“Aye, aye, Coach.” I salute. “Anything else?”
Mallory shifts her gaze away from me and runs her teeth over her lips.
Lips. Lips. Lips.
Ugh. Stop it, Holland. They’re not for you.
She looks…uncertain…which is unnerving. She always knows her next steps. Mallory is the most self-possessed person I’ve ever met.
“What is it?” I drop my voice. Is she going to open up to me about her family? Is something seriously wrong?
“We need to set some ground rules,” she says.
“Ground rules?”
“You know, for our…arrangement.”
“The show?”
“Yes, Bradley,” she huffs. “The show. The one that’ll be filmed and where you’re planning to find love—with someone who’s not me, obviously. I know Vivian said we don’t have to fake it, but we’re going to need to not embarrass each other…at least for the first night of filming until you send me home, and I come to Cashmere Cove with you in the capacity of your coach and your coach alone.”
“Have a little faith in yourself, Mal. Who says I won’t keep you around for a couple dates?”
She points at me. “This. This is exactly what I’m talking about. Ground rules. We need them. You can’t make a mockery of me. I won’t have my career imploding because of this.”
“If your career implodes, so will mine, so that’s not going tohappen.”
“Good. Okay.” She nods. “Then we should keep it cordial, keep it surface level. We can talk about our shared interest in golf.
“And our other interests and hobbies,” I add. “I want people to see me as more than some one-dimensional jock.”
“Isn’t that all you are, though?” She bats her eyes sweetly.
I snort. “Ohh, burn.”
She shrugs. “Just saying.”
I roll my eyes. “Any other ground rules?”
“Keep your hands to yourself, and we’ll be fine. No touching my back or grabbing for my hand.”
“Afraid my touch will have you falling for me, huh?”
“More like afraid I’ll go up in flames.”
“Of attraction? Burning love?”
“I’m not even going to respond to that,” she says flatly. I can’t help but smile. It’s so fun messing with her. I’ve taken the Gilbert Blythe approach to my relationship with Mallory. She hates my guts. I know she’ll never be mine, so if getting a rise out of her is all I’ll ever get, that’s what I’m going for.
“And…” She jabs a finger into my chest.
“Hey, thought you said no touching?”
She ignores me. “Not that this’ll come up on the first night, but absolutely no kissing—at least not with me. I don’t care what you do with the other women.”
“I don’t kiss and tell.” I smirk. “So I guess you’ll never know about how I kiss. Too bad for you.”
And for me!
