Page 17 of The Midseason Fakeout

“Okay, I was just saying—”

“Sex is the least of my concerns right now,” she grinds out.

“Whoa, okay,” I concede. “I’ll talk to your brother and tell him he doesn’t have to worry about it. That we’re being safe.”

She gives me a look. “He can’t know we’re pretending, Aidan. He’s as protective as my parents are, so if you do talk to him, you better make it good.”

I hate lying to Darrin, but he’ll never find out this was all fake. This relationship will run its course, we’ll break up, and that will be the end of it. I’ll still have my relationship with Darrin, and Bailey and I will be fake exes for the rest of our lives.

When I put it like that, it sounds like a long-term commitment. But it’s a commitment that could potentially set me up forever, and Bailey deserves her independence, too.

I reach out my fist to her. “We got this.”

She touches her knuckles to mine, and the skin where we connect heats.

I pull away immediately, clenching my jaw. I rub the back of my neck. “You should take a picture of me and send it to your parents. But only if you get my good side.”

She shakes her head as she takes out her cell phone. “What are you talking about? You don’t have a bad side.”

“Aww. Thanks, Bails.”

She holds her phone in the air. I smirk, driving one-handed, and glance over at the camera. She snaps the picture and stares at the screen. “JustAidan,” she murmurs.

“What?”

She chuckles. “Sorry, this just looks like the most Aidan picture ever.”

Turning the phone toward me, she shows me the pic. To me, I look normal. “What do you mean?”

She peers down at the screen, dragging her fingertip across my jawline. “The smirk. The confidence. Your whole personality. It all comes through here.”

I concentrate back on the road. She taps her screen and then sets the phone on her lap.

“Sent?”

“Sent.”

I’m not sure where the shift in the car comes from, but it’s suddenly filled with tension as I pull into Richie’s. After parking, I face her. “Are you ready for this? It’s our first big test.”

“Ready,” she states confidently, nodding so that her messy bun flops.

“Should we go over parameters so I don’t scare you again? Like with the ass grab?”

“No parameters. We’ll act normal.”

Yeah, normal. Except there’s nothing normal about dating my friend’s little sister, and there’s especially nothing normal about faking that relationship.

But, hey, what could go wrong?

6

BAILEY

Laughterand the smell of grease fills the diner Aidan takes me to. My skin buzzes as I soak up the atmosphere. The football team takes up the left side of the diner, the rest of the public on the right. We sit at a circular table with other players, and luckily, I get sat next to another player’s girlfriend, who introduces herself as Kenna.

Immediately, we get along, and soon, with Aidan’s comforting arm around my shoulders, it feels like I belong.

Aidan’s teammates are rowdy, drawing the attention of the other patrons, but no one says anything. In fact, they all smile over at us, and more than a few times, they come up to the table to tell the team what a hard loss yesterday was and to keep their chins up.

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