Let Me Be the One (The Sullivans #6)(28)

Vicki couldn’t hold back her laughter at Lori’s runaway-train-of-thought soliloquy as she said hello to Zach and Heather.

She was just getting settled in her seat when a low, instantly recognizable voice said, “Sorry I’m late.”

Oh God. Vicki couldn’t believe Ryan had neglected to tell her that Smith Sullivan was coming to the game. He was going to pay for that little surprise.

But before she could turn around to say hello to one of the biggest movie stars in the world, the inning turned over and Ryan walked out to the pitcher’s mound.

He stopped halfway out to look up into the stands, and she could see the relief on his beautiful face as he caught sight of her.

She waved before she thought better of drawing attention to herself like that. He winked at her before heading out to do his job.

As dozens of eyes turned to her—not only because Ryan had just winked at her, but also because Smith Sullivan was sitting right next to her—Vicki realized how surreal her life had become.

One week ago, she’d been renting a studio apartment in Prague while making a daily tradeoff between food and clay.

Now, not only was she living in an oceanfront mansion and driving a sports car around San Francisco, she was also hanging out with the coolest kids on the block.

On the surface it looked like she’d come a really long way from being the freaky-geeky art girl in high school.

Funny how deceiving appearances could be.

Of course, now that she and Ryan didn’t need to pretend to be dating for much longer, all of this strange fun of fancy cars and famous friends would soon be over.

Truly, she wouldn’t miss any of the luxury.

It was Ryan she’d miss.

“I can’t remember,” Lori said. “Did you ever meet Smith when we were kids? Or was he already in college?”

When all Vicki could manage was to shake her head like an idiot, Smith smoothly said, “It’s great to meet you, Vicki. So, how do you know this unruly lot?”

Smith was even bigger, even better looking in person than he was on the screen. But strangely, although his fame made her feel more than a little nervous, she was stunned to realize she wasn’t getting all hot and bothered for him. Only one Sullivan made her girly parts tingly.

Too bad that Sullivan was too good a friend to even think of screwing things up by adding any benefits to it.

“Ryan and I were friends in high school. I just moved back to San Francisco.”

Smith grinned at her and she lost her breath a little. Okay, so maybe she didn’t want to jump him, but she was only human. And billions of happily attached women around the world would have just gone breathless if they’d been in her flip-flops right then.

“Moved from where?”

“Prague was the last place I lived.”

“She’s a sculptor.” Lori shoved a handful of Jelly Bellies into her mouth. “An awesome one. Want some?”

Vicki took a few of the colorful candies, but didn’t dare put any in her mouth just in case she did something super embarrassing like start choking on them.

“What does Ryan think of your sculptures?” Smith asked.

Vicki felt caught in Smith’s gaze, was sure he could see exactly how she felt about his younger brother. She flushed as she finally replied, “He’s always been really encouraging.”

Lori leaned over to say, “He has a bunch of them and thinks her sculptures are the freaking bomb, Smith. And so do I. We all do.” She turned back to Vicki. “After Ryan mentioned you were back in town and working on the fellowship, Heather and I went by the fellowship gallery last night and bought a couple of those gorgeous river sculptures for my place. One day when I’m loaded, I want one of the big ones. I had to pull all my tricks to buy them out from under Heather, didn’t I?”

Heather smiled at Lori with what Vicki could only describe as affectionate irritation. “I saw them first and then she bought them when my back was turned.”

“Sorry my sister’s such a brat,” Zach said to his girlfriend, and Vicki couldn’t miss the way he looked at her like she was the most beautiful woman in the entire world.

“Don’t pretend you didn’t teach her everything she knows about being sneaky,” Heather murmured, which made Zach laugh before he kissed her as if they weren’t sitting in the middle of a sold-out baseball stadium.

“They do that all the time,” Lori said with an eye roll that had Vicki laughing again.

Zach’s girlfriend was very pretty in an un-flashy way, and utterly down to earth. Who would have thought lady-killer Zach, who had been a year ahead of her and Ryan in school, would settle down with such a lovely, unpretentious woman? One who seemed to give it back to him as good as he dished it out.

Lori interrupted her musings by telling Smith, “Vicki’s art is beautiful and smart and super sexy.”

“I’m not surprised to hear that,” Smith said in his deep, billion-dollar voice.

Vicki felt herself flush all the way down to her chest at the implication that he thought she was sexy, and Lori threw a Jelly Belly at him.

“Take some time off the clock, Smith.” She made a face at Vicki. “Just ignore him. He can’t stand it when a woman doesn’t throw herself at him. Zach used to be like that,” she said with a jerk of her thumb over her shoulder, “until he found true love.”