Page 16 of The Marriage Playbook

It would be Cara’s job to explain it to the one who was chosen, and to ensure that the proper legal protections were in place to stop all the others from talking about this meeting.

At least he knew he could trust her. He kept looking up at her. She didn’t move from her place by the door, just stood there watching him as he spoke to one woman after another. Finally, after a pretty woman with wavy brown hair had left the building, she stepped forward out of the shadows. “I think we might be done,” she said, smiling at him.

“Was that the last of them?” He slumped in his chair. “Thank God. This has been exhausting.”

Her smile faltered slightly. “No, I mean…there are others out there, but didn’t you think she was the one? You two got along great, and she seemed really easy to talk to.”

“What was her name again?” They had all started to blend together in the past hour.

Cara looked at him in exasperation. “Stephanie,” she said. “Her name was Stephanie, and I thought you two were really hitting it off. You didn’t think so?”

“I don’t know.” Liam raked a hand through his hair. “She was fine. Do you think she would do it? That’s all that really matters. I just want to get back out on the field.”

Cara nodded. “I think we could convince her pretty easily,” she said. “I can talk to her about it. But I need to know what you think. We can’t move forward with this if she wasn’t right in your eyes.”

Liam didn’t have the answer she wanted. She was waiting, he knew, for him to say he thought Stephanie was great. That he liked her and wanted to work with her. But he couldn’t manage it, because all he really wanted was the feeling of being restored to his team. Going out under the lights, running for a pass, the ball slapping into his hands…

He’d do whatever it took to get back what Garrett Sandusky had stolen from him. He would have married a lizard if it meant he could get himself out of this situation.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” he said.

Cara nodded slowly. She seemed to hear what he wasn’t saying, but apparently she had decided to let it go. “All right,” she said. “I’ll reach out to her and see if we can make the arrangements. With any luck, we’ll get this squared away quickly, and we’ll have you back on the field as soon as possible.”

Liam got to his feet. The whole thing had him feeling awkward and uncomfortable, and he found he wanted nothing more than to get out of this coffee shop as quickly as possible.

He’d agreed to this solution, and he stood by it. But even so, this seemed like an awful lot of trouble to have to go to for the sake of doing what he loved.

CHAPTER 9

CARA

Liam, STAY IN THE HOUSE. Do not go to the club. Don’t even go out for groceries. If you need anything, you can text me and I’ll make the arrangements, but stay inside and keep your curtains closed. I don’t want the press getting so much as a stray photo of you before the wedding day.

Three dots appeared on Cara’s phone, indicating that Liam was typing something back to her—but then they disappeared. He must have decided he wasn’t going to say anything after all. Good. She didn’t want to deal with arguments from him right now.

Although, to be honest, working to corral Liam was its own kind of thrilling. She was enjoying the challenge of this new task more than she’d imagined she would. When she had first gone into PR, she had understood that the job would mostly involve writing releases. But there had been a part of her that had always fantasized about things like this. Stunts. Crazy ploys that would dominate the media and force the story to be whatever she decided it ought to be.

There was just no way anyone was going to be writing about Garrett Sandusky when this was all over. And if they were writing about Liam’s bad behavior, it would have to be from a stance of how reformed he was. How he had turned over a new leaf and married Stephanie Hastings, his longtime girlfriend… Oh, right. I’d better make sure she’s on the same page about that.

Cara had met with Stephanie Hastings just last night, offering her the role of wife in their little charade. Stephanie hadn’t seemed too shocked, and when Cara had pressed, she’d admitted that she had guessed they might be doing something like this. “I mean, I’ve never been in this situation before,” she’d explained. “And I don’t know anyone else who has either. But it’s the kind of thing people speculate about, and everyone knows Liam Sims has been in kind of a mess lately.”

“Do you think people will know what’s happened when we announce the wedding?” Cara asked.

Stephanie had just laughed. “Nobody would believe it,” she said. “People will definitely speculate, but it will be a conspiracy theory, not something they think is really true. It’s just too weird.”

Now Cara picked up her phone and dialed Stephanie’s number, which she had saved after their meeting yesterday. Stephanie answered on the second ring. “Ms. Bailey?”

“You can call me Cara.”

Stephanie was quiet for a moment. “I don’t know,” she said. “I mean, it’s not like we’re friends. That’s not what you’re trying to say, right?”

“Not if you don’t want it to be,” Cara assured her. “This is a professional relationship, just like your relationship with Liam. You can call me whatever you want, but I just want you to feel at ease. That’s why I’m saying things don’t need to be formal between the two of us. You can just call me Cara.”

“All right,” Stephanie said slowly. “I guess that’s okay.”

“We need to talk about the days leading up to the wedding,” Cara said.

“I thought I didn’t have to do anything,” Stephanie objected. “Just show up in a white dress. That’s what it said in the contract. It specifically said there wouldn't be any more to it than that.”