12. Liam
LIAM
Liam blinked his way out of sleep feeling confused and tense. It was a moment before the events of the day before returned to him, and when they did, he let out a soft groan, rolled over, and buried his face in his pillow.
Married to my publicist. This couldn’t have gone any worse if we’d scripted it.
Liam’s whole life was so utterly off the rails lately that he didn’t know how he could pretend to be surprised by these things anymore. He got out of bed and went to the bathroom, thinking he would take a long, hot shower.
The door was locked.
He jiggled the handle, frowning.
“Just a minute!” Cara called.
He stifled a groan, went back to his bed, and threw himself down on top of the blankets.
Only one bathroom. Of course. This was supposed to be a luxury suite, but it was also intended for honeymooners.
There’d be no reason to have separate bathrooms. They were lucky enough that there was a second room, with a comfortable couch for Cara to sleep on.
I probably should have been the one to take the couch.
Yes, all right, he was angry at her, but he was still a gentleman.
But she had insisted, reminding him that this was a professional relationship and that she was the one collecting a paycheck.
And then she had gone into the second room and closed the door behind her, and he hadn’t felt as though he could go after her and continue the conversation.
The bathroom door opened and Cara stepped out, wearing the hotel bathrobe.
He couldn’t help staring for a moment. Her collarbone stood out above the neckline, and the robe was short, ending high up on her thigh. It had clearly been designed with honeymooners in mind. “You, uh…you don’t want to get dressed?”
She scowled at him. “I don’t have anything to wear,” she said.
“In case you forgot, I wasn’t supposed to be here right now.
I didn’t pack a bag or anything. Alastair is going to have some of my things couriered over, but they haven’t arrived yet.
So unless I’m supposed to wear that wedding dress for the next several hours, it’s the robe or nothing. ”
Liam couldn’t keep the smirk off his face.
He hadn’t thought anything would be able to put him in a good mood this morning, but he had to admit that seeing Cara Bailey in this getup was a good start.
“I don’t think I would have been so moody about everything last night if I had realized how hot my new wife was,” he said.
“Yeah? Because I’ve never known you not to be moody a day in your life,” she said. “If you don’t mind, I think I’m going to go back to my room and order up some room service until my things get here.”
“We need to talk about what we’re going to do next,” Liam pointed out.
“I know that,” Cara agreed. “But that’s not a conversation I want to have until my clothes are here.”
He paused for a moment. “I have some things you can put on.”
She stared at him. “Nothing you have is going to fit me, Liam.”
She was right, of course. He must have been twice her size. But even so… “Just trust me, all right?”
She folded her arms and said nothing, just watched him.
He went over to the suitcase that had awaited him in the corner last night.
He’d barely touched it. Everything that had happened had been so overwhelming that he had wanted nothing more than to fall into bed and put the day behind him.
Now, though, he unzipped the suitcase and rummaged through it, and after a moment he came up with what he had been looking for—a Stingers jersey and a pair of drawstring sweatpants.
He returned to Cara and held the clothes out to her. “Put these on.”
She bit her lip. “You want me to wear your clothes?”
“You’ll be more comfortable in these than you will in that robe,” he told her. “And then you’ll be able to relax and we can actually have a conversation. Just put them on. They’ll fit you okay.”
She reached out slowly and took them. “All right,” she agreed. “Thanks.”
She backed into the other room, still moving slowly, as though she thought maybe he was going to change his mind and call her back. Liam went and sat down on the sofa to wait for her.
She only took a minute. When she emerged, the jersey was draped over her, hanging almost to her knees.
She’d rolled up the cuffs of the sweatpants, but they had already started to unroll, and she stepped on them and almost tripped as she made her way over to him.
He ducked his head, hoping to hide the fact that he was having a hard time not laughing.
Liam moved to one side so that Cara could sit beside him on the couch, but she didn’t take the seat. Instead, she paced in front of him.
“You sure you don’t want to sit down?” he asked her. “I wouldn’t want you to trip.”
She scowled at him. “I’m fine. Listen, Liam, I’ve been up half the night thinking about what we’re going to do next.”
“All right…” he said slowly.
“Do you believe me now, that this wasn’t some sinister plan on my part?”
“Yeah.” He smirked. “I shouldn’t have accused you.
I saw your face in the church yesterday.
You were almost as shocked as I was. And when we were leaving, it was like you completely forgot what we were even doing there.
I lashed out at you because I was taken by surprise, but I should have realized you didn’t set that up.
You wouldn’t have been so shaken by it if you had. ”
Cara let out a huff. “I don’t know if you’re trying to insult me or say you trust me.”
“Can’t it be both?”
“Whatever. The point is, now that we’re in this together, we need to come up with a cohesive plan. It’s been twelve hours since the wedding…”
“More like sixteen, I think.”
“Do you want to split hairs with me, or do you want to hear my plan?” She held up a hand. “Don’t say can’t it be both again. Listen. You’re a football player.”
“You’ve been paying attention.”
“So I figure this will work best for you if we put it in terms of plays,” she said, holding up a pad of paper. “I made us a playbook for the next few days.”
“A playbook?” He was equally impressed and skeptical. “Do you know anything about drawing up football plays?”
“No, but I don’t really have to, because these plays aren’t for a whole team to run together. I only have to account for you and me.” She flipped to a page, turned it around, and held it out to him. “I’m X and you’re O. That’s how coaches do it, right?”
“Close enough.” He examined the page. “This rectangle. Is this a bed?”
“That’s right.”
“You’re saying you want us to go to bed together?”
Her face went bright red.
“Because I’m not necessarily opposed, if you think it will help.
” He waggled his eyebrows at her. He was feeling more lighthearted than he had in days.
Maybe it was because of that flush of anger he had felt last night, when he’d thought the whole thing had been a big scam on Cara’s part.
He hadn’t believed that for long, and letting go of that idea had allowed him to let go of a lot of his bitterness toward the situation he was in at the same time.
The fact was, even though he was stuck in a marriage and exiled from his team, he was also stuck here with a pretty and charismatic woman who had turned out to be a lot of fun to banter with.
He could make the most of the situation.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Cara snapped. “You know this isn’t a real marriage. I’m saying we should let ourselves be seen in bed together.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’ll get in the bed,” Cara said. “Actually, the fact that I’m wearing your jersey will make this even better.
And then we’ll order room service. When it arrives, you get up to let them in and help them get set up, and I’ll stay in the bed.
It will look like we’ve just been…” She trailed off, but he understood what she was getting at.
“Okay,” he said. “But I don’t know what good that’s actually going to do us, because only one person is going to see it. The person who brings the room service. And everyone who works for the hotel already thinks that’s what we’re doing in here.”
“That’s only our first play,” Cara said.
“Once the story gets out that the star of the Miami Stingers ran off and got married to some woman nobody knows, the tabloid hounds are going to be out in force. We weren’t secretive about the name of this hotel, you know.
That was on purpose. We want them to find the staff and ask them questions about what our stay here was like.
And we want the staff to have some juicy stories to tell, so this marriage looks real.
Just in case there are any skeptics out there. ”
“Okay, all right.” Liam threw up his hands. “I get the picture. We’ll do the play.”
“And in the meantime,” Cara said, “we need to be working on our life stories.”
“Our what?”
She pulled out a folder and opened it up.
Liam saw a copy of his head shot. “You don’t have clothes, but you have that?”
“This was part of the original plan,” she said coolly.
“It’s part of a dossier I put together on you in the days before the wedding.
I left it up here so that Stephanie could spend your honeymoon learning all about you, so she’d be able to speak about your relationship when the two of you were inevitably interviewed.
Of course, I’m a lot more prepared, because I’ve already done all this work.
” She held up the folder. “But you need to learn all about me. And you should also go through this folder and make sure nothing too important is missing.”
“And this is for when we get interviewed about each other,” he said doubtfully. “You really think that’s going to happen? You think anyone cares that much?”
“I think the entire point of what we’re doing here is to make people care, Liam,” Cara said.
“We want to change the public perception of you. I’m trying to create an image of you as a romantic, loving family man.
So yes, I think it’s important that you be able to show that you know something about the woman you’re allegedly so in love with.
I’m not saying people will necessarily care about this marriage, but I am saying it’s our job to make them care.
And it’s also our job to make them believe it’s real. ”
She had stopped pacing now and stood facing him head-on. Her face was flushed with passion, her hands balled into fists at her sides.
She really cares about this. She really wants to make this work.
“Okay,” Liam said. “You’re the boss. We’ll do it your way.” He reached out and took the folder.