Page 41 of Fake Shot
“We weren’t, really. But the opportunity to present at that nonprofit pitch fest felt like it would be a good chance to practice talking about the mentoring program and gauging interest. Turns out, Ireallywish we’d waited until we had the testimonial and had thought a bit more about how to strategically find donors who would be a good fit.”
Morgan’s laugh is more of a cute little snort. “Yeah, but if that hadn’t happened, half the girls in Boston wouldn’t hate you.”
“Half the girls in Boston hate me? Why? Because I’m ‘engaged’ to Colt?”
“Pretty much,” she says.
Graham comes back from the bathroom then, cutting our conversation short, and Audrey gets home shortly after. The rest of the first period is frustratingly uneventful, and by the time both teams head toward the locker room, the score is still 0-0. After their 5-2 loss earlier this week, Florida is apparently fighting back with a vengeance.
Graham is predictably whiny about having to go to bed with a 0-0 score, since he wants to know what’s going to happen. It was easier to put him to bed mid-game at the beginning of the season when he just loved hockey, but now that he knows his dad plays for the team, he doesn’t want tomiss a minute. And if it was a weekend, Audrey would let him stay up even though he’s a nightmare the next day when he’s overtired. But it’s a school night, so Audrey puts him to bed with the promise of waking him up at the end of the game to tell him the outcome.
“Are you really going to wake him up?” Lauren asks when Audrey comes back into the living room.
“Yeah. He’s such a sound sleeper that I’ll tell him, and he’ll go right back to sleep. He won’t remember in the morning, so I’ll have to tell him again.”
“Okay,” Lauren says decisively as she pulls her long red hair over her shoulder and starts braiding it. “Graham’s in bed, so let’s talk about the HUGE elephant in the room.”
I can’t help it that my mind immediately jumps to wanting to make a dirty joke about how huge Colt is. That’s got to be a perfectly normal reaction to having felt him pressed up against me in the alley, right? The heat runs along my skin as I remember the delicious feeling of being trapped between him and that wall, with my legs wrapped around him and nothing but the fabric of our pants between us. The way he was thrusting against me, running his hard length along my clit ...
“Oh my god,” Audrey says with a laugh. “What the hell are you thinking about right now?”
“What?” I shake myself out of that memory as quickly as I can, but the flush I can feel on my cheeks is evidence that I was just thinking about something that got me all hot and bothered.
“Holy shit,” Morgan says. “Is this thing between you and Colt even fake? Because there was nothing fake about that look.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, and then realize that’s about the most incriminating thing I could say in response.
“I think you do,” Lauren chides. “This whole time, I thought it was Colt who had it bad foryou, but?—”
“Yeah, about that ...” I’ve been meaning to ask her about that comment since we were on the phone Saturday night and haven’t had a chance yet. “What the hell are you talking about? Because if there’s one thing I’m absolutely certain about, it’s that Colt doesn’t have any feelings for me.”
Audrey knows exactly what I mean, and why. But Morgan and Lauren both look at me skeptically, before Morgan says, “And you know that, how?”
I look toward Audrey for backup, because she knows I can’t tell Lauren about what really happened in Vegas. I don’t want Jameson to find out, and I don’t want Lauren to have to lie about it. Audrey was in a similar situation this past fall, when Lauren figured out Drew was Graham’s dad before Jameson did. I hate having secrets from my brother, but I also respect the fact that Colt is his best friend, not to mention his most lucrative client, and neither their friendship nor their business relationships should suffer because of my immaturity and inability to make good decisions when I was nineteen.
“Let’s just say Jules had a little crush on Colt when she was younger, and it was clear that he didn’t return the feelings,” Audrey says. “And no, youcannottell Jameson that, Lauren. Sorry. Hate to make you keep secrets, but teenage crushes are something only us girls should know about.”
Okay, so I guess we are telling her at leastpartof the story.
“So you’re telling me,” Lauren says, with a tilt of her head as she narrows her gaze on me, “because he didn’t return Jules’s feelings when she was a teenager, that he couldn’t possibly have feelings for her now?”
“Trust me,” I say, thinking about the way Colt looked at me when Zach interrupted us in the alley, all that regret I saw before he opened his mouth to say it didn’t mean anything. I would have known based on the look alone, but his words were the nail that sealed the coffin. His words only confirmed what I already knew. “He doesn’t have feelings for me.”
“Okay,” Morgan says, but it sounds wholly unconvinced. “Maybe not the kind of feelings you had for him as a teenager. But the way he was looking at you at Audrey’s engagement party?” She fans her face and collapses back against the couch cushion as she giggles. “Girl, hewantedyou.”
I’d been so focused on what happened between us in that alley that I’d forgotten the way he was staring at me from across the condo earlier that day. I hadn’t recognized it as lust at the time, but given what happened that night, maybe it was?
“Regardless”—I shake my head—“whether he’s attracted to me or not is irrelevant. If his ‘recreational activities’ are any indication, that man’s attracted to every person with a pair of boobs. It doesn’t mean there are actual feelings involved.”
“And there’s no way,” Audrey adds, laying her hand on my thigh and giving it a squeeze, “that Jules would ever have feelings for Colt again.”
Shit.I’m sure she meant to be supportive, assuringMorgan and Lauren that this is all fake, but if their looks are any indication, she’s sparked their curiosity further.
“And why not?” Lauren asks.
“Because I’m not interested in dating, much less marrying someone with his reputation,” I say, hoping that sounds believable. It’s a huge part of the truth.
“Oh shit!” Audrey says. “Florida just scored.”
