“Mom would love you.” Piper brightened as her mood seemed to perk up in an instant. “Holy, moly. I just figured out a solution to my problem.”
“Which one?” Levi asked with a smirk.
Piper ignored his comment as she continued to give him the once over.
“Bear with me,” she said. “Repeat what I just said.”
“You think I’m handsome.”
“Not that,” she said with a dismissive wave. “The last part. My mom would love you.”
“And…?” he asked, not certain he wanted to know.
“Date me.” Before Levi could refuse—or agree—Piper continued in a flurry of words. “Not real dating. Just for show. And not just weddings. Anytime I need a no-strings-attached escort, you can be my backup.”
Levi winced. Backup? Without trying, Piper hit a nerve. He should be immune—he wasn’t. No matter how much time passed. No matter how accustomed he became to standing on the sidelines while another quarterback led the team. No matter how thick his skin became. Now and then an unexpected jab snuck past his defenses and hit home.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Piper said when Levi didn’t answer. “Our arrangement won’t be one-sided. When you need a faux date, give me a call.”
“You’ll be my backup?” The idea was novel enough to bring an ironic smile to Levi’s lips. “I haven’t had one of those since college.”
Misunderstanding his meaning, Piper ginned.
“You fake dated in college? Then you’re an old pro.”
“Practically ancient,” Levi muttered. At least in football years. Rather than launch a lengthy, sad story explanation, Levi didn’t correct Piper’s assumption.
“We can hash out the particulars later.” She bubbled with enthusiasm. “Deal?”
Without thinking, Levi shook Piper’s hand. Why not? He could think of worse things than to spend his free time with a beautiful, interesting, dynamic woman.
“You need a backup?” he asked. “I’m your man.”
CHAPTER ONE
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SUNDAYS WERE THE best. Slow and easy. Mellow. Lowkey. Peaceful. No running around. No answering the phone every five seconds. No deadlines. No pressure.
If perfect existed outside a private tropical island, Sundays came as close as Piper could imagine.
Of course, she mused, everyone’s idea of perfection was different. Other than the sundrenched beach of her dreams, she found her happy place in numbers. From the time Piper was a little girl, she could always count on the non-shakable absolutes of addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc.
Piper’s homelife always seemed to be in a state of flux. Her parents' never-ending bickering, threats of divorce, reconciliations. Her brothers’ obnoxious superiority complexes. The general ups and downs of adolescence, puberty, and the terrifying/exciting spurt toward adulthood. She’d needed a source of stability. To calm her brain, she used mathematics. To soothe her soul, she had a secret weapon—her best friend, Darcy Stratham.
Not that Darcy didn’t have her flaws. One rather conspicuous flaw. If numbers were Piper’s salvation, football was Darcy’s religion, her first love, and her obsession all rolled into one.
For a woman who couldn’t care less about any sport, having a best friend who lived and breathed all things football, Piper was often bemused to realize how much secondhand knowledge she’d acquired despite herself.
Though Piper would never call herself a dyed in the wool fan, she couldn’t help but have a rooting interest in her city’s NFL team, the Seattle Knights. How could she not? Her best friend was the team’s new general manager. On top of that, Darcy had recently become engaged to Joshua McClain, the Knights’ first-year head coach. Connection after connection.
Plus, thanks to a guiding hand from the Knights’ owner, Riley Preston, in the past five years, Piper’s fledgling accounting business had gone from barely squeaking by to a healthy, thriving enterprise.
Piper shook her head and smiled. Football, like it or not, had become a huge part of her life, both professionally and personally. While her list of clients continued to grow, somehow the men who arrived needing financial advice became her friends, her family. Her teddy bears.
Propping her feet onto her desk, Piper leaned back in her chair and let out a contented sigh. Her life had far surpassed the dreams she harbored while working in Baltimore as a grunt accountant in someone else’s firm. She’d paid her dues. Suffered and endured touchy-feely bosses, male counterparts taking credit for her work, and women coworkers who started rumors that claimed she slept her way to every promotion because they resented her drive and ambition.
Though hard and sometimes down heartening, Piper tried to hold tight to the good from her experiences and let go of the bad. And she was glad to acknowledge how many good times she had on her journey. She’d met some amazing people who became lifelong friends.
Plus, she learned some important lessons and tried to apply them when she finally branched out on her own.
Lesson number one? Be a good boss. If her employees weren’t happy, their discontent trickled down to the clients. Which brought Piper to lesson number two. The clients are the first and last priority. She didn’t merely provide service with a smile. But the willingness to twist yourself into a pretzel, look at every angle, and then look again until every avenue and resource for saving money had been explored and exploited.
Piper never broke the law. She considered the tax codes to be sacred texts. However, her nimble brain knew a loophole when it saw one and, where saving a buck was concerned, she was an expert at slipping through the tiniest of openings.
Rubbing her empty stomach, Piper contemplated what she wanted for dinner. Should she stop for takeout or sit down in the restaurant to enjoy her meal? Eating alone wasn’t a problem. She appreciated her own company. Though if she were honest, her appetite was healthier when she was with a friend or two.
When Piper’s phone rang, she was annoyed by the interruption—until she saw the picture filling the screen. Levi. Her favorite football player.
