Page 51 of Hello Quarterback

I tugged at the collar on my blouse, not sure how to broach this with Farrah. “So I want your advice, but first I have to tell you about something. Promise you won’t hate me.”

“I could never hate you. But Icouldbe pissed at you.” She gave me a teasing smile. “What’s going on?”

I swirled my wine in the glass, watching tiny bubbles form and spin in a cyclone. “So... I might not have been completely honest about my... relationship with Ford.”

Her eyebrows drew together. “What do you mean?”

I cringed, knowing how it would sound. “I might be fake dating him to get the board to like me more by association.” I peeked up at her to see her setting down her glass.

“First of all, Gage told me what’s going on with Thomas, and it’s bullshit. They should trust you for the work you do, not stupid office politics.”

“I know.”

“And second...” She stalled, studying me with a mix of hurt and concern. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

I covered my face with my hands, sitting back in the chair. “I was embarrassed.” I uncovered my face to take a drink of wine. I needed it.

“Why would you be embarrassed?”

Heaving a sigh, I answered, “I made such a huge deal about our first date, thinking he liked me back, but while I was there,he asked me to be his fake girlfriend so he could get out of dating the Diamonds’ owner’s daughter.”

Farrah’s face scrunched with confusion. “Wait, couldn’t he just say no to her?”

“Not without having his contract cancelled the next year.”

“So fake dating you was preferable to real dating her?”

I nodded.

“And you agreed because?”

“Because of the board,” I explained. “Tallie thought it could be a good way for me to win some internal support.”

She shook her head and downed another swig of wine.

“And you can’t say anything because I signed an NDA,” I said. I knew she wouldn’t tell a soul.

“Mommy!” Tara said too loudly, looking up at us. “Can I change it to another show?”

“That one is fine,” Farrah said.

“But, Mommm—” she whined.

“Watch this one first, okay? Then we’ll talk.”

Tara grumbled but put her headphones back on, leaving me to talk with her mom.

Farrah turned her gaze back on me. “So why the urgent meeting? Guilty conscience?”

I shook my head. “I needed my life and love advisor.”

Farrah laughed. “The divorced mom with two baby daddies?”

That made me laugh too. “No, the woman who’s living happily ever after with her billionaire boss and a beautiful, blended family.”

Her smile warmed and she tucked her foot closer to her bottom, holding on to her knee. “So what’s the question?”

Flattening both my palms on the table, I said, “Well, after the team dinner last week”—I checked to make sure Tara was still watching TV, and when I was sure she was, I whispered—"we kinda hooked up in the limo on the way to my place.”

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