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Wondering what the future might bring for us, I padded back over to the bed and climbed under the covers. I hadn’t been joking about Prentice wearing me out, and it wasn’t long before I was sound asleep. When my eyes drifted open again, I felt more rested. Unsure how long I’d slept, I rolled over and grabbed my cell phone from the nightstand. My eyes widened when I saw how many texts and calls I had missed in the past several hours. Since Prentice and Nixon should still be busy at practice, I decided to see what Ember needed first.
“Where are you?” she screamed in my ear after picking up on the first ring.
“I’m at Prentice’s. Why?” A horrible thought crossed my mind. “Did something happen at the stadium?”
“Not in the way you’re thinking,” she rushed to reassure me. “But someone leaked photos of you and Prentice. Um…while you were, um, together. They’re everywhere.”
“Holy crap,” I gasped, hitting the button to put her on speaker mode so I could search for myself on the internet. I cringed when the photos in question popped up. We were in the hot tub on the back deck. You couldn’t see much of our bodies, but it was pretty clear that we were making love.
“And Prentice isn’t waiting to make a statement. If you turn on ESPN right now, you’ll be able to catch his interview.”
My head jerked back in shock, and then I scrambled over to his side of the bed to grab the remote. “He’s supposed to be at practice.”
“I guess he decided that defending your honor is more important.” There was an odd tone in her voice when she asked, “Did you tell your brother yet?”
My heart sank as I realized the ramifications of our secret getting out like this. “No.”
“Crap.”
Yeah, now Nixon had an extra reason to be angry. But I couldn’t worry about his reaction. Not while I watched Prentice field questions about me on national television. From his bed without a stitch of clothing on.
The whole thing was surreal. Reporters were asking him if we’d met through my brother. How long we’d been dating. If things were casual, or if this was a real relationship. Prentice remained polite right up until the moment someone asked, “Are you sure it’s smart to get into a serious relationship with the eighteen-year-old sister of one of your teammates?”
It was impossible to miss the flash of fury in his dark gaze before he gritted out, “Making Naomi Scott my wife will be the best thing I ever do in my life, bar none.”
“Wife?” several of the reporters echoed before one yelled, “Are you trying to tell us you’re married to her?”
“No, but she is my fiancée.”
10
Naomi
I was speechless after Prentice’s announcement.
Ember kept trying to convince me that everything was going to be okay. But I couldn’t get it together enough to explain that I was no longer worried about what Nixon would think. Or anyone else. I was too busy obsessing over the fact that we were going to have to pretend to be engaged since Prentice had just announced to the world that I was his fiancée.
I assured Ember I was fine and sent a text to both Prentice and my brother telling them as well.
Then I got dressed and sat down on the end of the bed, contemplating what the heck was going to happen next.
I kind of got why Prentice had taken it that far. The tide of the interview had been turning against us. Against me. And like Sally had said, Prentice would do anything for his teammates and their families. He would hate knowing that I was in trouble with the media because of my connection to him.
I was sure he thought that playing the part of my fiancé would be a small price to pay to keep people from judging me. And for him, maybe it would be. But not for me. Acting as though I loved him wouldn’t be a stretch since I’d already fallen hard. Playing his pretend fiancée while we were in public would only strengthen my feelings, and I was going to end up with a broken heart when this was all over.
Feeling vulnerable, I climbed out of bed and tossed on the clothes I’d worn the day before. At least now that the cat was out of the bag, I didn’t need to worry about doing the walk of shame home. Not when my brother already knew who I’d been spending so much time with lately.
Speaking of which, it was a darn good thing I’d gotten dressed because five minutes later, he was hot on Prentice’s heels when he came storming into the house. “How fucking dare you take advantage of my baby sister like this?!”
“Shut the hell up, Nixon,” Prentice growled. “I already told you, I need to make sure she’s okay.”
