“Wags?”

“Wives and girlfriends. There are sites devoted to us,” Paige explained.

“Websites? For wives and girlfriends?”

“Of all professional athletes on all teams. You should check it out.” Her nose scrunched. “Or maybe wait a while.”

Great. More reminders that all Las Vegas Vipers fans despised me.

“Enough of the dictionary,” Sophie said and climbed out of the pool. “Forget all that stupid stuff. We’re here for the good stuff. Now spill the tea. What happened?”

We kissed. He didn’t seem to immediately regret it afterward and then he called me sexy.

Just thinking of the way he’d looked at me in that moment was enough to make me squirm in the pool. “I like him, okay? A lot. And it confuses me and makes me scared and excites me all at the same time.”

“I don’t blame you,” Paige said. “You’ve been through a lot lately.”

“Exactly. And what if this is just a rebound thing for me? Like, a good guy is there, in front of me, and I’m still just pissed about Lincoln cheating and becoming a psychopath or something that I’m not thinking straight.”

Sophie grabbed her hair and wrapped it up in a bun. Her mascara was now smeared beneath her eyes and she was shaking water off her sunglasses. “Do you think you like him because all of that?”

There were so many years I stared at photos of Kane and wished a guy like him would be attracted to a girl like me, slightly overweight, definitely not thin, and see more to me than the thickness of my hips.

Now I had him, and every time Kane looked at me, he definitely liked what he saw—unless that was my imagination working.

“I didn’t kiss him for revenge or anything—”

“You kissed him!” Sophie shouted and slapped her hands on the water. “When? How?”

Paige chuckled. “How did she kiss him?”

Sophie shoved a finger at her friend. “It’s a valid question. Like a little goodbye peck? A friendly little cheek kiss? Or was it…”

“It was more,” I admitted, and then shut my mouth. These were his friends first. Wives of men he called brothers. I wasn’t sure gossiping about our relationship, fake or otherwise, was smart. “But that doesn’t matter. It’s that I know he still misses Ava. I don’t want to be some temporary placeholder.”

“Yeah.” Sophie frowned and swam to the side of the pool where the cooler was and grabbed another bottled water. “That sucks, but I don’t think Kane’s the guy to use someone either, unintentionally or not, so if he kissed you back…” She turned and raised two blond brows in my direction.

“He kissed me back,” I confirmed, and couldn’t meet her gaze. He hadn’t kissed me back, he’d taken over the kiss and devoured me completely.

“Then I think you have your answer, at least on his part. He has to be attracted to you, I mean, you’re gorgeous and have tits I’d kill someone for. Real relationships have started with less.”