Page 17 of Play Your Part

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Isn’t this going to cramp your style… or whatever?”

“Cramp my style?”

She blew out a breath. “Yes. You know… with all your…femalefans.”

I couldn’t stop the smirk overtaking my face. “We’re not even together yet, and you’re already so territorial.”

She tossed a pillow at me, which I easily swatted away. “So if it’s just coffee and dinner, then we’re keeping this casual?”

“At first,” I said. “But I doubt that’ll be enough to… improve my reputation.”

She smiled. “Being Kennedy Cole’s boyfriend will?”

“This fan base loves you.”

“Don’t sound so surprised. Your lack of affinity for me speaks more about you than me.”

I laughed, loud and genuine. She probably wasn’t wrong. More than anything, I resented what running into her that night meant for my life, my career. If she’d held it together, none of this would have happened. It felt like one more way for Justin Ward to get at me, even when he wasn’t trying.

“You’ll need to go to some of my games. I can get you one of my jerseys to wear.”

Her nose wrinkled. All traces of ease from the last few minutes fell away, her limbs locking up and becoming stiff. “I’m not going to any games. And I will eat dirt before wearing your jersey.”

I scoffed. Was she serious? All of my girlfriends had gone to every game they could. “People will expect you to attend.”

“It’s nonnegotiable.”

We stared each other down, seeing who would blink first. Giving in to her made me seem vulnerable, and I hated that. Her saying no screwed me. I didn’t doubt she could get Ward’s attention another way—hell, she alreadyhadhis attention—but I didn’t have any other options.

“Then what are you willing to do?” I finally asked through gritted teeth.

“I’ll go out with you no more than three times each month—you can choose what we do. I’ll go to one team function. We can post pictures on social media and hold hands and—”

“Let me guess, you have a maximum number of times I can kiss you.”

Kennedy’s cheeks turned pink. She tried to hide it by turning away from me and futzing with her hair. “You can kiss me once,” she said as she locked eyes with me. “So choose wisely when to do it.”

There was so much I wanted to retort back at her, but here was her agreement. That was all I needed.

“Fine,” I relented with an exhale. “But you need to sell the hell out of this relationship. Always assume people are watching us. Make them believe I’m someone you like.”

She laughed quietly. “That’sgoing to take effort, but I’ll manage.” She rose from her seat, walking away without warning. Over her shoulder, she muttered, “Just don’t forget I’m pretending.”

I caught up to her before she opened the sliding glass door and thrust my hand out to her. Kennedy stared at it a moment before taking it.

“There’s no danger of that,” I taunted. “For me.”

9

KENNEDY

Allday,Icouldfocus on nothing other than this moment. This moment of truth with my dad.

His business trips kept him working long hours, though it wasn’tthatdifferent from how he spent his days at home. Still, we were steadfast and saw each other at least once per week during Sunday brunch at the same restaurant if he was in town. For those weeks he wasn’t, we opted for a video call. Always on Sunday, his least busy day of the week.

Asking to move our Sunday brunch to Friday sent a message.

He wasn’t the yelling type, at least not with me, but from the calls I sometimes overheard, I knew he had it in him. I wasn’t sure how he’d take the news of all that had happened in the last week. I was an adult. I didn’t need his permission to do anything, but dammit if I didn’t want his approval.

---