Page 37 of The Marriage Playbook

“When our marriage ends, we aren’t going to be able to go on seeing each other.” Was it possible he hadn’t thought of this? It was the first thing that had come to her mind. “You’re going to need to focus on the image you’re projecting, and it doesn’t make sense for you to be so in love with me that you just had to leave your team, and then divorce me, and then go on seeing me. What would that look like? There’s no way to spin that into something positive. People would say you were fickle and flighty, that you couldn’t be trusted.”

“We wouldn’t have to tell them,” Liam suggested. “We could see one another secretly.”

She laughed humorlessly, shaking her head. “Do you really think that would stay a secret? People would find out. The risk is too great, and I’d never risk doing that to you.”

He squared his jaw. “What if I say you’re worth the risk?”

A shiver ran down her spine.

Could he possibly mean that?

After everything, would he really put his career—his whole life—on the line for her?

Does he care about me after all?

It didn’t matter. She couldn’t let him do it. All she could think about was that visit to Rose Valley, the look on his face as he had explained how football had saved him from the darkest times in his life. How it was the only thing in the world that had ever made him feel he was doing something right.

I can’t be the person who takes that from him.

“It’s a risk for me too,” she told him, even though the risk to her didn’t seem to matter all that much right now. “I’d lose my career. Even if nobody ever found out I was your publicist, Alastair knows, and he’d fire me for getting too attached. For letting my unprofessionalism ruin everything we’ve been working on.”

There was a long pause.

“Well,” Liam said at last, “I don’t want you to lose your job.”

“I’m sorry. It’s not that this isn’t important to me…”

“No, but you’re right,” he said. “We should look for another way. We should try to find a way through this that doesn’t mean we have to give up so much.” He paused. “I suppose just staying married is out of the question?”

It hit her like a punch. “Staying married? You don’t want to stay married to me. I mean…that was a great night, Liam, but husband and wife?”

He laughed. “I just mean until we figure things out,” he said. “I just mean, there’s no real rush for us to go our separate ways, is there? We can draw this out a bit. I don’t want it to be one-and-done either. I want to spend more time together. I want to get to know you better. I know we were going to get divorced as soon as my reputation was repaired…”

“It’s pretty close to that now,” she said.

“I know,” he agreed. “But I don’t think it’s necessary for us to break up. I’m not saying we have to be all till death do us part about it, but we can spend some more time together, right? We can just…enjoy it. That won’t do anything bad to your career.”

She thought about it. “Alastair would probably like that,” she agreed. “It would be like I was putting in overtime or something.”

“Right. Exactly. And it won’t do my reputation any harm to keep on showing how devoted I am to my wife. And in the meantime, you and I get to…” He trailed off.

“Get to what?” What was it they were doing? Having fun?

Something more?

A smile spread across his face. “We get to find out,” he said. “What we want. What this is. I want to find out, Cara. Don’t you want that?”

It wasn’t an answer. But at least it was a question—and it was the same question Cara herself had. That was promising. Maybe they could find the answer together.

“I do,” she said, thinking back to the last time she had said those words to Liam. They’d been at the altar, and she had been pledging herself to him. But this time was different. This time, she really meant it.

“So then it’s settled,” he told her. He reached over to the table, set his coffee down, and pulled her into a kiss.

Cara melted.

Whatever this was, whatever had been discussed between the two of them…it wasn’t the solution to their problems. It was just about as far away from that as you could get. It was just a bandage, and soon enough it would have to be ripped off and they’d need to figure out what they were going to do about this in the long run.

But she couldn’t help the thrill that raced through her at the knowledge that Liam wasn’t in a hurry for that to happen.