Page 106 of Faking the Shot

“I was so young and naive. But it made me determined to never be taken advantage of again, so I guess that’s a good thing.”

“Being taken advantage of is never a good thing,” Diana said softly.

Fresh tears slipped from her eyes. Great. She wiped them away angrily.

“I’m so sorry this happened to you, Ainsley. You’ll be in my prayers.”

Diana’s kindness wrapped around her heart and gently squeezed. “Th-thank you. And I’m sorry you had to witness any of that.”

“I’m not. I’m glad I was there to help.”

“Do—do you think that Destiny will post that picture of me?”

“She deleted it when Glenda asked her to.”

“Thank goodness.”

“I just hope…”

“What?” She peered at Diana.

Diana shook her head. “We’ll keep praying that God protects you.”

“Thank you.”

God needed to. Because she was so weary she couldn’t fight for herself.

* * *

He’d been hopingagainst it, but really shouldn’t have been surprised to get home that afternoon after training and discover a message canceling their planned date tonight.

He leaned his head on the steering wheel and exhaled. Maybe this latest Ainsley excuse stemmed from another feeling of overwhelm, like what had happened previously when she’d visited the “dancing ladies” as he preferred to call them, not wanting to let the phrase “strip club” accidentally tumble from his mouth. And while logical him knew that, and knew she was feeling pressured on many sides about many things, an increasingly insecure part of him suspected she was looking for any excuse to push him away. Which made him second-guess himself, and whether he’d misread this whole thing. And that she’d actually meant it when she’d said they were together for social media purposes only, to clean up both of their reputations.

Was that why he’d agreed to this stupid fake relationship? He could barely remember his motives, but had a funny feeling this was supposed to be about God giving him time to figure out how to do a godly relationship, to not let his heart get entangled. Well, while he might’ve figured out a few things on the first, that last sure hadn’t worked. His heart was jungle-deep in conflicting hopes and desires, most of them to do with Ainsley.

“God, I need you.”

He needed clarity. Peace. Wisdom. Grace.

His phone buzzed with an incoming call. He glanced at the screen. Chris.

He didn’t want to answer it. Like, really didn’t. But stretched to tap the screen and activate speaker mode.

“Good, I got you,” Chris said.

Zac closed his eyes. “What do you want?”

“Now, now. No need to be like that. I just wanted to give you a heads-up about the date you mentioned you were planning for tonight that your girl might not be in a great headspace right now.”

His eyes snapped open. He straightened. “Why? What’s happened?”

“Look, Diana isn’t wanting to spill all the tea, but she said Ainsley had a shock today—”

“Shock? What kind of shock?”

“She didn’t say. Just said that Ainsley was really upset, so you might need to give her a little bit of space.”

Everything within him wanted to drive to her place and find her, hold her, help her. But… “She wants space? What does that mean?” Not see him right now? Probably. Not see him ever again? The way things were going, it felt like giving her space wasn’t going to be a problem. She created enough distance between them on her own.

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