“You want to use me to impress a sponsor? The whole plan sounds crazy, Jack. Besides, I don’t know how I feel about lying to everyone.”
“I’m proposing we help each other. You said you’ve been swamped since the rumors about us started. You get customers, I get good press. It’s a win-win.”
“Business has been good, and I’m working toward something…” I can’t bring myself to tell him. “But I have to be with you?” As soon as I say it, I realize how mean it sounds. “Sorry. That’s not what I mean. I just—how would it even work?”
“Three dates,” he says. “We’ll make sure that we share the pictures we want to share and plan the dates we’re comfortable with. We control the narrative. After three dates, we break up and move on. You’ll have a kickass Q4, and maybe I’ll convince sponsors to help me save the town’s ice rink.”
“I haven’t even agreed to one. What makes you think I’ll agree to three?”
“I know this is coming out of nowhere, and I’m sorry—I get that I’m trouble. I have a reputation you don’t want to get tangled up with.”
“Well, yeah.”
He adjusts his glasses, drawing my focus back to his black eye.
“I know what you think of me. And yeah, a lot of it’s probably fair. But I ended up in the hospital last night, and it’s not the first time I’ve been one bad hit away from losing everything. And everyone around me is settling down and I just…”
“And you want a girlfriend?” I ask, not quite following.
“No, I don’t want a girlfriend. I just… I want someone to see me for who I am.”
His vulnerability cuts me. It also must nick off a corner of my self-resolve because I say, “Fine, three dates. But I have rules.”
He gestures for me to continue.
“One. No kissing.”
“How are we supposed to convince people we’re dating if we don’t kiss?”
“They can use their imagination. Plenty of couples leave their house without a ridiculous amount of PDA. Two, absolutely no sex.”
“Well, this is quickly becoming less agreeable.”
“Then you’re gonna hate my third rule. No catching feelings. This is strictly business.”
“What do you mean?”
“You can’t fall in love with me, Jack.”
“Who said anything about falling in love?”
I sigh, wrapping a strand of hair around my finger. “My life is a mess right now, okay? But I’m finally getting everything together. Good things are happening. The store’s growing, and I actually want to try to lease the space next door for an expansion. I can’t have you barging into my life and wrecking it all because—” I force myself to breathe, panic swirling inside my chest. “Because it won’t matter to you the same way it matters to me.”
He opens his mouth, but I keep going.
“You don’t have as much to lose. You probably have some fancy penthouse and all those endorsements and hockey. If this goes wrong and your reputation takes another hit, you’ll be fine. You’ll land on your feet.
“I’ve fought to build this business. It’s everything I have. It’s… all I have.” I wipe my bangs back from my eyes. “If I lose the expansion because people think this was all fake, because they think I was using you or you were using me—” My voice cracks. “I can’t lose this, Jack. I need you to promise you won’t mess it up for me. And that’s a huge ask because I don’t actually know you. Not really.”
“Izzy—”
“I know who you pretend to be. I know what Sloane and Annie tell me. You’re asking me to trust you with my life.”
Surprise flashes across his face. “Your life?”
“My livelihood!” I blurt out. “My future. Everything I’ve built. My?—”
“Your heart.”
