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He remains silent for a moment, staring down at Mason while his hand strokes the length of his back. Just when I don’t think he’s going to answer, he shifts his eyes to me. “Did your brother tell you about my contract mess?”
“No.” I sit up a little straighter and bite down on my lower lip. “What mess?”
“Not a lot of people know, but my old agent really fucked some shit up for me, including my contract with the Devils.”
Does that mean he’s at risk of being traded? Does he want that? Does he want to go somewhere far away?
Do I want that?
Instead of chewing on my lip, I chew on my fingernail, a bad habit I picked up during my childhood.
“What does that mean for you?”
“Well, he was supposed to make sure I had an eight-year contract. I have a two-year, which of course, is up this year. It wouldn’t be a big deal except this new GM they have coming in is a bit of a wild card. I don’t know him, and he sure as shit doesn’t know anything about me, except maybe my stats. There’s no guarantee he’ll keep me.” He runs a hand through his hair, his jaw flexing. “My agent had been with me since the beginning of my career, and I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I figured he was going through a rough patch, but after he messed up my contract, he started fucking up my sponsorships too.”
“Oh, no.”
“Yeah, I lost a couple of my big ones because he was a dirt-bag who didn’t understand the word ‘no’. Anyway, my new agent called me this morning; he’s trying to get everything fixed. He, uh, he had an idea I wanted to run by you.”
“What is it?” I ask slowly, a sinking feeling settling in my gut. This is why he’s here in my apartment, feeding me my favorite food, and hanging out with my baby. I don’t know what it is, and I’m not sure I want to know. My damn gut is telling me, whatever it is, I won’t like it.
“He thought that it might be a good idea if we made Cramington look like the real deal.”
Is he asking me to—?
“Are you asking me to date you? Or pretend to date you?”
Foster’s cheeks tinge with pink, and he glances at the ground. “It would be pretend. We would put on a show.”
“Absolutely not. That’s a recipe for disaster.”
Pretend. Put on a show. He’s assuming people will believe someone as hot and fit as him would date a single mom with curves for days.
That’s a bigger joke than his proposal.
I don’t even need time to think about it. This has ‘bad idea’ written all over it. There is no world where I can pretend to be his girlfriend for any length of time and come out unscathed. It wouldn’t work.
There’s no fucking way.
None.
CHAPTER TEN
I take a deep breath and Mason slaps my chest. His words are indecipherable, but I can only imagine what he’s saying right now.You’re screwing this up, arsehole.
If talking to girls were an Olympic sport, I’d be a gold medalist, but there’s something about Avery that has me all sorts of nervous. And I’m never nervous.
I’m the one that has it together, the one that tells the other guys to calm down.
Now I’ve made a proper mess of things.
First, the kiss, and now this moronic idea. I should have told my agent there was no way, that he needed to think of something else.
“How would this even work?” Her voice is soft. Tentative.
She’s nervous too.
“I can’t say I’ve ever dated anyone, real or fake.” I keep my eyes on Mason who seems to be urging me on. “I’m not the dating kind of guy, and I’m not sure I ever will be. This idea… this plan, was a way to circumvent the real me. It really is crazy.”
