Page 27 of The Marriage Playbook

Then it was over, and his arm was around her shoulders. He steered her toward the door. As they walked, he didn’t say a word—didn’t bother to put on a performance, as he had the night before. Well, that’s my own fault for calling him out the way I did. She didn’t know what she had been thinking. Yes, it bothered her not to be sure which aspects of Liam were the true person she’d married. But she had told him, last night, to act as if he was in love with her—and then she’d ridiculed him when he had done it. What did I expect him to do?

They stepped out into the Florida sunlight, and Liam led the way to a gray sedan parked in front of the hotel.

“Hang on.” Cara stopped. “That isn’t our car. I…I forgot to order us a car.” She couldn’t believe it. How could she have forgotten something so important? Shame flooded her. “I’ll make a call right now. I’m sorry.”

“No, this is mine,” Liam said. He reached out and opened the passenger door. “I assumed this was my job, since you said I was going to handle the checkout.”

She frowned. “You ordered a car?” She looked inside. “There’s no driver.”

He laughed. “So used to the luxe life already, Cara? This is my car. I had it dropped off last night. It was in the parking garage. The valet just brought it out for us.”

“This isn’t your car,” she objected. “You drive that blue SUV that’s in the papers all the time.”

“I told you you didn’t know everything about me.” He raised his eyebrows. “I drive this too. No one wants to be going around in a flashy car all the time. Sometimes a guy needs to keep a low profile. Are you mad I didn’t have the SUV sent over?”

“Of course I’m not mad,” she told him. “If you’re going to drive us, drive whatever you want.” She got in. “I guess I’m just surprised.”

He grinned at her. “I guess I’m full of surprises.”

The door closed. A moment later, Liam was sliding into the driver’s seat. He looked over at Cara. “Ready to see Rose Valley?”

“As I’ll ever be,” she said.

She knew that it was about an hour outside of Miami. It was a name she’d grown up hearing, of course, as it was one of the larger suburbs, and Liam had put it on the map when he had signed with the Stingers. But she’d never had cause to go out there. Based on the name, she was expecting three-story brick houses and well-tended gardens lining the streets.

She couldn’t have been more wrong.

At first, she didn’t even realize they had reached Rose Valley. They’d been driving on a stretch of two-lane highway, and it continued right into the town. They passed a run-down old gas station and a small grocery store that wasn’t part of any chain Cara recognized. There was a fast-food restaurant and a small inn, and then they were driving up a main road through the middle of town.

She looked out the window at the dilapidated storefronts. Many of them had been abandoned or boarded over. “This is Rose Valley?”

“This is it. Home sweet home.” His voice was light, as if he was looking forward to an easy afternoon, but Cara had the feeling that was just a show he was trying to put on for her sake. There was definitely something strained in his tone.

She was quiet as they drove up the road. She had imagined Liam as someone who had always been wealthy, who had never had to work very hard or deal with struggles. But this town told a different story. Growing up here…well, it might have been a happy childhood, but it certainly hadn’t been a luxurious one.

He turned down a side street. It was nice, she thought, lined with trees that someone was clearly bothering to tend to. At least someone cared about this town. That thought made her feel better.

Liam pulled to a stop in front of a length of chain-link fence. “Here we are.”

“Where?”

“This is Rose Valley High,” he explained. “Where I got my start. Where I first got the football bug, and where I got scouted for my college team. This is where I fell in love with the game.”

Cara opened the door of the car.

“We don’t have to get out,” he said.

“No, let’s,” she said. “History was made here, and I want to see it for myself.” She closed the door and went over to the fence, and a moment later, he joined her.

“So this is where it all began,” Cara mused, looking out over the field. Like the trees, it was being taken care of. It had been mown recently. Still, the grass was patchy, and the bleachers on the far side didn’t look like they would accommodate more than a few dozen spectators. Playing on this field couldn’t have involved much glory.

“Why’d you get into football?” she asked him.

“I’m good at it,” he said.

“Is that it?”

He looked out over the field. “No,” he murmured, running a hand through his immaculate blond curls. “No, that isn’t it. I don’t know. When I found football, it was like…it was like I had found myself. It was like I’d found the one place where I could forget about everything that was wrong with the world, everything that was stressing me out, and just be me. When a pass landed perfectly in my hands, when my team hoisted me up on their shoulders after a great win, or even when we consoled each other after a loss, it always felt so clear that I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. Nothing else has ever felt like that.”