Page 19 of Her Game Plan

She rolls her eyes. “It’s fake.”

“Oh, okay, so everyone knows it’s not real. Got it.” Maybe I can annoy the truth out of her.

“No. No one can know it’s not real,” she declares urgently.

“Even your family?” I ask, knowing how close she is with her dad and brother.

Her eyes widen. “Especially my family! They’re—fuck. They’re the ones we have to convince.”

The embarrassment on her face makes me want to pull her into a hug, but I don’t think it’d be an appreciated gesture. “Okay, then we’ll convince them. Do I get to know why, or are we starting this fake relationship out with secrets between us?”

She chuckles. “No, we’re going to have the healthiest fake relationship the world has ever seen.” Stretching her neck as if she’s preparing to enter a boxing ring, she closes her eyes. When she opens them, she says, “I have this football season to not only learn how to run the Stallions as their owner, but also to prove to my dad that I value the family and its future generations. Otherwise, my brother is going to be named as my father’s successor, and everything I’ve worked for my entire life will be gone.”

For what feels like the twentieth time since Charlotte walked up to me at the party, I’m speechless. “I… You… What?”

She walks me through it again. Her dad’s change of heart. Her task: to prove she can run the Stallions. The family’s future clause to the whole thing.

“I’ve talked to my dad every day since he told us, trying to convince him it’s a bad idea, but he won’t listen. Won’t even consider going back to his initial plan. Plus, Chris saw us on Tuesday when you ran into me. He thought we were hugging, so I went along with the lie. So, I can’t really ask someone else. It has to be you.”

For the first time in my life, I’m the slightest bit grateful that my parents bailed on me when I was a kid, leaving me with Nan. She might tell me to give her great-grandbabies on a regular basis, but she’s never made me feel like I need to lie about my relationship status.

“Okay,” I say. “I’m in. Just tell me where and when you need me. I’ll be there if I can. Though, the football season is about to start, so I don’t have a ton of free time.”

She shrugs. “Fortunately, wherever the team is, that’s where I’ll be too this season.”

“Devine!” a voice bellows down the hall. “Hank fucked up your sink, and water is spraying everywhere!”

“Fuck,” I mumble. “I gotta go. Text me what you need, okay?”

“Okay.”

I start to jog toward the door.

“Oh, and one other thing!” she yells after me. I pause long enough to hear her say, “We’re going to have to move in together!”

I stumble at her words, barely catching myself on the wall. Moving in together? That’s… a lot of time with Charlotte Langford.

“Okay!” I turn around, offering her a double finger gun like a complete nimrod as she follows me out of the room.

As I crawl under the sink to turn off the water, all I can think about is what I just managed to get myself roped into.

And why I’m so excited about it.

Chapter 9

Charlotte

“Oh, bless your heart.” Addie tries to hold in her amusement, but it breaks free on a choking laugh.

I glare at her through my phone screen, wishing there weren’t thousands of miles between us. “You’re a bad friend. You know that, right?”

“You asked a guy to fake date you, and then yelled that you’re moving in together as he was going to fix some major plumbing problem. And now you haven’t heard from him. That’s funny. Ask anyone.”

“It’s been less than twelve hours. He’s likely still sleeping the party off, based on the way it was going.” His house had been full to the brim of jersey chasers. I wanted to sit them all down and tell them how selfish pro athletes are in bed, but as I was there to beg one of said athletes to help me, it seemed like a bad idea. Not that I had to do much begging.

“It feels too easy. I mean, we had a plan. I was going to bribe him with sponsorship connections. And if that didn’t work, I was going to resort to blackmail. I didn’t have to do any of those things.”

“I was never on board with the blackmail, to be clear,” Addie drawls. “And I don’t think you were, either.”