Page 78 of Resisting the Running Back

I shake my head, and he walks over and wraps his arms around me. “Listen, Sophie. There are tons of precautions in place these days. It’s not like the days of theTitanicwhen they hit an iceberg. They can track that kind of stuff now, and they can reroute if they need to. Nothing bad will happen.”

“What about the tummy bug thing? Or food poisoning? What if I get food poisoning and you have to share a bathroom with me and you’re so grossed out by me that you don’t even want to sleep in the same bed as me let alone have sex with me?” I ask, and I hear the ridiculousness of my own question, but I still feel that it bears asking anyway.

“Jesus, Sophie. I promise you, nothing willevermake me feel that way about you.” His eyes drop to mine, and when I see the sincerity there, I feel a whole lot better.

I draw in a deep breath and let it out slowly, and he drops a quick kiss to my lips. “Now get ready, or we’re going to be late to brunch, and everyone will eyeball us walking in late and assume it was because I was having my way with you.”

“What if it wasmehaving my way with you?” I shoot back, and he chuckles.

“Do you feel better?”

“I just get a little nervous before big trips. I know everything will be fine.”

We pack up our stuff, check out of the hotel, and head to Lincoln and Jolene’s place for brunch. Tanner and Cassie are opening their gifts when we walk in. Jess is keeping track of who got them what, and the kids are fighting over who gets to pick the next present. Jolene’s baby, Joey, who’s somewhere around six months old, is crawling all over the place while his big sister Josephine—who’s three and a half—is playing mom to him as she babbles in toddler talk about where he can and can’t crawl. It’s a little bit of chaos, and it’s actually sort of adorable.

But then Lily starts to cry because Luca picked the next gift out of turn, and Cassie decides it’s time to eat rather than continue opening gifts as a way to distract the kids from their current fight with each other.

Whew. I amsonot ready for that sort of life. I’ll just take my books and Miller for the moment, thank you very much.

We’re halfway through the meal when Miller leans over and whispers, “What ifIam the one who gets the food poisoning and you’re grossed out by me?”

I giggle. “Okay. I get it. I was being ridiculous.”

He’s not laughing. “I’m serious.”

My eyes widen. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offload my own worries onto you. I just needed to get them off my mind.”

He twists his lips. “You’re right though. Things are going well. Too well. Something’s going to snap.”

I wrinkle my nose a little nervously, and he taps it.

“Whatever it is, we’ll be okay. Right?” I ask. Actually, it comes out as far more than anask. It’s more like abeg.

“We’ll be just fine,” he assures me, but there’s something there in his eyes that tells me he’s not so sure about that himself. Food poisoning and hurricanes aside, though, whatreallycould go wrong? It’s probably a question better left unasked—especially now that I’ve passed some of my anxiety onto Miller.

I let it go as we finish eating, and then the newlyweds finish opening their gifts. We spend the day at Lincoln and Jolene’s house with the Nash clan, and Tanner and Cassie duck out early to do whatever it is newlyweds do while we stay with the rest of the family and start a poker tournament. We have to end it early since some of us have an evening flight down to Florida—Miller and I included—and we hitch a ride with Grayson and Ava over to the airport.

I haven’t had the pleasure of spending much time with Ava, so I’m excited to get to know her better. All I know is that Grayson is hilarious, and Ava seems like his perfect match.

“So how did you two meet?” I ask on the way to the airport as I sit beside Ava in the backseat.

“He’s my brother’s best friend,” she says.

“Oh, come on, babe,” Grayson says from the front seat. “That’s sort of leaving out the entire story, isn’t it?”

“You tell it,” she says petulantly, and he barks out a boisterous laugh.

“We hadn’t seen each other in a decade when I was traded to the Vegas Aces. I went out to a bar to celebrate and ran intoher. I didn’t recognize her. We spent the night together, and I won’t bore you with the details, but eventually we ended up married and running a bakery together.”

“That’s adorable,” I say. “Who’s manning the bakery while you’re on vacation?”

“Oh, my best friend, Kelly. She works on and off for me, but our staff there is totally incredible. What about you two? How did you meet?” Ava asks.

“Miller and me? We go back to high school. We met in freshman English class, became best friends, and—”

“And only recently admitted how we really felt,” Miller says.

Oh, okay. So that’s how it is…keeping up with the ruse.

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