Chapter 7
Tiana stared up at Niko, who was standing in front of her in her studio, trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened. What she’d just allowed to happen. She’d love to blame it solely on him, but it wasn’t totally his fault. She should have said something.
She should have done something, like moved away when he stepped beside her and placed his hand on her lower back and then wound his hand around her hip.
The problem was, the hormonal rush his touch, his scent, his voice had caused, short-circuited her brain.
Even now she was having a difficult time forming a coherent thought.
“You can’t… You just lied.”
“Did I?” His lips curled in a lopsided smirk as his left brow raised in that charming, disarming way that she was sure had people eating out of his hand.
“Yes.” Tiana’s response wasn’t spoken with quite as much conviction as she’d like since she was having a difficult time trying to replay the conversation back in her head what with all the fuzzy tingles going on.
Cocky half-grin still in place, he narrowed his eyes and tilted his head to the side. “I said I wanted to borrow you. They apologized. I said no worries, no harm, no foul. Where was the lie?”
“Okay, but you know what they think, what they inferred—they think that we, that you and I are…” She waved her hand between them. “…a thing.”
“Maybe…” He shrugged casually. “But I didn’t say that. And would it be so bad if that’s what people think?”
“Yes.” She nodded emphatically as her heart jumped up and lodged in her throat in horror.
Pending the fearless inventory she’d have to take later, she’d venture a guess her body’s violent reaction to people thinking they were a thing had to do with the wildly inappropriate crush she’d harbored for Niko Costas for the better part of a decade.
He walked into the room at the ESPYs, and she felt the energy shift.
The air got thick, and she found it difficult to breathe.
She’d never had a reaction to anyone like that before.
It was as if she’d felt a gravitational pull towards him.
Then Brock approached him and said something rude, they’d exchanged words, and the bubble was broken.
The thing was, she never stopped thinking about that moment.
That first look. She’d harbored guilt in her marriage.
Like it was her fault she’d been struck by his magnetism.
“Wow.” Niko took a step back. “I’m going to pretend that rejection wasn’t just an emotional kick to my balls.”
She rolled her eyes, but her mouth betrayed her by curling at the edges. “I’m sure you’ll recover. I have toothpaste that lasts longer than your relationships.”
“Relationship.”
“What?”
“You said ‘relationships,’ plural. I’ve only had one relationship.”
He had to be messing around. Niko Costas was in the tabloids with women quite often. “You’ve only had one girlfriend?”
“Unless you count middle school. Then I’ve had three. Marisol Hearst was my girlfriend for eighteen days in sixth grade, and Larissa Garber was my girlfriend for nine weeks and four days in eighth.”
“Fine, not relationships, but you know what I mean, your ego is not bruised because I don’t want to date…an athlete.” She wasn’t even sure why she’d added that qualification, she didn’t want to date anyone. Period.
“Lucky for you I’m not an athlete anymore.” The moment the statement came out of his mouth, his too-handsome-for-his-own-good features froze.
Her first instinct was that he was messing around, but when she saw his expression, she wasn’t so sure. “What?”
After about thirty seconds of silence, he explained, “I’m not going back to the Waves next season. I’m done.” Niko cleared his throat, then let out a long exhale and placed a hand on one of the cubbies for balance. “Fuck, that’s the first time I’ve said that out loud.”
Tiana watched all the color drain from Niko’s face.
“Here, why don’t you sit down?” she offered, motioning to the sitting area.
“I’m good,” he dismissed her.
“Okay, then be good on the bench.” Tiana could be extremely stubborn when she needed to be, and from the rate Niko Costas was going pale, she needed to be.
She gently guided Niko over to the bamboo bench against the side wall that overlooked the floor-to-ceiling windows in the back of the studio that faced the river, which ran alongside downtown.
Niko slowly lowered down, then leaned forward so his forearms rested onto his thighs as his breathing became labored.
Out of pure instinct she sat beside him and ran her hand up and down Niko’s back.
Once he got his breathing under control, he shook his head and sat up straight.
Her hand fell to her side. As glad as she was that he seemed to have recovered, she had to admit, she missed the feeling of his muscular back beneath her touch.
“Sorry, I don’t know where that came from.
I, um, I stopped by to let you know I just came from a meeting with my publicist. She was tipped off that Brock and Gianna are engaged, and they sold their story to People.
They’re going to do a big photo shoot here, and it’s being released week after next. ”
Oh, so maybe that’s what the mini-panic attack was about. “Are you okay?”
“About that? Yeah, I’m fine,” he assured her. “I was worried about you. That’s why I came to tell you.”
“Oh, I’m fine.” She placed her hand on her chest. “I don’t care…I mean, I do care. I wish I could warn her, I wish I could tell her, somehow, that he is not a good person.”
He nodded. “Does that happen a lot?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I haven’t met any other women, Brock—”
“No, I mean people trying to set you up. I heard someone at the wedding do the same thing.”
“Oh, yeah.” It was the second time that morning someone had attempted to set Tiana up. “People just…they have good intentions.”
He shifted his body towards her. “I have an idea. How about for the next five weeks, while Brock and Gianna are in town, through the holidays, we keep that narrative going that we are a ‘couple?’” Niko did air quotes.
“I don’t know what Bartlett’s plan is, but he’s obviously come here to start drama.
Us being in a relationship will throw him off his game.
A united front. And as a bonus, it will give you a reprieve from the well-intentioned matchmakers. ”
No. Tell him no. That’s what her head was telling her. So why wasn’t her mouth cooperating?
“What about you?” she blurted out instead. “I doubt you want to spend an entire holiday season celibate.”
Celibate? As soon as she said the word “celibate,” she felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment.
“I um…” He glanced down at the floor, took a deep breath, and exhaled before looking back up. “I have a lot of other things going on in my life right now. I just want to spend time with my family and just figure shit out. The last thing I’m worried about is getting laid.”
Her cheeks flushed an even deeper shade of red at his use of “getting laid,” mainly because of the images that popped into her mind of him in that act. And her engaging in that act with him. Tiana’s phone rang, and she shot up from her seat. Saved by the bell.
Niko rose, but at a much slower, leisurely pace.
“I have to…” She licked her lips, and his eyes followed the pink tip as it slid along the seam of her mouth, or maybe she was just projecting. “I have to get that, but, um… I‘ll think about it.”
“You’ll think about it?” he repeated, his light eyes sparking with mischief as that damn lopsided grin pulled at his perfect lips again.
“I will,” she confirmed.
With a confident nod, he turned and headed out of the studio.
The moment he was gone, and the spell was broken, Tiana was kicking herself. She should have told him no. A fake relationship with Niko was a horrible idea. The worst idea possible.
So why was she even considering it? Why was she more than considering it? Why was her brain trying to tell her it was actually a good idea?
She did her best to push the proposal and Niko out of her mind as she grabbed her phone and saw it was Golden Years.
“Hi.”
“Hey Darlin’, this is Patsy.”
“Oh, hi, Patsy,” Tiana greeted Pops’ favorite nurse. “I was just about to head over.”
“Actually, that’s why I’m calling. Mr. Matthews woke up this mornin’ with a fever, he’s resting now, but we are limiting visitors for the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”
Tiana’s heart slammed into her chest as she remembered how gray his coloring had been at the wedding. She knew she should have insisted on him staying home yesterday. “Can I talk to him?”
“He’s napping right now, but I can have him give you a ring when he wakes up.”
“Only if he feels up to it.” The last thing Tiana wanted to do was overtax him. “Please let me know if there are any changes.”
“We will, darlin’ and don’t you worry, he’s in good hands.”
“I know.”
Tiana disconnected the call and attempted to distract herself while she cleaned the studio and caught up on some admin.
Her mind was a tornado of Brock, Gianna, and Niko thoughts, all swirling to try and put the puzzle together and figure out what her ex’s play was.
But she knew that it was a futile task. Brock Bartlett had the worst intentions of any person she’d ever known, and she’d learned a long time ago never to try and predict his next move, because it was absolutely futile.
After gathering her jacket and tote, she locked up, set the alarm, and checked both ways before crossing Main Street.
When she reached the other side, she turned around, looking over her shoulder, sure that she felt someone was watching her.
There was a couple with a toddler, each holding one arm, swinging them between them.
An older man scrolling on his phone. Three teens filming a TikTok video.
Other than that, the sidewalk was clear.
Across the way, several firemen were spraying down a firetruck.