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As he followed the woman to the dance floor, Mikael turned back and grinned, giving a thumbs up.
Next to me, Betts groaned. "I hope that the thumbs up is saying he's going to behave and not thumbs up that he's picked up a woman."
I finished off my whiskey. "Or maybe it's a thumbs up that a woman picked him."
She shrugged. "It's like sending your child out into the world and hoping all the good work you put into him sticks."
I laughed because she wasn't wrong. In some respects, the way we were tag teaming Mikael felt like parents. But thinking of that made me think of Dean and what a fuck-up of a father I'd been.
At the end of the evening, I walked Betts out to her car. She was the one woman I would allow to pick me up, but even though I occasionally saw signs of attraction toward me in her eyes, she was hell-bent on ignoring it.
"He did pretty good,” she said about Mikael, who was safely in a ride-share heading back to his place alone.
"He did." This time, I didn't stop myself. I reached out to push a red curl out of her face.
She tensed and looked down, but I saw pink on her cheeks. If I pushed it, would she give in?
No. I couldn’t push. I promised her that I'd behave. I stepped back, and for a moment I thought I saw disappointment in her eyes. But that was probably wishful thinking.
"Good night, Betts."
"Good night, Todd."
We werea day before the big game with the Buckaroos, and while Michael had made progress, it remained to be seen if it was enough for the upcoming press conference. I, Betts, and the marketing team did all we could to get him ready. There was only one more task to put him through, a mock interview with Johanna Price, a Las Vegas TV journalist.
I arranged for a car to pick Michael up and bring him up to Las Vegas. I instructed Naomi and Connor to make sure that he was showered and dressed after practice and to remind him to treat this as a real interview.
By luck, Betts was working here in the corporate office today, so I invited her to ride with me over to the station.
"What do you think?" I asked once in the SUV. "Do you think he's ready now?"
"He's had plenty of practice, and I think he understands proper behavior. As long as he isn't overly excited and forgets himself, I think he’ll be okay.”
I was glad to hear what she said because if she told me to pull the plug at this point, I'd have a difficult time doing it.
We arrived at the news station and were escorted back to an area just off the main news set.
Johanna's expression lit up when she saw me. She gracefully slipped out of her director's chair and sauntered toward me.
"My God, it's been a long time, Todd." She leaned in and kissed me on the cheek, and I did the same in return.
"It's good to see you, Johanna. This is the team's marketing director, Betts Adams."
Betts's expression was quizzical as she looked from me to Johanna and back. I knew women were observant and insightful, so I wondered if she caught on to the fact that Johanna and I had, on occasion, been more than friends. Not that we had been in a relationship, because we hadn’t. We were two people focused on our careers, but when we felt the itch for physical companionship, we’d reach out to each other, knowing there would be no strings. Our get-togethers had been fairly regular for a while but over the last year or so had dropped off.
I couldn't quite remember the last time we had been together. I recalled that she had called me a few days before Naomi's wedding, and I'd considered taking her as my plus one but ultimately decided against it. One, I didn't want people to get any ideas that I was dating anyone. And two, I just wasn't feeling the itch anymore with Johanna. Hell, I hadn't been feeling it with anybody until Betts kissed me in the library at Naomi's wedding.
Johanna smiled and held out her hand. "It's good to meet you. Todd has told me how much you've been working with Michael, and I'm sure after today, we will have him completely media ready."
Betts accepted the extended hand and shook. She even smiled, but I could see suspicion in her eyes, and weirdly enough, it thrilled me. Was Betts jealous?
12
Betts
Iknew the look that Johanna gave Todd. I was sure there were many times I'd had that same expression on my face when I looked at him, despite the fact that I didn't want it. It was the look of longing and lust. I had noticed it on the women at the bar, but it hadn't bothered me because I could tell that Todd had absolutely no interest in them.
But Johanna was a different story.
