Page 24 of Elite Player
Sean lifts his brows, expecting me to go on, and when I don’t, he shakes his head in amusement. He’s probably about my parents’ age but knows me better than them. He knows I keep to myself, don’t give much away, so when Nico appears at my side a moment later, he doesn’t know what to think, removing his baseball cap to scratch at his head.
My boss is a Stanley Tucci look-alike, down to the glasses and baldness. He’s also a father of two kids and a former construction worker who stumbled into a career in photography after an accident left him with a permanent limp, unable to continue his career. He’d just married his wife, and, according to his recounting, fell into a depression, afraid he wouldn’t be able to provide for his new family. So, one day, she gave him a camera and said, “Go do something.”
Sean taught himself how to use it and soon found himself a job taking photos of high school athletic programs, which eventually led to this high-paying gig with the Iron.
If only I could be so lucky.
The only thing I stumbled into was a fake fiancé.
“Hey, mama,” Nico says, easily wrapping his arm around my shoulders. As if it’s old hat.
Sean’s head wrenches back as he flicks his index finger between the two of us. “What…did I miss here?”
Nico shrugs. “What do you mean?”
“You…” Sean studies us like he can’t get a good angle for a photograph. “When…? What is going on?”
Nico smiles down at me, murmuring to me as if he does it all the time. “You didn’t tell him yet?” He clucks his tongue playfully. “You that embarrassed of your future husband?”
Sean holds up his hands. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. What did you just say?”
Nico laughs good-naturedly. “That Jo’s embarrassed by me.”
My boss puffs up his cheeks and crosses his arms. “You’re getting married?” At Nico’s nod, Sean asks, “Since when?”
“I asked her at the hospital.”
“After you knocked her out?” Again, Nico nods, and Sean spins in a tight circle, mumbling a curse I don’t quite catch. “You knocked her out, and now you two are gettingmarried?”
Nico looks to me to finally answer, so I swallow the lump in my throat and force a smile. “Wild, right?”
“Wild? I’d say so, yeah. Josephine, you don’t do wild.”
I nod because that’s true. I am the exact opposite of wild. Tamed, quiet, invisible. The human version of camouflage.
But Nico is… He is the human version of a neon sign.
If he didn’t play professional hockey, I’m positive he’d be famous in some other aspect. On a reality dating show or one of those where they sell houses to rich people. He has no fear and doesn’t seem to care what people think about him.
He may not be the star player of the Philadelphia Iron, but he is astar.
And we have no business being together. It doesn’t make sense for us to hang out, and certainly not to be getting married,which is presumably why Sean gapes at me like my brain is melting out of my ears.
“Why didn’t you tell me you two were dating?”
“Engaged,” Nico corrects, and I pinch his wrist, the one dangling off my shoulder.
“It’s all been a sort of whirlwind,” I say, the one truth in this gigantic web of lies.
“She was worried about what people would think,” Nico adds. “What you’d think. You know how she is about her career. She doesn’t want to mess it up, and even though she doesn’t technically work for the team, she was really afraid of how it’d look.” He shakes his head, frowning as he weaves our fairy tale. “You know how our girl is. Doesn’t like the spotlight.”
Sean shrugs. He can’t deny it.
“So, this is all my fault, really. I should have done a better job laying the groundwork. I should have protected her better with all this, so she wouldn’t be so scared to be honest about it all.” Nico stops only long enough to glance down at me with a soft, almost believable smile that his apology for our fake relationship is earnest. “I’m sorry, Jo.” Then he turns to my boss. “I’m sorry, Sean. If there is any kind of blowback about this, it should be on me, not her.”
Sean’s jaw moves for a moment as he recovers from the news, but he eventually holds his hand out to Nico, as if giving me away. “I trust Josephine implicitly, so if she loves you, I guess there is nothing else for me to say besides congratulations.”
Nico grins. “Thank you.”
