Page 29 of The Marriage Playbook

He looked at her. She had never seen his face so open and vulnerable. For the first time, she had the impression he really cared what she thought. “Do you?”

“I’m not exactly a stranger to doing something crazy to try to get my own way.” She held up her hand, where the ring he’d put on her finger a few days ago sparkled. “I’m not playing by the rules of the PR game by doing this, you know. I’m trying to jumpstart my career, and I’ve definitely gone out of the box to do it.”

“I guess we’re both a couple of rebels,” he said with a wry smile.

“We’re a couple of people who are going to get what we’re after,” she corrected him. “Just wait and see.”

CHAPTER 15

LIAM

“Do we really have to do this?” Liam asked, gritting his teeth.

“It’s not going to do any harm,” Cara said. “We don’t have to talk to anyone. Just a quick appearance to show that we’re not harboring any ill will toward anyone in the football community, and then we can go.”

They were standing outside the stadium where the Stingers played. Apparently, Liam hadn’t been taken off the list of team veterans, all of whom were welcome in their own special box any time they got the urge to take in a game. He had sort of assumed his name would have been removed from the list after everything that had happened, but Cara had made a few calls and confirmed that he’d be allowed to attend.

He knew, though, that the minute he walked into that box, there would be eyes on him. There would be pictures taken. Cara insisted that was the whole idea, but Liam didn’t like it.

“Couldn’t we go see another team?” he asked. Or better yet, just go back home. The two of them had been cohabitating at his house—though Cara was staying in the guest wing—to feed the public image that they were a besotted couple.

“That could be taken as pointed,” Cara said. “It might look like you were sending some sort of passive-aggressive message to your old teammates. Telling them that you were too good for them, or that you don’t care about this team anymore.”

“I don’t know if I do,” Liam said. “They’re the ones who dumped me.”

“Right, but we’re trying to sell the story that you really like the Stingers and would go back to them if you could,” she reminded him. “That doesn’t work if you’re avoiding them. So let’s go in there and make nice for a little while, and then we can leave.”

Liam held back a groan. He didn’t want anything to do with this. But the two of them had established that when it came to PR stunts, Cara knew best. Gritting his teeth, he allowed her to lead him up to the box office.

After she had checked them in, they made their way to the elevator that would take them up to the mezzanine level. Cara kept her eyes down as they walked down the carpeted hall. He’d noticed that she did this whenever she was surrounded by the trappings of wealth, almost as if she thought it was inappropriate for her to look too long.

He’d been up to this box before, and when they got close, he took the lead without thinking about it. He opened the door and stepped inside, wrapping an arm around Cara both for comfort and for appearances. It was the image they needed to project, but it also felt good to have her close.

Two retired players were in the box already, standing by the big window and looking out over the field. When they heard the door open, they turned to face him. Both their eyes went wide.

“Sims?” Gerald McNair said, stepping forward. “What are you…are you supposed to be here?”

“I came to watch the game,” Liam explained. “Good to see you, McNair, Brennan.”

Morgan Brennan didn’t approach. He looked Liam up and down. “Heard you caused a scene,” he said. “I always reckoned your temper was going to get you into trouble one of these days, Sims.”

Liam took a deep breath. He wanted nothing more than to shoot back at Brennan, to get into the argument his old teammate so obviously was after. Brennan had retired at the end of last season, and he and Liam had never quite gotten along. Liam found himself wondering now whether Brennan had seen him the way he saw Sandusky—as a young upstart forcing more experienced players out.

Well, if that’s what he saw, he’s wrong. I was never like Sandusky. I was never so arrogant, and I never acted like I was better than anyone else.

He paused. Maybe that wasn’t entirely true. He’d definitely rallied the rookies in his first season to play pranks on veteran players. He had thought the whole thing was in the spirit of fun…but then, he could also remember thinking that these older players didn’t really understand what a good time was, and that they’d do better to take a tip from someone like him.

I could have chilled out and listened to them when it came to team culture, I guess. Still, they weren’t very welcoming, and Brennan always did have it out for me.

Regardless of what he wanted to say, though, he knew he couldn’t. He and Cara had plotted this encounter so carefully that Liam felt as if he had a script. He couldn’t deviate from it.

So he pulled Cara close and pretended that Brennan hadn’t gotten under his skin. “Good to see you both,” he said. “This is my wife, Cara.”

“Yeah, I heard you’d gotten married,” McNair said. “I told everyone I’d believe it when I saw it for myself.”

“Well, here she is,” Liam said.

“Hi.” Cara flushed and grinned. Liam was amazed. She was like a different person, her usual toughness and confidence completely gone as she played the blushing bride. And I don’t like it, he realized. I like the real Cara. If I could have come here and introduced her to these guys, it might be that the four of us could have had a good time. At the very least, Cara and I could have laughed about all this when they weren’t paying attention.