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1
Madison
I reach for A.J.’shand, and he takes mine and gives me a soft squeeze as we walk down the red carpet. The photographers shout his last name “Bernard” over and over until he turns and pauses to let them each get a good shot. He pulls me close again, looking over at me and smiling before he lifts my knuckles to his lips and kisses them. Another round of flashes goes off, and I grin brightly at him—the two of us exchanging a knowing look before we turn back one last time.
I can already hear the women in my comments on social media telling me how jealous they are that I’m his girlfriend because A.J. is take-your-breath-away gorgeous. He’s six-foot-three, warm brown eyes with flecks of gold, and a smile that stops your heart in its tracks. Follow it up with the dimples and the charm, and the man is very nearly perfect. There’s just one problem—he’s still madly in love with his ex-wife.
Well, two problems really. The fact that we’ve been friends since college—the kind of close friendship that makes it impossible to see one another romantically also puts a bit of a damper on things. But it does make me the perfect foil for the gossip machine when I pose as his fake girlfriend.
A.J. takes my hand as we get into the car, helping me inside before he follows, and the driver shuts the door behind us. He glances out the window and then back at me.
“Think they bought it?” He grins.
“I think they ate it up. You dating your coach’s daughter? That’s all they’ll be able to talk about for a while.” I smile back at him, grabbing a mini champagne bottle out of the fridge to hand over and then open one of my own.
We clink the glass bottles and each take a sip. It’s been a long night at this gala, and we’re both exhausted. Pretending to be in a relationship honestly feels harder than being in one. Then again, I’ve never been married, and it’s been a minute since my last real relationship.
“How is Maya?” I ask when I see him slip his phone out of his pocket and check for messages.
“She’s good, I think. She doesn’t talk much outside the kids. She’s dating again, or at least that’s what Mia tells me.” His brows knit together, and he tucks his phone back into his suit.
Mia’s their oldest daughter who’s almost as desperate as her father to get their family back together. They filed for divorce last year, and it was finalized just before the big game. His wife definitely had her reasons. A.J.’s relentlessly dedicated to football, has been since college, and pours most hours of his life into some aspect of it. With the building stress of the end of his contract, the push to deliver above and beyond, and bring home a trophy to Chicago—it put a lot of pressure on their marriage. Too much.
“Well hopefully, an added benefit of this arrangement is that it kills the rumor mill.”
He nods and takes another sip of his drink, glancing out the window as the world whirs by, and the car carries us out of downtown Chicago.
“Let’s hope,” he agrees. “I know it’s always a risk with your dad. He’s a force.”
A force was a nice way to say someone with too much power and too many axes to grind. A.J. and I started this fake dating routine when he found out he lost his potential deal to go to Cincinnati. He’d been nervous after the loss and the interceptions in the championship, worried my father’s infamous ability to railroad his own quarterbacks might be a problem for him too. He had his agent shopping around for potential new teams for him, and Cincinnati had eagerly reached out to start negotiating.
But then their front office had unceremoniously fired their head coach—A.J.’s biggest fan there—and suddenly any interest in bringing A.J. on evaporated. But not before several of the sports blogs had leaked information about a potential deal. If my father hadn’t seen a target on his back before, he definitely did after he heard rumors that A.J. was looking to leave.
“He won’t want the appearance of drama. It’s one thing to railroad your own quarterback. Worse when it’s a repeat offense. But inexcusable when that quarterback’s girlfriend is also your daughter. The rumor mill would go wild. He just needs time to settle down after losing, and you’ll be back to being his favorite again. He likes you better than his own children anyway.” I nudge A.J.’s shoulder playfully.
“I do usually piss him off less.” A.J. laughs.
“This is true.” Especially true given my older brother Tobias’s team just destroyed his to win the league last year, immediately after Tobias had basically told him to go to hell. I’m half-lost in a daydream about all our family drama when A.J. nudges me and brings me back to the present.
“Do you want to grab some dinner?” he offers.
“No. I have to get back and start packing. I fly out for Cincinnati in the morning.” I already freelanced for A.J. doing PR work when he needed it, so when a job opened up there, a team my younger brother Easton already played for, I jumped at the chance. I was desperate to find something anyway after everything in Colorado had fallen apart in rapid order this spring. Something to keep me busy and pay the bills, and the PR job in Cincinnati seemed like the best fit.
“Ah yes. I forgot they’re already getting you started.”
“Yeah, they told me to come in and be ready to hit the ground running.”
“Do you know who the quarterback is yet?”
“No, which makes me nervous. I guess they’re still finalizing things and don’t want to announce it yet.”
“Maybe they’re just going to hold tight on the second-round draft pick. It’d help them keep the cap low if they wanted to pick up some other guys.”
“Let’s hope. Managing a young kid out of college with a golden reputation would make my life easier.”
“In some ways… in others though. So many of those guys lose their minds when they get the money and all the freedom that comes with it.”
“You didn’t.” A.J. had married Maya shortly after signing his contract.
