Almost Like Love (9 page)

“Of course. He’s always happy to acquire new admirers.”

Ian cut his last meeting short and headed out the door at six fifteen.

He told himself he was excited because of Jacob, not Kate. This would be another chance to get his nephew into sports.

Although, come to think of it, maybe he could use this opportunity to get Kate into sports, too. That would be an even bigger challenge, considering how closed-minded she could be.

But he was always up for a challenge.

He arrived at the address Kate had sent him at six forty-five. He’d told her seven, so he didn’t want to rush her, but if she was finished with her fitting she might appreciate the chance to leave early.

It was Jacob who answered her phone. “Kate lent it to me so I could play a game,” he explained.

“That was nice of her. I’m calling because I got out of work early and I’m out front now. There’s no hurry, but you guys can leave whenever Kate’s finished.”

“She’s trying on her dress, so we can’t go yet.” There was a short pause. “You want to know something weird?”

“Sure.”

“The girls in my class can be really mean to each other, you know? But I always figured they’d grow out of that eventually—like, by the time they go to college or whatever. But Kate’s friends are grown-ups and they’re still mean. Well, not all of them. Her friend Simone is awesome. But the bride made Kate feel bad a bunch of times.”

Ian’s hand tightened on the phone. “How?”

“She’s little, like Simone, and she makes jokes about how tall Kate is. She said guys like to feel big when they stand next to a woman, and she said maybe that’s why Kate has trouble hanging o
nto a man. Then she sort of smiled and said, ‘Just kidding.’ Kate didn’t say anything, but I could tell her feelings were hurt.”

Ian was surprised at the rush of protective anger that went through him. “Listen, Jacob—I’m coming in. Will you meet me by the front door?”

“Sure.”

He was wearing his Yankees sweatshirt, but he had a tee shirt on underneath it. Wondering how many times in his association with Kate Meredith he was going to take off his clothes, he pulled off the sweatshirt, messed up his hair, and told the driver he’d be out in a few minutes.

Jacob was waiting for him just inside the door, and his eyes widened when he saw his uncle. “You never wear short sleeves in public. And your hair looks different.”

“I know. Would you mind waiting in the car while I get Kate?”

“Sure, but she’s not ready to go yet. She’s still got the dress on.”

“I’ll wait until she’s ready.”

“Okay.”

Ian watched through the glass doors until Jacob was in the car. Then he went to find Kate.

She was in one of the back rooms. The doors were all marked private, but when he heard a gaggle of female voices behind one of them, he opened it.

The room he found himself in was small and elegant and smelled like perfume. The women were gathered around a kind of pedestal in the middle of the floor, some standing and some sitting on little gilt chairs, talking with each other and looking at the woman currently on display.

It was Kate.

She was wearing what he figured was her bridesmaid’s dress for the wedding from hell. If so, the denizens of the lower regions were a lot better dressed then he’d previously imagined.

Ian didn’t know that much about women’s clothes, but he knew what he liked. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that he liked Kate.

The way she
looked
. He liked the way Kate
looked
.

For the last two years he’d seen her only in her work clothes, which were pretty uninspired. Seeing her in her vamp outfit last week had been a revelation, and he’d enjoyed seeing her in jeans the next day and yoga pants the day after that.

But this . . .

He’d been to more red-carpet events than he could count, and in this dress Kate could stand shoulder to shoulder with any actress he’d ever seen.

It was chartreuse, which was not a color he’d ever expected to drool over. But it was the perfect complement to Kate’s fair skin and red hair.

The material was satin, or maybe silk—something shiny, anyway—and it had a high neck and short sleeves and was slit up the side. More importantly, it outlined Kate’s bodacious body with loving fidelity.

His jaw sagged when he first saw her, but by the time she noticed him he’d closed his mouth and was looking less like a demented schoolboy.

Kate’s eyes widened when she spotted him. “I thought we were meeting out front,” she said pointedly, her cheeks turning pink.

That got everyone’s attention, and he found himself being stared at by every woman in the room, including one who was little and blonde and sat in her chair like a queen holding court.

Bridezilla, he presumed.

“I know,” he said. “But I had to check you out in your fancy dress. And I’m glad I did,” he added, letting his eyes move down her body and back up to her face.

A little blatant ogling was in character, right?

“You look like every man’s fantasy in that thing,” he went on. Then he turned towards the little blonde. “Are you the bride?”

“Yes,” she said, rising to her feet and coming towards him. “I’m Jessica,” she added, holding out her hand and flashing a smile.

“I’m Spike,” he said, catching Simone’s sudden grin out of the corner of his eye. “I’ve got to say, I admire your courage.”

“My courage?”

“Yeah. I thought the idea was to make your bridesmaids look hideous, so you look even better in comparison. You must have a lot of self-confidence to let Kate walk down the aisle looking like that.”

“Thank you,” Jessica said after a moment, her voice a little stiff. She dropped his hand and turned her back on him, and Ian took the opportunity to return Simone’s wink.

“Well, ladies, I’ll leave you to it.” He looked at Kate again. “See you out front, babe.”

He left the room without waiting for a response, smiling to himself as he shut the door behind him.

She came out of the boutique about ten minutes later, but he didn’t recognize her at first. Her red hair was tucked under a baseball cap, and she was wearing—

He peered out the car window. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Jacob grinned. “Yeah, Kate’s a Red Sox fan. Didn’t you know?”

Of course she was. It made perfect cosmic sense.

She opened the car door and slid in next to Jacob. “Hi,” she said brightly, smiling at him under the brim of her ancient cap.

The state of that cap told him that she hadn’t dressed like this just to annoy him. That cap, along with her faded jersey, spoke of many, many years of rooting for Boston.

He sighed and spoke to the driver. “Okay, Dave—take us to Yankee Stadium.”

Dave grinned at him in the rearview mirror and pulled away from the curb.

Ian shook his head. “I thought you were a New Yorker,” he said to Kate.

“I’m a transplant. My mother’s a New Yorker, but my dad’s from Boston. That’s where I grew up.”

“Is your mother a Yankees fan, at least?”

She shook her head. “Mets.”

“Figures.”

He’d never pegged Kate as any kind of sports fan—but he’d obviously been wrong.

“I’m excited for the game,” Jacob said, and Ian stared at him.

“You are?”

“Uh-huh. Kate’s been telling me all about the Red Sox. Fenway Park and selling Babe Ruth and Ted Williams and Carlton Fisk’s home run and the ball between Bill Buckner’s legs and the 2004 ALCS when they were down three games to none against the Yankees and the Yankees still managed to lose the series. She said it was the worst choke in sports history.”

He glared at Kate, who was looking smug. “If you turn my nephew into a Red Sox fan, I will hold you morally and legally responsible.”

“That decision is entirely up to him. I’m just giving him the information he needs to make an informed choice.”

“Life’s a lot easier in this town when you root for the Yankees.”

“True—and Jacob is certainly entitled to take that into consideration as he ponders his options.”

It took them only twenty minutes to get to the stadium. On their way to their seats Jacob stopped to use the bathroom, and as soon as the door closed behind him Kate poked Ian in the ribs.

“So, are you going to tell me why Spike made an appearance at my dress fitting?”

Was she grateful that he’d been there? Annoyed? He couldn’t tell from her expression.

He shrugged. “Jacob answered your phone when I called. He said the bride was acting like one of the mean girls in his class.”

That made her laugh. “That’s funny . . . and true.”

“He was afraid she’d hurt your feelings.”

Her expression softened. “Jacob’s a sweet kid.”

He raised a brow. “I’m the one who went in there, you know.”

“And?”

“Doesn’t that make me sweet, too?”

It was blatant fishing, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. A part of him wanted to hear her say “my hero” or something equally ridiculous.

She grinned at him. “I guess it
was
pretty sweet . . . even though I can hold my own with the mean girls of the world. I’ve been this height since I was twelve years old, so I’ve had a lot of practice. It’s not easy being the tallest girl in class.”

“I think you’re the perfect height.”

Once again, he couldn’t help himself. She looked so damn cute in that baseball cap . . . and so damn sexy in that jersey. It was a struggle not to let his eyes drop to where her curves stretched the faded lettering across her chest.

It was her turn to raise a brow. “The perfect height for what?”

Was she flirting with him? Considering that it had been less than a week since she’d “formally established” that they wouldn’t be crossing any lines, he considered this a minor triumph.

But he didn’t show it. If he really wan
ted to get Kate into his bed, he couldn’t move too fast. He had to—

Wait a second. He’d decided last week that seducing Kate Meredith would be more trouble than it was worth. When had he changed his mind about that?

Looking into her blue eyes, he decided it didn’t matter. The fact was, he did want her in his bed. And if that would require more finesse than he usually needed with a woman, well, then, so be it.

So he just said, “The perfect height in general.” Then he changed the subject. “Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?”

“Go ahead.”

“Why in the world are you friends with that woman?”

Kate laughed. “Everyone who meets Jessica asks that question.”

“So what’s the answer?”

“Well . . . I’ve known her since college. I know she seems bitchy—and sometimes she really is. But a lot of that is a defense mechanism. When she was younger, she . . .” Kate paused. “You don’t need to hear about that,” she went on after a moment. “But I’ll tell you something she did once. The summer after our junior year, my grandmother passed away. Jessica was in Monte Carlo with her family, but when she found out, she flew back and spent three weeks with me. She didn’t say anything about it—she just moved in and took care of everything. My grandmother and I were really close, and Jessica knew how hard it was for me to lose her. So even though she can be hard to take sometimes, underneath it all she has a good heart.”

“Hmm. I guess you can’t always tell about people, can you?”

A moment later, Jacob came out of the restroom and it was time to focus on baseball.

It was a gorgeous night. Ian couldn’t remember ever having enjoyed a game so much—especially since the Yankees pulled out a win in the bottom of the ninth with a squeeze play at home plate.

He had to admit that Kate was the main reason they had so much fun. She drew Jacob into the action by making everything into a drama—the way the pitcher and batter stared each other down, the way a pinch runner took a lead off first and threw the pitcher off his game, the magic of an inning-ending double play in the fourth, and an inside-the-park home run in the seventh.

He’d started off by suggesting that Jacob score the game with him—something he’d tried before with no success—but Kate waved him off. He gave in readily enough, enjoying her play-by-play patter so much he forgot to mark up his own scorecard.

It wasn’t until the eighth inning that he realized how much knowledge of the game she’d managed to impart along the way.

“Did you see the infield shift?” Jacob said excitedly. “They’re going to try to get Hernandez to hit into a double play.”

He’d never seen Jacob so enthusiastic. He was actually bouncing in his seat.

He caught Kate’s eye over the boy’s head, and she smiled at him.

It would have been physically impossible not to smile back. She had a streak of mustard on her chin, her jersey was covered with powdered sugar from her funnel cake, and she looked adorable.

Jacob talked a blue streak on the way back to Kate’s apartment, and since Ian wasn’t able to get a word in edgewise, he had plenty of time to remind himself that he shouldn’t walk Kate upstairs tonight. The urge to kiss her would be too strong, and he didn’t want to scare her off.

His resolution was aided by the fact that Jacob fell asleep against his shoulder a few minutes before they pulled up in front of Kate’s building.