Only a day after we'd spent the morning laughing and talking and playing, I was brought back down to earth with a bump. I'd felt close to him in those moments, but the next day everything was back to the way it had been before. I didn't blame Caine. He didn't know I kept changing the rules in my head. I was frustrated, however, by my lack of progress and I needed to regroup, to find another way to get through to him, and so far I'd come up with nothing.

We made no plans to meet that weekend and I considered dropping in on Effie for her unique perspective until a phone call with Rachel that Friday afternoon.

Caine was out to lunch and I was at my desk, nibbling at a salad. I hadn't exactly had the best appetite these last few days.

"Lexie, come on," Rachel huffed in her annoyance. I'd just told her about my failed attempt at getting closer to Caine. "Maybe it's time to call it quits on this guy before you get hurt."

I ignored that. "I've been trying to come up with a new tactic, but I realized something this morning. No more tactics. Maybe honesty would work best."

"No way." I could sense her rolling her eyes. "Unless you want things to definitely end between you ... and I'm not exactly averse to that anymore."

"You need to make up your mind. Do you find me screwing my boss sexy or stupid? Choose one." She kept flitting between the two, which was not good when it came to needing advice.

"Right now it's stupid. I think it's ti-Maisy, Ted is not a toy!" She cursed, and I heard the phone drop. A minute later she was back with a breathless "Sorry about that."

"Who is Ted and do I want to know what the devil child was doing to him?"

"You know I'm going to start taking your comments about my kid seriously one of these days."

"I wish you would."

Rachel snorted. "Ted is our puppy."

My eyes widened in horror. "You gave the kid a puppy?"

"He loves her. It's so adorable."

I was one hundred percent sure that poor puppy did not love Maisy. I was certain that poor puppy was terrified of Maisy. "What was she doing to him? And be careful what you say, because I am not afraid to call Animal Protection on your ass."

"Oh, stop it. She was just cuddling him a little too hard. I was there. I'm keeping an eye on her. Don't you trust me?"

Um ... "I've seen what you've let that kid do to your husband."

"But that's just Jeff. I would never let Maisy hurt an animal. Not that she would mean to ... She's just overly exuberant. I've got my eye on Ted, though. Don't you worr-hey, you changed the subject," Rachel snapped. "Ditch the loser boss."

My silence made her sigh heavily.

"Rach-"

"Okay, whatever, but at least promise me you'll keep Saturday night free, because I have an extra ticket to the Red Sox game and these tickets are fucking awesome. Jeff got them from work. Get this, field box forty-three, row four, behind home freaking plate."

I chewed my bottom lip in thought. Those were great seats, but there was every chance Caine would be at that game. He couldn't make it to every one, but he did try and with Saturday's game set against the Yankees, there was a more than huge chance he would be there.

"I didn't hear the 'hell yeah' I was expecting. Come on," Rachel pleaded. "We haven't hung out in ages and yeah, Jeff will be there, but we've got a babysitter, so Maisy won't be."

That did sweeten the idea a little more.

And even if Caine was there he would be up on EMC level and no way would he spot me in a crowd of thousands.

Wait.

If he did, so what? I was allowed to go to a game. He didn't have a say in what I did in my free time. "Do not go down that path," I warned myself.

"What path? What path am I going down?"

"Not you, Rach. And yes, I will go to the game."

"Yay! Okay, Jeff and I will meet you at the entrance at six thirty. Do not eat before the game. I intend to buy copious amounts of junk food and beer and you will join me so I don't feel so bad about it."

I grinned, suddenly feeling a whole lot better now that I had concrete plans for the weekend that didn't involve Caine. "Hot dogs are on me."

There was a mixture of guilt and mischievousness in Rachel's eyes as I walked toward her and Jeff. They stood outside the busy entrance to Fenway Park and they were not alone.

Crushing my irritation with them, I managed a smile of hello as I approached.

Rachel's eyes bugged out and I caught her silent Please don't kill me message.

But I wanted to. I really, really wanted to.

They'd brought another guy with them.

A date.

For me.

I hadn't bothered to tell Caine what my plans were for the weekend because he hadn't asked. After I'd gotten off the phone with Rachel, Caine returned from lunch and perched his ass on the corner of my desk.

"How's it going?" he said, seeming genuinely interested "Fine." I tilted my head to the side and smiled. "You?"

His eyes warmed for the first time in days. "I'm fine." He looked away. "I've been really busy and I know we haven't ..."

I put my hand on his thigh. "Don't worry about it. I knew going into this that you're a busy guy."

"Right." His fingertips brushed over the hand that rested intimately on him. "I don't know when I'll be free. Perhaps Sunday?"

I shrugged, like it didn't hurt me that I was that far down on his list of priorities. "Call me when you're free and we'll see if I am and then we'll go from there."

Caine smirked. "You're being very amenable."

I squeezed his thigh. "I'm just giving you what you want."

He frowned at that, suggesting he didn't like my response, but eventually he nodded. He shot a look over his shoulder to make sure the coast was clear and then he leaned in to press a soft kiss to my lips. His soft kiss suddenly turned hard and he gripped the nape of my neck as his tongue slipped into my mouth. The kiss ignited into something hungry and arousing, and it took me a moment to remember where we were. I pulled back, panting.

Running a hand through his hair, looking consternated by the kiss, Caine stood up, gave me a disconcerted half smile, and disappeared into his office.

I stared at his closed door, wondering when I had become such a good actress.

The reality was I shouldn't feel bad that I'd allowed myself to be duped into a blind date, but as I shook the hand of Jeff's work colleague, Charlie, I felt like I was doing something wrong by allowing this to play out. Caine and I had agreed to be exclusive.

Charlie was tall and he was attractive in a guy-next-door kind of way that was really appealing. He had a great smile and if I hadn't been currently trying to win over Caine Carraway's heart, I would have been happy to be set up with Charlie.

The guys went through Security first and Rachel clung to my arm as we followed after them. "Please don't be mad at me," she whispered. "Charlie saw your picture in the wedding photo on Jeff's desk and asked about you. Jeff doesn't know anything about Crazy Boss Guy, and when he suggested it I thought it might be good for you."

I kept smiling because Charlie was throwing me looks over his shoulder every now and then, but I was pissed. "You don't get to make those decisions. Caine is probably at this game."

"So what?" she snapped.

I looked away, drinking in the sight of all the vendors underneath the bleachers, and inhaling the smell of fast food, popcorn, and beer. People sat in benches outside the vendors eating and laughing. There wasn't anything quite like the atmosphere at Fenway, and I realized that one of the reasons I loved coming here was that it gave me that feeling family was supposed to give me-that warmth, that unity. It was a sweet place to be on game night.

"You're mad."

"Yes," I admitted. "Caine and I may be-"

"Nothing. You and Caine are nothing."

"Not true." I scowled. "We're exclusive."

She sighed. "Look, even if he's here, so are at least twenty thousand other people. I'm pretty sure there's a snowball's chance in hell he'll see you, considering he's probably up on EMC level."

My expression confirmed her suspicion.

"Good. Now that that's out of the way, come and let Charlie buy you a beer and a hot dog."

Under silent protest I went with her.

Charlie smiled his cute smile and waved to the nearest hot dog vendor. "Can I buy you dinner?"

Guilt slammed through me. This was so a date. I couldn't even pretend it wasn't. Bad, Lexie, bad, bad, Lexie. I glanced over my shoulder, certain that at any moment Caine would appear and make me feel even worse. "You know what?" I gave Charlie a friendly smile (there would be no flirting or encouraging of the flirting!) "Why don't we just take our seats? The vendor guys run up and down the field box every few minutes. We'll just grab them then."

"Sounds like a plan."

We started walking back the way we came, turning right under the bleachers toward our field box. Rachel and Jeff settled back, giving Charlie space with me. I could have punched them both.

"So ... Rachel says you're a personal assistant?" He stuffed his hands in his pockets and threw me a coaxing smile.

There was something about his manner that suggested he was nervous.

Great.

I felt even worse.

"Uh, yeah." I was not getting into that. "What do you do?" Jeff worked in advertising, but I knew from listening to him that there were a lot of different job positions in the agency.

"I'm with the art department."

"Oh, that's great. I always wished I'd spent more time on art at school. I enjoyed drawing, but that's as far as my skills go."

"You're creative?"

I thought about it. "I don't think I'm creative per se. Organized. Very organized. And I think I have a good eye. You know, I always wanted to be an events planner and combine the two."

He shrugged. "So why don't you?"

"Don't I what?"

"Be an events planner."

I laughed. "Like it's that simple."

"All you have to do is get that one great client to give you a shot, and a glowing reference could kick-start your company."

I stared at him incredulously. "I don't think it's that easy."

Charlie smiled. "I don't think you know if it's that easy. You've never tried to give it a shot."

"Because I'm a personal assistant. I organize things for one person."

"Caine Carraway." He nodded and just hearing the name sent another shard of guilt stabbing into my gut. "If you can organize the life of someone as prominent as Carraway, you can organize a party or two."

"We just met and you're already giving me career advice. How did that happen?"

"Sorry." He shot me a sheepish look and flicked his silky brown hair out of his blue eyes. So cute. It was a definite shame we hadn't met months ago. "I have a tendency to do that. I should have been a guidance counselor."

"It's okay," I reassured him. "I'm used to getting advice about my career." Or at least I'd grown used to hearing all about it from Grandpa and Rachel since I started working with Caine.

Charlie's gaze questioned my enigmatic comment, but before he could say anything Rachel bounced in between us like an excited teenager. "This way!"

I chuckled and threw Jeff a look.

He shrugged. "She gets like this when we have a babysitter." He grinned and strode after her up the concrete slope into the light of the bleacher stands.

"After you." Charlie gestured.

I blinked against the late-afternoon sun, and then spotted Rach and Jeff heading left toward the field box. I didn't wait for Charlie to catch up before taking off after them. I wanted to be clear in the most diplomatic and least cruel way possible that this date was a nonstarter.

When I took my seat beside Jeff, I ignored the sight of a bunch of people getting their picture taken at home plate with the Red Sox mascot, Wally the Green Monster, and waited for Charlie to take his seat beside me. He got settled in, smiled at me, and let his eyes drift down over my legs. I was wearing a Red Sox girly-fit T-shirt and jean shorts.

Practically my entire body was blushing by the time he was done checking me out.

And that was when I decided the least cruel way was the most honest way.

I leaned into him and Charlie smiled and ducked his head toward me so he could hear me over the crowds and the guy talking into the mic about a charity foundation. "I didn't know about tonight."

He frowned. "About me?"

"Yeah. Rach didn't tell me." I could feel Jeff stiffen beside me as he overheard.

Charlie grimaced. "Is it a problem?"