Page 44 of Fool Me Once

“Yeah, yeah.” I take my card back from him and begin pulling the mile-high stacked boxes toward me. “See you next week, old man.”

“See you next week, asshole,” he gripes back, but he grins as I take the boxes.

“Let me get the door for you.” Freya rushes around the corner, heading for the door. “It’s the least I can do after you spent hundreds of dollars here, only for Gramps to call you an asshole, right?”

I think that might be the most I’ve ever heard her talk.

I laugh. “Right.”

I get outside and get my truck loaded before heading toward the shelter. Most days, I sit and talk with everyone for hours because I have nothing to get home to. But today … I’m just ready to get home and see Gemma.

Fake girlfriend or not.

Igaze around the beautiful suite that Kolt, Walker, and Smith booked for Paige, Poppy, and me for the night in Tampa. It’s directly on the beach, and it has more than enough room for us—and probably all the other wives and girlfriends on the team.

Paige and Poppy have been gushing about staying in a room with their husbands tomorrow night and how they can’t wait for a romantic night before we all return home to Maine. Me? I’m kind of scared to stay in a suite with Smith. It somehow seems as though feelings would be harder to fight in a place like this one. We might be fake dating, but the last thing I want to do is send mix signals.

Either way, I’m going to try my best to enjoy my new friends’ company before I lose them to their husbands tomorrow.

“Let’s go sit on the porch,” Paige calls out, sliding the door open. “It’s so warm out.”

“Only if there’s an umbrella,” Poppy grumbles. “I’m fair-skinned, and I didn’t bring sunscreen, and I’m not showing up at my husband’s game, looking like the product of a whale who fucked a lobster.”

A laugh bursts from my throat. I never know what’s going to come out of her mouth, and I can’t imagine hearing her and Saylor together. Although they’d probably argue to see who was funnier.

“You’ll be fine. Vitamin D is good for you,” Paige yells from the porch.

“I’ll get plenty of vitamin D tomorrow night,” Poppy chimes, clearly impressed with herself, before shuffling toward the door behind me. “But, fine, I’m coming out.”

Once we’re all outside and Poppy plops down on a cushiony lounge chair, Paige takes it upon herself to move the huge umbrella toward her friend. Seeing how heavy it is, I decideto help.

“Now, you’re making me feel like a needy bitch,” Poppy says before grinning. “I kinda like it though. But I should help.”

“No!” Paige and I say at the same time.

“Good. I was just kidding anyway.” Poppy pulls her sunglasses down and lies back. “All right, this beats the hell out of December in Maine, I’ll admit.”

“That’s just because you’re a Georgia girl,” Paige teases her. “You’re still not used to New England winters.”

“Are you from New England?” I ask curiously, and she nods.

“Yep, born and raised in Vermont and then moved to Maine from there,” she says, taking a seat in the chair next to me. “What about you?”

“I grew up in Maine, about three hours from Portland; left for about five years; and then came back.”

“Where’d you go?” Poppy asks curiously.

“California,” I breathe out, hoping they don’t ask any more questions, but also knowing I’m not that lucky.

“Wow.” Paige seems impressed as her head bobs up and down. “What brought you back to Maine, if you don’t mind me asking?”

In that moment, vivid images—me getting hit, choked, smashed against a mirror, pushed into a car window, and so many more sickening things—run through my head. I see myself crying in the bathroom. Or lying in my kitchen, a crumpled-up mess. I put up with so much, and it all haunts me daily.

Closing my eyes for just a second, I inhale through my nose and let it out through my mouth to clear my brain.

I open my eyes, plaster on a brave face, and snap back to the present. “I just wanted to be closer to my family,” I lie, “so I moved back to the state.”

“Makes sense,” Poppy says, taking a sip of her water. Suddenly, her free hand flies to her stomach, and she sucks in a breath.

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