Page 27 of Going All In

Chapter 6

Darcy was notlooking forward to this. She was nervous as hell. Would they look ridiculous? Could they pull this off? She’d gone over it in her head more times than she wanted to admit and had thought about calling it off just as many times, but they both had their reasons and if they stuck to the plan, hopefully it wouldn’t blow up in their faces.

She felt guilty about lying to her family. Her mom had texted her at least twice for a picture of them together, so that was on her list of things to accomplish tonight. Yes. She had a list.

One. Get a picture to post online.

Two. Don’t flinch when he touches you. Or shiver.

Definitely don’t shiver.

Although it was January and the wind was biting, as usual.

Three. Don’t look like a lying asshole.

Just your basic fake relationship checklist.

Four. Act like you want him.

“You’re overthinking again,” he whispered in her ear.

She tamped down the shudder as his heated breath washed over her cheek. At least it wasn’t a shiver. Number four clearly wasn’t a problem since she wanted him, against her better judgment.

“Someone has to,” she whispered back.

He chuckled. “Just go with it. You want this to look natural, right?”

“Sure,” she said, looking up at him, and into those damn blue eyes that she stupidly wanted to drown in. She blamed it on her long-standing infatuation with Alexander Skarsgård. Jake could be the man’s double—down to the smirk that always lingered.

It did things to her insides that it had no business doing, dammit.

“You two are adorable, bickering over there.” Ally’s voice cut through her daze, and she turned to glare at her friend.

“I think Dom just showed up,” Darcy said.

Ally rolled her eyes. “He can wait,” she said with a grin.

Jake took a sip from the beer that Adam had placed in front of him. Darcy saw the bar owner’s eyes darting between them. She assumed there would be a lot of that tonight, and she wasn’t helping their cause if she was stiff and standoffish.

Jake positioned himself next to her, his back against the bar, her body turned toward him. She could do this.

“Great game, by the way,” she said, then took a sip of her porter.

“Thanks. Any time you want my tickets, just let me know,” he said.

“Thanks. And no penalties, the higher-ups will love that.”

“It wasn’t a super chippy game. That always helps.”

“Wow. I can feel the love just dripping from you two,” Ally said drolly.

“We are working into this slowly,” she hissed at her friend. “It’s not like I’m the type to climb into his lap.”

“You’re welcome to do that,” Jake said, with that smirk back in place.

“Not helping.”

“Little Harty’s right. Grab that drink and let’s mingle with the guys.”

---