The Heart Of The Game (7 page)

“That’s Santino Tavonesi, Zoe’s father, escorting Sabrina,” Scotty said.

Cody knew Alex’s dad had passed away years before. It hadn’t occurred to him to wonder who would walk Sabrina down the aisle. It made him think about his own sister and wonder who would walk her down the aisle—
if
she ever found a man who could live with her hardcore independent ways. She’d never ask their dad. He’d be flat on his face drunk before the first note sounded.

Sabrina and her uncle started down the aisle.

Lifted by the music and pounded by the unfamiliar emotions hammering in him, Cody now knew why he’d avoided weddings. Besides feeling out of place in all the opulence and ceremony, the power he felt infusing the event wasn’t one he understood. Wedding rituals weren’t about control—he suspected they were all about surrender. And surrender wasn’t a word in his arsenal, certainly not a force he trusted.

When they reached the minister, Zoe’s father stepped back and Sabrina took Kaz’s hands in hers.

Or maybe he took hers in his. They’d both reached out and were now firmly connected.

The minister spoke words Cody couldn’t quite hear. But he could read the emotion flowing between Kaz and Sabrina that filtered out into the crowd. Women wiped at tears and men pressed their lips into determined lines.

And Cody couldn’t take his eyes off Zoe.

But when the minister looked out at the courtyard and asked whether anyone had any objection to the marriage, he felt a wave of impatience rustle through the crowd. He imagined that if it were his wedding, there’d be a resounding chorus of
yes, yes, yes
! No woman in her right mind would marry him. And
he’d
not be in his right mind if he were standing at an altar. He wasn’t marriage material—too much baggage. He’d likely end up being an asshole like his dad. But being a loner suited him. Better for everybody. And what the hell was he doing imagining marriage anyway? Damned wedding. He swore the first would be his last.

He returned his gaze to Zoe. Emotion he couldn’t read filled her face as she watched Kaz and Sabrina exchange rings and vows and seal their union with a long, deep kiss. The cheers of the crowd didn’t lift the odd, dark mood settling into him. The fisting in his gut reminded him that he shouldn’t have come. He’d retrieve his bag and make some believable excuse to Alex about not spending the night. Maybe he could skip the dinner and reception as well.

The music soared and the wedding party returned down the aisle, this time bathed in a chorus of cheers and the burst of flashes from phones and cameras. As Zoe passed by, she smiled. He smiled back and felt the bite of challenge nip into him. Wanting to know her better trumped any good sense he’d managed to hold on to. Maybe he’d brave the reception after all.

Zoe made her way into Trovare’s great hall. Though she’d been in the room many times, she’d never seen the hall decorated for a party. Candles glowed in the waning autumn light and cast dancing shadows along the brightly painted murals decorating the walls. The room was likely designed and built for occasions just like the wedding. As guests greeted each other and found their way to their tables, the clamor of their celebratory chatter eased into the melancholic mood she was determined to banish.

She jumped at a touch to her bare arm.

She whirled around and nearly crashed her nose into Parker’s tuxedoed chest.

“You should have a bell on you the way you steal up on people.”

She didn’t have adrenaline to spare. Getting through the wedding had been harder than she’d imagined. When Sabrina had asked Zoe if she thought her father would give Sabrina away, Zoe’s immediate response had been yes. But seeing her father walk Sabrina down the aisle made it all too real that her mother wouldn’t be at her own wedding.

“Stealth isn’t required in this clamor,” Parker said. “I could sneak up on an owl in here.”

She couldn’t help but smile at the thought of Parker trying to sneak up on an owl.

“I made a minor adjustment to the seating arrangements,” Parker whispered in her ear. He tilted his head toward the table where Cody sat with her sister Anastasia and two men Zoe didn’t know.

“I suppose you didn’t get approval for this alteration from Alex’s mother.”

“She wouldn’t notice if an earthquake rolled through here today, she’s so caught up in the joy of her triumphant event. Besides, compared to my mother, Alex’s mother is an angel.”

Aunt Thea didn’t look like an angel. In her slate-blue silk gown with her hair coiffed just so, surrounded at the main table by her family and Kaz’s, she looked like a queen. A queen watching her beloved daughter with loving, misty eyes. Sabrina brushed her hand over her mother’s, and Zoe fought the wave of sadness threatening to overwhelm her.

Parker squeezed her hand.

“Zizi, you can’t change that she’s gone, but your mother wouldn’t want you shutting down your amazing spirit. None of us want that.”

Though he was right, the thought of saying her vows and not having her mother there to share in the moment had hit her hard. Worse would be not having her mother to laugh with the children Zoe yearned to have, to seek advice from, to share challenges and delights... The wedding and gathering of the family had brought the reality crashing in. But this was Sabrina’s happy day; she couldn’t let such thoughts take hold. She wouldn’t.

Parker squeezed her forearm. “I think you’ll have fun in spite of yourself.”

She poked a finger to his ribs. “Stop reading my thoughts.”

He grinned. “I’ll have to add mind reading to my list of charms.”

Her concern to not ruin Sabrina’s happy day was the only force that made it possible to pull herself from the doldrums. She turned what she hoped wasn’t a wan smile to Parker.

“I saw a help-wanted sign in the window of the psychic just outside of town,” she said, pushing back her roiling emotions. “You should apply.”

Parker winked. “That psychic couldn’t take the competition. And besides, I’m off to ride the polo circuit in Argentina. You should come with me.” He nudged her and glanced over to where their Aunt Liliana sat entertaining a group of men gathered around her. “She would love to have you back.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

“But tempting people may
truly
be my strongest suit.”

Parker’s playful spirit was irresistible.

“I happen to be immune to temptation,” she said with the first laugh of the day that didn’t feel forced.

The corner of his lips lifted. “We’ll see about that.” He crooked his arm, and she slid her hand to his elbow and let him lead her to the table.

“I deliver to you one lady in need of diversion,” he said with a comical bow.

Heat crept into her cheeks.

Cody stood and pulled the chair beside him out for her. Perhaps she was imagining things but as he smiled at her, she felt that a bridge of light shot out from him. A bridge that some part of her wanted to walk across so she could enter the mysterious promise his energy seemed to conjure.

“Aren’t we
all
?” Anastasia said from her place across the table. She lifted a flute of sparkling champagne and held it out toward Zoe. “To diversion.”

“I believe my work here is done,” Parker whispered to Zoe before he stepped away, grinning.

Zoe raised her glass, acknowledging Anastasia’s toast.

Cody leaned in and clinked his water glass against her champagne flute. “To diversion, then,” he said with a sexy smile that shouldn’t have stunned her.

Her hands trembled as she lowered her eyes and set the champagne flute on the table. Her tumultuous feelings during the wedding had cemented her resolve to return to Italy, open the gallery in honor of her mother and get back to her life in Rome. Diversion was the very
last
thing she needed. She didn’t want to do anything that would make it harder to stick to her plan. She scooted her chair a couple of centimeters from Cody’s, fussing at her dress as if to excuse the movement. But her hand brushed his, and she froze midmotion.

There was no way to explain away the power she felt when she touched him. Just looking at him sent energy rushing through her, into places in her body—in her being—that she’d only been dimly aware of before meeting him. But
touching
him ratcheted the euphoric and scary feelings a hundredfold. In no way did such a power have anything to do with having a fling, she knew that. A fling by definition didn’t connect two people with the depth she already felt when she was anywhere near him.

She lifted her hand from the chair and avoided looking at him. Needing something to do with her hands, she toyed with her place card.

Rehearse the facts
.

Fact number one: She was returning to Italy as soon as she felt that her father had come through his grief enough to be stable and settled.

Fact number two: Cody Bond was a ballplayer. A
baseball
player. Last she checked, they didn’t play baseball in Italy. There’d be no possible future with such a man.

Fact number three: A fling would be a disaster. Even putting one toe into the pool of energy she felt when she was around him would dissolve the barely functional web she’d secured around her heart.

No, she wasn’t signing up for intentional heartbreak.

A gentle nudge to her elbow had her lifting her head. When she met the questioning look in Cody’s eyes, she knew she’d already taken a few too many steps onto the bridge she’d imagined arcing between them.

Then he smiled and the line between imagination and reality blurred beyond recognition.

“Would you like some olive oil for your bread?” Cody repeated his question for the second time as he held out the carafe to Zoe. Her eyes focused on his, like a person awakening slowly from a dream. He would’ve liked to know what dream played out behind her emerald-green eyes.

“Oh.” She reached for the carafe, intensely careful not to touch his fingers. “I mean, yes. Thank you.”

The soft purr of her Italian-accented English slid into him, pooling, spreading like the gold-green oil she poured into the dish at the side of her plate.

“Did I miss anything?” Alex asked as he approached their table. He nodded to Cody and then kissed Zoe’s cheek before slipping into the chair to her left.

“Apparently your wife,” Jake Ryder, the Giants’ third baseman, said in his soft Southern drawl from across the table. “Where’s Jackie?”

“Hawaii,” the man seated next to Alex said as he chewed a mouthful of bread. Cody recognized his accent as Canadian. “There’s a big stranding event on the south shore of the Big Island.” The man waved the chunk of bread he held. “Ocean disasters don’t care about our plans to party.” He washed the bread down with a gulp of champagne. “I wanted them to send
me
—not that I would’ve wanted to miss all this—but they wanted number one.” He stood, wiped his palm along the hip of his pants and reached across Alex to shake Zoe’s hand. “I’m Gage Esmonde. I’m Alex’s date.”

“Otherwise known as the best emergency marine mammal vet in the country,” Ryan Rea said as he joined them at the table. “
And
Jackie’s right-hand man.”

“I thought I filled that position,” Alex said teasingly.

“Not until you can anesthetize a six-hundred-pound bull in less than a minute,” Gage said with a snicker.

“Cody Bond.” Cody shook Gage’s outstretched hand. “Six hundred pounds is pretty light for a bull.”

“Bull
sea
lion
.” Gage quirked his brows and sat back in his chair, crossing his arms. “I heard you ride bulls.” He looked to Zoe. “Stay away from him. He’s
crazy
. Anybody who voluntarily gets on top of a two-ton animal that’s trained to bolt you off its back in less than ten seconds has to be nuts.”

“This from a guy who lost two front teeth from taking a hockey puck in the face?” Alex laughed.

“
Eight
seconds is all a rider has to stay on,” Cody corrected, relieved to have the conversation take his mind off the desire to touch Zoe. “And I rode broncs mostly. Past tense.”

The high squeal of a toddler announced the arrival of Ryan’s wife, Cara, and their son. Ryan had befriended Cody the day he’d been called up, and Cody had spent time out at their spread in the hills. Little Casey was a clubhouse favorite on those days Cara took him to the stadium.

Cara introduced herself to Zoe and then brushed an air kiss to Cody’s cheek. “Where’ve you been? Ryan has the batting cage set up for a derby.”

“Well, maybe not a derby, but close to it,” Ryan said as he maneuvered Casey into a high chair. “Someone has to give Tavonesi here a challenge.” He jockeyed the high chair between himself and Gage. “Hope you’re up for some mess and noise.”

“Best part of my job,” Gage said. But as Gage eyed the squirming toddler, Cody wasn’t so sure he was telling the truth.

Alex introduced Jake to Zoe. The chair to Jake’s right was still vacant.

Zoe’s sister Anastasia nodded to the empty chair. “Coco’s still shooting photos.”

“Your sister is
intense
,” Alex said. “I thought she’d have us in there all night.”

“She gets great shots,” Zoe said.

Cody heard an undercurrent of defensiveness in Zoe’s voice.

“Elope,” Alex said to Cody. “It’s the only sane solution to all this madness.”

But as waiters served the meal and friendly banter boomeranged around the table,
madness
wasn’t the word Cody would’ve used to describe the experience. Still, it might have described his own state of mind. Though he registered the sounds in the room and tracked the conversations, he was intensely focused on Zoe’s every word and movement.

She made soft sounds under her breath as if an undercurrent of bubbling thoughts refused to speak boldly. At one point her arm brushed his, and Cody felt a distinct spark flash through him. Or maybe he was totally losing it. He resisted his urge to reach out and touch her just to see if what he’d felt was real.

When Gage offered to feed Casey so that Cara and Ryan could eat a bit of their own meals, he watched Zoe’s face. She was definitely one of those women who loved children.

Gage, to his credit, was attempting to make a game out of getting food into the toddler. But Casey gripped the spoon with his front teeth, his eyes full of triumph. Food spilled down his chin and onto Gage’s hand.

“Oh God,” Cara said, making a move to take over. Gage waved her back to her meal.

“I’ve got this.” Gage cracked a grin. “Way easier than feeding elephant seals.”

“Do
not
tell Jackie that,” Alex said. “I’m not ready to tackle fatherhood quite yet.”

“Okay, everyone, heads up,” a young woman said as she aimed a camera at the group around the table. She snapped a picture and then motioned to Zoe. “Lean closer to Colby,” she said as she raised her camera.