Her heart flopped over heavily. She hadn’t seen Chad approach, but there he was, standing right behind Todd with a dark look on his face.
Todd twisted at the waist and then took a surprised step back. Was it possible Todd was the only person in DC who wasn’t up to date on Chad’s love life?
He extended a hand. “Chad Gamble? Wow. Nice to meet you.”
Chad didn’t smile, but he took the other man’s hand. His eyes were a deep blue and his stare territorial and possessive. A shiver went down her spine. No way she’d admit to liking it. He echoed Todd’s sentiment, although Bridget highly doubted he meant a word. “Nice to meet you.”
Todd dropped Chad’s hand and glanced back to where Bridget stood. “You’re a lucky man, Chad, in more ways than one.”
Bridget’s brows shot up.
A tight smile appeared on Chad’s face as he took Bridget’s boneless hand. “That I know. Have a nice evening.”
Bridget let Chad drag her around the corner of her apartment building toward where his Jeep was illegally parked along the curb. She was surprised it still had its wheels.
“Is that why you didn’t want me to meet you at your apartment?” Chad asked as he opened the passenger car door for her.
Her brows knitted in confusion. “Huh?”
“Seems like that guy was really happy about running into you outside.” Still at the side of the Jeep, he reached in once she was seated and tugged the seat belt around.
“I can buckle myself in.”
“Hey, I’m big on safety. Who was that guy?”
Bridget pulled her hands back with a sigh. “He’s just someone who lives across the hall from me. I’m pretty sure that’s the longest conversation I’ve ever had with him.”
“Really?” The back of his knuckles brushed the swell of her breasts as he brought the strap over, causing her to suck in a sharp gasp. His gaze lifted, eyes flaring sapphires. A half smile appeared on his lips as he buckled her in. “The guy seems like a dork.”
A surprised laugh escaped her. “You don’t even know him.”
“Neither do you.” He flashed a quick smile. “So for all you know, he definitely could be a dork.”
Shaking her head, she watched him shut the door and head around the front. Was Chad jealous? No. That didn’t make any sense. Boyfriends got jealous, which wasn’t what he really was, and he didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would ever get jealous.
When they pulled out into traffic, she glanced at him sideways. “So…thank you for the flowers. They were really beautiful.”
That little lopsided grin remained. “Beautiful flowers for a beautiful woman.”
She opened her mouth to point out that was pretty cheesy, but she was trying a more diplomatic approach to this setup and that wouldn’t help. “Did you have a good day?” A look of surprise crossed his striking face, and she couldn’t help but smile. “What?”
He ran a hand through his hair and gave his head a little shake. “Oh, it’s nothing. I just didn’t think you’d be interested.”
Bridget frowned and was about to ask why he’d think that, but then it struck her. They were pretending, which would mean in reality she shouldn’t care about his day. It was like talking on the phone at work, opening up the conversation with general BS and then getting right to the point of the call. This was just a job to him. Maybe Chad didn’t want to do anything other than put a show on when the cameras were snapping. The sour feeling in the back of her throat had nothing to do with disappointment. Must’ve been indigestion.
As Chad navigated the back-to-back traffic, he cleared his throat. “Nothing really happened today. Started with my off-season trainer and that took up all the morning. Then I checked in with Miss Gore.” At Bridget’s sudden scowl, he chuckled deeply. “Yeah, that was about as fun as playing chicken with a Mack truck. She thought she needed to tell me that I should buy popcorn and soda at the movies. Then I pretty much sat around the bulk of the day. Fun stuff. How about you?”
Bridget fidgeted with the strap on her purse. “Thankfully I didn’t have to talk to Miss Gore.”
He nodded. “You really don’t like that woman, do you?”
“Nope,” she replied. “I spent most of the day tracking down the caterer for the fund-raising Gala.”
“That’s the big one the Smithsonian hosts every year?” Surprised that he knew anything about it, she nodded. His gaze flicked over to her before returning to the road. “Maddie’s talked about it before. You guys have been working on it for a while, right?”
“Yep, all year it feels like. And it’s funny we spend this much time on an event that’s over in a couple of hours.”
“Kind of like Christmas, eh? Months and months of everyone preparing for it, and it’s over in a few hours”
“Yeah, like Christmas,” she said, turning her gaze to the window.
There was a pause. “Not a fan of Christmas?”
Bridget shook her head.
As if sensing that was a topic she didn’t want to go into, he swiftly got the subject back on track. “So when is the Gala?”
“January the second.” She wetted her lips. “We’ve discovered that people tend to be more giving in the New Year. And we need a lot of money or…”
“Or what?”
She bit down on her lip. “Or Madison could lose the funding after third quarter next year.”
“Really? Shit.” He took the curve up ahead and immediately had to brake as there was a line of people turning into the parking garage serving the theatre. “How much money do you guys have to raise?”