Page 64 of Breaking Point
My eyes bug out of my head. “Next week?” I squeak. “How am I meant to know everything a girlfriend should know by next week?”
He flashes me a grin, his cocky air returning. “Easy. I’ll take you out on a date. We can get to know each other and ask the questions we should already know, all the while being spotted out in public.”
My lips purse as I roll the proposal around in my mind. “That’s not a bad idea.”
He winks. “It’s a great idea.”
My head is spinning. By next week I’ll be known as Grayson Crawford’s girlfriend and we’ll have to convince everyone in the hockey world that I was the one to get his life back on track.
All so he can stay on his team.
No pressure.
Swallowing thickly, I broach the subject. “I understand the contracts and NDAs Lucy will send over, but I refuse to lie to my mom.”
She will need to know how and where I’m getting the money for her treatment, and if God forbid it doesn’t work, I don’t want to lie to my mom about my life before she… I can’t even think about it, the thought is so revolting.
This treatment will save her. It has to.
I’ve lied enough to her. I’m done lying.
Grayson nods, his eyes softening. “Understandable.”
“Really?”
“Of course. I don’t expect you to lie to your mom or your best friend…Layla, was it?”
I chalk it up to good memory and not to the idea he actually listens to every word I say. “Yes, Layla.”
“I don’t expect you to lie to them. I’m not lying to Kieran.”
“What about your family?”
Any lightness that was in his gaze winks out and dies. It’s as if I’ve thrown a bucket of water over his flame. His posture grows stiff, his grip on the couch pillow turns his knuckles white, and hisface slackens with a heavy weariness that makes me want to give him a hug.
“I’ll deal with them,” he answers gruffly.
I’ve stuck my foot on a landmine, and I don’t know how to remove it safely.
“So, this date,” I go on, changing the topic. “When and where exactly is it?”
The tension still lingers around his body but my question has rekindled a spark. Asmallspark. But a spark nonetheless.
“Leave the details to me,” he drawls.
“You’re going on a datetonight?” Layla squeaks over the phone. “That man moves fast.”
“That man is trying to get acquainted with me so we can make the hockey world believe we’ve fallen for one another. There is no ulterior motive.”
“If you say so,” she sings.
Shaking my head at her antics, I move around the room trying to make myself look presentable enough to be in Grayson’s league. I’m not blind and I’m not vain either—I know I have some appealing physical features—but Grayson is on another level entirely, and the last thing I want are photographs of us splashed across social media followed by comments from randoms on the internet saying that I’m not good enough.
Granted, those comments will happen regardless.
Layla warned me that no matter what I do, I’ll receive some sort of backlash from fans and women who want Grayson for themselves. How she knows this, I have not one inkling, but I agree with her. You can never please everyone but if I don’t feel my best tonight, I don’t doubt what others will say about me later.
“Have you told your mom yet?”
