He Made Me His Plus-Size Stand-In, I Married Someone Else

The ring box was hidden in my coat pocket as I followed the location Kane had shared with me on Life360 to the New York Storm's private lounge.

The door hadn't shut all the way, and the laughter inside came through the gap.

"Captain, Lillian is coming back to New York next week. What are you going to do about that plus-size stand-in you keep at home?"

My hand stopped on the door handle.

Glasses clinked, and someone else joined in. "Erin used to be gorgeous. She'd show up in the stands wearing your old jersey, and half the team wanted her number. You really knew what you were doing, though. In seven years, you put more than eighty pounds on her."

"Waffles for breakfast, peanut butter shakes before bed, and you even canceled her gym membership behind her back. Didn't you say that once she was heavy enough no one else would want her, she'd never leave you the way Lillian did?"

The room burst into laughter.

Kane never denied any of it.

A few seconds passed before he spoke, his voice flat. "She's the one who likes to eat."

"You don't like her? You touch the bracelet she gave you before every game, and no matter how late a road game ends, you always go home. Kane, you can't live without her and you know it."

Kane scoffed.

"These days, one look at the rolls of fat all over her body makes me lose my appetite."

The ring box in my pocket dug painfully into my thigh.

I looked down at the coat stretched tight across my stomach and suddenly remembered being twenty-one, wearing a red dress in the smallest size while people chased me down for my number.

After I got together with Kane, he took care of every last detail of my life.

He remembered my allergies and my cycle, always called before a road trip, and hugged me the moment he came home. But he also made every meal himself, canceled my gym membership, and told me I looked cuter and made him feel safer every time the number on the scale rose.

I finally understood. He truly cared about me, but he loved the security of my dependence even more, of having my whole life revolve around him.

He mistook possession for love, and he built me a cage out of food.

I never pushed the door open. I left without a sound.

The next evening Kane acted as if nothing had happened and took me to Lillian's welcome dinner.

Before we left, he picked out a loose black dress for me and pinched my cheek, smiling.

"Don't wear anything that stands out. Just stay quiet next to me."

I used to mistake that possessiveness for something sweet.

Now it only grated.

When Lillian Hart walked in, the whole room went quiet for a beat.

She was slim and beautiful, wearing a white jersey like the one Kane had worn when he won Rookie of the Year seven years earlier. Looking at her face was like seeing my twenty-one-year-old reflection in a mirror.

Kane's gaze settled on her too and stayed there for a long time.

But when Lillian looked over, he put his arm around my waist at once and made a point of holding a large piece of chocolate cake to my lips.

"Open up. This is your favorite, isn't it?"

I grabbed the plate and shoved it back at him. "I said I'm not eating it."

Kane's smile froze. In seven years, it was the first time I had pushed back at him in public.

Lillian went pale, set down her glass, and hurried out.

Kane was on his feet after her almost instantly.

He crashed into the server behind him. A full tureen of scalding cream soup splashed straight down the front of me.

People cried out all around us. Kane didn't even turn his head.

I went to the hospital alone to have the burns treated, came home, and opened the trophy room he had never let me enter.

A photo of Kane and Lillian hung at the center of the wall. She wore a red dress and a radiant smile, looking almost exactly like I had in college.

In the drawer was a nutrition plan filed under my name.

Thirty-five hundred calories a day. Target weight, two hundred pounds.

On the last line, Kane had written in his own hand: Don't let her find out or give her any chance to lose the weight.

I stared at it for a long time, then called my older brother, Ethan Bennett.

"Ethan, the arranged marriage with the Winter family. I'm saying yes."

There was a beat of silence on the other end. "Erin, has somebody been hurting you?"

My nose stung, but I forced a light laugh. "No. I just came to my senses. Set the wedding for a month from now. I'll be home in time."

Ethan let out a long breath, then asked, "Are you still in touch with Kane? I hear Lillian is back. Is he about to have some good news of his own?"

So Ethan knew about Lillian too.

No wonder Kane had spent seven years letting the whole world believe I was merely his friend's little sister staying at his place rather than allow me to reveal our relationship.

The lock turned at the door. I kept my voice low. "We're not close."

The call had barely ended when Kane wrapped his arms around me from behind.

"Who are you not close with?"

"You."

He thought I was teasing him and leaned down to kiss me. I turned my face away, and he finally saw the blisters on my arm.

"How did this happen?" His expression changed instantly. He cradled my hand carefully. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He had clearly forgotten that he was the one who knocked over the tureen while chasing after Lillian.

Kane rushed to get the first aid kit, and his hands actually shook as he put the ointment on.

"You hate pain so much. What would you do without me?"

Then he pulled a hot chocolate topped with extra whipped cream out of the bag and lifted it to my lips out of habit.

I looked at the thick layer of whipped cream at the rim and, for the first time, didn't open my mouth.