Scout by Cassie Lein

Two exes. One fake date. And me—stuck right in the middle.

I’m just here to do my job.
Kendrix hires me to be his date to a fancy hospital donor dinner—to make his ex squirm. And it works. Xavier, the brooding ER doctor with piercing eyes and a grudge the size of the hospital, is definitely squirming.
But so am I.
Because what starts as a simple game of jealousy turns into something messy and real.
I start catching feelings. For both of them.
Kendrix, with his cocky smirk and secret softness.
Xavier, with all his guarded silence and eyes that see way too much.
And just when I think maybe, just maybe, the three of us could actually work…
I overhear something I was never meant to hear.
So I do what I always do—run.
Right into a crisis I can’t escape.
My little sister needs me more than ever, and suddenly I’m not just a hired date—I’m barely holding my life together.
That’s when they show up.
Not with anger. Not with ultimatums.
But with steady hands that ask for nothing in return.
Now they won’t let me fall apart.
They’re everywhere—offering support, showing up when it matters, refusing to let me go.
I was supposed to be a one-night distraction.
I never meant to fall for either of them.
But now?
This doesn’t feel fake anymore.
It feels like love.
The kind that heals old wounds and gives you a new start.
The kind that makes you believe in second chances and first times—all over again.