Jax tugged on the rope that fastened his new heavy boxing bag to the rafter overhead. He loved the basement in his new house – it had been partially finished by the previous owners, and he intended to make it into a home gym the next time he came back to Ardensville. For now though, the heavy bag and a jump rope would have to do.

He tore open the plastic casing containing a new set of boxing gloves, put them on and punched each fist into the other to settle them into place. With his wireless earbuds in and Switchfoot pounding through his head, he began jabbing at the bag. It swung a little, but didn’t fall off. Perfect. Within an hour he’d worked out all the frustration and unspent energy that had been boiling in his veins for days. It felt good to get back to physical activity.

“Hello?”

He glanced over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised. Stacey had gone to bed over an hour earlier when they got back from their trip to the lookout, and he wasn’t expecting guests, not at midnight.

Brad appeared on the staircase, frowning.

“Brad? I knew I shouldn’t have given you a key to the house,” Jax quipped, leveling another punch at the bag. He pulled the gloves off and faced his friend, unsure of what his reaction would be. No doubt news of the fake marriage had reached him, and he hadn’t returned any of Jax’s calls.

Brad shrugged, his eyebrows low. “Thought you might still be awake. You never could sleep when you were taking a break from sports.”

Jax chuckled. “You know me well.”

Brad sat on the lid of a large unopened box and crossed his arms. “I thought I did.”

Jax sighed. “I’ve been trying to call you, man.”

“I know. I didn’t want to talk to you until I calmed down.”

“There’s nothing to be upset about …”

“I asked you to do one thing for me. One lousy thing. In our friendship, have I ever asked you for a favor?”

Jax frowned. This wasn’t going well. He shook his head.

“That’s right. The only thing I ever asked is that you leave my sister alone.”

Jax crossed his own arms “Am I so bad that you’re afraid of what I might do to your sister?”

“There’s nothing wrong with you. But she’s going to get hurt.”

“Why do you say that? What have I ever done to make you think I’d hurt her?” Now he was angry too.

“You don’t mean to. But that’s what you do. Girls fall in love with you and you don’t feel the same. You let them down and you move on.”

That wasn’t true, was it? He’d never meant to hurt anyone. He’d never loved any of the girls he’d dated before, and they hadn’t loved him either. “Well, not that it matters, but Stacey is a woman, not a girl.”

“Why wouldn’t it matter?” Brad’s face flushed.

“Because it’s not true. We’re not married. We’re not even dating. She’s pretending to be my wife so people will leave me alone, and I’m letting her live here so she’ll have a place to stay and I’ll have someone keeping an eye on it. Plus, she’s a pretty good interior decorator. That’s all – nothing more, nothing less.” He’d been full of energy before Brad entered the basement, now it felt as though the wind had been knocked from his lungs.

Brad blinked in surprise. “Really.” He looked around the room, letting his thoughts settle. “Well, why didn’t you say so?”

“You mean, when you returned my call?”

“Okay, okay. Well, man, you had me fooled. Can I take a shot at that bag?”

Jax handed Brad the gloves, and soon they were smiling and joking again. But something still bothered Jax. “Do you really think it’d be so bad for me to date Stacey?”

Puffing hard, Brad wiped sweat from his forehead with his forearm. “She’s been through a lot, been hurt so many times by people she loves. And she cares about you. She might not say so, but I’ve always known. If you hurt her … I’m not sure she’d recover.”

Jax stared at the floor, his thoughts in a whirl. She’d cared about him. That was just beginning to sink in after she’d told him so at the lookout, and now Brad was confirming it. But how did she feel about him now? “Hey, how would you feel about staying here in the house with us until I go back to Atlanta? My mom’s not keen with Stacey and I being here alone together unmarried – you know.”

Brad laughed. “Oh, the irony. Everyone else thinks you’re married, but you need a chaperone.”

Jax laughed too. “So will you stay?”

“Sure, it’ll be fun.”

Stacey hurried through the parking lot and into the café, her heels clacking loudly on the pavement. She still hadn’t gotten used to wearing heels every day. The diner had required white tennis shoes as part of the uniform, and it was the only thing she missed about working there besides the free curly fries.

She pushed open the glass door, spotted June waving at her from a small table on one side of the room, and smiled. It had been awkward between them since she moved in with Jax, and she hoped that wouldn’t last. But June had asked to meet her for coffee, which was a good sign.

She kissed June on the cheek and took a seat opposite her. “How are you?

June smiled wearily. “I’m okay. Some days are harder than others. Mom is doing better though, I think.”

Stacey patted June’s hand, her heart aching for the Greens and their loss. She hadn’t had a father like Frank Green, but she could imagine how it might feel to lose someone like him from her life. “I’ve been praying for you.”

June’s smile widened. “Thank you. That is so kind.”

They ordered coffees and muffins and chatted about what each of them had been doing. It began to feel like old times again, and the knot of anxiety in Stacey’s stomach slowly loosened.

“How’s work going?” asked June as she sipped her cappuccino.

“It’s fine. I could use some more clients, but I’m off to an okay start.”

“I’ll bet it’s hard to get started in real estate. So much of that seems to be word-of-mouth.”

“It is. I mean, I shouldn’t even have clients yet – I haven’t been working there long. But Jax got me started with that first sale, which was amazing, and I guess it just gave me a taste for more. I’m helping out Brad and Susannah with their listings until I can get some of my own.”

“What can you do to get more clients?”

Stacey shrugged. “Wait, and it’ll happen in time. At least that’s what Brad says.”

“Maybe we could do something to drum up some business for your office. That way they’ll have so many clients they’ll just have to give some to you.” June grinned, her eyes flashing. It was the first time since her father’s death that Stacey had witnessed a sincere smile on her friend’s face.

“We could. And I’m guessing from the look on your face you’ve got an idea of how we might do that.”

June laughed. “Have you ever seen those people who advertise pizza by dancing around in a silly suit on the side of the road?”

Stacey’s heart fell. “Uh-huh.”

“We could do that!” June’s eyes were wide and her mouth open, seemingly excited at the prospect.

Stacey forced a smile. “Wow. That’s … wow. Great idea.”

Stacey pulled the fuzzy panda head over hers. She could barely see out through the gauze visor – it was too high and the head lolled to one side. She scanned the room, holding the panda head straight. Where was June?

A lion with a long tail and huge grin walked out of the restroom and across the office toward her. Then it rammed knees-first into a desk and roared – in pain.

Stacey giggled. “Are you okay, June?”

June nodded, the lion’s head bobbing up and down. “Fine. Ugh. Who put that desk there?” She rubbed her knees with her front paws.

“Let’s go, I guess.” Stacey was less than eager to humiliate herself for the cause of gaining some new clients. And she couldn’t see how anyone would sign up to a realty office because of a dancing lion or panda waving a sign on the side of the road. But June’s face had lit up at the idea, and Brad had said “why not?” and now she’d be spending the entire afternoon in that panda suit. “This thing stinks,” she added, and meant it literally – it smelled like a boy’s locker room.

“Yeah, mine too. Although there’s something sweet mixed in with the stank.”

“I don’t even want to know what it could be. Let’s just get this over with.”

“Come on, it’ll be great,” said June.

Stacey drew a slow breath, then coughed it out. “Yeah, great. Okay, let’s go.”

They stood on the intersection of Main and Aberfoyle. Stacey danced around with a sign that read, FIND YOUR NEXT HOME WITH MURPHY REALTY. June’s sign said, MAKE THE MOVE WITH MURPHY REALTY. Both had the office phone number and website address. Before long, a few pedestrians stopped and asked questions – more interest than Stacey had expected.

When Brad called, she grimaced as his name flashed across her phone screen. She took off the panda head and answered it in her most enthusiastic voice. “Hi, Brad. How are you?”

“How’s my newest sales force? I just drove down Main and saw you.”

“We’ve had a few nibbles.”

He sighed loudly. “You know, I’m having second thoughts about this. Remember when I explained to you about branding, how the Murphy brand is a representation of what we do and the kind of clients we want as a first-rate realty business? I don’t really think a dingy panda suit goes with that. If you’d told me you were dressing up like that …”

“I get it. But June wanted to do it and …”

“Uh, let’s just call it a day and come back to the office, okay?”

“Okay.” She hung up the phone and frowned. She understood Brad’s point of view, but from what she could tell they’d already sent at least a dozen clients his way that afternoon, maybe more. Even now, June was talking to a woman through her lion mask across the street.

Stacey shrugged and headed over to tell her friend the jig was up. Maybe they could grab something to eat on her way back to work.

Jax balanced the stack of throw pillows in his arms and set off down the street to where he’d parked his truck. Stacey had picked them out, and when the store called to say they’d come in he’d offered to collect them rather than have them delivered. I mean, how many throw pillows could one woman have ordered? As it turned out, he should’ve gotten them delivered – or at least parked closer.

He huffed and peered around the edge of the pile. Where were all these things going to fit in the house? He liked the way she decorated and the items she’d selected, but he’d never considered how many knickknacks and throws and who knew what else it took to make a house look homey.

The sidewalk was busy, but not too crowded, for which he was grateful. From his limited view, it seemed people were avoiding colliding with him as best they could. A ball cap on his head was pulled low and he wore sunglasses as well, in the hopes that no one recognized him. But ever since the marriage announcement, there were fewer women stalking him. Perhaps the ruse was working even better than he’d thought it would. Or maybe he was just kidding himself.

He grinned and shifted the weight of the pillows in his hands to peer around the right side of them and spotted his truck across the street. He should set down the pillows and bring the truck over instead of the other way around, but he was almost there … he picked up the pace, watching the traffic. As soon as there was an opening, he’d dart through, pile everything into his vehicle, run some errands for Mom, then head to her place to fix a leak in the roof. The throw pillows teetered, and he frowned, adjusted his hold …

WHAM! He ran directly into someone he hadn’t seen coming – someone wearing some ridiculous animal costume. The entire pile of throw pillows crashed to the ground and he followed them down. The person in the fluffy costume stumbled and tottered in place before finally landing on him with a squeak.

Another animal impersonator ran up, muttered apologies and scurried to retrieve the pillows. “What on earth?” she cried. “I guess you weren’t watching where you were going.”

The one on top of him floundered, its head – a wide-eyed panda – narrowly missing his. “I can’t see! Ugh, this lousy costume …”

He recognized her voice, even through the costume, and started laughing. It was too ridiculous for words, and the way she was flopping around like a fish on a beach was more than he could handle.

Stacey rolled off him onto the pavement beside him, huffing and puffing as she tried to take the panda head off. The other creature, an equally scraggly lion, handed him a stack of pillows while he was still lying on the ground. “Sorry, sir, here are your pillows … Jax?”

He stared up at the lion’s oversized eyes through his sunglasses, and howled even louder. It was as though all the emotion of the past few weeks was being released. How had June gotten involved in this?

Stacey finally pulled the mask free. “Is it really that funny?”

“It is, it is.” He wiped the tears from his eyes. “Why are you dressed as a panda?”

She blinked in the bright sunlight. “Trying to drum up some real estate business.”

His brow furrowed. “By being a panda? And a lion, June?”

June took her mask off too, her blonde hair sticking out at all angles like feathers on a hen. “It seemed like fun. But Brad called us off – not dignified enough for Murphy Realty.” She reached out a hand and helped him to his feet.

He turned to Stacey and offered her his hands. It was quite the task to get her standing again – the suit was too big for her, and the panda’s feet didn’t give much traction. But soon they were both standing face-to-face. He gazed into her eyes through her usually perfectly-coiffed hair, which had fallen over her pale face. The faintest hint of freckles peppered her button nose, and her wide blue eyes were brightened by the brisk air scattering leaves as it whistled down Main Street. He still held her hand, and didn’t want to let it go.

She met his gaze with a hint of laughter behind her eyes. “I didn’t see you coming.”

He smiled. “I guess not. You surprised me as well.” He had been surprised by her – surprised by the feelings she’d unleashed inside him, feelings he’d never felt before. Suddenly it wasn’t all about the game and the team. For the first time, he wanted more than to win.

He wished he could stay in Ardensville – a desire entirely new and foreign to him. It hadn’t been long ago that the only thing on his mind was getting as far away from Ardensville as a scholarship would take him. He didn’t hate his hometown, but it felt like a dead weight around his neck. He wanted more – adventure, excitement, success. Things he couldn’t find here. But now …

He looked away reluctantly and found June half-smiling, watching them both with interest. “Hey, how about I take the two of you to lunch? Surely you’ve done enough, er … marketing for the day.” He laughed.

Stacey chuckled along with him. “That sounds wonderful. Doesn’t it, June?”

June nodded. “Sure. That would be nice.” She winked at Jax.

He pretended not to see. He knew what she was suggesting, that he had feelings for Stacey. But he wasn’t about to tell her that it was the truth – and that there wasn’t a thing he could do about it.