Page 47 of The Game Plan (Game On #3)

Dex

I find Fi in the kitchen. She isn’t drinking or eating or preparing anything. Which worries me. It isn’t like her to stand

around, staring off at nothing.

Fi is light and love. Happiness and laughter. Even when she’s peaceful she has a radiance. But it’s gone now. She’s pale and

quiet. Her hair has lost its shine, hanging limp around her pretty face.

I want to go to her, hold her close. But lately she flinches when I touch her. And it hurts too much for me to risk it right

now.

“Hey, Cherry.”

Fi blinks as if pulling out of a fog. “Hey. Were you working out?”

“No. Just sitting outside for a while.”

My naturally curious girl doesn’t ask why. Drew is right; I need to snap her out of this. Even if I have to haul her out over

my shoulder.

“I was talking to Drew.”

She winces, her shoulders hunching in. “Let me guess, about me.”

“He wanted to see how you were doing. He cares about you, Fi.”

She shakes her head. “You know you’re fucked up when you’d rather no one cared.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“But I do,” she snaps, her eyes hard and cold. “I’d be perfectly happy if I never got asked how I’m doing again.”

It’s my turn to wince. Because I ask her every day. I’m hovering, annoying her with my concern. Her expression tells me that’s

exactly what she’s thinking.

My head begins to pound along with my heart. I run a tired hand over my brow, not knowing what the fuck to say anymore.

Fi runs a finger along the grain in the marble countertop. “I was on the phone too. Talking to my mom.”

I’ve met Fi’s mom twice. Fi has her coloring, but Ivy has her features. I’m looking forward to meeting her as Fiona’s man,

but I don’t think that’s what this conversation is about. Instinct has me bracing for impact.

Fi’s gaze flicks to mine. “She asked me to come to London.”

“London. Now?” The pounding in my heart gets harder, faster.

Fi shrugs, studies the marble. “I could go out there. Do things. Not be trapped.”

Trapped like she is here with me.

I run a hand through my beard and discover my fingers are trembling. “I can’t go with you right now, Fi.”

She doesn’t look up. “I know.”

I’ve been hit by three-hundred-pound men intent on mowing me down—that hurts less than those two flat words. She doesn’t want

me to come.

Her voice is soft when she speaks, as if she’s trying to spare my feelings. “You once said we should take a step back until things blow over.”

“And you told me I was wrong.” Tell me I’m wrong again. Fight for us.

“Maybe you were right.”

My throat clogs, and I struggle to clear it. “You said you didn’t want to be apart.”

“I didn’t—don’t. But this—” she gestures to the windows and the world outside them “—is no way to live.”

“So stop hiding. Let’s go out there, and fuck what anyone thinks.”

Her eyes flash, deep green and angry. “Easy for you to say.”

“It isn’t easy at all, Fi. This whole thing fucking kills me.”

“Then help me,” she says, leaning toward me, her slim body tight and tense. “I can’t stand this, Ethan.”

I can’t look at her. Not without losing it.

“It’s not forever,” she says.

She’s right. It’s just a trip, not the end. But it feels like it. I have a sickening fear that the second she walks out my

door, she’ll be lost to me.

I want to fight for her. Insist that she be with me. But I can’t be selfish. If I force her to stay, I’ll lose her anyway.

Fi isn’t an object. She’s the woman I love. And if she needs her mother right now, that’s what she’ll get.

I swallow hard, and it feels like I’m drinking down chunks of glass. When I talk, my stomach turns over.

“Let me know when you want to go, and I’ll book you a flight.”