Page 35 of Second Down Fake

“Well, Diego told me about your…” She glanced around and leaned in. “Unique situation, so at least you’ll hang around for the season. And as soon as he said you ran a ghost tour, I was sold. I can’t hang out with another person who just takes pictures of food and makes me spend thirty minutes snapping pictures of them in front of walls in varying shades of pink.”

“That’s oddly specific,” I giggled. “You’d think Trent would have handled those duties.”

“Not the night before the game.” She cocked her head. “You know the rules, right?”

“We have rules, too?”

Her laughter floated over the noise of the party. “Sort of. Not really, but the players get a hotel the night before games and spouses, girlfriends, friends aren’t allowed. They’re sequestered. Which, for home games, isn’t a big deal, but sucks on away weekends.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. We can’t even fly out with the team, which isn’t awful, but after a couple of weekends, it gets really lonely. Noa thought you and I would hit it off.”

“Noa seems like he has pretty good judgment.”

“He hasn’t steered me wrong yet. So, you’re going to the opening game, right?”

Diego and I hadn’t actually talked about the game. Hell, beyond signing the NDA, we hadn’t really hammered out what our plan was. Be seen together? Not that the picnic would help with that, all things considered. “I’m not sure. Maybe?”

“Absolutely,” Diego answered, sliding in behind me with Noa. “If you’re free.”

“Yep. I’ve got a shift at the bar on Saturday, but I should be decent late Sunday morning.”

Noa wrapped his arm over Lena’s shoulder, kissing the top of her head. My chest pulled as Lena laid her head back against him, tilting her face up with a beaming smile. Had I ever been that comfortable with someone? Probably not.

Casual relationships suited me fine, anyway. Since dropping out of college, I hadn’t stayed anyplace long enough to date anyone seriously. Instead, I scratched an itch for human contact with temporary flings. A recently-divorced bartender in Boston, looking for a rebound fling. A drummer for an electronic rock band in Amherst who let me tag along for a month up through Maine. A coworker in Salem who moved out west to find acting jobs after Halloween. I collected them like badges, the memory more permanent than the person.

Then, I’d run into someone like Lena, or Becca, or my parents, people so deeply in love that their very home was with another person. And I’d wonder if I wasn’t missing out.

But what could I offer? A string of dead-end minimum wage jobs, an inability to stay in a single place, a couch in an apartment? Who wanted that?

No one in their right mind.

“Good,” Diego infiltrated my thoughts. “Because I already grabbed you a ticket. Lena, you’ll pick Cassandra up and show her the ropes?”

“You didn’t tell me I had to learn ropes,” I said on an exhausted sigh, draining the last of my water. “Please tell me this pre-game involves keg stands.”

“No keg stands, but we had an ice luge once,” Lena said. “I’ll pick you up and show you how to navigate game day. First game of the season is usually crazy.”

“Wait.” Noa’s eyes narrowed, craning his head down at his fiancée. “Ice luge? When? Who? I thought you all had a couple of drinks and snacks before the games, not a party.”

Lena playfully smacked Noa’s arm. “It’s none of your business what we do before the game starts.”

“It is if you have ice luges.”

Lena ignored Noa’s grumbled response. “You’ll get to meet the cheerleaders, too. They’re super sweet.”

“The cheerleaders hang out there too?” Noa’s gaze shifted to Diego, brow furrowed.

“They usually swing by, especially if there are any VIP guests. Coach Mack hosts the tent, and the owners like to bring their guests by before going up to the box seats.” Lena’s eyes gleamed. “Like last year, the Fairbanks brothers hung out with us for a couple of hours. I had no idea until Jace asked me if I knew where the napkins were.”

“The Fairbanks Brothers? Seriously?” I set down my empty water on the table beside us.

The game of football had never done much for me. A staple in my family home on holidays, it’d always been a background distraction. Becca had been a fan of the sport, but I’d only ever been mildly interested in the better-looking players and antagonizing my family by pretending to be a Buffalo fan. I didn’t actually care about any of it. But, if I was going to meet gorgeous celebrities like the Fairbanks Brothers, that was another story.

“No,” Diego said, bringing my fantasy to an abrupt halt.

“No what?”

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