The Puck Decoy (Fairfield U, #2)

by G.N. Wright

There was no way on this earth I was going to stand by and allow him to force her into marrying some piece of shit just because he was friends with his father.

I’m not the little boy he used to be able to scare away with just the boom of his voice. I’m a man now, and I will do what I need to in order to protect my sister.

Hallie Rose Sanders, my sister's best friend, and the girl who has gotten under my skin since she was nine and I was eleven.

The thought is laughable. She would be the worst choice I could ever make. But then again, what if she wasn’t?

My little sister Madeline is the only one in this world that I truly love, and I would do anything for her.

Of course the bastard made me wait for his answer, no doubt trying to find someone else to take Thorne’s place, but then along came Nova Darkmore. Captain of my hockey team and overall a giant man-whoring prick, yet somehow to my surprise he managed to fall for my little sister.

Wait, oh my gosh I totally forgot about that until now! I really the puck secret now. That was such a good book y’all

Hallie Rose Sanders. My sister's best friend, a constant in my life since I was eleven years old, and a fiery tinkerbell-sized rocket who pushes me at every turn. I’m not sure what the hell my father was thinking putting her name on there, but now that it is, it’s like I can’t see any other.

I used to consider her one of my only friends, I guess in a way I still do, even if I’m not one of hers, but I had no choice but to push her away. I was already stuck in hell, I wasn’t going to drag her down with me.

“The choice is simple, she is the only choice.” None of the other women on this list could ever compare to her, they don’t share the same history as we do, regardless of how many of them I have already fucked, her excluded of course.

Hallie and I might not be close anymore, but I know like me, she would do anything for Maddie. She cares about my sister just as much as I do, and I’m almost certain she isn’t seeing anyone right now because I haven’t seen any guys around her.

Regardless, Hallie is better than any other wannabe trophy wife looking for their step up the societal ladder. She is the right choice, the sensible choice, the only choice. I just have to get her to agree first.

I have known Josh since I was nine years old, but in recent years I have for some reason, become the absolute bane of his existence. We used to be best friends, inseparable really, and I’m not sure when that changed, I just know it did.

He was a force on the ice even then, and all I could do was stand and stare in complete and utter fascination, as he flew around the makeshift rink he’d crafted out of rocks. I’d never had a crush before, but I was pretty certain that from the moment I laid eyes on him I was changed forever.

That was the first time he ever spoke to me, and the first of many games of hockey we played together, and to this day they are still some of my favorite memories from my childhood.

Maddie and I bonded quickly over our shared love for Taylor Swift and our aversion to pickles. I mean, what else do you need at nine years old?

not once did I ever speak of the butterflies in my stomach that occurred anytime I looked at her older brother.

“To what do I owe this displeasure, Joshua,” I drawl, forcing my eyes to his, and praying he doesn’t notice the blush now burning up my neck. I’ve become an expert at hiding my feelings for him over the years.

Which is a stupid notion because of course he doesn’t notice, he never does. I’ve been in love with my best friend’s brother for almost a decade now and he still looks at me in the same way he did the day that I stepped in the middle of his rink. Yet

I know it’s cliche, falling for your best friend’s brother, one who has no interest in me, but when he looks at me, it’s like everyone else in the world ceases to exist. If only it were the same for him.

“Hallie, I need you to marry me.” I freeze, momentarily caught in a time where the boy I’ve loved since I was nine has just asked me to marry him. No, that’s stupid, of course that’s not what he said, I’m just letting the fantasies I make up in my head before bed run away with me.

“I need you to marry me,” he repeats, more certainty in his voice this time, and somehow I definitely heard him right, though it doesn’t make me believe him any more.

“Is this some sort of prank I don’t understand?” I ask nervously, hating the confusion that stains my tone. “Like when I was twelve and you went to kiss me but then you fell off that rock?”

“First of all, I wasn’t trying to kiss you, you had something on your face,” he lies boldly, and now I have to smirk at him for still holding onto his version of events for so long. He’s such a big fat liar. “Second of all, you pushed me off that rock,”

“Eh, potato, potato,” I say with a shrug, knowing full well the panic and nerves that burned through me when he tried to kiss me that day. Yeah I pushed him, hard and fast, but I’m never gonna admit that to him. The same way he will never admit to me that he actually was trying to kiss me.

I have always known I was different. It was never something that was shied away from in my household growing up, and when I was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at seven years old, it was something we celebrated. There was finally a reason I was different, a reason certain things were so hard for me, and a reason I looked at the world in a way others didn’t. It’s why I don’t feel scared to ask for more context with him, because he understands my need for it, and doesn’t hesitate to grant it.

Oh my god, this can’t be happening. Josh has to get married. Josh. My Josh. Married. The words tumble through my mind over and over again, clashing together like titans until I can barely focus on anything else.

Fate has a sick and twisted sense of humor doesn’t she, because how many times have I wished for something to happen between us? How many times have I fallen asleep making up scenarios in my head where we end up in bed together? How many times have I wished that my best friend’s brother looked at me the same way I look at him? There have been too many to ever possibly count.

This isn’t love, it isn’t even commitment, it’s a doomed deal made to protect the only person he is capable of loving.

he pleads, and just for a second, he’s back to being the lonely boy on the ice again, asking me if I’m playing, and just like that very first day, I can’t say no to him. Not to the little boy back then who became my first crush, and not to the grown man now who became my first love… and I guess, my first husband.

I push away all the emotions fighting against one another inside of me and focus my mind on logic and reasoning. He needs my help, and I am going to help him, it’s as simple as that.

“The never forever rules, really, Tink?” The old nickname rolls off his tongue so easily that I have to fight to keep the smile off my face. He really has no idea of the effect he has on me.

I also feel like a total hypocrite right now considering all I do is lie to him about my feelings towards him, but it’s okay because I’m pretty sure I lie to myself a lot more.

“And number three, absolutely no falling love.”

Famous last words

“Don’t worry, Hals, you already know I’m not wired to find and appreciate something as simple as love,” he adds with a smile, not realizing his words have just shattered the heart that beats for him.

The only love he ever experienced was the love he has for his sister, and the love he got from his sister, so of course he doesn’t believe he is capable or even worthy of feeling the joy that love can bring.

he blinks back in confusion with a dash of exasperation, and it reminds me so much of the boy who used to be my best friend. The same boy who I forced to propose to me with a ring pop on vacation when I was eleven. That was the first time I agreed to marry him, and he promised he would one day swap the ring for a real one, until I ate it, that is.

This boy. So strong-willed and defiant, yet I still know every access point to get under his skin and annoy him.

“Hallie, will you marry me?” he asks with an air of annoyance, and I roll my eyes, letting my shoulders drop. “No,” I reply. “No?” he repeats in question. “Yes, no, that’s not how you ask properly,” I tell him,

he tips his head back and looks up at the ceiling, no doubt recalling how serious I am when it comes to my hand in marriage. “I really forgot how annoying you are,” he grumbles, and I try to ignore the veins that spill down his neck into the collar of his shirt. Why does he have to be so hot?

It’s with that in mind that the next command slips right off my tongue without pause. “On your knees, twenty-two,” I say, and his head snaps back down towards me. “What?” he asks, stumbling over the word and looking at me like I have grown an extra head. “You heard me, J...

This might not be real, in fact it’s as far from true love as I could possibly get, but hell if I am not getting a proper proposal, even if it’s a fake one. I wanted...

“Really?” he asks, looking at me like I have gone crazy. “You’re insane, you know that right?” I want to tell him he is the one who makes me insane, that I have been crazy since the second I stormed into the middle of his own personal self-mad...

“Yeah, I know I’m crazy,” I admit freely, not adding that I am crazy in love. “I also know I’d get ...

“What?” he asks again, in shock this time, and it’s only then I replay the words I just said back in my head, and my confidence stumbles as his shock turns to...

“No, wait I mean, that came out wrong,” I trip over the words as I rush to get them out, but thankfully Jos...

“Hallie Rose Tinkerbell Sanders,” he starts, and my breath catches in my throat as he smirks at his own joke. “I don’t have a ring pop on hand, but will you please do me the honor of becoming my fake wife so I can save my sister and your best friend from a terrible and lonely future?” he asks, and when I raise an amused brow, he finally adds, “Will you marry me, Hallie Bear?”

I want to make a joke, to refuse him, to tell him I can’t marry him. To keep us in the black and white we have grown comfortable in and not push us back into those shades of gray that I could never understand, but I can’t, because it’s him. The boy I fell in love with when I was a child, now a man I would do anything for, especially when it comes at the price of helping the one person we both love most in the world. It might hurt me, change me, break me irrevocably, but if there’s one thing I could never do, it’s say no to Josh Peters.

“Yes, Joshua, I will marry you.” And just like that I am once again free falling into his abyss.

I’m not sure if her new found silence is a good thing or a bad thing, especially not when her usual M.O. is to talk endlessly until she drives me completely crazy. That Hallie I can deal with, but this one? I’m not so sure.

I just hope she can hold her own against him because upgrading herself from my sister’s best friend to my future wife is only going to put her under more fire. She knows I will protect her, at least I hope she does, but I need her more than she realizes, especially if I am going to beat my father at his own game.