Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 36185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 145(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 145(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
I’m trying not to let this upset me, and maybe it would be easier if I wasn’t so attracted to Cruz. Hell, why couldn’t he be ugly?
4
CRUZ
I fucked up. The minute Tara stood up to leave, I knew I’d said the wrong thing. I wanted to make her stay and see things my way, but maybe letting her walk away will be easier.
“What the hell was that?” My sister is hovering over me like she’s ready to fight.
Shit. My sister is mad, and it’s never a good thing when she’s pissed at me because I feel like shit. “What? It’s true. Look at her. No one is going to believe we’re together.”
Lexi’s face scrunches up. She opens her mouth, closes it, and then opens it again. She sits back down and shakes her head. “Wait. Spell it out. What are you saying?”
I roll my eyes. My sister is smart. She graduated top of her class in high school and is on the dean’s list at college every semester, but sometimes she just doesn’t get it. “Well, I’m assuming you want me to be her date for the wedding because you all want to make people think she’s moved on and is over the ex.”
Lexi nods. “Yeah, and not let her sister think she won again.”
I lean back in my chair and cross my arms over my chest. “Right, well, no one is going to believe we’re dating.”
She clenches her eyes and opens them wide. “Why not?” she blurts out.
I chuckle. “Come on, sis. I’m ten years older than her. I’m officially a has-been, and—”
She interrupts me. “Wait… you think that no one will believe it because no one will believe she likes you?”
I nod. “Yep.”
She slaps her hand on the table between us. “Oh my God, Cruz. How dense can you be? I swear, I see women throwing themselves at you after every game. You could literally have a different woman to date every day for a year.”
I screw my face up the more she talks because nothing of what she is saying sounds good in the least. “Tara isn’t like those women.”
She slaps her hand on the table again. “Cruz, you just made Tara think that you didn’t want to do this because people wouldn’t believe you two would be together.”
“They wouldn’t,” I say pointedly.
“Cruz! You made it sound like she’s beneath you… like you would never go out with someone like her… like people would riot if you two were even in the same room together.”
I open my mouth to disagree with her but then stop myself, remembering the look on Tara’s face when I made the claim that no one would believe we’d be together. I definitely hurt her. Is that what she took me to mean? Did she really think I was saying she wasn’t good enough?
I shake my head. “That’s not what I meant… at all.”
She bolts to her feet. “Well, you need to apologize.”
When I don’t get up fast enough, she sits back down. “Cruz, what’s going on with you?”
I put my hands on the table and lean forward. “Look, maybe this is for the best. My life is changing right now, and no sane person is going to want to get mixed up in all this. The press is going to have a field day with my retirement. It could be good, or it could go really badly, and I really don’t want your friend to be caught up in all that.”
She holds up a finger. “It’s one date. That’s it. I’m not asking you to marry her or anything.” She stops and looks at me wide-eyed. “Look, like she said, this is her sister and her ex-boyfriend’s wedding. You know it’s going to suck. And yes, I have friends at school I can get to go with her, but I want you to do this for me.”
I lean forward. “Why me?”
She shrugs. “Because she’s my best friend. Because she would literally jump in front of a bullet to take care of someone she loves, but she lets people walk all over her. Because I know this wedding is going to be hard, and her family thinks she’s flighty and disappointing—”
My eyebrows rise. “Disappointing?”
She nods her head in big movements. “Yes. They wanted her to go to college and get a dependable profession. They hate that she’s a florist.” She leans on the table. “Anyway, yes, I can get someone else to go with her, but I want someone that is going to protect her… someone that will defend her and be there when the shit hits the fan.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to say I’ll do it. Just the thought that someone is giving Tara a hard time goes all through me. I could go, stand by her side, and no one will say anything out of the way to her. Most people know not to mess with me. But just as I’m about to say it, I know I can’t.