Page 101 of Endurance
This brings both Belle and me up short. It’s sometimes hard to realise that people look up to us. I can see how they would admire Belle. She saves lives. But me? I just play football. It makes me even more determined to make my Shirt Off My Back charity event as successful as it can possibly be.
The interview starts off easily. Questions about how we met. What we enjoy doing together. Truthfully, it’s a thousand times easier to answer them now that we’re the real deal. If we would have still been fake dating, this could have been a nightmare.
“So, Tanner,” Georgina asks, her Irish lilt smooth and confident. “Tell me a funny tidbit about Belle. Something that made you fall for her maybe.”
I narrow my eyes as I ponder this for a minute and then start laughing. “Whenever Belle eats out at restaurants, she doesn’t select her own food. She either goes along with what her guest thinks she should eat or has the server choose for her. At first glance, you would think she’s indecisive. But she’s not.”
“No?” Georgina asks, her eyes alight with curiosity.
I turn to look at Belle. “It’s because she likes the adventure of the meal, not just the taste. It’s a very trusting quality that I admire about her.”
Belle’s eyes are locked on mine in shock like she had no idea I ever noticed that. I wink at her and she reaches out to hold my hand.
“Belle, how about Tanner? What is it that made you fancy him?”
Belle smiles to herself like she has an inside joke none of us know. “Tanner looks like this cool and tough footballer with his man bun and perfectly trimmed beard, so you would assume he’s a pretentious sod. Most athletes think they have to keep up this persona of prestige and perfection, but Tanner doesn’t. He is the exact opposite of conceited. He puts it all out there. No filter, the good with the bad. The cool with the emotional. He goes from pig to pussy in seconds because he has no ego. He is who he is, goofiness and all. He’s a softy and that…is hot.”
Her eyes are still locked on mine and express an intensity that winds me. I can’t believe all that she sees in me sometimes.
Georgina clears her throat, her own cheeks red from witnessing the chemistry sizzling between us. “Tanner, when did you first realise you loved Belle?”
Tanner answers Georgina instantly. “I tried to hide it from her for a while.”
This makes me frown because it’s not the answer I expected.
“You did?”
The interviewer asks, “How so?”
He laughs. “Well, one night Belle got a little tipsy out at a club with her mate. I was trying to find her to get her home safely, but she wasn’t answering my texts or my calls.”
My eyes fill with realisation over the night at Club Taint that he’s recalling. That was so long ago. We were still faking it back then. Surely he didn’t love me then. What is he talking about?
He adds, “I was decidedly worried, so I called and texted an embarrassing number of times.”
“It wasn’t that many!” I chime in, calling his bluff. “There were only a couple.”
He quirks a brow. “Because I deleted them from your mobile.”
My eyes widen. “You did?”
He confirms, “While you were in bed.”
I shake my head, stunned. “I had no idea.”
The interviewer laughs with us. “So was that when you realised you were falling for Dr. Ryan?”
This gives him pause as he answers, “As she said, I’m not a man who holds back. So when I realised I had something to hide from her, I knew it was already too late.”
His answer floors me. His words are so simple, so basic and ordinary. But suddenly, everything about him is even more extraordinary. I don’t have time to ponder it before he rises from his chair.
Georgina frowns. “I just have a couple more questions and then you can be off.”
Tanner digs into his jeans pocket. “I have a more important question, if you don’t mind.”
He turns on his heel to face me and my eyes lock on a small, black velvet box in his hands. “Tanner, no. Not here,” I argue feeling the cameras and Georgina’s gasp of breath.
“We started this on camera and we’re going to finish it on camera, Ryan.” He winks and licks his lips. “Belle, when I first asked you to marry me a few days ago, it was rushed and quick and I wasn’t fully prepared. Now I want to put a ring on it.”
