Page 36 of Once Upon a Fake Date

“We did, Coach. But my best friend?—”

“A girl?”

I nodded.

“Hisgirlfriend,”Taylor said, waggling his eyebrows.

Fuck.

Coach raised an eyebrow.

“I promise I won’t let it be a distraction. If it gets to be too much, I’ll back off.”

“Alright, Maxwell. I’m counting on you.”

My chest felt tight. Because someone else was counting on me, too…Audrey.

“Rosie!”I shouted, jogging to catch up with her after glimpsing her pink cardigan with little bows on it and blonde hair. She was unmistakable.

Her phone was out, and I noticed it had a new pink sparkly case on it, and she’d added a pop socket that looked like a pink bow. Damn if that wasn’t as endearing as shit.

“Parker.” A small smile ghosted her lips as she stopped to face me. “Hi.”

“Hey, sunshine.” I slid my finger through the belt loop of her jeans, tugging her close to me.

“What are you doing?” Audrey whispered under her breath. We were only inches apart, standing in the middle of the sidewalk on the quad. I was still holding onto the loop of her belt and hooked my finger through the other side, too.

“We’re dating, remember?” I murmured back. “Just smile. I told my teammates today.”

“Oh.” She blinked up at me. “Okay. Right.”

I leaned in, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Relax,” I breathed into her ear. “I’m going to hold your hand, and we’re going to walk into the dining hall together, okay?”

She nodded, and I interlaced our fingers before we started moving again.

“How was your day?” I asked, breaking the silence.

“Good. I only had one class, and then I got lunch with Ella.”

“That sounds fun.”

She squeezed my hand. “Yeah. It was nice.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with her free hand. “How was yours?”

“Better now.” I squeezed her hand back. We were still new to this fake dating thing, but I liked it. “You know, we should really make each other our phone backgrounds,” I said, hoping like hell she’d agree.

She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, her mouth gaping open as she looked at me. “Who are you, and what have you done with my best friend?”

Was it that crazy that I wanted to be able to look at her any time I unlocked my phone? But maybe she liked her cutesy pink background and wouldn’t want me on it.

“Well,” I cleared my throat. “As your boyfriend, I think that?—”

Audrey giggled. “Parker.”

I shoved my hands in my pockets. “Yeah, maybe it was a dumb idea.”

“No. It’s just…” She bit her lower lip like she was debating on her next words. “It’s sweet. And I’m still not used to you being like this.”

I slid my hand over her cheek, cupping it tightly. “Well, you better get used to it, huh? Because I’m going to treat you right, Audrey Rose. Okay?”

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