Chapter Four

Brent

Fucking Liam.

David told me that Liam and Zoey called off their engagement, but I never asked why… though I had a hunch.

I always wondered how he held on to her for so many years. He'd been cheating on her while he was away at college, and when he broke it off with her before prom, I saw my chance to move in.

After all, I'd seen her first in our freshman Spanish class, but when I told Liam about her during hockey practice, he made the first move a few days later.

I was young and stupid–a freshman in high school and Liam was the older hockey player, taking me under his wing. I didn't put up a fight for Zoey. Then, when he left for college, I figured he'd be too busy chasing women around campus to care about who she went to prom with. Not to mention that dumping her right before the dance was fucked up, even for him, and I couldn't let her go alone.

But that's when it all fell apart.

Her predicament has my brain turning. Maybe I can help her make Liam jealous. And in return she can fake being my girlfriend for my grandmother's birthday party.

It wouldn't hurt to give a little "fuck you" to Liam in the process.

"I wouldn't use a Christmas gram for your fake date. I watched a documentary once about a serial killer who used it as a disguise to pick his next victim."

"What?!" She turns to me, her honey-brown eyes wide and her eyebrows up to her hairline.

I'm fucking with her to make sure she doesn't get any other ideas. I'm her best option, and I need a woman to take to my gran's birthday party.

"Okay, that's not true," I say.

She smacks my arm, and then looks away, crossing her arms over her chest like she's annoyed that she fell for that.

I lower my voice to a whisper and lean in closer.

"But if you really think about it, they're kind of like clowns," I tell her, remembering that she screamed bloody murder once when a clown came into Mrs. Sharp's Spanish class with balloons from her husband on her birthday.

Zoey shivers in disgust at the memory.

I sat next to her in class, and she jumped into my lap that day for protection. That was the instant start of a four-year crush I had for Zoey all through high school, and the first time I got an erection in class from Zoey sitting in my lap.

The problem with being well-endowed is having a hard-on in public. When your cock is big enough to push past the waistband of your jeans, it can be challenging to keep others from noticing when it gets hard.

A few upperclassman hockey players saw my excitement too and decided I deserved a nickname. I would forever be known from then on as "Stiffy Longstocking."

When Liam asked what girl in school conjured up that much interest, I stupidly told him Zoey Kloss. That would turn out to be the biggest mistake of my life.

I didn't know it at the time, but Liam didn't see me as a teammate and a brother like I saw him. He saw me as his competition for keeping the "C" on his jersey.

He was never going to make it to the NHL, and we all knew it. The only reason the coach didn't give me the captain's spot until Liam graduated is because it would kill morale. So, Liam kept me close and took the one thing I wanted as much as I wanted to play pro sports.

Zoey.

Zoey shakes her head and clears her throat.

"I don't need a date anyway. Everything's fine," she lies.

"It doesn't sound fine. It sounds like your sister has you by the nut sack and is making you take a male stripper to her wedding." I smirk down at her.

"He got you there," the passenger in front of us pipes up.

I chuckle as she scowls at the back of the man's head through the slits of the seats in front of us.

"I'll be your fake boyfriend for the weekend. Or at least until Christmas Eve. I have to head back right after the wedding," I say, tossing it out there.

She whips a look at me.

For once in the last ten years, I have her full attention.

"What? Why would you pretend to be my boyfriend? What would you get out of it?"

"I need a similar favor. Only, I don't need you to make this woman jealous. I just need you to make her think that we're dating. I told my gran I'm seeing someone. I need you to be my fake girlfriend and come to her birthday party with me tomorrow so she'll stop trying to set me up."

Her face scrunches in disbelief. "You couldn't have found someone to pretend to be your fake girlfriend for a weekend? I find that hard to believe."

I eye her carefully.

Was that a compliment?

From Zoey Kloss?

If it was… it wasn't intentional.

"I didn't know I needed someone to pretend to date me to get my gran off my case until I boarded this plane. And trust me, if there was anyone else available, I wouldn't ask. But as you just heard, the flight attendant is working all weekend, and I need someone to come with me to the birthday party tomorrow."

Her eyes narrow, her lips press into a tight line. She's not happy with something I said. "Wow, Brent, you really know how to make a girl feel special—calling her your last resort. Charming." She crosses her arms, the sarcasm dripping from every word. "Why don't you just tell Gran you can't make it because you have to practice your slapshot? That excuse worked wonders the last time you bailed."

Okay, I deserved that.

"Zoey, listen… you're not the last resort–"

She holds up a hand between us to stop me. "Save it," she says, rolling her eyes. "Yes, I am, and you're mine, but I don't like the idea of lying to your grandmother, by the way."

She knows Gran. Anyone I went to school with knows my grandmother. She never missed a single one of my events—hockey games, Eagle Scout ceremonies, pep rallies, graduations—pretty much anything Tessa or I were involved in, Gran was there to cheer us on.

Most of the families sat in the same section of the hockey rink bleachers and my grandmother always brought enough of her famous gooey brownies to share. Zoey sat near my parents too.

"She'll never have to know. I'll tell her we broke up amicably after the holidays are over. It's a temporary truce, and you can keep the voodoo doll of me that you hide in your closet with pins in his heart."

I hear a small giggle bubble out of her that she tries to hide. It's not because I'm hilarious. The giggle is at my expense. She finds the idea of a Brent voodoo doll amusing.

That really speaks to how much she hates me, doesn't it?

"If I had one, I wouldn't hide it away in the closet." She tosses back.

"Cute," I say flatly.

The pilot comes over the speaker, breaking our conversation.

"Good morning, this is your pilot speaking. We just received the green light from the control tower to go ahead and taxi out to the tarmac for takeoff."

I grip the front of the armrests when he says the word "takeoff". I hate flying for obvious reasons, but even though I fly a lot from town to town with the team, the takeoff is easily the worst part.

"I'll be turning on the fasten seat belt sign soon, and we'll be on our way," he says. "It's currently a pleasant sixty-six degrees in San Diego with a chance of some light showers, but current cloud cover looks like we'll get a clear landing. We invite you to enjoy your two-and-a-half-hour flight aboard our aircraft. If there is anything you need, our flight attendants are available to assist you."

"I bet they are…" Zoey mutters to herself.

I glance over at her, curious about that bitter-sounding remark, but her eyes don't meet mine; she stares straight ahead.

There's radio silence between us for a moment after the pilot finishes thanking us for choosing their airline. I get the feeling that she's contemplating my offer, but I can't take the silence. I need a distraction to keep from thinking about how soon I'll be cruising at an altitude of thirty-three thousand feet–without a parachute.

"So, what do you think? Do you want to make a deal or would you rather Phoebe order you the creepy clown boyfriend and call it a day?" I ask, giving one last nudge in my direction.

"Fine," she says, clenching her jaw. "I'll agree to this insane idea for this weekend only. And I'll attend Gran's birthday party with you, so that she won't play matchmaker. I wouldn't mind seeing her anyway, and maybe she'll finally give me that brownie recipe. But after we get home, you're telling her that we broke up."

"Her brownie recipe? You do know that Tessa has been trying to get that for years, don't you?" I ask, knowing that my sister and Zoey know each other from high school even though Tessa was a few years younger than us. "She told Tessa that she put it in her last will and testament and that Tessa can have it after Gran is dead and buried."

My grandmother has a sick sense of humor.

"Oh…" Zoey says, her face falling with disappointment.

I move on quickly. If my gran's brownie recipe is one of the only reasons she agreed to this, I need to change the subject before Zoey cancels our arrangement.

"I'll swing by and pick you up tomorrow at your hotel, and then we'll head out to the retirement community where the party is being hosted. Can you be ready in the morning?"

"Wait… what? Why would you pick me up? Won't you already be at the hotel?" she asks, finally unzipping the jacket she has on.

She has to be hot.

She's struggling a little so I grab the sleeve closest to me and tug on it so she can pull her arm out. "Thanks," she says in relief as soon as her first arm is free.

"No problem," I say. "I didn't book soon enough. But I have a room at a hotel right down the street."

"Why?" she asks, her lips turning down in a frown.

Shouldn't she be happy that she doesn't have to bump into me all that much this weekend with me at a different hotel?

"Because the hotel was booked by the time I realized that the Hawkeyes schedule would allow me the time off I need to attend. The other hotel isn't far, and I'm coming to everything. The welcome drinks, the ice skating, the rehearsal dinner and walk-through…"

Zoey shakes her head.

"That won't work. Couples don't stay in separate hotels. Liam won't believe we're dating if you're staying in a different hotel."

Is she about to suggest what I think she is?

"What do you want me to do?"

She lets out an annoyed sigh.

"I guess you'll have to stay with me." She doesn't bother to hide the frown across her lips at the idea of it.

Though I'm surprised she'd offer this up, maybe being forced to be this close together will finally make her realize that prom was a long time ago, and she'll finally forgive me and let it go.

I'm not expecting another shot with Zoey. I fucked up too big to get another chance. I just want to be granted release from the cone of silence I've been stuck in for the past decade.

She turns to me quickly, whipping her pointer finger in my direction. "But so help me, Brent, if you try anything in that room—"

I turn towards her, insulted she thinks I'm the only one capable of making a move.

"Now, hold on a second… why would it be me trying something with you?" I say defensively. "Especially when I saw you checking me out earlier before you saw who I was."

I wasn't planning on calling her out, but after accusing me of being capable of trying to pull a fast one on her, she deserves it.

I can see the fluster in her face. She didn't think I caught her.

She attempts to recover quickly.

"Are you kidding? Do you really think that after what you did to me ten years ago that I would have any interest in doing anything with you? I'm not that desperate."

Desperate?

That's the first time a woman has ever declared that it would take desperate measures to consider spending the night with me.

I can't allow myself to focus on the fact that the only woman I've ever wanted for longer than one night can barely stand being in the same room as me. If I want to keep this arrangement and make my Gran happy, this argument ends now before Zoey backs out.

"We're in agreement. Neither of us will make a move. Now that we have that cleared up, I can stay in your room with you if that's what you want but remember that this was your idea. I'm happy to stay in my own hotel room down the street," I tell her.

I offer out my hand to shake on our new arrangement.

"Am I going to regret this?" she asks, staring down at my hand.

I can't predict the future, but I can uphold my part of the deal. I'll make Liam jealous which won't be hard considering our past, and I won't touch her in that hotel room.

"Most likely not. But I should warn you that I've been told I talk in my sleep."

She rolls her eyes.

"What, from the many puck bunnies you keep on rotation?" She scoffs.

Hell no, I never stay overnight with any of them. It's one of the rules I keep.

"No, from the players I have to room with when we're out of town for games." I say, giving her a low-brow glance.

"Oh…right," she says, a soft pink warming at her cheeks.

Her eyes drop to her lap for a second as if she feels silly for assuming.

"Do you snore?" she asks, her eyes reaching back up to mine with a cocked brow.

Would that be a dealbreaker for her?

"Only when I'm really tired."

She makes a dramatic sigh and then takes my hand in hers.

She's out of options if she wants a date for the wedding weekend and wants me to stay in her room with her. And she's the best option I have to take to my grandmother's. Though I know the second that my Gran sees who I brought, there will be questions… a lot of questions.

The one thing I can count on is that Zoey will not expect any type of relationship after this is over. In fact, she already said that she wants out of this as soon as possible.

I still don't understand why she wants Liam to want her back. Liam did a fuck ton worse to her than I did, and more recently too. I didn't spend the last nine years dating her only to propose and then call off our engagement because I wanted to sleep with someone else. So how is he getting off scot-free and I'm still in the doghouse?

Her soft hand slips into mine, and we shake on it; neither one of us is really sure what the hell we're agreeing to and how this weekend is going to turn out.

One thing is for sure, we're about a two-hour flight from finding out.