Game Plan

by Camellia Tate

  Connor’s chest was warm and solid, and his arm around Ashley’s shoulder tightened for a moment, pulling her even closer as his tongue brushed out in search of hers. She felt him move, jostled by Angus on his other side, but he didn’t pull back.

  Until, suddenly, he did, his blue eyes wide as they met hers.

  For a moment Ashley seemed equally frozen. It couldn’t have been that long because the people around them didn’t seem to notice. The conversation changed to something that wasn’t soulmates and soulmarks and for that Ashley was glad. She turned back, her shoulder still pressed against Connor’s chest, heart racing.

  Nowhere in their fake dating plan had kissing come up, but Ashley couldn’t really deny that it had felt nice . Except, it was also fake , so it didn’t matter if it was nice or not. Connor wasn’t actually her boyfriend, and he certainly wasn’t her soulmate.

  The rest of their night out was mostly spent with Ashley listening to hockey talk. Then she was told about all the dumb things Connor had done since he’d been on the team. And then she was told about all the dumb things that everyone had done since being on the team.

  It was nice and the laughter almost distracted Ashley from the memory of how hot Connor’s lips had felt against hers.

  Ashley had been the one to suggest that they go home early. It was after some of the other - older - guys had already left. Ashley got the impression that if it wasn’t for her suggestion, Connor would’ve stayed out and partied hard. He didn’t seem to mind her suggestion, so Ashley didn’t think she was robbing him of celebrating the team’s win.

  It had been her suggestion to go back to Connor’s, mostly because Ashley kept thinking about their accidental kiss and how they probably needed to talk about that. As much as they had drawn some rules up - not literally, but they had discussed stuff - they hadn’t quite talked about this . Not that Ashley had intended to kiss Connor but that didn’t mean it couldn’t happen again . Besides, she also wanted to assure him that she knew it had been an accident.

  Like the first time she had been there, Ashley couldn’t stop being amazed by the place. Connor’s house was about three times bigger than the whole of Ashley’s rented apartment, but then she did recognize that he earned a lot more money than her. It was easy enough to tell, though, that Connor had no sense of what went with what. The house was filled with badly mismatched furniture and not a single piece of art anywhere.

  Ashley kicked her shoes off while Connor went to get them some bottles of water from the fridge. He threw one her way and she took a long sip before deciding what to say.

  “So about that kiss...” Okay so maybe she hadn’t decided what to say.

  There was a pause, while Connor clearly waited for her to carry on. Realizing she wasn’t going to, he made a noise in his throat, which wasn’t quite a laugh, but sounded as if it might have started out that way.

  “I’m sorry,” he offered. “I didn’t mean to put my lips in the way.” He came closer, and Ashley could see a pink flush across his cheeks. “I would’ve -” He paused, hand opening and closing at his side like he was searching for the right words.

  “Well, I would’ve not kissed you, except I realized everyone was watching,” he finally said. How very sure he sounded would’ve seemed harsh, except that Connor wasn’t her boyfriend.

  It didn’t make the hurt any less , though, Ashley realized. She did, she felt, a good job at not showing that. It still stung, how sure Connor sounded that he wouldn’t have kissed her in other circumstances. Ashley knew, logically, that she had no right to be upset over that, they weren’t dating, not really, but it still didn’t feel great .

  She let go of it, as much as she could, turning away so Connor couldn’t see if there did happen to be any hurt flashing across her face. “No, of course not, I know that,” Ashley said instead, walking over to the couch and taking a seat.

  “It’s good that we kissed, it makes it realistic, right?” She offered. “Your teammates definitely seemed convinced.” Connor’s teammates had been really nice and Ashley almost felt bad about lying to them. It wasn’t like a terrible, awful lie. “Do you think tonight went well?” Ashley asked since Connor would know better if their charade was believable to his team.

  “Right,” Connor agreed quickly. “Couples kiss. We probably should’ve thought of it before , but better late than never, and no harm done.” He gave a nod. “They’ve got no reason to question it, as far as I can see.” He smiled, a warmer smile that almost made Ashley forget that Connor didn’t want to be her boyfriend. “You’ve planned it all very well,” he complimented.

  “Well, I am a planner,” Ashley shrugged, but it’d be a lie to say that there weren’t at least a few butterflies in her stomach at the compliment. Ashley liked being a good planner and Connor’s praise felt good .

  Taking a seat next to her, Connor rolled his water bottle against his knee for a moment. “We never talked about whether you’d want your boyfriend to wear his soulmark openly,” he said. “Especially a boyfriend whose soulmark is your name . Would it be weird for you for him to hide it?”

  The question genuinely surprised Ashley. Not because of what it was, because it was a fair question, but because it was Connor asking it. She felt a bit guilty about not having given him credit to think of such complex issues, but the truth was, she really hadn’t.

  Ashley turned on the sofa, pulling her legs up, her socked-toes inches away from Connor’s leg. “I wear my mark openly because that’s what I’ve always done,” Ashley said stretching her arm out against the back of the couch. Her soulmark was exposed with only the C slightly hiding under the sports jersey she was wearing.

  “I’d want my boyfriend to do whatever feels comfortable for him.” It was really the truth. Ashley personally felt that soulmarks were stupid and people ascribed them too much meaning, but she still knew that people did .

  Noticing the way Connor’s eyes were drawn to her soulmark, Ashley reached to pull her sleeve up from the C. “Do you want to touch it?” she offered, assuming that Connor had probably never touched anyone else’s soulmark, especially not one that matched his name.

  From the way Connor’s gaze flew up to hers, it hadn’t been something he’d expected her to offer. Ashley held her arm out, to show she was serious. Tentatively at first, Connor brushed a finger over the letters, his touch so light that Ashley giggled.

  “I’ve only ever touched mom’s,” he said, answering a question Ashley hadn’t asked. His finger moved to her hand, tracing the curve between her thumb and first finger. “It’s right here,” he explained. “So when we’d hold hands to cross the road when I was little, I’d always be touching it.”

  That was so oddly sweet, imagining tiny Connor holding his mom’s hand. A shiver ran through Ashley at the touch, heat pooling low in her stomach.

  He moved his finger back, moving slowly over each letter of his name. “Does it feel weird?” he asked.

  “It tickles,” Ashley offered with a laugh. “But it’s not unpleasant ,” she added. It didn’t even tickle because it was a soulmark and only because of how tender Connor’s touch was. It made Ashley wonder what it’d feel like if he touched her elsewhere but she quickly got rid of that thought.

  Slowly, so he could stop her, Ashley reached up to where she knew Connor’s soulmark was. Ashley had Googled him, so the images had been hard to avoid, even if she’d been more drawn to Connor’s naked chest in them than his soulmark.

  “You can show me if you’d like?” Ashley offered.

  Connor hesitated and Ashley could see the indecision written all over his face. It hadn’t occurred to Ashley before to notice how open Connor seemed to be with his emotions. If it had, she’d have questioned whether he could convincingly pretend to have found his soulmate. He’d done alright in front of his team, though Ashley did recognize there had been a certain type of masculine bravado covering anything approaching feelings .

  His fingers were still roving over Ashley’s soulmark, but he
slowly drew them back. After a moment, he moved to tug the sticker loose, revealing the neat letters of Ashley’s name.

  Even though Ashley had seen quite a few openly worn soulmarks in her life - most of her parents’ friends didn’t cover theirs - her breath still caught in her throat when she saw Connor’s. Ashley wasn’t even sure why because she had seen her name on someone else’s body before, and yet...

  She reached out to run her finger softly over the letters.

  “It’s smaller than yours,” Connor observed. “But bigger than my mom’s. She used to say that meant I’d find you earlier.”

  Her eyes widened at that, fingers stilling where they were brushing over Connor’s skin. “Find your soulmate earlier, you mean,” she corrected because she wasn’t Connor’s soulmate. Yes, Ashley had the same name as Connor’s soulmark, but that hardly meant she was his soulmate. Of all the thousands of Ashleys and all the thousands of Connors just in this state , it seemed highly unlikely they’d be each others.

  “Right,” Connor agreed, pulling his arm away from Ashley’s hand, his own fingers coming up to brush against the mark, as if he half-wished he could cover it up again. “She said the bigger your soulmark is, the longer you spend with your soulmate.” The corners of Connor’s mouth had gone hard, making him look almost fierce, and Ashley didn’t think it was her he was annoyed with.

  “It’s rubbish, anyway,” he continued. “If that were really true, someone would’ve proved it by now, done one of those studies about it.” Studies on soulmarks did make the news relatively often, although their findings were usually so inconclusive as to be open to almost any interpretation.

  Ashley felt bad for her words, but they were nonetheless what she believed. She also felt a little sad that she couldn’t just promise Connor that the fairytales about soulmarks were true . Certainly not when Ashley herself thought it was all exaggerated bullshit. Yes, no one knew why people had soulmarks, but Ashley definitely thought ascribing too much meaning to them was unhealthy.

  “Hey,” Ashley said poking her toe against Connor’s leg, wanting to distract him from whatever thoughts were going on in his head. “Bet I can beat you at Mario Kart ,” she told Connor with a grin, sure he’d take her bait.

  Connor’s head lifted, his hard expression vanished as he narrowed his eyes in mock-severity at Ashley. “Oh, you’re on,” he promised. “I am undefeated at the Mushroom Cup.” It was startling how quickly Connor’s mood seemed to change, how easily he let Ashley distract him onto happier topics.

  Fetching the controllers, Connor handed one to Ashley before sitting down, his bare arm brushing against hers as he leaned close. “I’m so confident, I’ll even let you pick your racer first.”

  Obviously, Ashley had expected the fake dating to help Connor with his problem of having fans throw themselves at him as his soulmates. That was why she’d agreed to do it. One of the reasons, at least. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t getting anything out of it. Ashley had to admit she’d learned a lot about PR just from seeing how things had gone with Connor’s soulmark being accidentally revealed.

  What Ashley hadn’t expected was how being in a relationship with a soulmate seemed to make Connor’s public image better . It made sense, she knew that. People loved a soulmate match. Like she’d told him before, people loved looking up at celebrities and knowing they were living in some sort of fairytale.

  Ashley just hadn’t expected to be part of that fairytale.

  There wasn’t really much she could do other than to just accept it. In fact, what Ashley decided to do was more than accept it. While she and Connor hadn’t agreed on a specific end-date to their fake relationship, Ashley knew it would end and that would probably impact on Connor’s public image. This was what led her to decide she could make sure that didn’t happen, or at least lessen the blow.

  This was how they ended up at a charity event. It wasn’t fancy like a gala - which was yet to come and Ashley really needed to figure out what one wore to a gala - and rather just a small event at a park. There were inflatable castles for the kids to bounce on, some high swings and a few trampolines. The main draw from what Ashley had read were multiple pie stands.

  “So, I might’ve promised that you’ll let some kids try to throw some pies at you for charity,” Ashley said after she and Connor had been at the park for a little while. “I had to do something while you were signing all of the autographs for the kiddies.” It hadn’t exactly been hard to convince one of the pie sellers to let Connor Lewis of the Madison Howlers do something for charity with their pies.

  Connor groaned, but he didn’t actually look as if he minded the idea all that much. Ashley had seen how Connor was with the fans, how easily he became tongue-tied. At least for this, he wouldn’t have to talk .

  “And the press is going to just love photos of me covered in pie in the name of charity?” he asked, probably rhetorically, because yes, of course, the press was going to love it. “Aren’t those stalls usually to throw pies at someone you don’t like ? A teacher or something?” he asked. “People like the Howlers.”

  “But people also like the opportunity to humiliate a celebrity,” Ashley teased. “Besides, it’s kids , you’ve just gotta hope their aim isn’t very good.” There was absolutely no doubt in Ashley’s mind that there would be at least a few kids who would excel at the throwing, but that was hardly going to motivate Connor.

  Reaching for Connor’s hand, Ashley gave it a squeeze before dragging him over to where the pie stall was. The owner had even set up a seat and put up some balloons.

  “It’s great of you to offer to do this, Mr Lewis,” the owner said, walking over to shake Connor’s hand. “We’re raising money for cancer research in kids, so it’s a good cause.” It was a good cause and it was good PR. Ashley didn’t say that, because she knew it might seem cold. At the end of the day, everyone was a winner here. Especially the kid who’d manage to land a pie in the face of one of Howlers’ star players.

  “Thank Ashley,” Connor suggested, slinging an arm around her shoulders to pull her more into the conversation. “She’s the one who talked me into it.” It was quite sweet, how he wanted to share the credit with her, especially as, in truth, Ashley hadn’t really given him much of a choice in the matter.

  “I do appreciate it,” the owner said. “The kids are going to love it, and it’ll save us having to worry about what we’re going to do with all the pies we don’t sell by the end of the day.”

  Letting go of Ashley, Connor settled into the seat, giving her a look as he asked, “Sure you don’t want to come and sit with me, get some pies thrown at you, too?” They both knew she wasn’t going to have the same appeal, not when he played for the Howlers.

  “I’m good,” Ashley assured with a laugh.

  A line formed pretty fast, and Ashley somewhat easily fell into being the one to organize who got to go first and who got to go next. The first few attempts missed Connor by miles, but it wasn’t before long that the first of the pies landed against his shoulder. By the time the stall was out of pies to sell for throwing (or eating), Connor was mostly covered in pie.

  Ashley would’ve felt bad if she hadn’t been so distracted by laughing. Not many, but a few pies had even successfully hit Connor’s face, leaving smudges of strawberry jam in their wake. The owner of the stand had given Connor a towel but Ashley doubted that was really going to help very much.

  When Connor walked up to her, he was still mostly covered in pie and Ashley was still mostly laughing. “You look delicious,” she teased, reaching out to clean a piece of jam off Connor’s cheekbone.

  Connor laughed, leaning into Ashley’s touch without hesitation. “You have to think that,” he pointed out, “you’re my girlfriend .” He sounded so genuinely pleased about it, clearly unconcerned with being covered in jam and pastry.

  “You looked pretty good out here,” he added, “bossing all the little kids around. They loved you.” A bunch of butterflies flickered in Ashley’s stomach at
that. She didn’t intend for them to, but the way Connor smiled at her made it very hard to stop them. It was tempting to tiptoe a tiny bit more so she could kiss him, but Ashley didn’t. This wasn’t real , she reminded herself.

  Lifting the towel, Connor made a half-hearted attempt to scrub the jam out of his eyebrow. “Are we going anywhere after this where I have to look presentable?” he asked. “If we are, I hope you’re going to tell them whose fault it is that I’ve got a boysenberry stuck in my ear.”

  “There isn’t berry in your ear ,” Ashley informed Connor. She did also take part of the towel to reach up and brush it over his ear just in case. “We’re not going anywhere that doesn’t have a shower, I don’t want you to be sticky for the rest of the day,” she added with a laugh. Ashley really hadn’t planned for them to do anything but this. She did wonder if maybe she could suggest they watch a movie at Connor’s or something. If that’d be okay .

  Before she could, though, someone from behind her called ‘Ashley!’, making her turn around. “Payton!” She grinned, waving at her friend.

  “I thought that was you,” Payton said as she got to them. Her boyfriend, Edgar, gave Ashley a smile but his eyes then widened. He liked hockey, so Ashley could only assume that Edgar recognized Connor.

  She didn’t have to wonder for long when Edgar took a step forward, stretching his hand out towards Connor. “Hi! I’m a big fan, that was a great assist you did the last game,” he praised and it kind of struck Ashley how odd this was. Kids asking for autographs seemed very different from someone Ashley knew telling Connor they were a fan.

  At Payton’s slightly confused look, Ashley shook her head. “Payton, Edgar, this is Connor Lewis,” she introduced, though obviously, Edgar didn’t need the introduction. “Payton and I lived next to each other in dorms,” she told Connor.