Page 32 of The Game Plan

It was a simple picture—just one of her in a light-pink sweater and jeans—but it was beautiful.

Damn.

He knew it would be hard to pretend to be dating her, but he didn’t know it would be this hard. She was a pretty amazing woman.

Joel drew his attention back to the film when he shouted a curse. Reese looked back in time to see a referee get tackled accidentally.

“Sutton!”

She looked up as Carrie rushed into her office.

“What’s the matter?”

Carrie set her phone down in front of Sutton, and her eyes widened.

“Is that the foundation’s Instagram page?”

Carrie nodded, an errant red curl falling from her bun.

“Nine thousand followers? We only had seventy-five hundred this morning,” Sutton said, looking back down. “Did you ask Mirabel about it?”

“She hasn’t answered yet.” Carrie looked down at her phone, then back at Sutton. “Do you think your new boyfriend had anything to do with this?”

“I doubt one man could have that much of an impact,” Sutton said, leaning back in her chair to cross her arms.

“You know y’all are all over the news right now, right?” Carrie asked, pulling up an article fromPeople Magazine.

“Hot and heavy in Knoxville? Please,” Sutton said. “It was just a kiss. I don’t know why it was such a big deal.”

Carrie pinned her with a stare. “Really?”

“Yes, really,” Sutton replied, shuffling some papers on her desk.

“It’s a huge deal. He got hurt, and the first thing he looked for after wasyou.” Carrie let out a dreamy sigh. “It was so romantic.”

If only she knew.

She was, of course, genuinely worried about him when he got hit. She had seen enough hits on vulnerable players that caused permanent damage, then they ended up retiring much earlier than expected.

An email popped up on Carrie’s phone, and she dragged the notification down to open it.

“Most of the Kings football players have shared the charity ball post to their stories, and the followers are from them sharing it. It started with Joel Callan and Reese Vaughn, apparently.”

“So, it didn’t start with Reese; instead, it was Joel. Reese probably saw it after Joel shared it and shared it, too.”

Carrie gave her a peculiar look. “Does it matter that Reese wasn’t the first to share it?”

Sutton’s eyes widened, realizing she might have given away her feelings.

“It doesn’t,” she said, turning away from Carrie’s phone and back to her work.

“You’re a terrible liar,” Carrie whispered as she picked up her phone. “It does matter, but I can’t figure out why you’re trying to hide how you feel when he’s supposed to be your boyfriend.”

“Carrie, it’s a new relationship,” Sutton said, her head starting to hurt. “I’m trying not to overdo it. But it’s hard because I do kind of like him.”

Sutton had a feeling she was in trouble.

This fake relationship isn’t feeling so fake anymore.