Page 62 of Starlight Bay

“Why? So I could listen to my mom’s lecture on settling down soon so she can finally have grandbabies? No, thank you. I was out in Arizona, they were here—why rock the boat? I dodged the topic once or twice, but mostly it was all good. Then when I got traded back and Christmas came up, they were all about you coming with me.”

“When you’re done with football, you should move into negotiations for the league. You just ran the fastest con job on me ever.”

“Good, right?” I smiled slyly at her.

“No. Not good. Because eventually you’re going to have to confess to your family we broke up. I agreed to go homewith you, not participate in an elaborate dating ruse. There’s a difference you know.” She chewed the edge of her nail, a nervous habit she’d been trying to break since I’d known her.

“C’mon, Syd. Just for the holidays. One week. That’s all I’m asking.”

“I really don’t like this, Nick.”

“I know, I’m sorry. And I should’ve been straight with you yesterday. But I really need this, Syd. Please? I don’t want to crush my mom’s dreams at Christmas.” I stole a quick glance, locking my eyes with hers.

“Fine. For your mom. But you have one week, Nick. Then you have to tell them we broke up. Because we obviously can’t keep this up.”

My heart constricted at her words; the break-up had been her idea all along and was never part of my plan. To be honest, Sydney Porter was the best damn thing that’d ever happened to me outside of football and I wasn’t keen on giving up on us so easily.

But if that’s the game we were playing, fine. It was on. I had one week to convince Sydney to take a chance on us, HR regulations be damned. It might be tough, but I was up for the Christmas Challenge.

CHAPTER 3

SYDNEY

My insides churned with anxiety, but I couldn’t let him see me sweat. I’d agreed to the deal, against my better judgement. But I did love his family and usually spent the holidays alone watching Hallmark Christmas movies, so things could have been worse.

“So let me get this straight—your entire family thinks we’re together? Even your brother?” Nick and his brother Nate were close; I was surprised he didn’t know about the break-up.

Nick’s lips formed a thin, tight line. He shrugged, then looked over his shoulder to change lanes, conveniently avoiding eye contact.

“It never came up. I was only in Arizona for like two months. Nate made it out to one game. My parents never managed to get there; I’m pretty sure my dad’s allergic to the desert. So yeah, no one knows. Not even Nate.”

“Super,” I said, sighing. Even though I worked in PR, spinning tales about my personal life wasn’t really my jam.

“It’ll be fine, Syd. We’ll just keep it really cool, no big deal.”

“Define ‘really cool,’ Nick. Like, is that holding hands? Hugging? Kissing?” My stomach clenched as I rolled through thelevels of affection.How was I going to do those things with Nick and not get attached again?Breaking up with him sucked. He didn’t know it, but I’d been gutted after our break-up. Now here I was, going home with the one guy I absolutely could not get involved with, pretending to be his girlfriend.

What could possibly go wrong?

“I’d say yes to all of the above. Otherwise, it won’t look legit. Nate will be suspicious for sure, and so will my mom. So yeah. We have to act like we’re still together.” He met my gaze out of the corner of his eye and my breath caught in my throat.

It was gonna be a long week.

“Fine. I can do this,” I said, drawing on some magical inner-strength reserve. “I’m annoyed, but I can do it for a week. For your mother.” I emphasized the last sentence so he knew I meant business.

“Thanks, Syd. I really appreciate it.”

I shook my head, a swirling cocktail of anxiety, anticipation, and apprehension coursing through me in equal parts. Nick Milton still did it for me—charming, funny, gorgeous. And did I mention sexy as hell? But he was also a player for the team I now worked for, a hard HR no. Dating him was practically career suicide and my job was literally my life. So what the hell was I thinking participating in this charade?

I folded my arms across my chest, firming up my resolve. No matter what happened this week in Starlight Bay with Nick, we had to be over. For the sake of my career. I’d worked too hard and come too far to blow it over a romance. Our “relationship” had to have an expiration date of Christmas, no matter how great we fit together.

Starlight Bay was the quintessential New England beach town, the sort of place pictured on postcards. The holidays only made it more magical, evergreen garland and huge red bows adorning every streetlight, with a huge Christmas tree standing tall in the town square. Nick’s parents lived in a quiet suburban neighborhood a few minutes from the town center. Under normal circumstances, I would have loved coming here.

I pushed those thoughts away as Nick pulled up to the house, a gray-and-white two-story Cape Cod with a wraparound front porch, white columns, and dormer windows. Oversized wreaths decorated the double front doors, with matching garland draped down the stair railing. Like I said, picture perfect.

“You ready?” Nick asked, glancing over at me, a tiny crease between his brow the only sign of worry on his handsome face.

I took a deep breath. “I suppose.” Plastering on a smile, I turned towards him. “Is this a good game face?”

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