Page 10

CHAPTER 10

Not a Lion

KELLEN

Saturday, September 29

“ H ow far is this mountain, kitten?” Lucy asks.

I chuckle and glance over at the passenger seat. Lucy looks adorable in an oversized hoodie, jeans, and—I swear to god—brand new hiking boots.

It’s clear she’s not a hiker, just like she said.

“It’s right outside of town, cookie.”

“That one’s terrible.” Lucy groans.

We texted all yesterday evening, mostly discussing pet names for each other. I insisted that food related names are the funniest, but she decided on animal names.

“You’re right, it’s pretty awful.”

Prince Harry sits on her lap, tongue hanging out, gazing at me with a look that might be adoration. Or it’s his natural face, I’m not sure.

Ava would love this creature.

“Do you have layers on?” I put my car in reverse.

“Layers?” Lucy furrows her brow.

“It’s warmer than it looks out. There’s zero shade up at the top by Horsetooth Rock, so you’ll get hot.”

“Yes, Mom , I have a tank top on underneath my hoodie.”

I bite back a grin and pull out from in front of Atticus’s apartment building.

Atticus might not be pleased when I tell him, Harley, and Lachlan my plan when we hang out tonight. He might have been supportive of me fake dating someone, but his sister? Then again, he did tell me to be nice to her. Which I am.

“What’d you tell Atticus?” I turn at Colorado State University to drive along the straight road that’ll quickly lead us to the entrance to the Foothills Trail.

“Nothing. He’s still sleeping. Oh, that’s really pretty.”

I glance over, and Lucy’s gazing out the window at Horsetooth Mountain, which is a modest size mountain that towers over a large reservoir right next to the town of Fort Collins.

“We should talk about a few things.”

“We definitely should.”

“There’s a lot of wildlife in these mountains.” I give her a quick glance, and she’s staring at me intently. “This is a fairly busy trail, so we probably won’t run into any lions.”

“What.”

“Like snakes, bears, mountain lions.” I smirk but don’t turn my head.

“Lions??”

“ Mountain lions. They’re about the most dangerous creature we’d encounter. But it’s very unlikely they’ll come near a crowded trail.” I turn into the parking lot and grab the first empty spot.

“What do we do if we see a mountain lion? Run?”

“God, no, woman, don’t run.” I rotate in my seat to face her. “They’ll take you down with one swipe.”

Lucy’s face drains of color. “Seriously?”

I reach over and gently tap underneath her jaw. She breathes in quietly, her eyes widening.

“Very unlikely. ”

Prince Harry reaches up and licks me with a long, squishy tongue. I laugh and pull back. I open my door and hop out, resting a hand on the roof and leaning my head down into the car.

“If we see a mountain lion, we face it directly. You get right next to me. We raise our hands and try to appear as big as possible, then make a lot of noise to show it we’re dominant. Then we slowly back away until we are very, very far from it.”

“Got it.” She nods solemnly.

“Oh, but make sure to grab Prince Harry. If he runs, the mountain lion would catch him in about two seconds flat.”

“Jeez,” Lucy mutters under her breath and ducks out of the car, gently placing Prince Harry on the ground with a quick pat to his head. She might be murmuring reassurances to him, probably about how she won’t let a mountain lion get him, but I can’t quite hear.

“Honestly. Don’t worry.”

“What kind of noise do we make?” She stands up straight.

“Roar and yell. Or growl like a bear.” I lock the car and wave her toward the entrance to the trail.

“Can you give me an example? Of the kind of roar you’re talking about?”

“Just a normal roar.”

“I really don’t know what that means. Like this?” Lucy makes a pathetic roaring sound.

“No,” I laugh. “Like this.” I make a much more impressive roar, but when I look back at her, she’s cracking up.

“You’re good at that.”

“Oh, shut up.” I bite back a grin. “Come on.”

Lucy walks by my side onto the trail, Prince Harry on his leash trotting happily beside her.

“There’s a nice waterfall and a lake that we’ll head toward. Should take about an hour and a half total, so fairly easy.”

Lucy stumbles on what appears to be dirt and reaches out for my arm, catching herself. She leaves her hand on my forearm for a few more seconds, and I glance down at her fingers on my sleeve, interested to see how much I like the feeling.

“Sorry.” She slides her hand off. “New boots.”

“I thought they looked too clean.” I sigh. “Wearing brand new boots on a hike isn’t a great idea. You should break them in first.”

“Too late now, I guess.” She shrugs.

“So, should we get started?” Fall leaves crunch under my (broken in) boots.

“With the media training?” Lucy looks at me innocently, and I raise my eyebrows back.

“Haha. With fake dating, peanut butter pie.” I can barely get the words out without chuckling.

“Now you’re just making me hungry.”

“Sorry.” I sneak another look at her. “After a night’s sleep, you still up for this? I would be okay if you wanted to back out.”

“No way.” Lucy shakes her head and crosses her arms, like she’s protecting her chest. Or her heart. “I don’t want to back out. I’m fully invested.”

“Great.”

“But we might have an HR problem.”

“Hmmm.”

“I remembered Lina making a comment about how the official team policy is that players and staffers shouldn’t date without HR permission.”

A pair of women pass us by, each with a big dog on a leash. Prince Harry goes nuts, and Lucy shushes him.

“That did cross my mind as well.” There have been a few relationships between players and employees over the years, but it’s not common.

“And I looked it up in the employee handbook, which I happen to have handy since Lina sent it to me when I got here.” Lucy looks over at me. She’s so pretty with her red hair against the backdrop of the changing autumn leaves.

“So what are we going to do about that?” Last night, I got home, had dinner with Ava and Bri, then went back to my house to text Lucy. It’s felt like we’ve had one long conversation, starting with when I stopped by her office to bring up fake dating.

“Well, I can talk to Lina on Monday. And… we might have to go to talk to HR.”

I groan.

“There might be a loophole because I’m only a contractor. Maybe they won’t care since I’m only here for one season.”

“Just one season because…”

“I’m trying to get a job with a soccer team in England. My dream job, really.”

“Oh, well, fingers crossed you get it.” I point to a root on the ground so Lucy sees it. She’s cute. And funny. And easy to talk to in an unguarded sort of way. Definitely most likely to trip on a tree root.

“We’ll just need to be really convincing to make people believe we’d go through all this trouble for a temporary relationship.” Prince Harry darts ahead and barks wildly at a bird. Lucy tugs him back to her side.

“This doesn’t bode well for when we meet the mountain lion.”

“It does not. Prince Harry, hush!” Lucy unsuccessfully shushes her dog.

“Let’s talk logistics,” I say when the barking dies down. “If the objective here in Fort Collins is to get Savannah and Paul to think we’re happily dating, we obviously need to show them we’re dating, and not just with a HR meeting.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I think we can accomplish that with a few key sightings.”

“Sightings?” Lucy asks, her voice full of amusement.

“Yeah. You know. Events that they see us together, being… couple-y.”

“Right.”

“There’s a fall festival on October 12, two weeks from now. Costumes, apple cider donuts, haunted house, you know, that kind of thing. It’s a fundraiser for a youth sports nonprofit.” I point to a particularly colorful line of autumn trees.

“That sounds fun. I did a lot of volunteer work with youth sports back in D.C.”

“Yeah?”

“I loved coaching little kid soccer.”

Something clicks in my brain. Atticus’s comment about Lucy coaching back in D.C. But no way am I mentioning that now. Even if he did bring up a good point about Lucy being trustworthy because she’s his sister, and I trust him , and he trusts her …

“I miss it already. I would volunteer to coach elementary age teams at the school I went to growing up, or wherever I was needed. Normally by now we’d be in the middle of the season.”

Lucy pauses and glances at me, but I keep my head trained to the trail ahead of us.

“Atticus told me your daughter’s team needs a coach.”

Shit. I finally look at her, and she’s staring at me with wide, hopeful green eyes.

“Lucy.” It’s not a good idea, right? But then I picture Ava staring at me with similarly wide eyes asking if I could coach her team.

“Can I help?” There’s a tinge of desperation in her voice. “Seriously. It would really help me too. Get me out of Atticus’s apartment and into the community.”

I make a murmuring sound and realize I’m softening. I could solve Ava’s soccer coach problem and make Lucy—my new fake girlfriend—happy. Plus, getting to know her a bit more wouldn’t be the worst thing.

“We are in need of a coach.” I watch Lucy’s face break out in a large smile. “The dad who was coaching had to have unexpected surgery, and since then, random parents have been stepping in. It’s been a mess. More than the mess you’d expect from kindergarten soccer players. So… the help would be great.”

“Awesome!” Lucy skips a step, and I look over to see her smiling from ear to ear. “It’ll also give me something else to think about besides… well, besides all the things I don’t want to think about.”

“Okay then. They practice on Wednesday evenings and have games on Saturday mornings, except for today. I’ll send you the information.”

I wonder what Bri will have to say about this, because it’s not like I can not tell her that I 1) got a fake girlfriend and 2) asked that fake girlfriend to be our daughter’s soccer coach. But I remind myself this is Atticus’s sister, not some random woman I met at a bar. Still, Bri is super protective of our daughter. Maybe not quite as protective as I am.

I hope I don’t regret this.

“Anyway.” I want to move us on from Lucy as Ava’s soccer coach. “For the fall festival, Paul is always there. It’s a good media opportunity for the team. I’m assuming you’d already be going to that, so that could be one.”

“That’s one.” She nods.

“Another could be the Blizzard retreat in November.” I point ahead of us on the narrow trail and at more prominent tree roots. “Careful there. So the entire team and administration, including you, gets on a bus and drives to a ranch in Wyoming for a team building weekend two weeks before Thanksgiving when we have a break between games.”

It’s a really fun trip, even though we all grumble about having to go and bond with each other. As if we don’t bond all the time? Like every day at practice, in the gym, at games, locker room, when we travel, etc.

But there are hot springs pools and plenty of drinking time, and Coach doesn’t give us a curfew or alcohol limit.

“That works.” Lucy slows her stride and pulls out her phone. “But that won’t be until mid-November.”

“Yeah. So we probably need one before that, especially given the fall festival isn’t for another two weeks. ”

“Right.”

The sound of water over rocks hits us. “The waterfall is just ahead.” A minute later, we turn a corner to the pretty sight of water flowing between two giant rocky mounds into a crystal-clear pool at the bottom.

“Gorgeous,” Lucy murmurs. She wanders over to the edge and squats down to run her hand in the water. Prince Harry runs next to her and leans down to drink.

I settle down on a dry, flat rock to the side and watch Lucy as she takes in the scene. She pushes a clump of auburn curls off her forehead. I desperately want to touch her hair and feel if the curls are as soft as they look.

Weird. Inappropriate. I clearly won’t let myself do that.

There’s a noise in the trees and Prince Harry twists his head to look behind me, then pulls the leash out of Lucy’s hand and leaps onto my lap, licking my face.

“Hey! Prince Harry! Down!” I push him away, but when I open my mouth to speak, he licks my lips.

Lucy spins around and laughs at the sight of us before grabbing Prince Harry’s leash to pull him off me.

“Sorry about that,” she says.

“No worries, I guess.” The sun has warmed the air, so I pull off my hoodie and wipe my face clean of Prince Harry’s slobber. “I think I technically just made out with him.”

Lucy laughs. “I don’t think he likes this name.”

“Time for a new one?”

“Prince Harry didn’t last long, but yeah.” She nods, a serious look on her face.

“How about…” I glance around. “Lion?” I pretend to look worried.

“What??” Lucy spins her head around.

“Kidding. There’s no lion.”

“You’re an ass.”

I stand and wipe my jeans off, a grin on my face.

“Bear?”

Lucy frowns and rubs her neck. “Not bad.” She turns to her dog. “What do you think? Bear?”

Bear wags his tail and gives a short yip.

“Bear it is.”

“That dog will never learn his name.”

Lucy shrugs. “Meh. Names are overrated.”

“What about nicknames?”

“Those are not overrated at all.” Lucy pulls out her phone and snaps a picture of him. “I always text my friends when he gets a new name.” Lucy gives Bear a pat on the head.

“Should we go swimming?” I nod to the beautiful waterfall.

“Um, no? I didn’t bring a bathing suit. And it’s warmer out now, but the water is freezing.”

“Thought I’d ask.” I shrug casually, but I’m really picturing us stripping down and walking into the cold waterfall. I nod toward the trail, and we continue walking.

“I’m not sure how Atticus will react to our plan,” Lucy says.

“I’m going to talk to him tonight, we’re hanging out at your apartment, actually.”

She whips her head toward me. “Tonight? Okay. Maybe I’ll let you talk to him first. He might take it better from you—I’ve probably embarrassed him enough already. He’s lectured me ten times on the layout of that hallway since the locker room incident.”

I laugh, remembering how freaking adorable Lucy was that day. Her face was redder than it is right now.

She groans. “And I already told him that I’m not at all interested in hockey players. Hanging out or dating.”

“What? Why aren’t you interested in hockey players?” I’m definitely offended.

“It’s not just hockey players. It’s… all men.” Lucy sneaks a glance at me. “I just feel like I can’t trust that people are who they appear to be, if that makes sense. With Ron—my ex—I was so sure things were amazing, but they really weren’t. I couldn’t see it. ”

“Sorry. He sounds like an asshole.”

“Yup.” She attempts a smile, then trips on a rock.

“Careful.” I hold out my arm to her, and she slips her hand in the crook of my elbow like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

“Then again, Atticus might end up being on board with this. He’s got bigger issues with our father than I do. Once he knew how things went down with our mother, he basically hated him. And after I went to college, he refused to spend time with him. Now he only sees Richard occasionally when he’s in the D.C. area and with me.”

“He doesn’t really talk about it that much.” I knew Atticus wasn’t close to his father, but I didn’t know the details.

“Atticus pretends he doesn’t care, but I know it hurts him.”

We weave our way through a rocky part of the trail, and I’m careful to continue scanning the area ahead of us. I was mostly kidding about the mountain lion thing. It’s not common to see them on the more popular trails, but we’re in the mountains of Colorado, so you have to be ready for anything.

So when I spot the rattlesnake, I know just what to do.

Unfortunately, we didn’t go over snake protocol.

At first, Lucy doesn’t notice it.