Tomboy (The Hartigans #3)(31)

“That’s awesome of you.”

She pulled her phone out of her back pocket. “Can we get a picture?”

“I think they’re going to have a little table set up for me inside where we can take a pic after the fundraiser starts.”

“Oh, this will only take a second,” said the second woman. Abby, he was guessing. “Promise.”

“Heidi,” the first woman hollered loud enough to be heard three states away. “You gotta come back here, we found Zach Blackburn.”

The woman’s words had half a second to process before the sound of people—a lot of them—rushing around back reached his ears. He’d bet his grocery budget, which wasn’t exactly Whole Foods organic big, that this wasn’t how Fallon had planned for the fundraiser to go.

He may not know her super well, but he knew this: she was going to kick his ass for fucking up her plan.

The woman in front of him had her phone ready to go as the other woman approached him when the clinic’s back door opened. Fallon walked out wearing jeans and a T-shirt, with her hair pulled back into a braid that fell over one shoulder.

“It’s Lady Luck!” the woman said, her voice going high-pitched and squeaky. “Oh my God, you work here? No wonder Zach’s doing this. Abby and I were talking, and we were trying to figure out why Mr. Never Signs Anything was finally doing an appearance. BAM! This explains everything.” She reached past Zach and held her hand out to Fallon. “I’m Sarah, but everyone calls me Sugar. You totally should, too, since we both have cool nicknames. At least I’m assuming your real name isn’t Lady Luck. That would be nuts.” She threw back her head and laughed while Fallon just stood there and blinked.

It was the first time he’d ever seen Fallon thrown off her game—a speed-talking fan could be a little overwhelming, though.

“I mean, could you imagine?” Sarah went on. “Still, you know someone out there has totally done that. And I really hope that kid is lucky because otherwise that would suck hardcore.”

When she took a second to suck in a breath, Zach jumped in. “Hey, Sugar, you still want that pic?”

The woman turned to him as if she’d totally forgotten he was even there before she gave him a smile big enough to be seen from space. “Yaaaaaasssss!”

He took a step closer, and then Sugar got really close—hip to hip, thigh to thigh, where-are-you-going-with-that-hand close. The first few times in his career that had happened, he’d reveled in it—nothing like a little female appreciation to enhance a horny twenty-two-year-old’s ego. After a while, though, he began to distinguish the overenthusiastic-but-harmless fans like Sarah from the how-can-I-work-this-into-a-new-car puck bunnies.

“Oh my God, you smell so good. Lady Luck, will you be in the pic, too?”

Fallon shook her head no, but that always-quick mouth of hers didn’t seem to be working so well at the moment. She wasn’t the first one to fall victim to the what-in-the-fuck-have-I-gotten-myself-into freak-out—that’s why most teams gave the players media training.

“How about if it’s just us,” Zach said, giving Fallon a wink when she sent him an appreciative look. “She’s not really used to all the attention.”

“Oh, I totally understand,” Sarah said at her signature fast clip. “I had this one Instagram post go viral this one time, and oh my God, the notifications were intense.”

Her friend took the pic, and then switched places with Sarah, and they did the chat and pose. And that was how it went for the next three hours as he chatted with one fan after the other. At some point, someone brought out a table and put it in front of a large sign with the clinic’s name on it. Cameron, the clinic administrator, ended up staying at the table with him and collecting the donations people dropped off before asking Zach to autograph something—he drew the line at signing someone’s butt—and then taking a picture with him.

As the line moved and flowed, he kept looking around for Fallon, only catching a glimpse of her for a second every once in a while. It was like she was avoiding him. Yeah, that’s not how negotiating went, and he wasn’t about to give up now.

“Hey, Cameron. I need to visit the head. Can I have a second?”

“Sure.” He nodded. “I’ll keep the crowd at bay.”

“Thanks, man.”

He ducked into the clinic and went in search of the woman who seemed to be dead set on avoiding him and almost slammed right into her. She was standing right beside a window that just happened to look out onto the table where he’d been sitting. He raised an eyebrow in question. She rolled her eyes at him, but her cheeks turned pink.

“Were you spying on me?” he asked.

She dropped her gaze. “No.”

Someone’s pants were on fire. “You totally were watching me.”

“You wish.”

He turned to the woman with two small kids standing next to Fallon. “She was checking me out, wasn’t she?”

The woman just giggled, but the little girl she was with nodded yes. He turned back to Fallon, not bothering to keep the triumph off his face.

“Out of the mouths of babes.”

“Antonia didn’t say a single word.” If a technicality was the best she could come up with, then Fallon was definitely flustered.