Tomorrow I’d leave the island and step back into a world where people dissected my outfits, my facial expressions, my appearance.
And now they’d focus on my love life.
The one thing I wanted to protect most.
The one thing I wasn’t ready to share.
20
Jase
It didn’t take longfor my phone to blow up, just like Faye’s had. My mom, my dad, and even Tyler were texting. Their messages all sounded just like Cammie’s:
Are you dating the president’s daughter?
The answer was simple, but I still needed to make sure I could tell the truth.
“What do you want to do, Princess?”
Her blue eyes lifted to me. “I don’t know. What should we do?”
“You have the biggest spotlight on you,” I reminded her.
“For now,” she argued. “You just got a call earlier that you’re practicing with the pros during spring training. What if you get brought up?”
My gaze met Dylan’s and he said, “I don’t think it’s a bad thing for the world to know you two are dating.”
“Yeah, but I’m not the only one dating her,” I stated as though he didn’t know.
“J’s right,” Faye chimed in. “This wouldn’t be fair to you if the story is out that he and I are the only ones dating.”
“Then we tell them we all are?” Dylan shrugged.
My eyes shifted back to Faye, but before she could say anything, I said, “I’m not sure it would look good for stepbrothers to be dating, either.”
“I agree,” Dylan snorted. “Can you imagine the shit we’d get in the locker rooms?”
“Yeah, I don’t want to get shit for my relationship when I already know rookies get hazed.”
“But are we ever going to go public?” Faye questioned.
All of us were silent for a few moments, and then I answered, “I think we should eventually, but as I said, it won’t be good for us in our rookie season, and for you while your father is the president. How’s that going to go over when the world finds out his daughter is dating two guys?”
“That’s true.”
“So, we keep it simple,” I went on. “For now, the story is that I’m seeing you, which is true. We don’t lie to people who matter, but we also don’t hand the internet any extra ammo while we’re still figuring this out.”
Her gaze lifted. “And Dylan?”
“I’m not pretending I’m not in this,” he cut in. “But I also don’t need to be a headline.”
“That’s my worry,” she replied. “You’ll get shoved into the background while everyone talks about Jase and me.”
He shrugged. “I know what this is. You know what this is. He knows what this is. That’s the part I care about.”
“We tell our people the truth,” I added. “Just our families and friends. Your parents are going to need time before they even get used to one boyfriend, let alone two, and given your father’sthe most powerful man in America, I don’t think he’s ready for a scandal.”
Her mouth twisted. “Especially after the shit with Fallon getting shot.”
