“She is. Claire is a great person. She’s a bit crazy, but we all love her.”
“I’m glad they came by. I mean, at first, it was weird, but it broke the ice before the game tomorrow. It’s nice to know I’ll be walking into friendly faces.”
I knew she would be nervous about meeting the crew tomorrow, but I didn’t think about exactly how intimidating it could be. I make a mental note to do something nice for Bizzy and Claire.
My phone starts to ring, and I reach to the ground, fumbling for where I dropped it last night. My new ringtone for Shaw fills the room, and Grace starts to giggle.
“You better have a fucking good ass reason to call me this early on a Saturday morning,” I tell him, scooting up to a semi-sitting position. Grace tries to back away, but I hold firm, bringing her closer to me.
“Yeah, lover boy. How about, your ass is plastered all over the internet in a lip-lock with a certain brunette, identified as Grace Monroe.”
“Damn, that was fast.”
“Are you surprised? Want me to read some of the headlines?”
“Is it necessary?”
“Not really, pretty standard stuff. But when I say plastered, I mean it. People, TMZ, US Weekly to mention a few. Even ‘Shannon Says’ has a small piece.”
“Yeah, we need to talk about her. She was at the gallery last night. She’s going to dig. I insulted her when I explained to Grace she ran a blog. You’d have thought I called her a bottom-feeder.”
“She is, in a way.”
“Maybe, but I wouldn’t call her that to her face. I have some manners.”
He starts to chuckle at the same time Grace giggles. I forgot she could hear our conversation.
“Well, thanks for using restraint. Do you want us to make any type of comment?” he asks.
“Nope, I introduced Grace as my girlfriend. That’s self-explanatory.”
“Perfect. That would be my stance, too, but I wanted to give you the option. You need to be prepared, though. The notifications started at dawn. You and Grace are high news today and probably will be until something more interesting comes along.”
“How pissed is Gail?” I ask from experience, knowing she was the one who received the first notification on the wires this morning.
“She’s fine.” His voice breaks, the reception going fuzzy. Bizzy’s voice is muffled on the line, and I start to feel uneasy.
“Shaw… what aren’t you saying?”
He doesn’t try to hide his amusement. “Let’s just say you aren’t the highlight of this story. Your girlfriend is getting quite the response.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Grace scrambles away and grabs her iPad, flipping it open and typing. I wait for Shaw to answer, watching her at the same time.
My stomach drops when her hand flies to her mouth and she shouts, “Oh my God!”
“Talk to you later, Sexy.” He disconnects, and I lean across the bed.
The instant my eyes land on the two pictures side-by-side, possession and jealousy burn in my blood. Grace is a goddess. There’s no other way to describe her. She’s pressed close to my front, one hand threaded through her hair, as I kissed her. Her legs, her hair, the dress… she’s a walking Sex Siren.
“We look like we’re making out in public!” she screeches.
“That’s the least of my worries. You have attracted half of the male population in Miami with these shots. Hell, probably more than that considering these are everywhere.”
She pounds on the screen, pointing at our kiss. “Do you see this?”
Apparently, she’s not worried about my statement. “Yeah, I see it. Did you hear me? I’m going to have to fight off—”
“NICK, get serious! I’ve never been associated with A-listers before. I didn’t know anyone caught us kissing.” Her voice goes to a high pitch, and I fight back the laughter. She leers at me and narrows her eyes. “This is not funny!”