Page 125 of Faking the Shot

Her heart rear-ended with those words. He didn’t want to? Oh, she was so confused.

“Then why are you saying this?” Stupid tears filled her eyes.

“Because you’re super stressed. You need time out. You need time to find out just who you are and what it is that you really want without me being part of that.”

“But what if I want you to be part of that?”

He glanced at her quickly. “Do you want me?”

Risk her heart on a man? On someone who’d just admitted that he’d lied? Could he be trusted? Her heart screamedyes; her past roaredno.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

His eyes shuttered. “Then that’s your answer.”

He stood as her heart criedno, no, no.

“Just for the record, I think you’re amazing, and that God has amazing things in store for you. But you’ve got to start trusting Him more than yourself, or your past experiences, and you’ve probably got to trust Him more than your agent, too.”

Breath jerked in and out.

Zac, please stay, she longed to cry. Her words stayed locked in her throat.

He walked away and part of her heart died. And the desserts melted, their promise of sweetness dripping onto the table, then onto the floor.

CHAPTER24

For a guy who’d just broken up with the woman of his dreams, binge watching all of her shows was probably not the smartest idea. But then again, he made no claims to smarts. He’d proved it when he’d said yes to the scheme in the first place. Stupid Zac. Stupid Zac who got exactly what Stupid Zac deserved.

He’d hoped watching her shows, seeing her smiles, hearing her voice would get her out of his system, but it didn’t seem to work. It only fed the ache within, an ache that only magnified when the next online Bible discussion happened, and he had to pretend he was really happy about Luc’s engagement. Which he managed. Just. Hewashappy for the dude, just wasn’t sure how long he could keep the smile from sliding off his dial.

“You and Ainsley looked like you had fun,” Ryan said.

What could he say that wasn’t a lie? “The food was nice. Plenty of romance in the air.” Just not for him.

Chris peered at him, and he was super glad to have joined from his own place for once. No way did he want to give the dude any clue. Because none of his teammates knew. Not even Chris. Look at him. He’d become such a good actor he could still fool everyone around. Nobody knew the truth.

But then, he’d gotten so good at pretending that he’d fooled himself as well.

They managedto keep the charade going for another week or so, but the hurt in his heart soon started to leak. A barked comment here, a dropped blue word there, the careful lines he’d lived within were blurred.

“Dude, what’s going on?” Drew asked in the locker room after training one day. “You haven’t scored a goal in the last three games. Is your back still hurting?”

His back. A convenient enough excuse. “Yeah.”

“Man.” Drew shook his head. “I kind of hate Mitch Reilly for what he did. We need you well. When you had that time off it didn’t go well for us—”

Two losses.

“—and we need you fit for the playoffs.”

“Playoffs are still two months away.”

“That’ll come sooner than you think.” Drew eyed him. “Are you and Ainsley doing okay?”

His throat clamped and he gritted his jaw and looked away.

“Dude.”