Page 104 of Bluffed By the Offense

It might be for a good cause, but I just can’t do it anymore.

As soon as this interview is over, I’m telling Marcus just that.

Chapter 22

Cass

Never pretend to a love

which you do not actually feel,

for love is not ours to command.

~ Alan Watts

The thought that I’ll be pulling the plug on our fake dating situation settles my nerves just the slightest. Marcus’s hand lands on my knee. I think I blanked out for a minute. I don’t know what the host just asked us.

Marcus picks up my fumble and runs with it. “How we met? It’s a funny story, actually. I met Cass at her house one Thanksgiving. Her sister is dating a teammate and good friend of mine, Declan O’Connell. Her parents opened their home and invited six of us Thunder players to join them for the holiday meal.”

“And was it love at first sight?” Lauren asks.

“Love?” I say, stunned that the word is being used to refer to me and Marcus. “Not love,” I say. I quickly catch myself and add. “I was attracted to him—objectively speaking. He’s gorgeous, after all. But the thought of dating him didn’t occur to me at that point.”

Thoughts of mild torture, maybe. He was so domineering—acting like he owned my parents’ house and Thanksgiving would have been lost without his intervention.

I realize how noncommittal and almost uninterested my answer just sounded, so I add, “Marcus grew on me. I had to get to know him to see the deeper pieces I missed when we first met.”

That’s true. I would have never imagined him being the type of person who could walk me through a panic attack with such tenderness and skill.

Marcus looks straight at me. His eyes have a question in them, but he leans into the humor and calls me out. “You thought I was gorgeous, huh?”

Of course, no one but the two of us knows he’s toying with me.

“You’re surprised?” I ask. “You think you’re gorgeous too.”

Marcus smiles and his private expression to me says Touché.

The hosts both laugh.

Then Lauren says, “Well, he isn’t wrong, is he Cass?”

“No. He isn’t,” I say, even though this conversation is going off the rails like a runaway train.

The last thing Marcus’s ego needs is a couple of women fawning over how gorgeous he is.

“And Marcus, what was your impression of Cass?” Bradley asks.

“Well, let’s see …” Marcus stalls, studying me with an expression that feels too intimate and raw. Then he says, “Her loyalty to her family stood out that first day. They mean a lot to her. And she has great leadership instincts. And she’s a whiz at football stats. Blew me away with her knowledge of the sport.”

Ha! He actually thought I was controlling and overbearing. Nice spin. I’ll give him that.

“And I thought she was beautiful, of course,” he adds, flashing me that famous Marcus Delaney smile.

“And you didn’t ask her for a date at that point?” Lauren asks.

“No,” Marcus says. “I tend to focus on football—on my career and my teammates. I wasn’t looking for a relationship. It took the photo shoot to make me realize I wanted to ask Cass out.”

That’s not a lie. He did get some incentive to ask me out after the photo shoot. The incentive came from Kate, but no one will know that until we finally come clean. Even then, the world will go on believing that we were an item and we didn’t last. A tightness in my chest makes me almost raise my hand to rub it out. Stress from pretending, probably.