he doing? He and his brothers had buried their mother only yesterday. He should be mourning, not ogling some woman.

  To cut down on temptation, he placed his hand on his lap, which also helped in easing his burgeoning erection. “I know my mother worked hard to get her boutique off the ground.” He brought his gaze up to meet hers. “Are you familiar with the boardwalk area in Virginia Beach?”

  Kari shook her head. “Can’t say that I am.”

  “After Labor Day, the strip pretty much shuts down to tourists. Small businesses like my mom’s close up shop through the winter and reopen around spring.” Thane thought about how he and Queen would pack up all the items in the store and cover everything with sheets.

  He would throw a sheet over his head and pretend to be a ghost. She would wrap one around her shoulders and act like a movie star. As he recalled those silly times, he chuckled to himself.

  “What were you doing there?” Kari asked.

  He shook his head. “Cleaning up a bit. Going through her things. I have to get back to baseball. I’m missing spring training. I worked hard to get where I am. I can’t stop now to sell clothes.”

  “You can get someone else to do it. Hire someone to run it for you.”

  Kari’s wide-eyed optimism almost weakened him. Almost. “As soon as I can, I’m going to try and sell the place.”

  “Oh.” She picked up a glass of water and took a sip.

  “What?”

  “I didn’t say anything.” She shrugged.

  “I feel like there’s something you’re not saying.”

  “It’s nothing. You don’t know me. I don’t know you. Let’s get back to talking about business.” She sat her glass on the table and scanned the different dinners on the tray next to the table.

  “No. I want to hear what you were thinking. You think I’m being selfish, don’t you?” He crossed his arms over his chest as he awaited her answer.

  Kari exhaled before she spoke again. “My grandfather passed away right after I graduated from college. Sometimes I even think that he held on long enough for me to get through college. While he was alive, he would tell me that I should always work hard and preserve the Meyers name to honor my parents because that’s all they left me. Your mother left you a real, tangible legacy. She gave you a business that you two enjoyed together. Why would you get rid of that so quickly?”

  Thane opened his mouth to answer, but he couldn
’t say anything. She’d echoed the same sentiments Gunnar and Gideon had. That same chill coiled around his spine again.

  “Tell me something, Kari. After your grandfather died, did people tell you that each day it would get better, that the pain and hurt would lessen as time passed?” He sat back in his chair and studied her.

  “Of course.” Her eyebrows knitted together.

  “And did it upset you when people tried to tell you the right way to grieve, like saying to visit his grave, or be sure to get rid of all his clothes and personal items, or tell you not to do anything on the anniversary of his death?”

  Kari remained still.

  “I don’t know when your grandfather died. I’m not going to say any of those things to you. How you deal with his passing is your business.” He picked up his fork. “Same should go for me. I need time to deal. Going back to a place that is the epitome of my mother is a bit tough to take right now.”

  She drew her hand back and placed it on her lap. “I know what you mean.” She made the statement and squeezed her eyes shut like she didn’t want to utter those words. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t say you’re sorry. Sorry is a state.” He straightened up in his chair. “You’re tenacious. I can tell you work hard at what you do. And you’re compassionate. You helped me without really knowing me. There’s nothing sorry about you. And you have no reason to apologize either.”

  “Wow.” Kari dabbed her napkin against her forehead. “For a young man, you seem to have it all together. You’re lucky. At least you have your brothers to help you get through this hard time.”

  “Yeah, well, sometimes loneliness is better than constantly trying to explain yourself to people who you thought really knew you.” He didn’t want to open himself up to her, a stranger, a beautiful one.

  She stared at him. He returned the intense gaze with one of his own and couldn’t break it. The heaviness in the room returned as his heart pounded hard and fast. He had once pitched a no hitter that went into double innings and didn’t remember sweating as much then.

  “Glad you brought up my age again.” Thane needed to get this conversation back on her. “We need to get back to your list. So your last item. Last I checked, I haven’t signed up with you, so we’re not in business together.”

  “And that reminds me. What made you want to call me?” She crossed her legs under the table, obvious from the way her body shifted.

  Although he thought about revealing that he loved the way she smelled and looked out for him, instead, he said, “I talked to Alec. He confirmed what you told me. He also suggested I go with one of his current agents, and told me I should be content with my deal. I never want to be complacent about anything. I want more. If you can get that for me, I’ll consider signing with you.”

  Kari’s eyes lit up. She looked so beautiful and excited. Before he could think about representation, he had to get more facts about her, more than her dating life, which interested him a lot.

  “What clients do you represent right now?” He finished his salad, but waited until she finished hers before starting on the entrée.

  “I represent tennis player Jean Rattineaux.” She dropped her stare onto her frosty glass of water instead of looking him in the eye.

  “I don’t follow tennis that closely. I don’t think I’ve heard of him.”

  She picked up her glass. “He’s one of the top twenty professional tennis players in the world.” She took a long sip.

  “Is he number twenty?”

  Kari paused before placing her glass back on the table. “Does it matter?”

  “That’s a yes.”

  She blew out an exasperated breath. “I also represent a couple of professional basketball players.”

  Thane blinked. “Wow. Now I do follow basketball closely. Who are your clients?”

  She cleared her throat. “You probably won’t know them.”

  He felt his eyebrows rut together. “Why is that? Are they out with an injury or something? Rookies?”

  “No. They play for the WNBA.”

  A strange tickle crept up the back of his neck. He stood and went to the living room area where she’d left her business card on the coffee table. Thane picked it up and read all of the contents on the card.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He leaned his head back and let out a chuckle. “You’re a junior agent?”

  Kari waited a beat before she addressed him. “For now. I’ve worked hard and I can secure you an awesome deal that’s equal to or better than what Alec got you.”

  He returned to the table and sat down. “I have to admit, you have a lot of spunk for believing you can sign someone like me as a client.” Thane didn’t mean to sound arrogant. He knew what he earned and the kind of deal he’d signed.

  He wouldn’t say it out loud, but he liked her determination. That didn’t mean that he needed to take a step backward in his career.

  “If you give me a chance, I can show you what I’m made of.” She glanced at the dinners. “Do you mind if I have the chicken?”

  Thane picked up the chicken dinner and placed it in front of her. “Don’t mind at all. I wanted the steak. Had you asked for that, we might have had to wrestle for it.” He shook some pepper onto his vegetables. “Let me ask you something. Did you give that same speech to your WNBA clients about your dating preferences?”

  She blinked. “Of course not.”

  “Why is that?” He cut a piece of his steak but waited before he ate it to hear her answer.

  “Why would I tell my female clients something like that when I’m not a lesbian or bisexual?”

  “So you felt the need to tell me as a potential male client.” He took a bite of his steak.

  “You asked me about my relationship status.”

  “I was making small talk.”

  She laughed. “You were checking me out.”

  “And I don’t think you minded, not that much.”

  She picked up her fork and knife and cut into her chicken. “Let me ask you something. When Alec first met you, did you share your concern about his travel schedule and his relationship with his—”

  “Husband?” Thane cut her off.

  She stopped to regard him.

  “Didn’t mean to interrupt you. I thought it was the worst-kept secret in the industry that Alec Fogel is gay and married. You didn’t know that?”

  Kari shook her head.

  “No, I didn’t ask Alec about his relationship. But he had no problem sharing. Our first meeting, he brought his husband to dinner with him. Actually, I got along better with his husband than with Alec. When you have an agent like him, you laugh at his corny jokes and hope he takes you on as a client. He did.” He popped a piece of steak in his mouth.

  The beef melted as he chewed it. Since learning of his mother’s death, he finally got to savor a meal. He glanced at Kari, who stared at him with her mouth agape.

  “You’re pretty, um—” She ate a piece of chicken like she needed something to occupy her mouth.

  “I’m what?” Thane wouldn’t let her off that easily.

  “Nothing. Dinner is delicious. Thank you.”

  He looked at her free hand resting on the table. In that moment, he wanted to reach out and touch it, hold it. He hadn’t held a woman’s hand in a while. He hadn’t done a lot of things with a woman since his break up with a Sri Lankan model a year ago.

  After dinner, Kari piled her dirty dishes and pushed them off to the side.

  “Ready for some cheesecake?” Thane rubbed his hands together.

  “I am, but I have one request.” She chewed on her bottom lip and leaned forward.

  He wondered if she wanted to ask him for something salacious like taking a bath together or giving each other a massage. As quickly as the suggestions popped into his head, he pushed them right out for good reason. The longer he stared into her eyes, the faster his pulse raced.

  “What’s that?” he
asked.

  She turned to the living room area before bringing her attention back to him. “Mind if we watch the sports wrap-up show? I need to get some stats.”

  He exhaled. “Yeah, yes. Sure.” He pointed to the couch. “Go get comfortable. I’ll be in there in a minute.”

  She stood and sauntered to the couch. He had to break his stare from watching her slink away, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to stand up at all pretty soon.

  When he heard her turning on the wall-mounted TV, he stood and grabbed a small dessert plate with a slice of cheesecake. He rested his finger next to the silver coffee pitcher, which felt hot. He poured a cup for Kari and carried the dessert and coffee to her.

  “You’re not having any?” She looked at both items he placed in front of her.

  “Someone reminded me that I’m still in training.” He took a seat on the couch next to her but with a comfortable space in between them.

  She picked up the plate. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do this.”

  “Yes, I did. It’s the least I could do for leaving you hanging like that.” He stared at her until she broke first to bring her attention to the TV.

  “Wow, what a shocker.” Kari took a bite of the cheesecake and made an approving moaning sound.

  “What’s that?”

  “Kurt Bodilasky is out with a shoulder injury. Right at the start of basketball season. That’s horrible.” She shook her head.

  “You know who Kurt Bodilasky is?” He stared at this beauty with wonderment.

  In high school and college, the girls he’d associated with only knew athletes with big endorsement deals or who appeared on reality TV shows or dance shows. Kari’s knowledge impressed him, probably more than it should have.

  “Of course.” She turned to him. “I also know your ERA back when you were still on the Wren farm was three-point-two-one. You’ve already had almost a thousand strikeouts. And your batting average is point-two-three-four. You’re a beast. I mean that in a good way.” She stared at him.