Chapter 4
Oh my God, am I really going to do this? That’s the single thought that I keep focusing on as I sit at the bar waiting for Cash.
After exchanging numbers this afternoon, we decided to meet for a drink to discuss logistics. I know very little about Cash other than what Duncan has told me.
And based on the fact that Duncan told me, I don’t know if I should believe it or not. The bad boy who sleeps with anything on two legs and gets into fights every other game? Cash doesn’t seem the type, but what do I know?
The bar slowly fills up around me as I sit and wait for Cash. Glancing at my watch, I realize he’s already fifteen minutes late. This does not bode well for the two of us to be doing this together.
Low music thrums through the bar. People come and go taking their seats at the hardwood bar top with the old rickety stools. TVs line the walls as do old beer posters. It’s nothing fancy by any means, but I figured since it’s a little more out of the way, people might not recognize Cash.
I have no idea if this thing is going to work. I don’t want people to see us together. Even if I say yes right now, we need to iron out the details.
Besides, don’t we need to get to know each other before we start this thing? Because based on the little I know about him, it’s not going to go well.
It’s like my thoughts make him appear. He walks into the bar and he nearly takes my breath away. Jeans that cling to his strong thighs, a tight black tee, a leather jacket, and a baseball hat sitting backward on his head.
God, he really is too gorgeous for his own good.
I ignore the blaze of heat that fires through me and sit on my hands to avoid reaching out for him or waving like a moron. He already thinks I’m some little princess. I don’t need to give him any more reason to think I’m an idiot.
I watch as his dark eyes skate over the bar before they finally land on me. I can feel his perusal from here, and it makes me squirm that much more in my seat. He takes long steps toward me, eating up the distance.
“Princess.” He plops into the seat across from me.
I swallow down a sip of my drink. “What did I say about that?”
“Sorry. It’s just hard when you look like you’re straight out of a castle.”
“No castles for me.”
“You sure?” Cash eyes me, leaning back in his seat.
“Do you need something to drink? Is that going to make you less ornery?” I quirk a brow at him.
Cash ignores me, flagging down a server to order a beer.
A Breckenridge Avalanche.
“You think I’m ornery?”
“I can see why you get the bad attitude with the press,” I mumble to myself.
“Are you always like this?” Cash asks as a beer is set in front of him. He shrugs out of his jacket, exposing a long line of tattoos.
I can’t help but drink my fill. Duncan was as clean-cut as they come. Manscaped to within an inch of his life.
Cash is the exact opposite. Sure, that’s part of my reasoning for wanting to do this, but is it going to work?
“My attitude isn’t the one that needs adjusting.”
“It’s not my fault reporters are dumb.” Cash shakes his head at me.
“I’m not disagreeing that they ask stupid questions. You just can’t tell them that.”
“Did Cassie put you up to this?”
“You know I can think for myself, right?”
Cash shrugs. “Seems like something Cassie would put you up to.”
I pick up my old fashioned and take a long sip, trying to cool the annoyance that is swirling inside me. All because of the man sitting across from me.
He needs my help. I don’t want to not help him, but he’s making it hard. I can see why Cash has such issues with the press.
His entire personality is I don’t give a fuck.
Even the way he’s sitting here in the bar—and that damn backward hat—says he doesn’t care. His eyes are taking in the small bar. There’s not much to it, but it’s close to my studio and I like it.
“Is it that you don’t care about the team?” I ask, studying him some more.
“What?”
“I’m trying to figure out why you’re like this.”
Cash snorts, swallowing down his beer. “Trust me, Princess. You won’t.”
“You have to give me something if we’re going to make this work.”
“What, you want to know why my childhood turned me into the fuckup everyone seems to think I am today? Hmm?” He quirks a brow at me, leaning across the table.
“It’d at least tell me something about you.”
“No.”
“Fine, then something else. Because right now, I don’t see how this is going to work.”
Cash shakes his head, finishing his beer. “Then we’ll figure something else out.”
“What, that’s it?”
Cash nods. “Yup.”
“You’re right. I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“Fine,” he bites out. “I don’t need you.”
“Good.”
“Great.”
I drop a twenty on the table and grab my purse. “Find another princess.”
Cash Williams might just be the biggest dick on the planet.
That is a fact I’m sure of. And nothing can convince me otherwise.