Page 33 of One Steamy Pucking Meet Cute

“I’m trying to figure this all out,” Jesse says. He’s wearing athletic clothes like he just got done working out. I’m still in my button-down and tie from the gala, but I did leave my jacket in the room with Andi, Caroline, and the babies. We probably look like quite the pair.

“What part has you confused?” I ask.

He glares. “Well, first, I find out my best friend is supposedly engaged to my sister. I call bullshit and wait for you to correct me and explain. But you don’t. Then I show up, and you still try to lie to my face about it. Caroline comes clean, and then it makes a hell of a lot more sense. I’m still irritated with you, but I get it. You were just helping each other out, blah blah.”

“Sounds like you’ve got it pretty figured out from here,” I say, taking a long drink.

“I did. Until I sat down and saw the look on your face.”

I pause, drink in hand. “What’s wrong with my face?”

“You look like a teenage girl who just got back from prom.” He pokes my stomach, smirking. “I bet there are butterflies in there right now.”

I take another long drink, partly to buy time. “I’m just tired.”

“What happened? And don’t try to lie to me. You’re already on thin enough ice as it is, asshole.”

I weigh my options and decide he’s already deep enough. I might as well bring him all the way in. “Alright. Want to know the truth? I thought this whole arrangement would be some good fun. Pretend to be engaged to Caroline, no big deal. We’ve had our moments in the past, but it was never anything serious. Except I’ve never spent time with her like this. Before, it was always–”

“Don’t finish that sentence.” Jesse sips his drink.

I smirk. “Alright. Point is, this is new territory. A few times, I almost thought she looked like she wished this was all real, you know?”

“No,” Jesse says, voice cold. “I don’t. Believe it or not, I’ve never tried to pretend to be engaged.”

“Yeah, well, it’s weird. Confusing,” I add.”

There’s a long pause. Jesse finally laughs. “Jesus, dude. What the hell are you two doing?”

“That’s a good question,” I admit. “I think she’s trying to save her B&B, and I’m trying to save my career.”

Another long pause. “You know, even if the Vandals don’t sign you, every other team in the league would blow their load if they landed you. It’s not like you’ll have to retire.”

“I want to retire a Vandal. This is my team.”

“Yeah,” he says with a heavy sign. “I get it. But you really think this will work? Has Vanessa touched base with the front office since the news of your little engagement broke?”

“No,” I say. “We wanted to give it some time to reach them naturally. Don’t want it to seem too forced.”

“What if they just think this makes you look even more unpredictable? Guy without a girlfriend gets engaged out of nowhere?”

I shake my head. “It’ll be fine. I can explain we were really dating for a while. It’s not entirely untrue, anyway.”

Jesse’s eyes narrow. “You just said this was uncharted territory.”

“Yeah. It’s not as if we were in an official, committed relationship. And we were always sneaking around. Being out in the open and trying to act like a real couple. I think we both knew it wouldn’t make sense to try for anything more. I’d never be around enough, and she was too busy with the B&B to follow me around the country during the season.”

“And you think that’s going to be different, now?”

“No,” I say slowly. “But we’re just pretending. Remember?”

“Right,” he says slowly. “Because you definitely don’t have any real feelings for her.”

“Look,” I say with a sigh. “I do like your sister. I always have. She’s honestly pretty fucking awesome, okay?”

“I’m aware,” Jesse says.

“So when I heard she got knocked up, I distanced myself on purpose. We’d been… well, you know, at the time. Her getting pregnant meant she wasn’t being exclusive, and I realized I was the one being an idiot for thinking she should’ve been. It hurt. But as far as I can tell, that guy is completely out of the picture.” I wait, watching Jesse with a meaningful expression.

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