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That’s exactly what someone about to burn down Trevor’s patio would say.

DJ

Never touch another man’s meat.

Rhett

That got weird fast.

Shane

I’ll ask Willow, but Thursday should work.

Colton

What did I tell you? Whipped.

Shane

Married.

Rhett

Same thing. Just with paperwork.

Chapter 25

Shane

I’m about to tuck my phone into my jacket pocket when Carter’s call lights up over the group chat. Swiping the call on, I press the phone to my ear and wave my keycard over the elevator sensor.

“Ten years. Ten years of pulling teeth to elevate your career and all I needed was to get you a wife?”

I grumble a nonanswer.

My agent laughs, loud and boisterous. “Why didn’t I think of this sooner?”

Since that feels like a rhetorical question, I don’t respond.

“Did you see the post-game analysis? What am I talking about? You never look at that. The takeaways are along the lines of ‘the love of a good woman will change a man,’” Carter says with annoying giddiness. “My favorite catchphrases are ‘properly domesticated,’ ‘humanity unlocked,’ and ‘The Willow Effect.’”

The Willow Effect isn’t entirely inaccurate. I don’t think I would have grinned while running the bases if Willow hadn’t been singlehandedly trying to start the wave. I certainly wouldn’t have been as open in my post-game interview if Willow hadn’t told me through the netting that Alex was ‘a complete sweetheart.’ And don’t get me started on how it felt seeing Willow in my jersey.

I’d heard other guys talk about it, but there was something primal about seeing my name across Willow’s shoulders. Her Waves eye makeup had already made my chest throb, but when she turned to point out the guy in the stands, a base possessiveness overtook me. I wanted to simultaneously shout my gratitude to the universe and gather Willow in my arms, never letting go.

“And when she blew you a kiss at the top of the ninth and you caught it before putting your glove over your heart? Forty grandmas fainted, seeing that exchange.”

My jaw tightens.

Willow had slid me a sly thumbs up afterward, and I almost missed an easy pop fly.

I hadn’t realized it’d all been for show.

But of course it had.

Isn’t that what Willow wrote in her note? That we were to keep up the ruse of this sham marriage?

A knife stabs me in the gut before someone twists the handle.