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“Whoa. That guy’s got some magic if he could make you come over the phone.” She slathers jelly on another slice before closing the jar and opening the peanut butter.
“Well…you know what I mean. I did it with his instructions, and he did it, and it was probably the hottest thing I’ve ever experienced, and here are the chips and granola bars.” I slide them onto the counter.
“Please tell me you washed your hands first before manhandling the kids’ food.”
I roll my eyes. “Knock it off. I knew I shouldn’t have told you.”
“I’m teasing you. You know you can—and should—tell me anything and everything. So what are you gonna do? It’s not like you two can just hop onto the scene as Vegas’s newest power couple,” she says. She slaps one peanut butter bread on top of one jelly bread and starts to slide it into a baggie.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “We both felt something strong—”
“So strong you couldn’t stay off the phone for a night after you just spent the weekend together,” she interrupts.
“Exactly. It’s all still there, and I think we might try exploring what we can in private. I just don’t know how to navigate it with Rivera up my ass.” I sigh as I grab the jelly jar and place it back in the fridge.
“Hm.” She thinks for a few beats as she finishes up the lunches, and I perch on the stool on the opposite side of the counter from where she stands. “I wish I had advice. I wish I could help. I want you to be happy, and honestly, seeing the way you’re glowing after a weekend with him makes me want this for you. So bad. And can you imagine how good he’d be with Jonah?” She shakes her head a little as we both imagine it.
“He’d be incredible. But you’re taking leaps down a road I’m pretty sure we won’t be able to navigate.” I feel subdued even as I say the words aloud.
“What makes you say that?” she asks.
“There’s too much in our way. Too many obstacles. It’s not just career suicide. It’s family betrayal. The roots are too deep, so what’s our choice? To be together in secret?” I shrug. “We can’t live that way forever.”
“No, you’re right. But just because you can’t live that way forever doesn’t mean you can’t try it out that way for now.”
It’s a solid point, one that I’ve arrived at myself a time or two.
She gasps as her eyes widen. “Oh my God! I’ve got it!”
“Got what?” I ask, my brows creasing together in total confusion.
“This is bananas, Jo. Are you ready for it?” she asks.
“Ready for what?”
She wrinkles her nose. “No, never mind. It’s stupid.”
“What’s stupid? What’s your idea?”
“What if I start dating him?” she suggests.
I freeze as I stare at her for a few beats. “I tell you I think I want to be with him and your solution is for you to be with him? What the fuck, Sam?”
“No!” She laughs. “Well, maybe not a hard no after the way you described his sexual prowess…” She trails off, but then she sees my intense glare and shakes it off. “I’m kidding. What I mean is what if publicly he’s with me. He takes me to events you’ll also be at. He’s spotted coming here to my house. My car is spotted in his driveway. But really…it’s you. He sneaks off with you to bang your brains out in a secret room at the charity ball or in the back room at the Gridiron or in the bathroom at the Complex. I can head everyone else off and throw off suspicion, and you just look like you’re doing your job while I help orchestrate all the secret sex.”
I tilt my head as I stare at her. It might be the single dumbest idea I’ve ever heard, or it might be the most genius plan I could ever imagine.
“Why would you do that?” I ask.
She shrugs. “Two reasons. One, I open the door to throw the scent off my best friend so she can explore whatever this is and find a way to be happy because that’s exactly everything I want for you. And two, I get the benefit of publicly dating Vegas’s newest eligible bachelor. Our photo will be splashed all over the media to really lay it on thick, and it’ll give Devin something to obsess over,” she says, naming her ex and Cade’s dad. “Win-win.”
I laugh at her reasoning. “I guess I can’t argue with that. Let me talk to Lincoln and see what he thinks, but…who will watch the boys while you’re galivanting with Linc and I’m busy doing my job?”
“I’m positive either your parents or mine would step in to help. And once this is all over and you two get your happy ending, make sure he can set me up with some hot player or something so I can have my own happily ever after,” she says.
I laugh, but the truth is that I’m already worried we won’t get our happy ending no matter how hard we try.
I’m terrified there’s just way too much standing in our way.
