When Stars Collide (Chicago Stars #9)(21)

“I trust my cousin is not making you work too hard,” Mariel replied in an accent less marked than Henri’s.

“Only Thad,” Olivia said honestly. “I have it easier.”

“I heard you at the Opéra Bastille two years ago as Klytaemnestra in Elektra. Incroyable.” She turned her attention to Thad without waiting for Olivia to acknowledge the compliment. “You must explain this game you play to me,” she said.

“Nothing much to it, really. Run a little, pass a little, keep the ball away from the bad guys.”

“How intriguing.”

Olivia mentally rolled her eyes and excused herself.

Mariel was with them at their client dinner that night, lending a touch of French elegance to the affair and flattering Thad outrageously. “You have to be so strong to play this game. So agile.”

“So brainless,” Olivia muttered because . . . how could she resist?

Thad overheard and leaned back in his chair. “Some of us are born to win.” He gave Olivia a lazy smile. “Others seem to keep dying on the job.”

He had a point. Olivia had lost count of how many times she’d been stabbed to death in Carmen or crushed to death as Delilah. In Dido and Aeneas, she’d expired from the weight of her grief, and in Il trovatore, she’d barely escaped a fiery pyre. None of which took into account the people she’d killed.

Thad didn’t seem to know much about opera, so she wasn’t sure how he knew about all the bloodthirsty roles she’d sung, but she suspected Google had a hand in it. She’d done some googling of her own and discovered that nearly every article about Thaddeus Walker Bowman Owens mentioned not only his physical skills and dating life, but the respect his teammates had for him.

She was beginning to understand why, and their four weeks together no longer seemed quite so long.

*

“You didn’t have to come with me, you know?” Olivia said, as they climbed the trail above the Griffith Observatory, not far from where the Uber had dropped them off. It was barely six in the morning, and the air smelled of dew and sage. “If I’d known you were going to be such a grouch, I wouldn’t have invited you.”

“You didn’t invite me, remember? I overheard you last night at dinner talking about hiking up here this morning.” Thad yawned. “It wouldn’t have been right for me to stay in bed while you’re working yourself to death.”

“I’m not the only one. Whenever we have any downtime, you’re either on the phone or on your computer. What’s that about?”

“Video game addiction.”

She didn’t believe him, although she’d noticed he never left his laptop open. “We’re leaving for San Francisco in a couple of hours.” She took in the Hollywood sign far above them. “This was the only time I could get any exercise.”

“Or you could have stayed in bed.”

“Easy for you to say. You’ve been working out while all I’ve done is eat.”

“And drink,” he pointed out unhelpfully.

“That, too. Unfortunately, the era of the obese opera singer is over.” She stepped around a pile of horse manure. “In the old days, all you had to do was take center stage and sing. Now you have to look at least a little bit plausible. Unless you’re doing the Ring cycle. If I had the voice and the endurance to sing Brünnhilde, I could eat whatever I wanted. Let’s face it. You can’t sing Brünnhilde’s battle cry if you’re a sylph.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

She wished she could let loose with a little of Brünnhilde’s “Ho-jo-to-ho!” right here on the trail just to see if she could make T-Bo lose his cool, but she didn’t have it in her.

They were gaining elevation and moving at a fast enough clip that she needed to watch her footing. She remembered hiking up here with Rachel a few years ago. Whenever the two of them approached a steep ascent, Rachel, who was less fit, would ask Olivia a question requiring such an involved answer that Olivia would end up talking through the entire climb while Rachel conserved her energy. It had taken Olivia forever to catch on to her tricks.

“Enough about me.” She beamed at him. “Tell me your life story.”

He took the bait as they climbed. “Great childhood. Great parents. Almost great career.”

He began walking faster. She fell into his rhythm, at the same time keeping her distance from the drop-off to her left. “I need details.”

“Only child. Spoiled rotten. My mom is a retired social worker and my dad’s an accountant.”

“You, of course, were a star student, quarterback of the high school football team, and homecoming king.”

“I got robbed. They gave the crown to Larry Quivers because he’d just broken up with his girlfriend, and everybody felt sorry for him.”

“That’s the kind of tragedy that builds character.”

“For Larry.”

She laughed. The trail was getting steeper still, the city stretching below them, and again, he’d picked up the pace. “What else?” she said.

“I worked for a landscaping company during the summers. Played for the University of Kentucky and graduated with a degree in finance.”

“Impressive.”

“I was drafted and signed by the Giants. Also played for the Broncos and the Cowboys before I came to Chicago.”