Dare To Play (Dare Nation #3) - Carly Phillips Page 0,16

sudden notion had him feeling queasy after he’d been refusing his brother’s mere mention of the idea.

Still, there was something about the notion he couldn’t dismiss. “Your problems are as big if not bigger than mine. You’re Bri’s friend, a good person, and the more I let it sink in, I think marriage could help us both.” His pulse jumped and his heart rate sped up as he began to more seriously consider it.

“Jaxon–”

“Why don’t we order and we can talk?”

She stared at him, her mouth open. “You’re serious?”

He nodded.

As if in slow motion, she picked up a bar menu, took a look, and gestured for Beckett. “A plain burger and fries. Medium well, please.”

Jaxon grinned. “So we have the same taste in food. One more thing in common.” He didn’t mention their compatibility in bed. That was a given.

He glanced at the bartender. “I’ll have the same thing.”

Beckett walked over to the pass-through to the kitchen and called in the order before getting back to work doing inventory behind the bar.

To ease the tension with Macy, Jaxon began talking about his upcoming season and recent trades to his team, sidestepping their problems and his marriage idea for the moment. But the longer he sat making easy conversation, the more he realized he could be with Macy and not feel suffocated. A fifteen-year-old girl in his house? That he wasn’t so sure about, but her half sister would be part of the deal.

“What do you do for a living? When you’re not corralling a teenager, that is?” he asked.

“Web and graphic design. When Hannah, that’s my sister, when her mother left her with my dad, I knew I needed to go to a local college and find a job I could do from home so I could help him out. Hannah and I have a thirteen-year age difference,” she explained. “Dad needed me and so did she.”

“Food, folks.” Beckett slid their plates in front of them.

“Thanks,” they both said at the same time.

Jaxon wasn’t surprised that Macy was a good daughter, the kind who stepped up when needed.

They finished their meals and he’d run out of time. It was do-or-die time, and he had to trust his instincts on what he was about to ask the woman beside him. “Macy?”

“Yes?” she asked easily, as if she’d either forgotten he’d mentioned marriage or thought he’d dismissed the idea.

“Marry me and solve both of our problems.”

* * *

Macy choked on her club soda, the bubbles going up her nose and down her throat. “I’m sorry. I thought you said marry me.”

She hadn’t meant for him to take her mention of how marriage would help her custody situation as a hint. And after a little while, he’d stopped questioning her about it and they’d gone on to talk about normal things. Now he wanted her to marry him?

He patted her on the back, waiting until the tears stopped and she dabbed at her eyes with a napkin.

“You’re not serious,” she said when she could finally speak.

“While we were talking, I was sorting through the idea in my mind, and the hard truth is that we both need this. For one thing, my agent and publicist would love the idea.”

“That same publicist will think I’ve lost my mind,” she said of her best friend.

He grinned, showing an adorably sexy dimple. “She’ll come around. Everyone in the front office at the Eagles is going to be thrilled. And in return, it will help repair your reputation. I know I’d feel better helping to fix what I caused. And I’ll be there for you in court, and we’ll put up a united front. I’m telling you, this is a win-win.”

It sounded like insanity to her. Insanity that just might gain her the end result she wanted. Custody of Hannah. “Can I give it some thought? I mean go home, let the idea settle?”

“Of course.”

Beckett placed the check in front of him, he paid, and they walked to her car in silence. She assumed he was as lost in thought as she was, considering this insane idea.

He stopped at her door.

She was alone with the handsome athlete she hadn’t been able to get out of her mind since last weekend. She’d replayed every moment in his house from beginning to end, orgasm to orgasm, and she’d be lying if she said her stomach wasn’t twisting with awareness again now.

Especially with the prospect of marriage between them. She looked up, meeting his expectant gaze.

“Seriously give the idea some