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He definitely understood why Andy had chased after her. The reminder of Andy instantly erased the lust he’d been feeling. Everything about her physically was perfect. She looked like she worked hard on herself. And outside with the kids, he’d seen a side of her he hadn’t expected. Normally the women he’d seen Andy with were the type who didn’t like to get their hands dirty, but Peyton had been right in there playing ball with the kids, having fun and trash talking. Well, as much as you could trash talk when you never swore. What was that about?
“Why don’t you swear?”
“What?” Peyton’s brow knit with confusion as she sat in one of the two cozy chairs in the corner of her office.
“The way you talk. You never swear, even when you were pissed off at me the other night.”
“I try not to.” She picked at her fingernail rather than looking at him. “I’m trying to set a good example for the kids here.”
“Not swearing is a good example?” Out on the field the way those kids had talked, there wasn’t a word in the English language that would shock any of them. “I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t care if you let ‘er rip.”
“It’s not about that. I’m trying to show them that there are other ways of speaking. That words matter. They have power. When every other word out of their mouth is The F-word, it has no power. If they used other words, when that one came out, people would know they meant business. Plus, I’m trying to help them get ready for the real world, where they will have jobs and they can’t talk like that to their boss or customers. So, I figure if they see I can get my point across without swearing, then they could to.”
“Yeah, but sometimes you just need to say fuck.”
“And when I need to, I will,” Peyton replied. “So, what’s up? Why’d you come by today?”
He dropped into the opposite chair. “I wanted to talk to you about us supposedly dating and what that means.”
“Okay.” Peyton pulled her right leg up onto the chair and wrapped her arms around her knee. “How long do you think we need to pretend to be dating?”
“No idea, a few weeks at least. I don’t really want to pretend we broke up right away because that’d be weird.”
“Why? You don’t date casually?”
“No, I do.” He shifted in his tiny chair. The thing seemed like it was a normal size when he’d first sat down, but now it felt like it may as well have been a child’s seat. His knees were up in his throat. “Fuck.” He winced. “Sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize. I don’t expect you to curb your language around me and as you said, the kids are certainly used to it, so you don’t have to worry about it with them either.” Her tongue darted out and he hungrily followed the movement. “So dating?”
“Right.” He shifted again, trying to get comfortable. “The thing is, I don’t do relationships, so Andy telling everyone you’re my girlfriend has made this into something for people for some fucking reason.”
Peyton winced. “Sorry, I didn’t realize things would be this awkward for you. How long do you need me to pretend we’re dating so you can save face?”
“I don’t need to save face,” he growled. What the fuck? He was doing this for Andy and her. This had nothing to do with him. If he had his way, he’d just fuck her and get it out of his system. But clearly that wasn’t going to happen since Kirsty had told him she expected to get some photos of them at Coach Gill’s anniversary party next week. “I stupidly allowed Andy to rope me into saying you were my girlfriend, and now we need to put on the act, at least for a few weeks. There’s this team dinner next week. Semi-formal. It’s for one of the pitching coaches and his wife’s anniversary.”
“And you need me to go with you?” She chewed her lip. “I didn’t really think we have to actually go out anywhere together.”
She sounded like she’d rather chew off her arm than attend a party with him. How the fuck could she have no problem dating Andy, but going out in public with him was somehow an issue? “That a problem?”
“No, I guess not, it’s just…” She paused like she was weighing what she wanted to say next. “I wasn’t really planning on being at events with Andy and his wife.”
“You can’t possibly still have feelings for the guy.”
“Ew, no, I don’t.” She pulled her other leg up and wrapped her arms around both legs. “Honestly, I didn’t have feelings for him in the first place. He seemed nice, but the spark wasn’t really there for me as much as I wanted.”
His gut twisted. She didn’t have feelings for him in the first place. So why the hell had she shown up to a team party with a guy she didn’t really like? “You hadn’t fucked?”
Peyton’s legs thumped on the ground. “What the heck? That’s none of your business.”
“Except it kind of is. Since I’m doing this fake dating thing with you, I need to know what Andy might say. He has a tendency to say stupid shit, especially when he drinks, and I’m not going to be embarrassed in front of my team.”
“And if we’d had sex you’d be embarrassed?”
“No, I couldn’t care less. I just don’t want to be blindsided if he says something.” His gut clenched. The idea of Peyton fucking Andy made him feel sick.
“We didn’t have sex I told you that before. We messed around a couple of times, but we didn’t have sex.” She looked down at her hand and started playing with her nails again. “The one night it kind of seemed like we might, I got a call from work and had to go. His reaction was…” She stopped picking at her nail and looked up. “It wasn’t what I expected.” She cocked her head to the side and watched him, measuring, assessing. “Do you want to know this? I mean, this is your teammate and you’re all bros before hos.”
Ryan snorted. “Andy and I are teammates, not bros.”
