This was the guy who signed Ryan's ma.s.sive paychecks. He had to slow down, find a smile, and get out a "Thanks."

"I'm looking forward to personally toasting both of you at the team celebration tomorrow night."

Ryan wanted nothing more than to show Vicki off, to claim her as his in front of his teammates and bosses. Even though she wasn't his.

And he hadn't even come close to claiming her.

Ten rows down from his family's section of the stadium, he could hear everyone talking to Vicki at once.

"Congratulations!"

"We're so happy for you!"

"What's it like to be engaged to the best pitcher in baseball?"

"Have you set a date yet?"

"Where's your ring?"

Ryan tried to hold onto his cool as he forced his way into the crowd of well-wishers. He wished he'd thought this whole thing through better, that he'd realized just how much it would put Vicki into the public eye. Even though he was used to it, this engagement hysteria was pretty brutal.

Smith wasn't anywhere to be seen, but judging by the half-dozen large men in black, Ryan suspected his brother had called in his security staff to watch over Vicki. Lori had her arm around her, and his little sister was doing most of the talking to the crowd. Zach and Heather were flanking Vicki's other side, his brothers and sister doing all they could to watch over the woman who meant everything to him.

For that alone, Ryan owed them so much more than he could ever pay back.

Finally, he was close enough to reach for her, to pull her into him and press a kiss to the top of her head. She smelled so good, like clay and woman, and he closed his eyes for a moment as the pleasure of holding her rocked through him.

When he finally looked up at the crowd, they were all waiting for him to say something. Slipping his hand through Vicki's, he smiled and said, "Thanks so much for your support and excitement. You've got my personal promise that we're going to do our best to win the playoffs and take the World Series again this year." He made sure to widen his grin as he said, "But for the next few days, I'm sure you'll all understand if all I want is to be alone with my fiancee."

With that, he let Lori, Zach, and Heather deal with the crowd. He moved with Vicki up through the stands and in through one of the back doors into the clubhouse, not stopping until they'd reached one of the private batting cages.

"I was so sure that everything was fine, that James was going to leave us alone," she said as soon as the door clicked closed behind them. "And I can't believe he said we were engaged instead of just dating! It's like he knew exactly what to do to try to force your hand and make you admit that we're not actually together."

Her voice was shaking and Ryan felt like he'd swallowed cement that had hardened in the center of his gut as she added, "I'm so sorry I dragged you into this, Ryan. If I could do it all again, I wouldn't have told that first lie. I should have known it would spiral off into something bigger. Lies always do."

The final eight innings of the game should have bought him time to figure out how to tell her the truth without sounding like a complete a-hole.

They hadn't.

"Don't come down on yourself for trusting your instincts about James," he told her, but even though he meant every word, he knew he was stalling. He needed to just man up and say it already. "You're right about him being a nasty sc.u.mbag, but he wasn't the one who leaked news of our engagement to the press."

"What do you mean it wasn't him?"

She was frowning so hard that Ryan had to reach out to smooth his thumb between her eyebrows. He wanted to press a kiss there, wanted all this c.r.a.p to go away so that he could start all over again.

"It has to be him. You and I and James are the only ones who know that we're supposed to be dating."

"I was trying to get hold of you all afternoon to explain."

"Explain what, Ryan?"

"Why I had to do it."

She stared at him in shock. "You did this?"

"My cousin Rafe is an investigator. He did some looking into James. That guy is a cla.s.s A creep. And I don't want him coming anywhere near you. I was worried that a guy like that wouldn't even blink at playing a boyfriend for a fool. But if he thought we were getting married-" The look in her eyes, horror mixed with anger, stopped him. Had him saying, "After talking to Rafe, all I could think about was keeping you safe."

"You should have asked me first." Each word vibrated with emotion as she took a step back from him. "Why didn't you ask me first?"

Because I don't want you to leave me.

Ryan ran his hand over his face. "I'm sorry, Vicki."

"Did you know they were going to do that congratulations screen...and with me wearing this awful dress?"

"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 b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "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 G.o.d. 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.

d.a.m.n 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?"

h.e.l.l 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 a.s.s-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 h.e.l.l 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 b.r.e.a.s.t.s up to the top of her dress in a shockingly s.e.xy 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 d.a.m.n 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.

Lori jumped up to give the two of them a simultaneous hug, and her energy was so infectious that Vicki smiled despite her dark mood.

Sophie pushed out of the faded brown booth before Vicki could tell her to stay where she was.

"Oh my, you're gorgeous, Sophie! Congratulations."

Ryan's other twin sister hugged her, or tried to anyway, with her belly big and round between them. "It's so great to see you again, Vicki. It's been way too long."

"When are you due?"

Sophie laughed. "Not soon enough." She put her hand on her stomach. "I think they're starting to get a little too happy in there."

Gabe was the next one to pull her in for a hug. He looked every inch the rugged fireman. "Look at you," she teased, "all grown up."

"Same goes for you," he said, pulling back just far enough to give her an appreciative enough glance to make her blush.

Chase had been at the high school at the same time she and Ryan had attended, and even though she'd never gotten to know him very well, she'd been following his photography for a long time.

He held out his hand and shook hers. "It's great to see you again, Vicki."

"You, too. And I have to tell you what a fan I am of your photography."

"Right back at you," Chase said with a grin. "Your sculptures are fantastic."

Ryan slid into the large booth and pulled her in beside him, holding her hand in his on top of the table as everyone else settled back into their places.

"You met Smith at the game yesterday," Ryan said, "so I think we're all good here. We're heading to Palo Alto to talk to Mom about everything after breakfast."

The gray-haired waitress came by to take their orders and Vicki didn't see even the barest flicker of excitement or recognition in her eyes when she looked at Smith or Ryan. It was clear she couldn't care less who was eating at the diner that morning.

Even though Vicki doubted she could swallow a thing, she ordered a fruit salad.

"She'll also have a side of bacon and a short stack," Ryan told the waitress before he launched into his own order.

A part of her wanted to rebel, to tell the waitress she didn't want those things, but she knew Ryan was only trying to look out for her. He was the kind of man who couldn't stand to see her want for anything. And hadn't that been why she'd texted him? Because she knew he'd drop everything and come to help her?

And yet, she continued to wonder how much of what he'd done for her this past week had been because he still felt that he owed her a debt for saving his life when they were kids. After all, hadn't that been one of the first things out of his mouth that night when she'd apologized for dragging him into her mess?