“Sorry I’m late.” I wrinkled my nose as I gave Aiden a sorry voice.

“You’re not late,” he said and grabbed me. I stumbled into his arms and stood there awkwardly as he gave me a quick hug and kiss on the cheek. “You’re right on time.” He grinned at me, his blue eyes sparkling. I looked over at Alice and I saw a dart of unhappiness crossing her face. I felt bad about the way she was feeling, but at least she was exhibiting signs of caring about Aiden. “Elizabeth, I want you to meet Alice. Alice is my sister Liv’s best friend.” He nodded at Alice and I saw them exchange a quick look. “And Alice, I want you to meet Elizabeth, a good friend of mine.” I almost laughed at that. Good friend, indeed. I thought it was cute that though Aiden was playing this game, he didn’t want her to think I was his girlfriend.

“Hi,” Alice said and she smiled at me, a light in her blue eyes that showed me she was being completely genuine and kind to me. That surprised me. I’d expected to see some sort of jealous hate in her eyes. We exchanged some small talk. But I was finding it hard to concentrate. Where was Scott? I was dying to see him. I felt guilty that I wasn’t able to concentrate on the conversation well, but it was obvious to me that both Aiden and Alice were only really interested in talking to each other. It was becoming increasingly obvious to me that Alice was in love with Aiden as well. I wasn’t sure how he was so blind as to think there might be any doubt in her mind, but I knew it wasn’t my place to push him into thinking that.

“Oh, here come Liv and Scott,” Aiden said and I felt my body growing hot. This was the moment. “Hey guys,” Aiden said and he grinned at his siblings. “Guys, I want you to meet my friend, Elizabeth. Elizabeth this is my sister Liv and my brother Scott.”

I know I must have said something, but I can’t for the life of me remember what. All I can remember is looking into Scott’s narrowed blue eyes as he stared at me. My heart thudded as I took in his appearance. He looked sexy in his black soccer pants and white t-shirt. Too sexy. It was almost too much for me to take. I wanted to reach over and kiss him. I wanted to touch his face. Kiss his lips. Feel his warm hard body against mine. But instead I just stood still and smiled like a fool. I played football and smiled with Aiden and ignored Scott as best as I could, but all I could think about was the fact that I wanted to go and talk to him. Badly. I was going to make an excuse to go over and talk to him at the end of the game, but as I was about to run over to him, I saw him walking over to Alice and watched them leaving the field together. My stomach lurched as I watched them leaving together, and all I could think about was whether he liked her now. I could remember that they had shared a kiss once. I wondered if he was going to go for Alice, even though he knew his brother was in love with her. I wanted to scream and shout and run after him. I wanted to stop them from leaving together. I wanted to beg him to talk to me, but instead I just walked over to Aiden and chatted with him for a few minutes about what his next plan was and then I left. There was a match the next week, and I was determined to get an opportunity to talk to Scott before this assignment with Aiden was over.

***

“Elizabeth, you know that I love you, right?” Lacey said as we sat in front of the TV that night.

“Yeah, why?” I looked at her suspiciously.

“You need to call Scott.”

“What? No way.”

“Yes way. There is no way you’re going to last until next week, and what if he doesn’t talk to you then? What if he leaves early with Alice again?”

“I’ll worry about that next week.” I made a face at her.

“Call him.” She grabbed the remote and paused the screen. “Now.”

“You’re bossy.”

“Here’s your phone.” She handed me my phone. “I’m not giving you the remote back until you call him. I don’t care if that’s tonight or in two weeks. No call, no remote.”

“You can’t last without TV for that long.” I made a face at her.

“You wanna bet?” She cocked her head and smiled.

“Fine.” I groaned. “I’ll call him.” I jumped up off of the couch and walked out of the living room. “And I’m not going to give you the joy of hearing the conversation either.”

“Aw, what a pity for me.” Lacey grinned. “What ever will I do?”

“Whatever.” I shook my head and walked to my bedroom. I closed the door behind me and jumped onto my bed. I lay back and stared at the phone, my heart racing. I wanted to call Scott, but I didn’t know what to say. Would he even answer his phone? Would he even want to talk to me? I didn’t even know what to do. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and started punching the numbers in to unlock my phone when I suddenly got a text message. My heart jumped as I saw that it was Scott.

Hey. It was one word, but it felt like an ocean of words.

Hey. I texted him back right away. I wasn’t going to play games and wait.

How you doing?

Okay. You?

Not bad. So you’re seeing my brother now?

No. You know I’m not.

Yeah.

I waited to see if he was going to text anything else. This couldn’t be the sole purpose of him contacting me, could it?

I told Aiden about Candy Grams. I didn’t think he’d hire you. It was the only company I could think of. He wanted to hire someone to pretend to be his fake girlfriend.

I was basically the only choice.