Page 24 of The Marriage Playbook

Her face went bright red.

“Because I’m not necessarily opposed, if you think it will help.” He waggled his eyebrows at her. He was feeling more lighthearted than he had in days. Maybe it was because of that flush of anger he had felt last night, when he’d thought the whole thing had been a big scam on Cara’s part. He hadn’t believed that for long, and letting go of that idea had allowed him to let go of a lot of his bitterness toward the situation he was in at the same time. The fact was, even though he was stuck in a marriage and exiled from his team, he was also stuck here with a pretty and charismatic woman who had turned out to be a lot of fun to banter with. He could make the most of the situation.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Cara snapped. “You know this isn’t a real marriage. I’m saying we should let ourselves be seen in bed together.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ll get in the bed,” Cara said. “Actually, the fact that I’m wearing your jersey will make this even better. And then we’ll order room service. When it arrives, you get up to let them in and help them get set up, and I’ll stay in the bed. It will look like we’ve just been…” She trailed off, but he understood what she was getting at.

“Okay,” he said. “But I don’t know what good that’s actually going to do us, because only one person is going to see it. The person who brings the room service. And everyone who works for the hotel already thinks that’s what we’re doing in here.”

“That’s only our first play,” Cara said. “Once the story gets out that the star of the Miami Stingers ran off and got married to some woman nobody knows, the tabloid hounds are going to be out in force. We weren’t secretive about the name of this hotel, you know. That was on purpose. We want them to find the staff and ask them questions about what our stay here was like. And we want the staff to have some juicy stories to tell, so this marriage looks real. Just in case there are any skeptics out there.”

“Okay, all right.” Liam threw up his hands. “I get the picture. We’ll do the play.”

“And in the meantime,” Cara said, “we need to be working on our life stories.”

“Our what?”

She pulled out a folder and opened it up.

Liam saw a copy of his head shot. “You don’t have clothes, but you have that?”

“This was part of the original plan,” she said coolly. “It’s part of a dossier I put together on you in the days before the wedding. I left it up here so that Stephanie could spend your honeymoon learning all about you, so she’d be able to speak about your relationship when the two of you were inevitably interviewed. Of course, I’m a lot more prepared, because I’ve already done all this work.” She held up the folder. “But you need to learn all about me. And you should also go through this folder and make sure nothing too important is missing.”

“And this is for when we get interviewed about each other,” he said doubtfully. “You really think that’s going to happen? You think anyone cares that much?”

“I think the entire point of what we’re doing here is to make people care, Liam,” Cara said. “We want to change the public perception of you. I’m trying to create an image of you as a romantic, loving family man. So yes, I think it’s important that you be able to show that you know something about the woman you’re allegedly so in love with. I’m not saying people will necessarily care about this marriage, but I am saying it’s our job to make them care. And it’s also our job to make them believe it’s real.”

She had stopped pacing now and stood facing him head-on. Her face was flushed with passion, her hands balled into fists at her sides.

She really cares about this. She really wants to make this work.

“Okay,” Liam said. “You’re the boss. We’ll do it your way.” He reached out and took the folder.

CHAPTER 13

CARA

“We’re going out to dinner tonight,” Cara announced.

Liam didn’t take his eyes off the TV, which was airing the Stingers game. “You said that we could just stay in the room for the next few days.”

“I know what I said,” Cara told him. “And actually, we’re checking out of here tomorrow, so you may want to think about packing.” She waved a hand around the room, indicating the mess that had accumulated over the last three days of their so-called honeymoon.

Liam groaned. “After the game,” he said. “And I don’t want to go out to dinner. Let’s just order room service again.”

“No,” Cara said. “The hotel has offered us a complimentary meal at their four-star restaurant, and I accepted on our behalf.”

Now he looked at her. “You didn’t think you should ask me before accepting that?”

“No,” she said firmly. “It doesn’t come out of your budget. Like I said, it’s complimentary.”

“Well, I’m not going.” He turned back to the TV. Cara glanced at it too. The Stingers were losing.

She marched over to the TV and turned it off.

“Hey!” Liam objected, sitting upright and scowling at her.