Page 7 of Home Run Fiancé
She looks at Asher, her eyes sad, but I can see her bending. She doesn’t want to do it—which makes two of us, sweetheart—but she’s going to say yes. Her shoulders slump and her whole face goes soft as she looks up at Asher.
Rhys nods quietly and Asher gives her a big smile before smacking the table and declaring himself the best sports agent in the west. Rhys laughs at his antics and I can visibly see the love they have for each other.
What Idon’tlove is this arrangement.
“Wait just a second there, Mr. Sports Agent. We need to discuss everything in detail before I agree to it. Maybe you can pull on Rhys’s heartstrings as her brother, but I need a little more than that.”
I look at Rhys, pinning her in her chair with my hard gaze. “Let’s get some things straight first before you agree to take my ten grand.” I hold my hand up, counting off fingers. “One. You can’t do anything to reflect poorly on me. Doesn’t matter whether we’re together or you’re by yourself making more flower things for your hair. The paparazzi is everywhere and you have to be above reproach at all times. Two. You can’t back out of this if the going gets tough or you get bored. You say yes, you’re stuck in this deal until I get that contract signed with the Sliders. Flighty might be cute as a college student, but you’ll take this seriously. Three. This is all temporary and fake. We will not actually be a couple. Not now, not ever. Don’t develop feelings for me and then get angry when I don’t reciprocate.” I sit back and feel good about getting all that straight. “You can agree to all that, then I’m in.”
Rhys sits there quietly, no expression whatsoever on her lovely face. The silence stretches out and I start to think she needs me to say it again, just a little slower this time. Maybe she needs to write it down, like taking notes in class.
Then one side of her mouth tilts up. Just the one side, like a reverse stroke. I frown, wondering what her deal is. She suddenly unfreezes at an alarming rate, a blur of motion as she lifts an arm and slaps her hand back down on the table, nearly tumbling the candles and torching Asher’s place. Her head rears back and then tosses forward again, a supersonic bark of laughter emitting from her mouth. If I wasn’t so fascinated with her reaction, I’d have plugged my ears.
“Oh my—did he—what—” She’s laughing so hard I can’t make out what she’s saying. Then tears are filling up her eyes and my own mouth is getting in on the fun, curving up into a smile, her mirth contagious as much as it is dangerous. It’s a strong reaction and not what I expected, which makes me a touch worried.
“Rhys…” Asher’s low warning ratchets up the tension in my gut. He’s frowning at her, not a smile or laugh in sight. He knows her better than anyone so if he’s worried about her reaction, I ought to be terrified.
The loud scrape of a chair has me glancing back at Rhys. I find her standing, her hands locked into fists by her sides. There’s a fire in her eyes that burns away the tears and leaves a tiger where a young girl should have stood.
“Go to hell, Jake.” She smiles and there’s so much hate in it I nearly shiver in my chair. She turns to Asher and the smile inches a few degrees warmer. Barely. “Thank you for dinner. Sorry your friend is such a condescending jerk. Good luck.”
Asher hops up and follows her through his apartment, trailing her as she gathers her things.
“Come on, Rhys. Hear him out.”
I watch the fallout from the table, uninterested in running after them and begging her to help. If she’s bailing now, there’s no way she’d have worked anyway. Although, it would have been fun to get her mad again. She’s a cute thing normally, but she’s something else entirely when she’s mad. Like an avenging beauty ready to cut your throat and howl at the moon.
Rhys has the front door open, about to step out and leave when I hear Asher whisper something I can barely make out.
“…was there…Charlotte said…cut your hours…need this.”
Rhys’s shoulders slump and she looks away from Asher. Her obvious discomfort interests me. She needs the money and she still turned me down? That isn’t the response I would expect from someone desperate for the ten grand carrot dangled in front of her. That ache in my chest is back, making me get involved when I really shouldn’t.
I stand up and make my way over to the front door.
“What’s the problem here?” I fold my arms across my chest again, oddly not to intimidate, but to protect myself from this woman whom I don’t understand.
A deep breath later and she’s spinning to me, that fire still in her eyes. She holds her hand up, palm out, pointer finger extended. I look at her hand then back at her, still not understanding.
“Number one. I’m not the one with a poor reputation right now, so why don’t you make sure you don’t do anything that reflects poorly onme. Two.” Another finger extends up. “I don’t have any problem sticking with something I agree to, which you’d know if you actually took the chance to get to know me. I’m not the one trying to get out of one contract and move to a different state with a new contract. Let that sink in, big guy. Three.” A third finger mocks me. “The only, and I mean only, reason I am agreeing to do this is because I know it’s temporary. The end of this agreement of ours can’t come quick enough. Don’t worry about my feelings. This girl can control herself around you. And I’ll add a fourth. Because this is fake, let’s get real clear about something else. You have zero right to touch me unless there is a camera out recording our behavior. Behind closed doors, I’m not yours. Keep your big mitts to yourself. Are we clear?”
A buzzing fills the air as her voice bounces around the walls of my head, hitting all the soft spots and knocking me down several pegs. Which I’m sure is her intention. Well, holy cannoli. This girl is straight fire. And there goes the tug on the line, reeling me in with one impassioned speech aimed right at my ego.
I smile.
“You want me to call you sweetheart or baby?”
“If you don’t want me cutting off that ridiculous beard in a fit of rage, let’s stick with Rhys.”
I hold out my hand, and after a brief pause, she puts her soft hand in mine.
And she lets me tug her back into the apartment.
4
Rhys
We finished dinner in a tense bubble that only Asher seemed oblivious to. He kept asking inane questions to get us talking, and if I didn’t love him so much, I would have told him to shut up. I could feel Jake’s gaze on me the whole time I tried to shovel down my food, like I was an insect being examined under a microscope. He can look all he wants but I doubt he’ll figure me out. Men like him have too much ego in the way to see other people clearly.
