Chapter 23

Archer looks up from the letter to gauge my reaction. I think I’m too much in shock to feel anything else.

“This has to be a joke, right?” He tosses the paper to the counter. He looks…mad.

I shrug, not trusting my voice yet. The guys are still carrying on in the other room, fifteen feet away.

He picks up his phone and while staring down at the letter, taps out something on the screen.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m calling her. I want to tell this lying piece of shit that it’s not fucking funny to⁠—”

I jump up and take the phone from him, hitting end before he finishes that sentence or calls some random person. Not random…my sister. Maybe.

“You don’t know that she’s lying.”

It doesn’t seem possible, but I can’t outright dismiss the possibility.

“It’s too much of a coincidence. Now that you’re a professional football player with some success and notoriety she pops up out of the blue?” He shakes his head, face made of stone.

“She’s not just popping up.” I let out a breath. “For the past few months, I’ve been getting texts.” I pull out my phone and show him. “There were more, but I deleted the first couple.”

He’s quiet as he reads through them. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

His mask falls, and I see the surprise and pain that I kept it to myself.

“Because…” I run a hand over my hair. “The stuff with my parents had just happened and I didn’t want you to get worked up all over again. I thought it was just another scam.”

The words taste bitter. Another scam like my parents loving me and suddenly wanting to be in my life.

“Do you think they’re behind it?”

I shrug. I didn’t until now. It would make more sense than a sister suddenly appearing. “What do you think?”

“I think that if you really had a sister out there, you would have heard from her before now.”

“Yeah.” It makes sense. The timing is suspicious.

Archer takes the letter and crumples it up. “If she contacts you again, we can go talk to a lawyer. We’ll file a restraining order if we have to.”

I nod, knowing he’s probably right. The lengths people will go to take advantage of others astounds me. How low do you have to be?

“You hungry?” Archer asks, back to his light, cheery self. Though his brow is still furrowed. “I was going to order some pizza.”

“Yeah. I’m just gonna take a shower. London and I were out in the sun all day.”

“All right.” He watches me closely, then comes over and hugs me. “Love you, brother.”

The following night, I pick up London and we go to Tripp’s house.

“I thought you said there were just going to be a few people,” she says as we walk through the packed living room.

“Compared to the last party you went to, this is small.”

Her light laughter loosens some of the tension I’ve been carrying around all day. The letter from Sabrina has continued to haunt me. Archer’s been hovering and I know he means well, but it takes me back to when we were kids and he first started inviting me over to his house.

We were already good friends so of course I wanted to hang with him, but I also knew there was some small part of him that was doing it out of pity.

London and I grab drinks and find an open spot on the couch in front of Tripp’s huge TV.

It’s a tight spot, so London is practically sitting on my lap. I drop a palm to her bare thigh.

“I missed you.”

Her eyes light up with amusement. “You saw me yesterday.”

“Twenty-five hours and fifteen minutes, but who’s counting?”

Her gaze darts from my eyes to my mouth. I lean in and brush my lips against hers.

She sighs into me, then pulls back. “We should talk about it.”

“Mhmmm.” I take her mouth a little harder.

She kisses me back, then presses on my chest. “That’s not talking.”

“We’re using our mouths. It’s basically the same thing.”

She laughs, but wraps her arms around my neck and then she’s the one initiating contact with her lips.

“Yo, Six!” Tripp calls.

“Ignore him,” I say to her when she stops kissing me.

Tripp yells again, louder this time.

Reluctantly, I pull back and look at him. “What?”

He grins like he knows he was taking me from a very nice moment with my girl. “I need to borrow your girl.”

“Excuse me?” My grip tightens instinctively around London.

“You too. Come on. It’ll be fun.”

“What have you gotten me into?” she asks, not seeming the least bit annoyed by the fact we were interrupted.

“I actually have no idea.” I stand with her and place her on the ground next to me, quickly lacing my fingers through hers.

We head toward Tripp in the kitchen and when we get closer I can see a few of the guys have started a game of Phase 10.

“What exactly do you need us for?” I ask, arching a brow in question. Normally, I’d be up for just about anything, but not when the other option is making out with London.

Tripp pulls a chair out next to him. “London, girl, have a seat.”

She glances briefly at me, but then moves toward him. “Oh, I love this game. My family used to play it all the time.”

“Brogan, I grabbed you a seat over there.” He points across the table.

“No,” I say, unmoving. A quick scan of the table and they aren’t even playing pairs. “Fuck off. You can’t steal my date just because you can’t find one.”

He flips me off. “I can find plenty, but don’t want one. Remember what that was like?” He smirks at me.

Of course I remember, it was only a few weeks ago. Now though… I’m having fun with London.

“I’m colorblind. I need her eyes.”

I glance at the table where the multi-colored cards are laid out. Fuck. I know he is. The guy showed up to practice one day talking about his new blue shirt. It was purple. Like super purple.

“Fine,” I relent and put a table’s worth of distance between us. At least now I can look at her.

Except watching Tripp whisper into her ear isn’t exactly doing it for me. I glare hard at him. He looks over and smiles all smug-like. What the hell are they whispering about? And why is she smiling and nodding along?

Cody keeps his voice low as he speaks next to me. “Seems like your arrangement is working out well.”

“Yeah.” I pull my stare away from Tripp and London.

Cody looks at me like he’s waiting for me to deny my very real interest in London.

“Going to give me another lecture?” I ask.

“Not at all. I like London for you. You’ve been more focused than ever, playing well, and she doesn’t seem too caught up in the lifestyle.”

“She’s not.” Although I don’t think she’d turn down another swim in the rooftop pool at Slade’s. I smile at her across the table. Tripp is saying something, and she laughs easily at him.

“Keep doing what you’re doing, Six, and you’ll be breaking my records.”

I’m glad that our arrangement has helped everyone else’s focus return to my performance on the field, but right now it’s the least of my concerns. I want her. All my focus is on that.

Tripp and London wipe the table with the rest of us for the first two games.

“My good luck charm.” He wraps an arm around her and squeezes.

London beams at his words, but then her gaze flits to me. I wonder if she remembers that’s what I called her.

For the next half hour, I spend as much time watching Tripp cuddle up to London as I do paying attention to the cards. London is as charmed by him as Tripp is with her. They high-five and talk smack to everyone else every time they win. I concentrate on not tossing the table at him.

“It’ll be hard to run when I take out your kneecaps,” I mumble as he wraps an arm around London’s shoulders. I swear he lets it linger there a little longer than necessary.

Merrick chuckles next to me. “You all right, rookie?”

“Peachy.”

We finish another game and I stand up quickly from the table, sending my chair flying backward. “Okay. Time to switch it up. Give me back my girl.”

“One more round,” Tripp says.

“Fine, but she’s with me.”

“No way. London and I are a team.” He scoots closer to her. “A fucking great team. We are smoking you guys.”

“Aww, rookie, calm down.” Cody tips his head toward London and Tripp. “I think they’re kinda cute together.”

“What? I— They’re not fucking cute together. Take it back. They’re not even together. She’s my girlfriend.” Wasn’t he just saying she was good for me? What the fuck? My chest is tight, and frantic energy courses through me. Somewhere deep down I know this is an overreaction to my fake girlfriend, but all I can think is mine.

London’s mouth falls open and then she smiles at me. Fuck, she’s so beautiful.

Tripp’s face goes from surprise to blank to laughing so fast I don’t know what’s happening. But then the rest of the guys around us join in.

“Pay up.” Cody holds out his hand. The guys at the table all hand over cash.

“You cheated,” Merrick says. “Calling them cute together. You were clearly baiting him.”

“And it worked like I knew it would.” Cody arranges his money and then folds it in half, stands, and cuffs me on the shoulder as he walks off. “Thanks, rookie.”

“You fucking played me.” I shake my head at them.

“Sorry,” Tripp says. “The game is boring. Have to get our kicks somewhere.”

He holds up his hand to London. “Nice work, Lo. That laugh was perfection. Every time you did it, your boy looked like he wanted to toss the table at my face.”

“You were in on it too?!” I ask my not-so-innocent girlfriend.

She walks over, looking guilty, but still as beautiful as ever. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d be so easily fooled by a little flirting.”

I grab a fistful of her T-shirt and tug her to me. “You don’t look very sorry, sweetheart.”

She drapes her arms over my shoulders and then lifts up on her toes, bringing her lips an inch away from mine. “I have an idea of how to make it up to you.”

My brows rise with interest and a little surprise. I don’t speak girlfriend well, but I speak sex and that was a clear invitation.

I lean down and take her legs out from under her, then toss her over my shoulder.

“Oh my god, Brogan. Put me down.”

“In time, sweetheart.” I jut my chin at Tripp. “Borrowing your room. Payback’s a bitch.”

He just chuckles as I head toward the stairs that lead to the bedrooms in his place.

“You did not just announce to the whole party that we’re going to have sex in his room.” She wriggles in my hold to get free.

“Well, I hadn’t, but if that’s what you want.” I raise my voice. “I’m going to take my girlfriend upstairs and we’re gonna⁠—”

She smacks my ass before I finish the statement. “No, we’re not. We’re just going to talk.”

The noise of the party dies off as we get to the top of the stairs. Tripp’s room is open. I walk in and set her down, then kick the door behind us closed.

She smooths her hair down. “You’re a very convincing fake boyfriend.”

“I’m not playing, sweetheart.” I take her mouth and walk her back to the bed.

She kisses me back as frantic and needy as I feel, but then pauses. “Wait. We need to talk.”

My fingers slide under the hem of her T-shirt. “Okay. Let’s talk.”

Her laugh is tight as she sits on the bed and puts more distance between us. “I’m serious.”

“Me too.”

“What are we doing?” she asks. “We are pretending to date, but now kissing for real…I don’t want this to screw up everything else.”

“It won’t. I like you. We’re just enjoying the benefits of our arrangement.”

She wrinkles her nose.

“Yeah, that sounds way too businesslike for the dirty things I want to do to you.”

Her eyes spark with heat. “Are you sure? I like you too, but what if we start messing around and then you get bored of me or decide you want to sleep with someone else? I don’t think I could keep pretending to be your girlfriend.”

“I am not going to get bored of you. And the only person I want to sleep with right now is you.”

“You’re just saying that because you want to sleep with me. You don’t know how you’ll feel after.”

“I promise to keep being your awesome boyfriend through the wedding and end of the regular season, just like we planned. My penis belongs to you.” I tilt my head to the side. “That sounded weird. I won’t hook up with anyone else. It’s just me and you.”

It suddenly hits me that she might say no. I know she wants me, but she’s much more levelheaded than me. What if she decides I’m not worth it? That this arrangement isn’t what she wants anymore?

My heart races while I wait for her to say something. She hesitates another moment, then nods slowly. “Okay.”

“Yeah, we’re doing this?” I say, unable to hide my excitement.

“Yes. Your penis belongs to me.” She grins. “Bring it over here.”

“Not here.” It suddenly hits me that I don’t want her to think of Tripp in any capacity when I’m fucking her. I want her in my bed only.

“But I thought…”

“Stay with me tonight.”

“I have work in the morning.”

“What time?” We have the day off so my usual Monday night plans include staying up late and sleeping in, but I’m flexible if it means waking up to her.

“I have to be there by nine.”

I do some fast math. “Then that gives us ten hours.”