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15

CHARLOTTE

“Want me to wait?” Andi asks as she stands in the doorway of our cabin.

“That’s okay,” I say, filling my water bottle at the sink. “Noah’s walking me to practice.”

“Yeah, he is.” She waggles her brows, and I roll my eyes. Her attention is pulled outside. “And speaking of, god’s gift to women is here.”

“You’re too nice to me,” Noah tells her.

“Stop inflating his ego!” I beg.

“Gotta make sure he doesn’t forget about me when he’s super famous,” Andi says, sending him a teasing wink.

“Didn’t you hear?” I say. “He’s already super famous. The punt bunnies are in his DMs by the hundreds.”

Noah shoots me a crooked grin. “Jealous, soffione ?”

“No.” Heat flushes my cheeks, and I’m curious what the nickname means. I’ll ask later. “Just stating facts.”

“Okay, well…” Andi gestures behind herself. “I’m out. See you at practice.”

She exits the cabin, shutting the door behind her.

“You ready to do this thing?” I ask Noah, giving him two thumbs up.

He chuckles “Yep. Let’s go.”

We leave the cabin, joining the path to the football field filled with other players and cheerleaders. Noah slides his hand in mine, my breathing ragged as he entangles our fingers and squeezes gently.

He leans down, his lips brushing against my ear, and goosebumps scatter down my spine. “Relax. You look constipated.”

“Excuse me?!” I drop his hand, shoving him away. “You did not just say that.”

He smirks and throws an arm around my shoulders, tugging me to him. “It got you to laugh. You appear much happier now.”

“There has to be some kind of rule against saying shit like that to your girlfriend.” I cock a brow up at him.

“What would you rather I tell you?” he asks, his familiar scent surrounding me.

“How about, ‘Charlotte, relax. You look breathtakingly beautiful but stressed.’”

“Done,” he says, shooting me a panty-soaking wink.

Rein it in, Benson.

Who knew fake dating your real best friend would be this damn hard?

“So, Ms. Breathtakingly Beautiful, are you looking forward to your first full day as my girl?”

My girl.

Heat flushes my cheeks. There’re so many things to unpack from his sentence, I’m not even sure where to start. “Am I looking forward to seeing the look on Jonathan’s face every time he sees us? Hell yes.” I blow out a breath. “But I’m also nervous about making sure I don’t get us caught in the lie.”

“Stop thinking about it as a lie,” he whispers in my ear. “The current truth is I’m your boyfriend. No one has to know that only officially started yesterday.”

His touch surrounds me, along with his reassurance. “I guess you are right.”

“I know I am,” he says smugly.

“Would it kill you to pretend to be humble?”

“You know, baby? It just might.” He laughs, and my stomach flips at his first use of the pet name. What’s with the flipping?

“Is that something you’ll be doing a lot?” I ask hesitantly.

He looks down with furrowed brows. “What?”

“Calling me sweet nicknames?”

He smiles with pursed lips. “If it’s okay with you?”

My lips smash together, stomach begging to do that somersault thing again. “I’ll allow it.”

“Good.” He pulls me closer and plants a kiss on the top of my head as we reach the practice fields. “I’ll see you later for lunch, yeah?”

“I’ll be waving at you from the kids table.”

He chuckles, our mouths inches apart. “You make me feel ancient.”

“Didn’t you realize we’re in an age gap romance?” I tease.

He huffs another laugh, his breath hitting my lips. “We’re in a romance ?”

My mouth opens and closes as I struggle for a reply. My hand grazes my pocket, reminding me of the surprise I have for him. “Close your eyes and open your hand.”

“What?”

“Please?” He does as instructed, and I retrieve the tiny red train whistle out of my pocket and place it in his palm. “Okay, open.”

He looks down at it and laughs. “Oh god. I can still hear this sound in my sleep.”

“I wanted you to have it for good luck on your first full day coaching,” I say, chest spreading with warmth. Man, is the sun beating down on us today… “It’s not a cornicello , but it can ward off the scary things.”

He grins ear to ear, tapping his forehead to mine. “Cute. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, babe .” I smirk, backing away and spinning around to join practice.

Every girl on my squad is staring as I walk up.

They have no shame.

I toss my cheer duffle on the sideline. “Good morning.”

“When did that happen?” Cami, one of our captains, quips.

“Does it matter?” I ask with furrowed brows.

She gives me an indecipherable look, then releases a breath in a huff. “I suppose not.”

The other girls all busy themselves with tying their shoes or whispering to each other.

“Morning, baby cakes,” Stella says, pulling her arm over her chest in a stretch.

Andi just winks at me.

“Alright, girls,” Coach Landry, our cheer coach, shouts out. “Let’s get to work. Cami, you’re in charge of today’s practice.”

“Great,” I mumble under my breath. Well, I’m screwed.

The sun is relentless. Cami has us do a three-mile run and a variety of exercises that would make even the football players gasp for air. The one thing I do admire about Cami: she doesn’t treat this like some little performance. She makes sure we are athletes.

“You can do better than that, Benson!” Cami shouts as I do my seven-hundredth jumping jack, struggling for oxygen. Today’s workout is harder than usual. Maybe due to the lack of sleep from worrying if my little arrangement with Noah will be believable.

“Now spot run. Go!” Cami instructs, pacing the line, inspecting us all as we jog in place.

The humid air has me huffing, and a bit of nausea washes over me. I should have eaten more for breakfast.

“Faster!” she shouts in my face.

My eyes fall past her to Noah. His expression is furious as he blows his coach whistle, the little train one dangling from the same cord. Each time I notice it, the smallest of smiles creeps onto my face, and I push my way through the workout, trying to keep the little food I did eat down.

“Something funny?” Cami snaps.

Her venomous tone has me stopping in place. “What’s your”—I pant—“problem today?”

“Maybe if you spent a little less time being a fuck buddy the past few months and more time doing your suggested workouts, you wouldn’t be hyperventilating so hard.”

“What the hell”—I place my hands on my hips, trying to catch my breath—“are you talking about?”

“She’s his girlfriend ,” Andi corrects.

Cami scoffs. “Noah doesn’t do girlfriends . Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re anything more than a summer fling. As if he’d?—”

“Cami,” Noah’s deep voice warns, cutting her off, and her head snaps in his direction. The boys are walking off the field, no doubt heading to the cafeteria for lunch. The other cheer teams are doing the same.

“Noah, I—” she sputters.

“You done with practice?” he asks, unamused, eyes containing a look of annoyance I’ve never seen.

Cami shifts on her heels. “Yes.”

His gaze flicks to me. “Ready for lunch, babe?”

She waves me off, signaling I can leave. I rush to gather my things and head to Noah.

“You okay?” he asks in my ear, throwing an arm around me. He said he doesn’t mind the sweat, so I force myself to relax despite my instincts to shrug him off.

“I don’t know what her problem is.” A heavy exhale escapes me.

“We hooked up my sophomore year.”

My muscles tighten. I’m not used to him talking about other girls.

“Great,” I grumble. “So your ex is my cheer captain? That would’ve been useful information before this moment.”

“Sleeping with someone once hardly makes them an ex,” he says, and a burning sensation settles in my stomach.

“Then I don’t know what the big deal is.”

He shrugs. “She wanted to hook up again, but I denied her.”

“Of course she did,” I grumble, wishing I could throw a hand over my mouth and put the words back in.

“Don’t worry. None of my other ex-hookups are here.”

“Other?!” I balk, the burning sensation crawling throughout my body. “In the duration of our friendship, you’ve never mentioned a single girl, and suddenly you have multiple ex-fuck buddies?”

Noah laughs, removing his arm, and threads our fingers together. “I’m not celibate, tesoro ,” he says, and my cheeks flush at what I assume is an Italian pet name. “I just don’t bang and boast like most guys do.”

I hum, readjusting my grip in his large palm. “Interesting revelation.”

“Sorry to give you the bad news about my virginity,” he says, with a teasing shrug.

“Who will I give as an offering to the football gods now?”

“That’s okay,” he says. “I can’t very well be a present to myself.”

“Oh my god,” I groan as we arrive at the cafeteria with a line out the door.

“I think you meant, ‘Oh my Noah ,’” he says, and I narrow my eyes at him, lips parted. He laughs. “Want to walk by the lake for a few?” He gestures towards it with our interlocked hands. “Give time for the crowd to die down?”

“Sure.”

“How are the twins?”

“Good,” I say, thinking of the photo Patricia sent me from Denny’s gymnastics camp this morning. “Staying busy.”

“How are things with your parents?”

I groan. “Going straight off the deep end, huh?”

“Just checking in.” He squeezes my hand. “I know it upsets you.”

I shrug. “We’re talking, but they still won’t give me back my car, and I have to pay my own tuition next year.”

“How do you plan to do that?”

“I have a partial cheer scholarship and some grants,” I tell him. “But they paid for my room and board. So I’ve been looking into some loan options.”

“If you need a private loan, I could?—”

“No way.” I glare at him. “You just got your signing bonus. And also bought a house, which I imagine was not cheap.”

“I really don’t mind.”

“I appreciate it, truly,” I tell him. “But I won’t accept that.”

There’s no way he can be my fake boyfriend and my sugar daddy. Even if it’s a loan. That would just be wrong.

“Well, offer stands,” he says with a shrug as a few birds swoop down overhead, then disappear into a tree. Water laps at the shore, and I realize we’re alone. I glance down at our intertwined fingers, and he follows my gaze.

“Guess we don’t have to…”

“Oh.” He drops my hand. “Right.”

Way to go, loser.

The heat beats down on us, and a shaded bench below the tree catches my eye. I gesture towards it, and Noah nods. We sit, our sides touching as we stare out at the sunshine sparkling on the lake.

“I bet your mom is thrilled about you staying in Florida,” I say, trying to break the awkward silence.

“Yeah,” Noah says, wringing his hands together. “I’m definitely relieved to be near home.”

“You two are really close. I’m guessing it was hard after your dad left?” I ask, knowing it’s a sore spot but hoping for some insight.

His eyes dart to mine. “My dad?”

“Never mind.” I shake my head. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought him up.”

His shoulders drop, distant gaze finding mine. “No, it’s okay,” he assures me. “I…” He blows out a shaky breath. “I want to talk to you about this stuff, I really do.”

A beat of silence passes between us. “But?”

He looks up at the blue sky, then back to the still lake. “It feels unnatural to talk about the darkest parts of my life while I’m surrounded by all the things that bring me joy.”

I study his face, taking note of the way he bites his lip. Like he’s holding something in. “And what would those things be?”

“Sunshine,” he says with a smile. “Football.” He gestures towards the fields. “And most importantly”—his gaze connects with mine—“you.”

My heart constricts, lips parting. “Me?”

“Yeah,” he says, green eyes pinning me in place. “You.”

Breathe, girl, breathe.

“That’s pretty heavy stuff from a fake boyfriend,” I choke out.

“Well, I was your real best friend before I was your fake boyfriend,” he reminds me with a gentle smile.

“Right,” I say, biting my lower lip. “Well, if you ever want to talk about that stuff, you know, in the dark, on a rainy day, with all the curtains closed…” I release a shaky breath as his sad eyes capture mine. “I’m here.”

“I appreciate that.” A soft smile graces his face. “I appreciate you .” I struggle for a response, and he stands, clearly ready for the conversation to be over. “Ready for lunch?” he asks, holding out a hand.

“Yep,” I say, placing mine in his, ready to follow wherever he leads.