by Eva Luxe
It was good to see someone in it now.
Maya had stayed in the guest room. I hadn’t pushed for her to sleep with me and we sure as hell hadn’t had sex. Not after everything she had gone through last night. She was traumatized, to say the least. I thought about her room, trashed like that, how shocked she had been, and I was immediately angry all over again. It pissed me off to know that someone was making life hell for her. Maya deserved only the best and it didn’t sound like he had her best interest at heart, at all. In fact, it sounded like a selfish son of a bitch.
I was glad Maya was here with me so I could look out for her. I had made a terrible mistake ending it with her so many years ago, but I wouldn’t make that same mistake again. I would be there for her when she needed me.
Now that I was up I wouldn’t go back to sleep again, so I padded into the kitchen on bare feet. I took eggs and milk out of the fridge, popped bread into the toaster and put on the kettle for tea. I wanted to make her breakfast in bed to help her feel better. I didn’t usually cook. Being a bachelor living on my own, I usually picked up take out on my way home or had pub food when I was out drinking. I would have liked to add more to her eggs but I had nothing else in the house. Eggs had a longer shelf life than most other things.
I had to get to the store and buy a few things, I told myself. If I had a couple of fresh ingredients on hand, I could make her an omelet instead of plain scrambled eggs. I should buy bacon, as well. When the toast was ready, I stacked it on a small plate and tipped the scrambled egg out into bowls. I turned the stove down when the kettle boiled and poured tea into two cups. I nodded, satisfied with my handiwork. It wasn’t exactly breakfast fit for a queen, but it would do for today.
When I picked up the tray, my phone rang. I sat the tray down again and answered.
“Kyle,” Liam said. “I was hoping I would catch you up.”
If he thought I would still be sleeping, why did he call so early? Maybe he was just fishing for something to say. The days when Liam and I never ran out of topics were long gone.
“Yeah, you have good timing,” I answered. What else could I say?
“Good, good. I was wondering, would you like to come to practice again on Monday?”
God, were we back to this? I had thought the dinner on Thursday with Liam and Kina would have been enough to keep them off my case for a while. They were really pushing to make me a part of the family again. Couldn’t they catch a hint? I wasn’t interested.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said. I knew, in fact, that it was a bad idea.
“Why?” Liam asked.
I rolled my eyes and mouthed silent cuss words. He was never going to stop trying, was he? When we had been close buddies, joined at the hip, his constant effort had been endearing. Now it was a fucking pain in my ass.
“I can’t keep missing work, Liam.” I was starting to get irritated and it translated into my voice. “I have a lot going on in my life, too. I appreciate the invite and when I have a chance, I might swing by.” That was a blatant lie. “But right now I’m not going to make it.”
Liam sighed. “Yeah, I guess.” I wasn’t sure what he was responding to but if it was my empty promise, I had the feeling he knew I was lying, too. “Just know you’re always welcome. I enjoyed having you there last week.”
He was probably just saying that. Why he was trying to make me feel better was beyond me. I had given up on our friendship, why couldn’t he do that, too?
“I have to get going,” Liam said, when I didn’t respond. “I have training in about two hours.”
Of course, he did. Being a pro player meant that football ruled his life. It would have ruled mine, too.
“Alright, have fun,” I said, and it sounded a lot more sarcastic than I had meant it to. There was no way I could take it back now though, and I sure as shit wasn’t apologizing. Oh, well.
“Right.” Liam ended the call and I stood in the kitchen feeling like a dick. I was angry with Liam for putting me on the spot. I didn’t want to be rude to the guy, I just wanted him to leave me alone. I sighed and put the wireless receiver back in the cradle. I turned on the answering machine so if anyone called it would take messages for me. I doubted that he or Kina would try to phone me again today, but if they did I wanted the answering machine to pick up the call.
“Is everything alright?” Maya asked me. I spun around. She looked like a vision, standing there in my kitchen. She wore short pajama shorts with little sheep on them and a matching top with a cartoon sheep and the words B-A-A-A-D HAIR DAY beneath it. But Maya was having anything but a bad hair day. Her brown hair was tousled from sleep but it framed her delicate features, only making them more striking.
I realized I was staring and nodded too fast. “Yeah, everything is okay. That was Liam.” I had no idea why I had shared that unnecessary information. I was sure Maya didn’t care who I had been talking to. “Did I wake you?”
Maya shook her head. “I woke up just before your phone rang.” She climbed onto one of the bar stools at the counter in my kitchen and leaned her elbows on the countertop. “You sounded tense.”
I shrugged. I wished she hadn’t heard that. I hated having to explain my feelings, why I felt the way I felt.
“Liam wants me to join him at another practice on Monday,” I said.
“And you don’t want to go?”
Was she asking because she knew something? I shook off the thoughts. I was being ridiculous.
“I have work. Football is Liam’s life and practice times vary, but I’m in the nine-to-five world and can’t always take time off. Some of us have to work for a living.”
Maya looked at me with a carefully expressionless face and I realized how upset I sounded.
“I’m sure he understands,” Maya said. The empathy, keeping the peace, this had always been Maya’s strong suit.
“I’m not so sure,” I said. But Maya and I weren’t talking about the same thing. Liam would understand that I couldn’t always take off from work, but he didn’t understand how horrible this was for me, how upset I still was that he was living the life I had always dreamed of. I didn’t want to explain it to anyone, either. No one would understand, and I would end up looking like a pathetic piece of shit.
“I made breakfast,” I said, changing the topic. I gestured to the tray. “It might have gotten cold, though.”
Maya’s face broke into a smile and it lit up her features like a sunrise. “I didn’t know you could cook,” she said.
“I didn’t, either,” I said, and we both laughed. In college, my diet consisted of take out and Ramen. Maya and Sara had always made an effort to cook healthy food. Maya had always been serious about what she put into her body. I had trained hard enough on the field back then and was young enough that diet didn’t make much difference.
I made two new cups of tea.
“This is really nice, Kyle,” Maya said, when we were sitting together, eating. “I’ve missed this.”
I had missed it, too. The two years we had been together, even though we hadn’t been roommates and we had both been studying a lot, we had been very attached to each other. We had made a point of doing couple-things. When I had broken it off with her because my whole world had fallen apart, I hadn’t realized how much Maya had been a part of my foundation, until after it was too late.
“I’ve missed you,” she added. I reached across the counter and took her hand, squeezing it. Being with her again after so long was confusing. In some ways, we hardly knew each other anymore and we had to start over again. In others, it felt like no time had passed at all, and we could pick up right where we left off. I struggled to find a balance between the two. But whatever we were now, however long it would take for us to reach the space we had been in before, I wanted to go the full mile with her. She was still the same woman I had fallen in love with back then. And the woman I could fall hopelessly in love with, now.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, steering away from th
e spiral of my own thoughts. “Last night was tough.”
Maya nodded. “It was. I don’t know how I feel. A part of me is traumatized. Tyler took a new step last night and suddenly I feel like I have no idea what he’s capable of. Another part of me is pissed off at him. I want this to be over now.”
I nodded. “That’s understandable. Having someone make your life a living hell isn’t easy. He’s completely uprooted you. How do you want to move forward with this?”
Maya pulled up her shoulders. “I’ll phone Sara and find out if she heard any more from the police. I don’t know what I might have missed last night, I was kind of freaked out over the whole thing. I don’t know if they’ll be able to do anything to help me, though. They’ve been pretty uninterested so far, but he had never done anything so bold. I guess I’m just worried Tyler will find more ways to torment me.”
“I won’t let him hurt you,” I said. Anger flared up in my chest again. If that little bottom feeder came close to Maya again, it would be the last thing he did.
Maya smiled. “Thank you, Kyle. I really appreciate you letting me stay here and looking after me. I was wondering,” her voice trailed off.
“Yes?”
“I’m scared he’ll keep calling me a liar. But if I can keep faking it, maybe he’ll leave me alone for long enough to bring an end to this.”
I frowned. “Are you saying you want to keep faking being engaged?”
Maya nodded, looking at me warily. “I was hoping you would play the role of my fake fiancé. There’s no obligation, of course, and if you don’t want to, I’ll understand,” she added hastily. “I just thought if we could keep up appearances for a while it might make a difference.” She looked nervous about what my answer would be.
Would I want to play the part of Maya’s fiancé? Hell yeah. I grinned.
“Of course, I will. If it means this guy will leave you alone, I’ll do anything. Besides, that means I’ll get to spend more time with you.”
Maya smiled, relieved. “Thank you, so much.” She threw her arms around my neck, hugging me. I closed my arms around her body and held onto her. Having her close to me was the only thing in my life worth having. I pulled away from her a little, putting my hand on her cheek and kissed her. I kissed her so deeply that she forgot whose air she was breathing. When we finally broke the kiss, Maya’s eyes were glazed over, her lips parted.
“What was that for?” She asked.
I shrugged. “Just practicing,” I said and gave her a cocky grin.
Chapter 12
Maya
I was in seventh heaven on my way to practice on Monday. I wasn’t officially engaged to Kyle or anything, but I was in a good enough mood that I could have been. Kyle was willing to help me out with Tyler, to pretend to be my fiancé. I knew it didn’t mean anything for us, didn’t mean that we were together, but he had agreed. He was still the guy that would help me out when I needed him, the way he had been once upon a time. That had to count for something, right?
We’d spent the weekend together and nothing crazy had happened. Either Tyler hadn’t found me yet, or he had been busy. I was too weary to imagine he’d given up on me. He had been obsessed with me for far too long for me to believe it would be over so easily.
After Kyle left for work, I had driven back to the condo to catch Sara before she left for the office, too. I’d told her everything, and she’d been thrilled to hear that Kyle had agreed to pose as my husband-to-be.
“Does this mean you’re together?” Sara had asked.
I had shaken my head. “No, it means I’m getting away from Tyler while we figure out how to deal with him.”
Sara had been a little deflated at the news, but when I’d asked her about the police investigation, she told me they were supposed to get back to her. They hadn’t yet.
“I don’t think they’re going to do anything.” The police didn’t seem to care about my stalker, the fact that I felt harassed, or that my personal space had been invaded. But with Kyle at my side, maybe I could take care of it on my own.
I glanced down at the diamond ring twinkling on my finger. What was an engagement without a ring, Sara had asked? And she had been right. I had never worn rings, they’d always gotten in the way of the sports I played, but Sara had more jewelry than the Queen of Sheba. She had offered to let me use a diamond ring. When I had protested, saying that I could never take something that cost so much, she had waved it off.
“I don’t even remember where I got this,” she said.
So, I wore the diamond ring on my left ring finger, a sure sign that I was engaged. We were going all the way with this, which meant telling friends and colleagues when they asked. I had no idea how Tyler got his information, but he had to be listening or speaking to someone. Hopefully, this would throw him off.
When I arrived at training, I slipped the ring off my finger and put it away in my bag. I didn’t want to lose it, no matter how little Sara cared about it.
“What’s that?” Samantha asked, suspicious. She came closer, her eyes trained on the bag I was zipping up.
“A ring,” I said, blushing. At least I looked the part, with my cheeks flushing for no good reason.
“An engagement ring?” Samantha asked. This was where it started, I thought.
I nodded.
Samantha squealed. The other cheerleaders stopped chatting and looked in our direction. “I didn’t know you were even dating,” Samantha said. “Congratulations!” She gave me a hug.
The other girls stepped closer, curious.
“We were keeping our relationship a secret,” I said. “It’s complicated.” What an understatement.”
“You have to show us,” one of the other cheerleaders said. I blushed again but nodded, taking the ring out of the bag again. I slid it back onto my finger and held out my hand for the girls to fuss about. They took turns taking my hand and studying the ring.
“It’s beautiful,” Samantha said. “What’s his name?”
“Kyle,” I said.
Dina joined us. “What’s going on, ladies? Why aren’t we warming up yet?”
“Maya got engaged,” Samantha said, holding my hand up so Dina could see the ring. Dina’s eyes widened and she smiled, congratulating me as well.
“Is it the mystery man you said hi to last week?” Dina asked.
I nodded.
“I didn’t realize you were so close.”
I thought fast, “We had broken up the week before. He’d found me to win me back.” I held out my hand, looking at the ring again. “I guess it worked.” I grinned broadly. The girls erupted into chatter again until Dina called everyone to silence.
“As exciting as this is, ladies, we have to start warming up. If any of you tears a hamstring during the lifts, I’m not going to spare one ounce of sympathy.”
I put the ring back in the bag for safekeeping and we walked onto the field. They had bought the fake story. They had believed every word of it, soaking it up as the perfect love story, which it was supposed to be. But it was all a rouse, I reminded myself. Kyle and I were friends. Or something. We had slept together and I still had feelings for him; we had a whole history together. But we weren’t engaged, that was for sure.
I had to be careful not to get too caught up in the fantasy. Kyle and I were pretending to be engaged. I wore a ring. We were telling people when they asked. But if I fell for him the way I had when we’d been together, back in college, I could really get hurt. Because the chances were it wouldn’t work out. We hadn’t agreed on what we would do when Tyler finally left me alone, how we would deal with our engagement, but it wasn’t hard to guess. Naturally, we would stage a breakup and move on with our lives. What was the alternative? Being engaged for real and getting married?
The chance of that happening was slim. Kyle had broken up with me, after all. In all the years since then he hadn’t once called me to tell me he was sorry. Of course, I hadn’t expected it. When I dumped a guy I hardly phoned them to apologize
for it. But it meant that Kyle wasn’t necessarily thinking about getting back together with me.
I had to keep that in mind. I had to keep telling myself that so I didn’t get too wrapped up in the dream.
We started training and Dina focused on fitness. It was hard enough work that I was able to forget about what was happening in my life for a while. It was another reason why I loved being active so much. It was therapeutic. It forced me to focus and let me forget when things were going wrong in my life, or there were questions I couldn’t answer.
Training had saved me when Kyle had first broken up with me. Otherwise, I would have stayed in bed all day, starving myself to death. Instead, it had gotten me out of bed every morning and I had eaten the right foods to stay healthy. I had made it through the breakup without losing too much weight or gaining any at all, without my fitness level dropping. I had thrown myself into my studies as well, and in no time at all, Kyle had become a distant memory.
When anything was hard for me to deal with, I trained it out of my system. That worked for me, and I would do it with this, too. I would train hard, eat right, stay fit and keep active so that if things went south between me and Kyle, I would survive again.
Did it mean I didn’t trust him? Not quite. I trusted that he wanted to look out for me. But he had broken my heart once before, and I wasn’t about to let him have that opportunity again, not if I could help it. Even if that meant I stayed on my guard.
I was the one, after all, that had asked him to be my fake fiancé. If anything went wrong, the heartache was on me, so I had to prevent that from happening.
When practice was over, I showered at the training center. When I left, I drove to the store and shopped for groceries, buying everything from meat and veggies to fruit and cereal. Kyle had a typical bachelor lifestyle. He barely ate at home and he had nothing in his fridge or pantry. I was surprised that he had a second bedroom at all, he seemed isolated. I couldn’t figure out what that was all about. In college he had been so social that I’d had to beg for alone time every now and then. Now, it didn’t seem like he had many friends at all.
