I had been so caught up in all that, that I hadn’t noticed Daniel’s apprehensive gaze. It bounced a couple of times between Aaron and me before finally settling on the man he thought I was dating. Not for long though. A moment after that, Daniel turned, clapped Gonzalo’s back, and started toward the improvised soccer field.
Before joining the rest of the guys, Aaron stepped into me, stopping only when the point of our sneakers touched. He leaned in, his mouth dangerously close to my ear, as if he were about to tell me a secret just meant for me.
My throat bobbed.
“What do you think?” he asked, his words tickling the shell of my ear.
“You are … okay,” I mumbled like a total idiot.
I heard his chuckle. “Thank you, I think. But I wasn’t asking about th
at.”
Oh.
“I’ll take the compliment though. For now.”
“What-what did you mean then?”
“I think that so far, we are doing a good job. What do you think?”
Oh, so he meant that. The charade, of course. Yes, that made more sense.
I nodded my head.
“We make a good team, Catalina.” And there it was, my name again. Voiced in that way that was all … new.
I cleared my throat, trying to ignore the fact that my face was about a palm from his flawless and bare pectoral. “We do,” I murmured.
Aaron lowered his voice. “I had no idea we would walk into that.” He cocked his head. “Caught me off guard, but it’s okay. I’m starting to understand.”
Confusion swirled in me. There was nothing to understand. Granted, there was a part I hadn’t told Aaron—which wasn’t the smartest way to go about it—but that remained in the past. It didn’t affect our goal here.
“Just keep doing what you are doing,” I told him, swallowing the lump stuck in my throat. “Focus on pretending you are crazy about me, all right?”
I heard him hum; it was a low and short-lived sound, but it was enough to make me step back, so I could look at his face. His eyes held that determined edge I knew so well.
“Trust me, I am focusing on only that.”
Before I could say anything else, Aaron started jogging back. “And remember,” he called in the distance, “all is fair in love and war, bollito.”
Almost everybody around turned their eyes on me. My gaze met my sister’s, and she was grinning so widely that I was scared her mouth would inevitably hurt on her wedding day.
Reluctantly, I smiled back at all the onlookers, pretending I was cool and chill and not trying to gather my wits. “Oh, he’s so silly,” I told them. “No need to remind me, cosita mía!” I called back to Aaron.
But Aaron had already shot up, running after the rest of his team. Leaving me standing there, watching how all the polished muscles on his back danced with each of his strides and wondering what the hell that was supposed to mean.
My eyes narrowed.
“All is fair in love and war.”
It was in a way, I guessed. What I had trouble making sense of was, how did that apply when love was fake, and adversaries were left no choice but to join forces?
Chapter Seventeen
Against all odds, we were close to the end of the soccer match, and both teams were tied.
One would think that having to play against a group of shirtless dudes was disconcerting. But I was related to a big chunk of them. I had already seen everything there was to see about one of them—Daniel. And out of the two remaining men, one was about to marry my sister. So, that reduced my distractions considerably.