“Extremely.” Maggie simmered. “What are we going to do?”
“Nothing. You handled it fine. For the record, I’d have been happy to go with the flow and be your baby’s father for the night.”
“You would?” Maggie’s nerves jangled and her heart skipped.
“Why not?” He gave a big, nonchalant shrug. “The press getting hold of a whiff of information and making a mountain of tittle-tattle out of it is my normal.” He shrugged again. “What can you do? They need column inches and we have to make the best of it.” He fiddled distractedly with a cufflink. It didn’t help that he looked so devastating in a tux. “It’s not ideal.” He hesitated, clearing his throat with a gruff cough. “But people like baby news. It’s a misunderstanding with a positive spin. If that increases donations to the charity, then I’m happy to run with it.”
Maggie’s heart sank. For a micro-second she’d thought Alex was saying that he didn’t mind people thinking he was having a baby with her. That’s not what he’d meant at all.
“I should have said nothing. Like you told me to do.” She hadn’t told anyone yet. Not her friends. Not her mother – although that might be difficult since her mobile phone had a semi-permanently flat battery. No one knew except Alex. And now the rest of the world.
She was contemplating hailing the first passing taxi and hightailing it back to the hotel to hide, when Nick and Ella arrived.
“Is this your doing?” The tension ramped up a notch as Alex glared suspiciously at Nick.
“No way. I haven’t said a thing.” Nick held up his palms. “Actually,” he added, looking contrite, “I may have mentioned that Maggie was an old flame.”
“That’s not exactly true, Nick,” Maggie chided.
“The rest is anybody’s guess. An indiscreet bellhop or something. By the way, Cassandra’s on the warpath. That reporter called her ‘grandma’.”
Maggie let out a long, panicky breath. “Your mother’s going to kill me.”
Ella, in hot pink, touched Maggie’s arm reassuringly. “She’ll get over it. She’s used to dealing with PR problems. Congratulations, by the way.”
Across the room, in the midst of a throng of guests, Cassandra, clad in shimmery blue sequins like a shiny mermaid, was graciously accepting everyone's good wishes. She was giving an award-winning performance as the delighted grandma-to-be.
“I sent her a text,” Alex said. He pressed a finger into the furrow between his brows and shook his head. “What’s she playing at?”
Practically in sync with his twin, Nick shook his head. “Evidently she didn’t read it.”
Ella’s super-glossed-up lips set in an I’m-saying-nothing moue. She wrapped Maggie in a hug. “Don’t worry. Alex will sort it out. Welcome to our world.”
Her heart somersaulted. Who knew getting noticed could be so fraught with complications?
“Thanks.” She smiled trustingly at Alex. “I think.”
Nick and Ella melted into the room, leaving her alone looking into his eyes.
“I shouldn’t have exposed you to any of this.”
“It’s PR pandemonium.”
“It’s my life, and I should have done more to protect you. I’m sorry.”
The organizer stepped up on a raised platform at the far end of the room and banged an auctioneer’s gavel. The room hushed. She thanked everyone for supporting the Wells Wish Foundation, encouraged them to give generously, and informed them that there’d be an after- dinner address from the inimitable Cassandra Wells followed by an auction of promises, including kisses from each of her dreamy sons.
The news sparked an unnecessary pang of jealousy in Maggie. It was bad enough that her body was operating on a different frequency from her head as far as Alex was concerned, but possessive emotions were completely uncalled for.
“Keep your credit cards at the ready, ladies,” the organizer enthused with a diva-in-training sigh. “And now, without further ado, dinner is served.”
Alex and Maggie took their places at the top table, alongside Nick and Ella, and Cassandra with her younger man.
She didn’t have a clue who any of the other social elite at the table were. The men rose to shake her hand and their partners smiled warmly – all the while giving out extra-cool vibes. How come some women had a talent for that? She picked up on the curiosity behind their fake eyelashes and bright lipstick smiles. No doubt they were itching to know all the gossip.
At that point her brain-fog cleared. The penny dropped. There wasn’t a single woman in the room who wasn’t wearing either electric blue or shocking pink – the charity’s signature colors.
“Why didn’t you tell me there was a dress code?” Maggie hissed at Alex in a whisper.
His eyebrows shot up. “I tried. You didn’t listen.”
“I stick out like a sore thumb. You should have said something.”
“Like what?”
“Don’t wear black would have been a good start.”
Alex raised his eyes to the roof. “Black’s what you do,” he reminded her. A sexy smile played on his lips.
“I look like I should be waiting tables.”
“Dressed like that?” Very slowly Alex raked his gaze over her. How could his ice-blue eyes make her feel so hot?
Shadowy staff delivered the delicious meal with attentive precision. The courses came and went, glasses were filled and refilled. The event had been organized with attention to detail that verged on finicky. Like the dress code, the flower arrangements and the lighting echoed the charity’s colors – every single thing pink, white and blue. Throughout the proceedings, Cassandra Wells’ eyes fired daggers at Maggie. She clearly wasn’t impressed.
So much for the neutral image she’d worked so hard to perfect. Her black dress might as well have been a gorilla suit. How could she have got it so wrong? Getting noticed was uncomfortable in the extreme, so much so that she was beginning to think this whole idea of landing a job on a television show was pie in the sky. She just wasn’t up to it.
The conversation murmured around her. When the time came for the auction, Alex leant in and whispered close against her neck, “Nick and I always outbid the highest bidders.”
Unwanted heat spiraled through her body, transmitting awareness impulses into every nerve cell.
“You bid to kiss each other? How does that work?”
Alex chuckled. The wide smile lit up his face.
“It’s a bit of a tradition. I give Nick’s kiss to his date – it’s been Ella for the last few years. He gives my kiss to my date …” He paused, a teasingly blasé and annoyingly seductive look stamped on his face. “… Whoever that might be.”
Her heart skittered. “That’s me.” She fought the urge to know who’d been on the receiving end of Nick’s generous gift last year and the year before that … and …
“You catch on quick.”
After dinner the organizer introduced Cassandra. She gave her spiel, thanking people for their generous support. Gracious and humorous, she commanded the attention of the room. From what Alex had said earlier their relationship had been difficult when he and Nick were children, but clearly she was beyond delighted with her grown-up sons. Before dinner Alex had straightened things out about the surprise grandchild, so mercifully she stuck to her planned speech and didn’t make any off-the-cuff remarks about Maggie’s pregnancy.
She wondered