Page 31 of Second Down Fake

“I’m curious what she does if we both call. Because if it was just me, she’d get all disappointed and call me a moron.”

“Oh, trust me, she’s going to be disappointed. That’s just never bothered me.”

“You had the benefit of growing up with her disappointment. I only got exposed in college. It was too late for immunity.” His thumb unhooked from my belt loop as his palm drifted onto my lower back. I closed my eyes with a heavy sigh. Dating Diego would have been so easy. Too easy.

“Don’t worry, I’ll teach you all my tricks,” I murmured into his shirt, inhaling sun and turf. “It’s mostly avoiding her and using puppy dog eyes, but you’ll pick it up real quick.”

“Puppy dog eyes? Now, I need to see that.” The air between us felt cold as Diego pulled away with a smile.

“I’m not showing you everything at once. You’ve got to work to get this information.”

He grinned. “Well, I look forward to it, but right now, I have a date with a ghost in the bathroom. You coming?”

I shook my head. “It’s not as scary with company. Good luck though. Hope you make it back!”

I grimaced as Diego slid away, my eyes scanning the bar for a camera pointing in our direction.

Nothing, though that didn’t mean he hadn’t just been playing for the crowd. I sighed, frustrated more with myself than Diego. “Alright, everyone, ten more minutes and then the Norwalk Ghost Tour is taking off!”

ELEVEN

DIEGO

My fingers tapped the steering wheel. Nerves. Nothing new but for a new reason. I had plenty of nerves on game day as I watched the coin flip. Nerves when my team was down at the half. Nerves when I lobbed a ball into the end zone and prayed my receiver caught it.

Nerves for a barbecue? Definitely new.

I dropped my hands from the steering wheel and shook them out, fidgeting with the angle of my seat and then the radio. I’d offered to come pick Cassandra up at her door, but she texted that the elevator died, and she didn’t want to be responsible for me hiking up fourteen floors. Fourteen floors would have been preferable to waiting in the car.

The front door to the lobby opened up and Cassandra strode out. She wore a pale floral dress with a white chunky cardigan, hair piled on her head in a messy bun and a faded brown purse slung over her shoulder. Skipping out of the building, she stopped on the sidewalk, scanning for my car. I beeped the horn to get her attention.

“Hey, stranger,” she said warmly, sliding into the passenger seat. “Long time, no see.”

She reached back for the seatbelt, shifting in her seat so her dress rode up over her tanned thighs. I cleared my throat and pulled my eyes away. “How is Norwalk’s favorite ghost tour guide this afternoon?”

“I’m forcing someone else to run a ghost tour just so the title means something,” she said with a grin. “I’m having a great day. The weather is beautiful, I had a blast on the walking tour, and my fake boyfriend is taking me out for barbecue. How could this get better?”

I started the car, glancing over at Cassandra. She had a content smile on her face, and she swayed with the music playing on the radio. Even with a phone call to Becca looming, she only focused on the positive: a nice day, a thankful customer, a free meal. And just being around Cassandra, that deep ease seemed to sink into my skin. I sighed, letting the nerves from earlier drift away.

“So, who’s going to be at this thing?” she asked, drumming her fingers against the car door with the tempo of an upbeat song playing over the radio.

“Well, everyone. All the guys you met last night.”

“Noa?”

“Yeah, Noa. And his fiancée, Lena.”

“Of course he’s got a fiancée. It’s always the good ones.” She shook her head sadly. “What about Trent?”

“You know he doesn’t count as one of the good guys, right?” With my focus on the road, I had a harder time deciding if she was joking. An uneasy prickle of jealousy coursed through me. One that I had no right to feel but sparked, anyway.

“Well, that’s your story. For all I know, Trent will tell me you’re the one who dragged him out to the club and got him in trouble.”

Teasing. Definitely teasing. Probably. “All the coaches and their families will be there too. Most of the support staff: trainers, nutrition, pretty much everyone who’s at the stadium on a daily basis.”

“So, not a little get together?”

I laughed. “No. There’ll be a couple hundred people.”

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