Page 43 of The Marriage Playbook

Two days passed, and Cara saw almost nothing of Liam.

He hadn’t asked her to move out of the house. That was the one thing she could cling to. Maybe he understood what damage that would cause to his reputation, to everything they had worked to build.

Maybe he simply didn’t want her to go.

I don’t want to go.

If she left the house, she sensed that everything between them would be over. There would be no salvaging the situation. It would be impossible to come back to each other. As long as she was here, she had hope.

If only they could have talked! She was sure he was out drinking. In fact, there had been a picture, posted by a cute young bartender, which had quickly taken the internet by storm. The media was already speculating—was this girl Liam Sims’ next conquest? To her credit, the bartender had already responded, had laughed off the questions and insisted that they’d had a nice conversation and she had gotten to meet her favorite football player, nothing more. “And I wish he was still playing for the Stingers,” she’d added. “I don’t even like watching them anymore these days. I was mostly just tuning in to watch Liam Sims.”

If the Stingers’ management had seen that, if it had affected them at all, they hadn’t said anything to Cara or to Alastair.

It had certainly affected Cara. She found herself returning to the girl’s social media page again and again, looking at the cheerful, easy smiles on their faces. How could Liam look so happy? He had been in a rage when he’d left the house, and he hadn’t calmed down enough to offer Cara so much as a conversation.

But he was always good at putting on a show for the cameras.

It was ironic, she thought, because he had made it abundantly clear how much he’d resented having to do it. He had complained about it at every turn. But it hadn’t really been a problem for him at all. He had had the skill.

He just doesn’t like being inauthentic. Look at how ready he was to open up to me—to trust me—the moment he got an inkling it might be safe for him to do that.

She sighed. In spite of how difficult everything was right now, in spite of the fact that she was angry with him for running away form the problem they faced, she knew she couldn’t give up on him. She had to keep trying to fix things, because she still wanted him to be happy.

Clicking out of the tab with the bartender’s social media, she returned to her email inbox.

It was depressingly bare. No one had reached out for comment about what was going on with Liam. Alastair had promised her that if anybody did, he would forward the emails to her. “It’s not like I want to deal with them,” he’d grumbled. “This is your mess to clean up.”

But so far…nothing.

She was just going to have to be proactive. If no emails were coming her way, she’d be the one to send them.

She pulled up an old message from the assistant coach of the Colorado Lions, Ben Harvey. If there was anyone who could make the Lions see sense, it might be Cara.

Mr. Harvey, she typed, and then hesitated.

How to explain everything that had happened? And how much of the truth could she possibly tell here?

My name is Cara Bailey, she wrote eventually. I’m sure you’ve seen my name in the press recently attached to Liam Sims. Our marriage was the reason he had to leave the Miami Stingers. As you may have guessed, that’s only part of the story…but it is the truth. We did get married, and the feelings between us are real.

She felt as if she was choking, just typing those words. Her feelings were real indeed. She knew that now. What was more, she believed Liam had felt something real for her, because he hated so much to be fake. He’d never put on a show when he didn’t absolutely have to. What she’d felt between them hadn’t furthered any possible agenda, which could only mean one thing.

It had been real.

Now it was gone.

She swallowed hard. Even if she couldn’t bring him back, even if there was nothing to be done about the state of things between the two of them, she still wanted to do all she could for him. She wanted to get him a placement on a team, because that was the only thing he truly wanted. He should be able to find happiness.

She turned her attention back to the email. I’m sure you’re aware of a recent statement by a woman who claimed that my husband tried to bribe her into a marriage for PR purposes. It’s caused a fair amount of stress for the both of us, as I’m sure you can imagine, and I know it’s caused some difficulty for your organization as well as you’ve tried to decide whether to move forward with Liam. That’s why I’m reaching out. I wanted you to have all the information.

The truth is that there was an arrangement with this woman, once upon a time. It was a poor choice, and I’m the one to blame—I work on Liam’s PR team. That’s how we met. Liam never wanted anything to do with that marriage, and the woman knew it, so it was a blessing to both of them that the plan fell apart before they ever made it to the altar. I was afraid, back then, to confess my true feelings for Liam. I am thankful every day that he was brave enough to confess his feelings to me first.

She drew a deep breath, steadying herself for the final words of the email.

I want more than anything for people to see the Liam Sims I know, and to give him the second chance he deserves. I almost ruined his chances at love and happiness by trying to push him into an arrangement that would have been all wrong for him. The fault is mine. But he escaped that. If my mistake loses him his chance to play ball again, I don’t know if I will ever be able to forgive myself.

I’m asking you to consider looking past this and working with him again. Liam will be happy to make a public statement confirming everything I’ve said.

At least, he would once she had spoken to him about it.