Page 1 of Reckless Storm
PROLOGUE
Reed
Hayley nibbles the flesh of her gloss-covered lips, silently reading her group chat messages. She angles the phone my way, her gaze briefly flitting to mine as she lets me read along.
Paige: A FAKE RELATIONSHIP?! Yes!
Amelia: That could work. Side note: Luke’s trying to look over my shoulder but I won’t let him see what we’re discussing
Paige: Whoops. Are we not supposed to tell the guys? Easton says hi. He loves the idea. But mainly because it takes the spotlight away from him
Keeley: Paige, tell that brother of mine to grow up. He’s a damn football player. He’ll always be in the spotlight
Paige: (Laughing emoji) Well, grumpy Easton is back. Thanks, Keeley. He wants the discussion to revert to Reed
I shake my head as a smile tugs at my lips. But it’s fleeting. They want me to fake a relationship?As if.I’m not going along with an idea taken straight out of a Hallmark Christmas movie. What do they think is going to happen? That my best friend will see me dating someone else and fall to her knees, begging me to break it off because she’s always loved me?
I’m ninety-nine percent sure she already knows how I feel, and it’s fucking with my head.She’sfucking with my head. So yes, it’s about time I did something to change that. But that something isn’t this.
“You need to shut it down.Now,” I tell Hayley, running my hands down my face, forcing a laugh. “I wish I’d never said anything to Luke. He’s taken my wordswayout of context.”
Unfortunately, it’s no secret that I have a thing for my best friend, Bria. I wouldn’t say I’m in love with her—like my friends so happily like to point out—but there are definitely feelings there beyond that of a traditional friendship.
And it’s been that way foryears.
Bria and I go way back. We attended the University of California together in Los Angeles, and when I was drafted to San Francisco after college, she followed me here, chasing her dream while I chased mine. Now, she’s working her way up the ranks at a big accounting firm with a goal to be the youngest partner by the time she turns thirty. And I couldn’t be prouder.
But, in order to attain that type of goal, she’s always put her career first. As have I. And because of that, I never told her how I felt. It was never the right time.
Not that she’s oblivious. She knows. We’ve just never discussed it. Or let ourselves cross that line.
Except once.
And it didn’t end well.
Cut to last week when I decided to get drunk and open my big mouth to the one guy who has trouble keeping his shut—my teammate Luke Bennett, star tight end for the San Francisco Storm, reformed playboy, and one of my closest friends on the team.
Also known as a loudmouth.
I may as well have shouted it from the center of the field during the Super Bowl halftime show. Because that man can gossip.
Now, his wife, Amelia—as much as I love her—has started a group chat about it with some of the girlfriends…wives…sisters…and even goddamn friends of the players on my team, and there’s no way back.
Hayley—one of the previously mentionedfriends—smirks as she undoubtedly prepares to set me straight, something she loves doing. “According to Amelia, you told Luke your ‘love life was fucked’ and that you ‘needed to fix it.’”
Jesus, I’m a dick.While I have no recollection of that happening, it definitely sounds like me. Not that I’m going to admit that right now. I’m already in too deep. “So what you’re saying is that everyone’s taking Luke’s word for it, because I was too drunk to remember?”
“Yep.”
“Meaning…you’re not shutting it down?”
“Nope.” Hayley’s radiant smile lights up her face as she brushes a few wayward hairs away from her eyes, pinning me with her stare.
I met Hayley last year at a joint Thanksgiving and Christmas get-together with my team, hosted by our reluctant coach. We’d been there to fake it for a film crew—for a TV series about our football team—and Hayley happens to be the director’s best friend. The director who’s now married to the infamous Luke and the two ex-enemies have a baby together. The beautiful Juliet. The reason for my crazy “my love life sucks” rant.
I want that.
Not the accidental pregnancy and subsequent heartache my friends went through, but the endgame. I want a wife; I want kids.
