Out of His League

CHAPTER 3

Gretchen spotted her best friend sitting at a high bar table and waved, watching as Sharla's face lit up when she spied her. It had been far too long since they'd seen each other. Gretchen momentarily forgot she was wearing a slinky sequined dress and stilettos and promptly stumbled into an old man. After he had gotten a good look down the front of her dress, she made it to the table Sharla had claimed.

"Look at you, honey! All dressed up!" Sharla said as she reached the table, laughing. "Wow. All for me? Are we headed out on the town?"

Gretchen made a face and did a penguin-waddle turn. "You like it? Is it okay?"

"This is so not for me, is it?" Sharla sighed, "You have a date. You are blowing me off for a date. I knew it! Who did you bring with you?"

She could never keep anything from Sharla. They lived an ocean apart, but their bond was as strong as ever. Facebook and Skype helped with that, of course. They'd met in college and had worked their first few gigs in Toronto together until Sharla had moved home to Niagara to help at her parent's vineyard and Gretchen had struck out on her own. Gretchen missed Sharla's influence on her to loosen up, relax, and spend less time working. It had been a year since they'd been in the same city at the same time, with Sharla concentrating on her fancy new job in the UK.

"I do," Gretchen replied impishly. "I met him on the plane coming in. He's meeting me here."

"And you won't be spending long here. I imagine you'll be riding the elevator right back up to your room wearing those fuck-me shoes."

"Sharla!" Gretchen admonished, laughing. "Seriously though. I don't know what has come over me. I'm not normally this bold, am I? I saw him at the gate and bought him a coffee, and it went from there. We just clicked!"

Sharla tried to pump her for more details as drinks arrived, but Gretchen remained mum—she wanted to see what her friend thought of Josh without knowing anything about him, to see if her instincts were right—and Sharla wouldn't hesitate to let Gretchen know her opinion.

"If I don't like him, I'm tossing my drink at him and taking you out on the town myself. We are not wasting that dress tonight. Deal?"

"Deal," Gretchen said, smirking, because how could anyone not find Joshua Malvern anything but perfect? Well, maybe not everyone. Sharla had long perfected her eye roll when Gretchen would casually slip him into conversation, relaying his latest play or how nice he'd looked in pictures from some fundraiser. She teased Gretchen that she'd likely faint if she ever actually met him face to face.

Which she hadn't, funnily enough.

She stopped herself before she let her nerves take hold. Tonight she was different. Tonight she was bold, flirty, and about to have a one-night stand with the big-time baseball player that she'd met on a plane. Her life was straight out of a romance novel.

"What are you up to these days? Did you find that bottle of 1945 Romanée-Conti that the earl missed out on at Sotheby's?" Gretchen asked to change the subject and keep her train of thought from derailing.

"No, dammit, it's still in the wind. Some collector in Morocco is being selfish. That's old news. The past two weeks I've been on His Lordship's yacht, touring some Mediterranean wineries," Sharla replied, picking up her drink. "His Lordship is spending a lot of time there too."

Gretchen bit her lip and looked at her friend in mock seriousness. Sharla had lucked into a job as the wine advisor and buyer for the Earl of Rathwell, or Kevin, as he preferred to be called. His was a rather new title in the peerage, as he was only the second earl, having inherited the earldom from his father. The first earl's sister had married into the royal family and earned her brother the title as recompense for their parents having predeceased the good fortune.