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Jade

T he nerves set flight in my stomach after asking Cliff to be the guy to fake date me. I’m not sure why I asked him. Well, that’s not true. I know why I asked him. Because I wouldn’t be able to go through with this unless it was someone I trusted. He’s been my rock since the moment he came into my life. But the feelings that I’ve kept locked behind closed doors since I first met Cliff spilled out in the form of asking him to be my “boyfriend” before I could stop them.

When my hand touched his, I felt a shock all the way up my arm, but I disregarded it, just like every other time. The only thing I couldn’t ignore is how right this all feels.

Staring at him, I wait on stilted breath for him to answer. I can see the wheels turning in his head. I’ll give him props, though. He doesn’t look away from me. But I can see his hazel eyes swimming with so many different emotions, and I can’t seem to place what they are. My insecurities hit me like a Mack truck as the silence stretches, and I pray he says something, anything, soon.

We continue to stare at each other for what feels like forever. I watch as a piece of his dirty blonde hair falls into his eyes, and it takes everything in me to not move it out of the way.

“Jade—” he starts, but the server interrupts before he can get it totally out.

“Here is your food.” We both pull our hands back into our respective spaces while the woman places his plate down in front of him, trying to gain his attention. Her smile falls when he doesn’t even glance at her. I can’t help it—I allow happiness to wash over me, knowing that he isn’t giving her any attention.

She places my plate down without another word, then leaves us at our table in silence. The intensity of his gaze, along with his silence, is too much. Not being able to take it any longer, I look away first—I know I’m being a coward. Taking a bite out of my tacos, I try to think about how I can convince him to do this for me. Because let’s be honest, this goes way above being best friends.

I peek from the side of my eye to see Cliff who’s now looking intensely at his own tacos, but hasn’t touched them. He’s probably trying to figure out how to let me down without hurting my feelings, or maybe he’s thinking of someone else to pawn me off on.

“Are you sure you want to pretend to date me?” His tone is cautious, pulling me from my own thoughts.

“Cliff, I don’t think I could do this with anyone else,” I tell him.

“Okay, let’s do this. But we need rules,” he says as he takes a bite out of his taco.

Placing my own taco down, I nod while wiping the sides of my mouth. “I agree. We need to make sure we have boundaries. Like we only show PDA in front of cameras. Only kissing, holding hands and hugging in public. Do you agree?”

Cliff grunts but doesn’t look up at me, he keeps his eyes on his plate. I take that moment to take a few more bites of my food.

“Fine. We need to do a few dinners before we announce that we’re dating. I’ll have Hunter tip the photographers off. And Jade?”

Him saying my name has me looking up and when I see him giving me his signature sexy smile, my panties dampen. What the hell is that about? Shaking my thoughts of his sexy smirk, I answer, “Yes?”

“To make this work, you have to act like we’re dating and not just friends. We need people to believe this, even our families. You’ll have to talk about me to people.”

“Oh, that’s easy. I already talk about you to some people,” I say, waving off his concern.

His jaw drops when he asks, “You do?”

“Of course, you’re my best friend,” I tell him, shrugging my shoulders.

“This will work,” he mutters under his breath like he’s trying to convince himself.

“How are we going to tell our families?” I ask him.

Cliff flinches at my question like he doesn’t want to tell our families, but he doesn’t have a choice. They will find out and will call constantly if we don’t give them a heads up.

“They have to believe this is real, too. We can’t have them accidentally revealing anything if they get questioned. We will just tell them we’ve become close over the last two years and started dating. Maybe we’ll FaceTime them and tell them together.”

I let out a breath that I didn’t realize I was holding. Telling my family is the one thing I’m not so sure about, especially my sister, Mya, and his brother Taylor. I hug my arms around my middle at the thought. But when I look up at Cliff, I know this will be ok; he’s always been there for me. How could I ever doubt him? He’s my rock. Maybe it won’t be too bad if Cliff is with me when we tell them.

“Mya and Taylor will be the most difficult,” Cliff says as if he’s reading my mind.

“Totally. How long should we ‘date’ for?” I ask him.

He pulls out his phone, looking at something that I assume is his calendar. He confirms it when he asks, “How about right after playoffs?”

“That works. Maybe we can do something like under the radar and just release a statement saying we’ve gone our separate ways.” Sadness wells up inside me as I think about him not being in my life. Who would I talk to? The need to make sure that we’re on the same page takes over. “Cliff?”

“Yes?”

“Promise me one thing. No matter what happens, we stay friends.”

He contemplates what I’ve said then replies, “I promise.”