All Chapters of The Pop Star and the Playboy Quarterback: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

*Asher*Ophelia texts me a few days later. She wanted to handle our plans for the date. “I’m not letting you wine and dine me; that’s not who I am,” she had said to me on the phone. “If we’re going on a date, I’m making the plans.”I have no issue with this. The fact she’s giving me a chance is all I’d wanted. Our game against the Chefs was a beatdown. We were on our game. Mark and I couldn’t help but scream in celebration after the fourth quarter ended. 35-3 was our final score. So, two games down, and the rest of the season to go.As I’m traveling back to Nashville from Arkansas, I talk on the phone to AJ, whose team also won this week. “How is it you end up in a situation in which ghost-singing is involved?” he inquires. I turn on my blinker, almost to Ophelia’s place. “You ask the question, but I still don’t have an answer. But I’ve got to record her voice sometime, and you have to hear her.”“All I’m hearing is you just landed yourself in a Cinderella story,” my brother te

*Asher*I know the text I’ve just sent sounds incredibly cheesy, but I wait for her response to appear under my message bubble. Ophelia has been so open to getting to know who I am, not who the media says I am. I want her to trust me.Then, the beep comes, and her message appears. “Round 2 it is. Though I don’t know how you’ll ever top Betty’s Banging BBQ!”“I’ll think of something.”I send the text before lying back on the bed.I chuckle as I look back at the few texts we’ve sent since I asked her out and got her number. We’ve mostly stuck to what our first date would be and when it would happen. But now, with an indeterminable amount of time between tonight and our next outing, I’m unsure what to say.I want to tell her that I haven’t dated a “normal” woman in a long time. I want to open up about more than just the family legacy and my desire to be the best at what I do.But most importantly, I want to show her anything and everything her heart dreams of.Excited by my revela

*Asher*I don’t waste any time. Little Rock, here we come! I arrange to pick up Ophelia two days later when I don’t have football practice to distract me for a few days. I feel my leg shaking as I sit in the car, driving us to the hangar. I’m starting to second-guess if this is a good idea. But after being so confident while speaking to Ophelia, how am I supposed to be open and honest about this?I force myself to breathe, trying not to alert her to the nerves coursing through my body. This is a good idea. I want her to know the REAL me. I don’t want the tabloids to be the only truth out there for her to discover. Besides, if she knew me on the day we met as Asher Slater, there’s no doubt she must know something about my past.“Are you okay?” Her voice hits me like an air freshener, sweet and beautiful but unexpected. Am I able to be honest with her?I give her a somewhat fake smile, but I shake my head in response. “It’s nothing.”It’s not nothing. Something is nagging at me,

*Ophelia*Still reeling from dinner and overhearing Asher’s conversation with his brother, I stay silent on the drive home. Asher doesn’t seem to grasp what’s happening here, but he might be in his own world. I just keep replaying the meal in my mind, seeing Maria’s eyes shooting lasers at me.I’d tried to ignore her, listening to conversations bounce around the table. But in the end, any questions I’d been asked were difficult to answer. I didn’t want to anger Asher’s mom. So, my answers were short.We pull into the drive at Asher’s, and I immediately get out of the car and walk back to where we drove.“Ophelia?” Asher calls. “What are you doing?”I’m not even sure.“I need a walk. Clear my head, you know?”“Want me to come with you?”“No!” I say all too fast. “No, I honestly just want to be alone for a little while. I’ll be right back.”His eyes narrow, but he doesn’t fight me on it. So, I turn back and continue down the drive.I don’t know what to do. I mean, I thought com

*Ophelia* “Well, that’s just it,” Carolanne says over the phone. “They don’t know what caused it. All they can tell me is that they’re going to monitor her. That’s all they really can do at this point.” I gnaw on my bottom lip while my fingers ache with how hard I’m holding my phone up to my ear. Hearing my sister say that the doctors have no idea what’s caused our Mama to have such a bad reaction to her medication is worrisome. What’s to say that it won’t happen again and make her even more sick? Rolling over to see those missed phone calls had practically given me a heart attack, especially since my sister isn’t the type to call me more than twice when she needs something. So over twenty times? I’m lucky I’m still upright and breathing. Carolanne’s news hadn’t made me feel any better, though. “Is there a way for the doctors to weed out any possibilities? Maybe they gave her something she wasn’t supposed to have. What was the last med they gave her?” Carolanne sighs. “I