We walk the red carpet into the event, and one side is lined with reporters and influencers yelling questions at us.
“Dex! Who’s your date?” someone yells.
“This is Ainsley.” He grabs my hand and pulls me inside, and my heart is racing.
Howisn’this?
Once we’re inside, my heart is still racing. As he takes me to the bar, I’m starting to see why people drink at these things. If nothing else, it calms the nerves a bit.
“Whiskey for me, vodka Sprite with three cherries for the lady,” he orders, and he’s being all protective, and oh God, there goes that ache between my legs getting all throbby and uncomfortable again.
I have to ignore it since the man I now recognize as Asher walks up beside us with a gorgeous redhead by his side.
“Bradley,” he says cordially, and Dex turns around and shakes his hand.
“Asher, this is Ainsley,” he says, introducing us.
I shake Asher’s hand, and then I turn to the woman with him.
“Hi, I’m Ainsley,” I say.
“Desi,” she says. She flicks her neck toward Asher. “The wife.” She grins, and I laugh. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too,” I say, and Dex hands me my drink while Asher orders for himself and his wife.
Once she has a glass of water, she turns to me. “Nobody cares about us at these events, so I like to go bid on all the auction items while Asher isn’t looking. Want to come with me?” She sticks out her elbow.
My eyes flick to Dex first, and he gives me a slight nod of his head as if to say that she’s safe—a much-needed reassurance given that I know literally nobody here. I slip my arm through hers. “I’d love to.”
We head toward the auction tables together, and she writes bids on several of the items while I just peruse all the things that I could never afford…except that’s the thing.
Icannow.
I’m making bank as a nanny for Jack, but it’s so ingrained in me not to be wasteful, not to spend money frivolously.
I guess it was always sort of a dream to attend something like this, and as I look through gift baskets and tickets to events and signed memorabilia, I can’t believe that I’m really, actually here.
And then Dex slides into place beside me, setting his hand on the small of my back, and it feels even more surreal.
How is this my life?
He guides me over to the table for dinner, and we’re sitting with Asher and Desi. There are some other football players at our table as well, all guys who play on the same team as Dex with their dates, and somehow this event feels so much more relaxed than the last one.
We laugh through dinner. I chat with Desi and get to know her.
I don’t admit that I’m actually married to Dex, but the news will break soon enough. Maybe I’ll get a chance to know her evenmore when she realizes we’re both football wives. Maybe we’ll sit at games together and toast to touchdowns as we cheer on our husbands.
It’s also possible that I’m completely delusional and nothing like that will ever happen, but I’m okay with living in fantasyland just a little while longer.
Especially since it means that I get to play the part of Dex Bradley’s wife. And as we take the dance floor after dinner and sway together to a slow song, it’s starting to feel more and more like a role I was born to play.
CHAPTER 19: Ainsley Bradley
One of the Safest SUVs on the Road
I drive away from Lincoln Nash’s place in Dex Bradley’s Challenger, and if you would’ve told me a month ago that this would be my life, I’d say you’re bananas.
But here we are.
