“No.” He reached for her and took her hand in his, even though it was perfectly clear just how upset she was with him. But he couldn’t stand feeling like he was losing even more of her, not after finally getting a chance to be close to her these past few days. “I swear I didn’t. And you look gorgeous in that dress.”

“I look like I just finished washing the floor.”

“In that case, every guy who sees a mop from now on is going to get a hard-on.” She just stared at him for several long moments, long enough for him to worry that he’d lost her for good. “I know I screwed up, Vicki, but I can’t stand the thought of anything happening to you.”

Finally, her eyes softened. “I still wish you had talked to me about it first so that I could convince you not to do it, but I know you had the best intentions.”

Ryan had been working to convince himself of that all afternoon, but the truth was, he’d had just as many selfish motives in doing what he’d done as he’d had selfless ones.

“We need to tell your family the truth, at least.”

“No.” The one word came out sharply. And hard enough that Vicki’s eyebrows went up.

“I hated lying to them today.”

“They’d understand if they knew the reason.”

Telling his family the truth felt like the beginning of a slippery slope—one where Vicki ended up sliding out of his reach. But he’d already gotten his way one too many times already.

“I won’t lie to your family anymore. I trust them and I know you do, too.” She pulled her hand from his and crossed her arms beneath her br**sts. “If you won’t tell them, I will.”

He knew she was waiting for his answer, but he could barely think about anything but kissing her gorgeous mouth, slightly pursed from her irritation with him. The urge was strong enough that he didn’t stand a chance of doing anything but pressing his lips to hers softly.

A surprised gasp sounded against his mouth as her arms uncrossed so that she could steady herself against him.

“You’re right,” he told her. “We’ll tell them. How does breakfast tomorrow morning sound? We’ll tell my mother, too. I know how thrilled she’ll be to see you back in town again and to know we’re spending time together. You were the only girl I ever brought home.”

“I was?”

“You were.”

He was this close to kissing her again when she abruptly took a step away from him and out of his arms. “I just hope they don’t hate me for using you.”

“No one could ever hate you.” Her phone rang in her bag and he said, “Have you checked your phone since the billboard went up during the game?”

She shook her head and pulled it out. “Oh my God. I have forty-five missed calls.”

She dropped the phone like it was a hot potato and he caught it just before it hit the dirt. Quickly scrolling through the callers, he saw it was all the usual suspects: journalists, bloggers, gossip and columnists who had all easily ferreted out her private cell number.

Damn it, he should have thought this out well in advance of the impromptu ESPN interview this afternoon. He’d wanted to help Vicki...not hurt her even more with all of this media attention that she wanted none of.

Then again, he found himself thinking, maybe if they could use the media attention to get more eyes on her sculptures, it wouldn’t all be for nothing.

“One more thing,” he told her before they left the batting cage.

“There’s more?”

Hell yes, there was more.

There was the fact that he’d just realized he was in love with her, for one.

But even though he was clearly a total ass-hat to have broadcast the news of their fake engagement far and wide without running it by her first, he wasn’t quite stupid enough to also blurt out the four-letter word tonight.

Friends-to-love was going to need a hell of a lot better transition than that. He needed the rest of this week with her if he was going to figure out how to pull it off. At least a week.

So, for tonight, he would just drop one more bomb on her.

“The owners are throwing us a party tomorrow night to celebrate the end of the regular season and send us off to the playoffs. I’m pretty sure you and I are the guests of honor.”

She took a deep breath that lifted her br**sts up to the top of her dress in a shockingly sexy way. “Smith told me all I needed to do was smile. Maybe I can just keep doing that.”

Ryan made a mental note to give his movie-star brother yet another round of thank-yous for helping Vicki with great advice.

“Well, you do happen to have a pretty damn gorgeous smile.” He pulled her hand up to his mouth and pressed a kiss to it. “What do you say we hit my beach with enough booze and pizza to forget about all this for a little while?”

The smile Vicki gave him almost had Ryan forgetting to keep those four little letters to himself.

Chapter Twelve

The next morning, as they walked from his parked car toward the diner on the corner, Ryan rubbed a soothing circle on her back. “Relax. They’re your friends, not a firing squad. You didn’t sleep well, did you?”

Did he have any idea what it did to her when he looked at her like that? As though she was the only person in the world who mattered?

She couldn't bring herself to pretend again that she had, in fact, slept well in his awesome guest bed. “I’m not a big sleeper.”

She never had been, not even when she was a kid. Almost as if she had to be ready and alert to throw her things in a bag and head off to the next town at any moment. Still, last night had been a particularly bad night. More than ever before, she’d wanted to go into his bedroom and climb into his bed, just so that he could hold her in his arms.

But that wasn't what had her blinking once, twice, then just plain gasping.

Her face was on the front page of the newspapers in the rack behind him.

Vicki read the headline out loud: “Who is the mystery woman engaged to San Francisco’s most eligible bachelor?” Each word was more hollow than the one that came before it. The paper had paired the article with an old, and very unflattering, picture of her.

Ryan’s jaw was tight as he pulled her away from the curb. “Ignore it. We’ll be yesterday’s news soon.”

His siblings were already at the table by the time they walked inside. Vicki was surprised by the low-key restaurant the Sullivans had chosen to meet in. Then again, she supposed they’d have to know places off the beaten path if they wanted to get together with Smith and Ryan and be left alone.