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“Hey,” I say, giving his shoulder another gentle shake. “Nathan. You have to wake up now.” Finally, his eyes flutter open. At first, his arm tightens around me, and he almost smiles, his expression warm and hazy with sleep.
Nathan runs a hand down his beard, clearly uncomfortable. “I just…wanted to apologize without my teammates listening.” He clears his throat. “I don’t know what I did in my sleep, Summer. I’m sorry if I crossed any lines.” “You absolutely didn’t,” I quickly say. “I’m sorry for even being here. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” His lips lift in a tiny smirk. “Waking up to you did not make me uncomfortable.”
Though crush is beginning to feel like too inconsequential a word. Crushes are silly. Fleeting. I think I’m beginning to like Nathan for real.
She leans forward, propping her elbows on her knees. “All these videos are talking about taming the brooding beast, right? But what if he’s already tamed? What if Nathan had a girlfriend?” I frown. “But he doesn’t have a girlfriend.” “True,” Parker says slowly. “But it wouldn’t take much to convince the internet that he does.” She gives me a knowing look, and I suddenly understand exactly what she’s suggesting. A hot flush spreads across my chest, and I take a steadying breath. “It wouldn’t take much,” Parker continues. “Just a few intentional appearances.
“If all these women think Nathan’s taken, maybe we can change the narrative. Instead of talking about how much they wish they could tame him, they’ll start talking about how much they love seeing him happy.”
“I like Nathan,” I finally say. “Like, I like him for real.” Parker eyes me curiously. “Okay. But…wouldn’t this be a good thing? A way to get to know him better?” “Only if he were also interested in me,” I say, “and he’s not. Believe me. We’ve talked about it, and he’s made that perfectly clear.” Her face falls. “So you’d be pretending, knowing that—” “It will only ever be pretend.”
But the truth that has to matter the most is the one Nathan is willing to own. Who cares if he feels attraction if he’s never willing to act on it?
“I don’t think it’s that he isn’t into me so much as it’s just a general disinterest in relationships altogether,”
Parker has a full-blown problem on her hands, and for the sake of the team’s image, we need to fix it. Parker’s proposed solution makes sense. A decoy girlfriend to help control the narrative—a love story to replace the conquest narrative that’s trending right now. I get it. I just can’t believe Summer agreed to help. And I shouldn’t be so happy that she did.
I like impressing Summer. One more reason why faking with her is probably playing with fire.
“Are you trying to make a habit of coming to my rescue?” Her lips curve into a smile. “I could ask you the same thing.”
Summer says. “Back up. Did you just call your friends the dream team?” I breathe out a sigh. “We never say it publicly. A reporter once used the term, referring to the Appies’ starters, then Alec renamed our group chat as a joke. But we don’t really think of ourselves that way.”
Made all the best guys on the team your best friends.” “Maybe they’re the best on the team because they’re my best friends.”
navigating to the group text thread that we started right after Eli got married. It was Felix’s idea—an effort to stay connected now that three of the six of us are in relationships.
“Just focus on me for a sec,” she says, holding my gaze. “Breathe.” I nod and do as she asks, grateful for the anchor she’s providing.
“Kiss me,” she repeats. “If you want them to know you’re spoken for, then show them you belong to me.”
I don’t expect to forget the crowd of people watching me kiss Summer for the first time, but the second her lips touch mine, everything else falls away.
I will never not know what it feels like to hold her like this, to have her mouth against mine. A blessing and a curse. Summer finally pulls away, and I open my eyes to see her staring up at me, eyes wide. She blinks, and I blink, and then, finally, the roar of the crowd breaks through the haze of whatever just happened.
Malik motions toward the two of us. “I assume you’ve filed everything you need to file with HR?” I didn’t even know there was something we were supposed to file with HR, but Summer must because she answers for us. “I’ve got the form,” she says. “We’ll turn it in when we’re back in Harvest Hollow.” My eyes shift to Parker, and she shrugs. So, I guess we’re not telling Malik this is just a publicity stunt.
You aren’t obligated to tell the fans anything about your private life.”
Summer meets my gaze and gives me a small smile. It isn’t much, but my body reacts like it is, and I feel a sudden craving to be close to her.
“Do you think your brother feels pressure to measure up? Or was he more influenced by the rougher years of your father’s life? Those closer to his death?”
I clear my throat. “My brother is only sixteen years old. He’s a minor,” I say, emphasizing the word, “who is still growing up. And he deserves his privacy while that’s happening. He’s also one hell of a hockey player who will likely have a very promising career.”
“The law indicates that juvenile arrest records are confidential, protected by federal statutes, and you will respect that law. You will not print Blake’s name. You will not print record of his arrest.
seeing her like this, defending me, protecting me, is doing strange things to my heart. I’ve never really known what that feels like—to have a partner.
“A girlfriend who happens to be chief legal counsel for the Appies and who clearly knows the law better than you do.
It really was hot watching her tear into that reporter, and she deserves a very sincere thank you.
I could tell him I already drafted a letter that will go out to anyone in attendance at the press conference, reminding them of their legal obligation to respect Blake’s privacy and keep his name out of the
But what I really want to talk about is that kiss. I want to ask if it impacted him the same way it did me. If it turned his heart inside out. If every other kiss he’s ever had with another person completely pales in comparison.
But something came over me when I saw those other women put their hands on him. I wanted to save him. But a small, rebellious part of my heart also wanted to claim him. Even though he can’t really be mine.
It’s only been six months since I attended an Appies game in Los Angeles with Gracie, but I don’t remember seeing this kind of support there.
I know I’m attracted to him. I know he makes my heart flutter and my skin flush, and that kissing him made me feel alive in ways I’ve never felt before. But I don’t know why he’s so hung up on not dating.
We make eye contact, and I smile, lifting my hand to the glass. He stops directly opposite and lifts his glove to the same spot. And then he smiles.
Not the little half-grin I’ve seen whenever I tease him, or the annoying smirk he gives his teammates when he thinks they’re being ridiculous. This smile is wide and real and it makes his eyes crinkle at the corners and it’s possibly the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.
“What just happened?” I say to Parker. “You were on the jumbotron,” she says. “That’s what happened. And you made the grumpiest grump of all smile like a kid on Christmas morning.” “I’ve never seen him smile like that,” I say. “Um, no one has ever seen him smile like that. If we wanted to sell the fact that you’ve tamed the brooding beast, that just did it.”
Nathan and I staring at each other through the glass. It’s different seeing myself in the frame, but when Nathan smiles, the swoop of my belly is exactly the same. “I’d tell you that was an Oscar-worthy performance, but I don’t think you were acting,” Parker says.
And then I hear it again. A soft knock on the door. But not the door into the hallway. The door that connects my hotel room to Summer’s. Summer. Maybe that’s why I woke up so easily. Clearly, my brain has some sort of default wiring that means I will always wake up for her. “Nathan?” she whisper-yells, her voice muffled by the door.
Last night, the rest of the Appies left immediately after the game to drive over to Cleveland, leaving Alec, Summer, and me at the hotel alone. After our Flex meeting in the morning, Summer will fly back to Harvest Hollow, and Alec and I will fly to Cleveland to catch the team.
but then she breathes out a happy sigh and my muscles relax. I’ll deal with the cold all night long if it means hearing her make sounds like that. “Better?” I ask, and I swear, the air between us changes. Like someone snuck in and cranked up the tension with an invisible knob. She hums softly. “You’re so warm.”
In the past forty-eight hours, my relationship with Summer has gone from zero to sixty. We were friends before—sort of. Now, the entire world thinks we’re together, we’ve kissed, we’re sharing a bed, and she knows about my brother, something I hadn’t even told my teammates before the reporter brought it up and forced my hand. I don’t need a rule book with this woman, I need a survival guide.
Flint had a co-star who was causing some publicity problems, and he needed to look like he had a girlfriend at their movie premiere. So Audrey stepped in. Then they fell in love for real and got married last fall.” “Flint…do you mean…? Are you telling me your sister is married to Flint Hawthorne?” “I…am telling you that. But he’s from my hometown, so I feel like that makes it slightly less crazy. He and Audrey met a couple of years ago.”
She wiggles her toes. “Nathan, you have no idea how heavenly this is. I would sleep so good if I got to do this every night.” “And I would wake up a lot easier,” I say before I can think better of it. “Mmm,” she says sleepily. “A match made in heaven.”
Instead of reaching out for her, I loop a finger through my father’s Stanley Cup ring and take a steadying breath. My teammates think I wear it to honor him. Like a talisman or a good luck charm. I get why they think that. My dad killed it on the ice. Stanley Cup winner. NHL Hall-of-Famer. But that’s not why I wear it. I wear it to remind me of everything I don’t want to be. To remember the damage he caused so I’m never tempted to do the same thing.
“I loved watching you play tonight,” she says, her voice soft. “You were great.” I don’t tell her that knowing she was watching, having her in the stands, made me play harder and faster than I have in months.
She’s protecting herself. Setting boundaries that will keep all this from getting confusing. She’s respecting what she already knows about me, acting on the assumption that I don’t want anything real.
Even though the tension and pull between us are more real than anything I’ve felt before, it still doesn’t change my resolve.
Nathan is the grump, Van is the flirt, Alec is the ego, Felix is the bookworm, Eli is the golden retriever.
“I haven’t said more than four words since we left the hotel,” Nathan says. “Which is perfectly normal for him,” I say. “You, on the other hand, can’t even make eye contact with me. What gives?” Alec’s jaw clenches, and he looks at the ceiling before he lifts his hands and says, “I saw you two in bed together!”
I managed to extricate myself and relocate to my side of the bed before yawning loudly and making enough noise to wake him up. Which he immediately did—I really do have superpowers when it comes to waking Nathan—none the wiser that seconds before, he’d had his hand resting on my hip.
Plus, the look on your face when he said it was fake was pretty telling.” I force a smile. “Does it matter what I think if he’s sure?” Alec gives me a knowing look, his eyes filling with compassion. Or is that pity? “It always matters what you think.” I look at Nathan across the lobby, phone pressed to his ear. He’s wearing dress pants and a light blue chambray shirt, and his hair is up, knotted at the back of his head in the perfectly messy bun he always wears. “Any clue why he’s so cynical?” “Not really,”