Page 15 of Broken Promises

He pats my shoulder. “Great first day. I’ll see you in the morning.”

I grab my stuff and dig my phone out of my bag as I make my way out of the locker room.

Princess

How was your first practice? Was everyone wowed by your stick skills?

I’m running a little late. The meeting is still going on. I don’t know how.

Actually, I do.

Practice was great. I made a friend against my will. That’s a new one for me.

What’s keeping you from me?

I’m going to need you to explain that one later. We’re finishing up rescheduling the last leg of the tour, and I may have fought for weird dates so that I could go to some of your games. But I couldn’t tell anyone why.

I’m smiling at my phone like an idiot. I forgot how great it feels to have Willa in my corner. Not that she hasn’t always beenthere, but it’s the first time in years she’s fighting to come cheer me on. My parents retired early thanks to my paychecks. Now they’re traveling all over the world and rarely come to see me play anymore. It’ll be nice to have someone there for me again.

You could just tell them.

I slide into my car and wait for her reply.

Not yet. I need to figure out how to tell them without blowing everything up.

I frown.

You think they won’t like me?

Honestly, I think you and Cal will be best friends, but everything is fragile right now, and I’m scared of rocking the boat.

I get it.

I don’t. It’s not like I’m some random guy. I’ve been in her life for most of it. I doubt they’d even be that surprised. But considering she’s doing this for me so I can retire how I want to, I keep my thoughts to myself.

Soon. I promise.

I think Jon is either ready to wrap up or the vein in his head exploded. Either way, I should be out of here soon.

See you soon, Princess.

I think about her the whole drive back to my apartment. I never meant to add more stress to her life. I honestly thought I’djust move into her house and be around her friends all the time. But I need to accept her caution because she knows them better than I do.

I’ve never really met them. I was there for her mom’s funeral, but I was ten, and I don’t remember much other than how sad Willa was. I probably met the others, but maybe I didn’t.

Fake marriage is hard when you actually care about your wife.

SEVEN

willa

“I havegood news and bad news,” I tell Declan around a mouthful of the Pad Thai he ordered for me.

“Give me the good stuff first to cushion the blow,” he says, clutching a green throw pillow to his chest dramatically. I ignore the way his forearms flex and the tattoos covering his arms. They do weird things to my stomach.

I roll my eyes. “We finalized the rest of the tour schedule. I can make a lot of your home games. Not all of them, but more than I was expecting.” I wanted to see Declan play anyway, but we realized it would be smart to have me at as many as I could get to, so our marriage looks more real.

“Fuck yeah!” Declan yells, pumping his fist in the air. I throw my head back and laugh. I forgot how easy it is to laugh around him.

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