Page 70 of Bluffed By the Offense

I laugh softly. “I love that you’ll have porch geese too.”

“I like your honey idea. Sydney knows a place to get the labels printed with the sayings you came up with on them.”

“It’s going to be amazing, Win.” I smile at my sister.

“What’s wrong, Cass?”

She senses it. And I want to tell her so badly. But now I might be picking things up right where I left off with Marcus Delaney. Faking. Enduring his massive ego and control issues. And keeping all that to myself while we pull off a charade for a good cause.

“Nothing,” I tell her. “I’m good. Just tired. Sorry I had to step away.”

“You can always step away for Porch Light.”

“Thanks.”

We finish cleaning up the dishes and head upstairs to get ready for bed. I’m in the bathroom alone while Winona calls Declan for their nightly call.

I’m staring at the mirror, but my mind is trying to figure out how I’m going to approach Marcus without handing him my dignity on a platter.

“Marcus,” I say, staring myself in the mirror, but picturing those steely grey-blue eyes. “We need to talk.”

“No.” I shake my head and start over. “Marcus. Donors are stepping up to help Porch Light. Some of them mentioned your name.”

“No way.” I squeeze my eyes shut and take a deep breath.

“Marcus, we need to keep dating. It looks good for Porch Light.”

“Cass?” Winona knocks on the door.

“Yeah. Hey. Yep. I’m in here.”

“Were you talking to someone?”

“No! I was just … practicing talking … to myself.”

“You were practicing talking? To yourself?”

I open the door. Winona walks in. “I think you mastered talking when we were two or three. I mean, you’ve improved since then, but …” Her face scrunches in that adorable way it does.

“Yeah. You’re right,” I say. “I’m as good as I’m going to get.”

“Don’t be discouraged,” she says, placing her hand on my shoulder. “You’re a really good talker.”

I am. I’m a really good talker. Now I just have to harness that skill to talk Marcus Delaney into pretending to date me for a little while longer—for the sake of Porch Light.

Chapter 15

Cass

Everything is negotiable.

Whether or not the negotiation is easy

is another thing.

~ Carrie Fisher

My phone rings and vibrates on my desk. I pick it up and do a double take.