Game for Love

“But if you want to run some more formation reads, Cole, I’m happy to stay a little longer.”

Fuck. He didn’t want to go in now. But Joe had a new baby at home and Cole knew he wanted to be there with his family. Not out on the field with some messed-in-the-head linebacker who didn’t know which way was up.

“No, I’m good.” He couldn’t miss the relief in the other man’s eyes.

Ty walked into the locker room just as Cole stepped into the hot spray of the shower.

“You’re not the only one, you know.”

Cole slammed the nozzle shut. “Fuck off, Ty.”

He’d spent some of his best nights with the guy, celebrating big wins with beautiful women, but that didn’t mean he wanted to sit there in towels and share feelings.

“Pla

Cole turned to his ex-friend with murder in his eyes. “You won’t be able to fuck your wife any time soon if you’re not careful.”

Not looking the least bit scared, Ty reached into his locker, actually turning his back on Cole. “Julie also said you were with A

Cole’s fists tightened as he got ready to punch Ty’s smug face, just hard enough to make him a little less pretty. Not that Julie would care. She’d still love the bastard anyway.

Just like A

And loved her right back.

What the fuck had he done?

He was a man with enough darkness in his soul to spill over onto her i

A

Odds were, one day he was going to wake up and feel trapped. And when he felt trapped, he acted stupid. He didn’t want to promise her anything he couldn’t deliver. Fidelity had never been his strong suit. Which was why he’d never limited himself to just one woman and had definitely never made love to one before. It was why he’d never, not once, let himself get involved with a good girl.

Not until A

“Look, Cole, I know you were struggling out there today. Now you know love does that to you. Fucks you up for a little while. But then one day you realize you’re actually better for it.

So, how about you tell me the truth about where you found your wife? Just between you and me, Scout’s honor.”

Ty had never been a Scout. Neither of them had. And his friend’s easy talk about love made Cole’s insides go still. Cold.

He and A

“My grandmother needed to think I was settled. That I’d found true love. It was her last wish.” Ty knew about Cole’s grandmother and his eyes darkened with sympathy. “So I called 1-800-Good-Girl and they sent her over.”

“Holy shit, are you saying that you married A

“I found A

Cole’s gut twisted tighter with each sentence. He’d thought laying it out in black and white would help set him straight, that he and Ty would laugh at another play pulled off to perfection.

But Ty wasn’t laughing.

And neither was Cole. Hell, he felt like a bigger shit than he ever had before.

“Are you telling me that the nice girl I met Sunday let you buy her?”

“No.” Fuck no. She wasn’t a whore—wouldn’t even take money or jewelry for her cooperation. “She won’t take anything from me. Says she doesn’t want it.”

“I think I hear what you’re saying, but this isn’t adding up. Especially since Julie said A

“She’s got a soft heart.” Cole had seen A

And he’d promised her pleasure, thinking it was a fair trade.

What a fucked-up asshole he was.

Ty’s frown lifted suddenly. Too suddenly. He shook his head slowly, whistled between his teeth. “You do realize that she’s doing it because she’s in love with you, don’t you?”

“She’s not in love with me,” Cole countered. “She just thinks she is.”

“Right.” Ty sounded less than convinced, but he dropped it. “So we shouldn’t get too used to seeing her around, then?”

“We’ll stay together as long as we need to.” It went unspoken, but understood by both men, that everything would change once his grandmother passed away.

Ty zipped up his jeans. “Julie really liked A

Maybe another time that would have been fu

“Look, I know I’m no expert in the whole relationship thing.” Ty put his hands up and Cole recognized it as his usual tactic. Playing the nice guy before he went in for the kill.

“That’s for damn sure,” he bit out, fully aware of the way Ty had fucked things up with Julie, knew the fuckups had gone all the way back to high school. The last person who should be giving him advice was this prick.

Then again, Ty was happy now, wasn’t he? With a wife any guy on the team would kill to be with.

Everyone but Cole.

Because he couldn’t see past A

“I don’t know much, but the thing is—” Ty stopped packing his duffel bag, looked Cole in the eye. “—I know one thing for sure. I couldn’t live without Julie. Wouldn’t want to do it, period. But I almost had to. Because I was an idiot. More than once. Truth is, I should have been down on my knees groveling, begging, praying for her to give me another chance and not screw it up years ago.” Ty zipped up his bag, put it over his shoulder, and shrugged. “Anyway, see you at practice tomorrow.”

Cole slammed his locker shut, the entire wall of metal shaking even after he walked away. Who the fuck did Ty think he was, giving him advice?

Cut and dried. The whole goddamned situation with A

He’d needed a temporary wife. She’d agreed to a trade of great sex. Both of them were upholdingtheir sides of the original deal. Once they were divorced, once she wasn’t coming around his dick every thirty minutes, she’d realize she wasn’t actually in love with him.

And when she looked back, she’d see that loving him couldn't have been possible in the first place.

Working like hell to straighten himself out before he went home to A

“Cynthia?”

What the hell was the journalist doing here?

She quickly shut the phone at her ear. “Cole. Your coach told me you were getting changed. I’ve got some follow-up questions about your career that I wanted to put in the article.”