Page 22 of Faking the Play

Chapter twelve

Ryan

When the guys told me they had kissed Amelia the night of the party, I assumed that meant my time with her was done and one of them would be stepping in. Instead, Logan insisted that I take her on at least one more date before we switched things up. People had seen her with all three of us at the party, and now they needed to see that Amelia wasn’t playing us off each other or fucking with our heads. They needed to believe the things we said about her.

With our football schedule picking up, it took a bit of juggling to plan today, but now, finally, Amelia and I were at the Rocky Mountain National Forest on a beautiful September morning, ready to do a little hiking and have a nice picnic.

We’d been walking up the trail for a few minutes, just enjoying the peace and quiet, when Amelia said, “Can I ask you something? It might sound like a complaint, but I promise it’s not. It’s just something I’m wondering.”

“Go ahead.” I squeezed her hand. “You can ask me anything.”

“If the point of these dates is for us to be seen together, why aren’t we doing something a little more public? I guess we couldrun into some people we know, but it’s not really likely.” She hurried to add, “And I’m really not complaining. I think this is great and everything. I was just wondering.”

I smiled, hoping to put her at ease. “We’re also supposed to be teaching you about dating.”

“So this is a lesson date?”

If I wanted to be completely honest with her, I’d have to say no, because I really hadn’t been thinking about anything other than taking her on a date that she’d enjoy. But that wasn’t something I really wanted to get into before I had a chance to figure out what it meant and what I planned to do about it. Which meant I settled for a half-truth and some improv.

“We’re going to have a lesson on asking questions and apologizing,” I said. “I told you before that you don’t need lessons in conversation, and you don’t…when it comes to having a back-and-forth discussion about things. When it comes to asking something important, you could use some pointers.”

She frowned. “I’m not following you.”

“You wanted to ask me a question that was more than just a ‘getting to know you’ kinda thing, right?”

“Right.”

“So you started by asking if you could ask me a question, and then reassured me about the question you hadn’t even asked yet.”

She thought for a moment before answering. “I guess I did.”

“You don’t ever need to apologize for wanting to know something,” I said. “If a guy can’t handle you asking a question, especially one where safety could be an issue, you shouldn’t go out with him.”

“Safety?” She looked confused again.

“You basically asked why I brought you somewhere we won’t be seen by a lot of people. If a guy can’t or won’t explain that, run.”

“Oh. I guess I didn’t think of it that way because I know I’m safe with you, but that’s a good point.”

Something warm spread through me and it wasn’t because she turned me on. Well, she did, but that wasn’t the reason now. This was more.

“Hey, it looks like there’s some picnic tables over there.” Amelia pointed. “Those trees are practically hiding them.”

We chatted a bit about food as we set up the lunch I’d packed this morning. Nothing fancy, but I knew the sort of stuff she liked to eat and, fortunately, it made for good picnic food.

“Are you sure this is going to be enough for you?” she asked as she looked at the selection of crackers, cheese, and fruit spread out on the tablecloth Logan had miraculously found somewhere. “You could’ve brought more and I would’ve helped carry it.”

“Remember the lesson about not apologizing for asking questions?” I asked as I sat down next to her. “Let’s add—don’t apologize unless you actually did something wrong.”

“I just feel bad that you packed a bunch of stuff that I like, but it’s not very filling and I’ve seen the way you guys eat—”

I silenced her by shoving a strawberry into her mouth, laughing at the shock on her face. Part of me had wanted to kiss her to get her to be quiet, but she needed to eat. We hadn’t hiked very long or far, but I doubted she’d eaten breakfast this morning. Even though it seemed like things were getting better for her, she was still stressed.

“I ate a big breakfast,” I said. “It’s usually not a good idea for me to eat heavy stuff before practice, so eating this now and then something small again before practice is better.”

“I heard you guys won your first game,” she said. “I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that it was an away game. I would’ve come if it’d been home.”

“Really?” I didn’t try to hide my surprise. “Did you come to games before?”

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