She sighed and flipped the phone around so Will could see the screen. “I guess the news is out. That didn’t take long.”
“That’s why Ihadto talk to you.” He chuckled. “Zach might have nightmares for a while, but I didn’t actually threaten him. Just so you know.”
“I wonder if Dad knows yet. I’m guessing he doesn’t or he’d be blowing up my phone but…holy shit, he’s going to be pissed.”
She typed in a response to Erik.I’ll explain later. Talk after practice tonight? Until you talk to me, don’t say anything to anybody, even Dad. NO COMMENT. I mean it.
Ok for tonight. Let me know when and where.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” Will said. “I’m sorry.”
She looked across the table and lost herself in his dark gaze for a moment. He was sincere, she knew that. And his first instinct when ambushed by a reporter hadn’t been to thump his chest or trash-talk his rival. It had been to protect her and the thing she’d told him was important to her.
“I can handle my dad,” she said. “It won’t be easy.”
“What are you going to tell him? The truth?”
“Ah, that would be a definiteno. I’ll tell him what we’ll tell anybody else who asks. We’re dating. And I’ll probably let Erik believe it, too. His mouth got us into this, and the more people who know a secret, the faster it becomes anythingbuta secret.”
“And you think he’ll suddenly be okay with us dating?” His voice was heavy with skepticism, which made sense considering they’d spent years hating each other.
“For me? Yes. He won’t like it, but once the shock wears off, he’ll try to respect my boundaries where you’re concerned.”
“Okay. Iamreally sorry about this, Kristen.”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for.” She shrugged. “And I was planning to go to Firewall tonight. If you were there, you were coming home with me again, anyway. I guess I wasn’t done with you.”
“I was going home with you again, huh? Just like that?”
She extended her leg just enough to brush the inside of his calf and make him jump a little. “Would you have told me you had other plans?”
“Hell no.” He shook his head, chuckling. “Dating Erik Burke’s sister.”
“Fake dating,” she said, just to be clear.
“With benefits,” he added, with a look that raised the temperature in the restaurant at least ten degrees.
“Fake dating with benefits, until this mess blows over.”
Maybe she’d have gotten her fill of him by then.
5
Kristen didn’t want Will walking her to the front door of her office building, so he was forced to say goodbye to her outside of the restaurant and watch her walk away. Not that he minded the view, but he would have preferred to escort her back to work.
In part because he was a gentleman, but mostly because it would have given him a few more minutes with her.
The first text message arrived a few minutes after he slid into the backseat of an Uber back to his hotel. It buzzed twice more in the time it took him to get the phone out of his pocket to respond to the first message.
Clearly the news had broken in Baltimore.
He ignored the other two and pulled up the first because Mitchell was not only his teammate but had become his closest friend in Baltimore. They’d been picked up by the Harriers a year apart and been inseparable since.
WTF R U doing?A few seconds later, a follow-up message appeared.EB’s sis? DUDE.
It’s a long story.
U been there like a week. How long can it B?
