“Well, you being even a little selfish actually makes me feel a lot better,” I tell him honestly. “At least you’re getting something out of it too, you know?”
“Yeah, I get it,” he says while his gaze flashes over to my championship banner again. “So no need to worry about the give and take of it all.”
“So you’re going to let your friends in on the plan, then?”
“No, I think it should appear real to everyone. Just to be safe.”
I know my expression has to be showing my surprise, but I thought for sure he’d opt for home to be a safe zone—or at the very least, he wouldn’t lie to his friends. Couldn’t he just tell them to corroborate the story without them having to believe it? Then again, maybe they’re all shitty liars. I don’t know any of them well enough to be certain.
The only thing Iamsure of is this still feels like crazy lengths to go to help someone.
“This is insane. You know that, right?”
Logan runs his fingers through his light brown hair before tossing the hand in my direction. “Maybe, but do you have any better options?”
Not fucking one.
And while I still have eleventy-billion questions and thoughts in my head, I can’t seem to sort through a single one of them right now. But what he’s offering may just be my golden ticket, so rather than questioning it any further and risk him changing his mind, I cross over to where he’s sitting and hold out my hand between us, pinky up.
“All right, fine. You’ve got a deal.”
His gaze flicks back and forth between my hand and my face before he lets out a laugh and gingerly wraps his pinky around mine.
“Well, now that that’s settled, I guess we need a backstory onhow this all happened, don’t we?” I ask, dropping to the end of the bed beside him.
“Oh, I already have one.” My face must betray my every thought, because he raises his hands in front of him helplessly. “What? The girls were asking questions at dinner. I had to tell themsomething.”
He makes a fair argument, but it doesn’t mean I can’t have a little fun teasing him.
“You were that sure I’d agree to this, huh? Enough to make up a whole saga on our love affair?”
“Oh God. Don’t call it that,” he pleads, blanching slightly. “And ascrazyof an idea as this may be, you not taking my help felt even crazier. Especially when you already asked for it.”
“As far as I remember, I asked for a tutor, not a boyfriend.”
“And look at that, now you have both.”
My lips twitch, noticing how easy it is to toss banter back and forth with him. It’s unexpected, though no more unexpected than starting the day being shot down by the guy, only to be fake dating him before bed.
What a strange sequence of events.
Wetting my lips, I ask, “Should we maybe…I don’t know. Set some ground rules?”
“Yeah, probably a good idea,” he agrees with a nod. “The first should be obvious: No hooking up with anyone else. No one is going to take a relationship seriously if it doesn’t appear to be monogamous.” He arches a brow before tacking on, “I hope that won’t be an issue for you.”
Laughter erupts from my chest, and I shake my head. “Are you trying to slut shame me? Because I have absolutely zero shame.”
“Really?I never would’ve guessed after walking in on you while you were naked, doing a dick-copter to fucking ‘Shake It Off’.”
“Hey, shame is a useless emotion, Little Reed,” I tell him with a shrug, which only earns me an eyeroll.
“Oh, perfect. That leads me to rule number two: Don’t call me that. I’m not one of your friends or teammates or whatever else. My name is Logan, notLittle Reed.”
“True, but couples have nicknames for each other. Your face earlier saidbabewasn’t the best option either, so what about sweetie? Honey? Or maybe—”
“Ugh, fine,” he cuts in, his face screwed up in disgust. “Just keep it to a minimum, all right?”
“Can do,” I agree with a smirk. “But you’re gonna have to come to some of my games if we’re gonna sell this. That’s gotta be rule three.”
