Page 18 of Run the Play (Nashville Rampage #2)

“I’m sorry. Do I know you?” I ask Chaz fucking Brown, Rowan’s ex.

“You know me,” he grits.

“Do I?” I ask Rowan.

“Babe, this is Chaz. My ex and the new cornerback for the Rampage.” Her voice shakes slightly, but she’s going along with the plan.

“Ah, so I do know you.” I thrust my hand out toward him. “Thank you,” I say, letting my hand hang there.

He reaches out and shakes it hesitantly. “What for?”

His tone tells me he’s pissed, but he’s willing to see where this is going. I’m sure he assumes for transferring to the Rampage, but he’s sorely mistaken.

“For messing things up with my girl here. I never would have had my chance otherwise.” If it were possible, I’d be seeing smoke coming out of his ears right now.

His eyes narrow, his face turns beet red, and he fists his hands at his sides.

That’s fine. If this motherfucker wants to swing, he can swing on me and not Rowan.

“I was talking to my girlfriend,” he says through gritted teeth.

“Your girlfriend? Bud, she left you. She’s mine now.

” Rowan steps closer to me, and I move my hand from her shoulders to around her waist, holding her close.

I can feel a slight tremble in her body.

This fucker is lucky we’re at our place of employment, or I’d be tossing him on his ass just for scaring her like this.

It kills me to think about what she must have gone through being with him, with no one in her corner.

“Rowan, a word?” he spits out.

“We were just going to grab something to eat.”

“Thanks for waiting for me while I talked to Sinclair,” I tell her, falling in line with the ruse. “You ready to eat? It smells incredible.”

She nods, smiling up at me, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.

I turn us so that we’re walking toward the food and away from him. “See ya!” I call out, raising my hand in the air but not bothering to look back. Sure, I could see the anger on his face. I know he’s pissed, and that’s fine as long as he turns that anger to me and not to her.

We each grab a walking taco, a huge stack of napkins, and a couple of drinks and move to a table that’s set up in the far corner of the makeshift dining area. I wait for her to sit before taking the spot next to her.

“This is bad, Landry. So, so bad,” she says, biting down on her bottom lip.

“Hey.” Reaching over, I place my hand over hers. “It’s all going to be okay. He thinks you’re with me. He’s not going to try anything and get kicked off the team and lose his contract. This is a good thing.”

“Landry, we’re not together.”

I shrug. “Then we pretend that we are.”

“What?” she asks, her mouth falling open.

“What’s the big deal? We’ll pretend like we’re dating, and he’ll leave you alone.”

“You don’t know him like I do.”

“I don’t, but I do know that if we make it known that you’re mine, and he does try something, the team will step in. This might be exactly what we need to get something on him. He doesn’t belong here, Rowan. You do.”

“There are policies and steps to take.”

“And we’ll take them.”

“I can’t let you do that.”

“Babe, we just started dating, and you’re already trying to control me.” I laugh. “What if I give you a back rub later?”

“Landry, this is serious,” she says, but I can see some of the tension leave her body.

“I know it is, Roe. Trust me, I know. I promise this will work.”

“You have to pretend to be my boyfriend.” Her cheeks instantly turn a bright shade of pink.

“I can handle it. Can you?”

“After life with Chaz? Yeah, I can handle it.”

“Good. Then it’s settled.” And just in time, I see Roger Hampton, the owner of the Rampage, walking to a table near ours. “Roger, good to see you,” I call out to him, and he changes course, coming to our table instead. “I was hoping to see you today. Got a minute?” I ask him.

“For my wide receiver, anytime.” Roger laughs as he pulls out a seat and takes a huge bite of his pulled-pork sandwich. “What’s going on?” he asks after he’s finished his bite.

“I wanted to tell you that this beautiful lady and I are dating.” I bend my head toward where Rowan sits next to me.

“Well, all right then. She’s likely to have to work on you, but since you’re not her boss, I don’t see an issue with it.

You let me know if anything changes. Thanks for bringing it up.

I’ll make sure I put in a notice with HR that you’ve come to me, and all is on the up and up,” Roger tells us.

“Seems this is starting to be a trend.” He laughs, taking another bite of his sandwich.

“Maybe.” I wink at Rowan, and the corner of her mouth tilts into a relieved smile. We make small talk with Roger until we’re all finished eating, and he leaves to track down his wife.

“You want more?” I ask Rowan.

“No, I’m good. Thank you.” She looks down at her lap, then lifts her head to look me in the eye. “Landry, this isn’t going to work. He’s going to know that we’re lying.”

“No one knows that but us.”

“We have to tell your friends. We can’t lie to them.”

“Fine, we’ll tell them when we’re not here, but they’re not going to say anything.”

“It’s going to take a lot to convince Chaz I’ve moved on. I—that’s not me, hopping from man to man.”

“You didn’t. You hopped to me.” I tap my hand over my chest. “Trust me, Roe. I’ve got this. You just have to pretend to be madly in love with me, or at least tolerate me, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“You’re so confident.”

I take her hand in mine. “I’m not going to let him near you again, Rowan. I promise you that. This is going to work.”

“What happens when you meet someone you really want to date?” she asks, lowering her voice.

“I’m not looking. Besides, I got my girl right here.” I raise her hand to my lips and kiss her knuckles. I’m rewarded with more of her cute blush and a smile that reaches her eyes.

Grabbing my phone out of my pocket, I start a group text. We can’t very well spill the beans where anyone can hear us, and today, well, we’re going to have to put on a show.

Me: Heads-up, if anyone asks, Rowan and I are dating.

Reid: Does Rowan know about this?

Baker: Did you drug her?

Foster: Are you dream texting?

Corie: What?!

Sloane: Go, Reynolds!

Knox: Rowan?

Her phone keeps beeping. I watch as she pulls it out of her back pocket and starts to read. There’s a small smile tugging at her lips. Damn, this woman is a knockout and she has no idea.

Rowan: It’s a long story. I know the details. He didn’t drug me, and he’s not dream texting. He’s helping me with Chaz, and it just sort of happened.

Me: We’ll explain when there aren’t hundreds of ears around to listen. In the meantime, she’s mine.

Me: And yes, sister, before you ask, Roger knows. We just told him, and he was okay with it.

Corie: Good. I was sweating bullets over here.

Foster: That’s because it’s hotter than Satan’s ball sac out here.

Knox: Don’t talk like that to my wife.

Corie: I’m sweating like a whore in church. It’s a mix of the heat and the stress of the higher-ups not knowing.

Reid: Mrs. Beckett!

Baker: Mr. Beckett, the Mrs. is cooler than you are.

Sloane: What he said.

Laughing, I slide my phone back into my pocket. After standing from the table, I toss our trash into a nearby can and offer Rowan my hand. “Time to put your game face on, girlfriend.”

“We’re going to do this?”

“No turning back now.”

She nods, stands from her seat, takes my hand, allowing me to lace our fingers together, and we set off to find our friends.