Free Hot Item by Carly Phillips Page B

if you think my clients care about anything more than their next paycheck and their status in the sports world, you’re wrong. To them, a gay agent would be an embarrassment and I damn well know it. I need time.”
    Darla started for the door.
    “Where are you going?” Spencer asked.
    “To pick out my outfit for my birthday party tonight.”
    He hated what he had to tell her next. “I can’t be there.”
    “Because Sophie and Riley will be?” Darla delivered a challenging stare.
    Spencer massaged the sore muscles in the back of his neck. “I hate like hell to miss it, but I’m not ready to deal with them.”
    “Coward.”
    “Maybe.”
    “He looks like you,” Darla said. “He has your eyes.”
    “He has my good looks, doesn’t he?” Spencer asked.
    His sister rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
    Spencer grinned. He couldn’t control his pride in the man his son had become and he couldn’t help but hope that one day Riley would feel the same pride in him.
    And maybe the 49ers would win the Super Bowl.
    “Just make sure you find a way to keep those two together,” Spencer said.
    Because if his coming out accomplished nothing else, maybe it would help his son settle down.

CHAPTER FIVE
    S OPHIE ADJUSTED her seat belt and glanced at Riley’s taut expression. His jaw had been locked tight ever since they’d left Darla’s house and started the short drive to the patio home as instructed by Spencer’s nutty sister.
    “I don’t believe a word Darla said.” Sophie broke the silence first, figuring if it were up to Riley, he’d remain mute.
    Riley nodded in agreement. “I don’t, either.”
    Sophie wondered what Darla really knew about Spencer’s disappearance and how hard it would be to find out. The other woman liked to ramble but Sophie had seen hints that she wasn’t as flighty as she appeared.
    In the meantime, she and Riley would have to spend time in sunny Florida living under one roof and they needed to set some ground rules. “You never should have told Darla we were lovers.” Sophie had counted the minutes until they were alone so she could call him on that whopper.
    “Does the idea bother you that much?” He placed his arm behind her head and glanced over, searing her with his sexy gaze. “Or is it the fact that I turn you on that’s driving you crazy?”
    Stars spun in front of her eyes and she blinked, trying to focus on anything but his accurate words. “Why didn’t you tell Darla who you were?” she asked, changing the subject to one he wouldn’t like as much.
    “I’d think that was obvious. Darla didn’t strike me as the silent type. I need to ask Spencer to keep the news of my parentage quiet.”
    He’d never before told her why he needed to speak with Spencer and he clammed up again about why he wanted his relationship to Spencer to remain under wraps. As he gripped his hands tighter around the wheel, she decided now wasn’t the time to ask. Later, when they were settled, she’d question him more. At the moment, she was more worried about the feelings this trip had to be stirring up inside him.
    The fact that she cared about his emotions at a time when hers were being tested told her too much about her growing feelings for this man, and that they weren’t just sexual. It would be so much easier if they were.
    He drove along a circular road, their path marked by frequent speed bumps. “You were hoping that Darla would recognize you, weren’t you?” Sophie asked.
    “Hell, no.” But a muscle twitched in his jaw, proof that she’d come too close to the truth.
    Spencer’s sister had been so enthusiastic about Sophie and how Spencer felt about her, yet she’d been painfully oblivious to who Riley really was.
    Sophie inched closer, bumping her knee on the center divider. “Come on. Riley’s just not all that common a name and I bet that you were wondering if she’d know who you were.”
    He let out a frustrated groan. “Do me a favor? Find someone