Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHASE
I had seen Addison mad more times than I could count—you couldn’t be passionate like she was without some anger in the mix. And when she got well and truly pissed, the tears came. It was something she hated about herself—when her anger was interrupted by tears she couldn’t control.
While I had no doubt she was pissed off at me for whatever bullshit alternate reality of our relationship she’d concocted, I knew what she’d really been after when she’d run away had been to hide.
So I’d let her.
For now anyway. But that shit wasn’t going to last. While she was stuck here with nowhere to go, my gloves were coming off and we were hashing this out.
By the end of our snow-in, she was going to know exactly how fucking gone I was for her.
No more hiding. No more underplaying it.
No more flippant marriage proposals so I could brush them off as a joke in case she said no.
I was all fucking in, and she was damn well going to hear it.
Unfortunately, she’d locked herself away in one of my guest rooms, barking a sharp, “Go away!” when I’d knocked on her door to see if she was hungry.
Earning me absolutely zero points, I’d ignored her harsh command, opened the door, and dropped off some sushi for her inside.
She’d been here for hours, and Addison was a fucking beast when she didn’t get fed.
I was already facing an uphill battle when it came to her—I wasn’t about to add hangriness to the list of shit stacked against me.
But I also wasn’t going to push.
So, after dropping that off, I’d let her be. For hours and fucking hours.
It was just getting absurd now. It was late, my knee ached like a motherfucker, and I wanted to go to bed. With her, preferably.
I knocked softly on the door and waited for a response. When I didn’t get one, I tried again before turning the knob and poking my head inside.
While the room was set up with furniture—a bed frame with a headboard, a dresser, and two nightstands, the guest room mattresses hadn’t yet arrived. Which meant she was curled into a ball on the floor, like the dramatic little diva she was.
“Go away,” she said, not bothering to face me.
She was no longer wearing the clothes she’d come here in.
Instead, she had on one of my old sweatshirts that was so big it looked like a dress on her.
The movers must’ve accidentally put away some of my stuff in here, but I sure as hell wasn’t mad about it—seeing her in my clothes made my dick hard.
I was mad about her lying on the fucking floor, though.
“You’re not sleeping there.”
“Looks like that’s exactly what I’m doing,” she said. “Now leave me alone, and let me get to it.”
I leaned against the doorframe, crossing my arms as I stared at her back. “Don’t you think you’re being a little ridiculous?”
“No. I don’t.”
I scrubbed a hand down my face and groaned. “Addie. Just come to bed. It’s a king—you can put up a pillow wall between us if it’ll make you feel better.”
“I’m fine right here. In case you didn’t know, the carpet in the brand-new home of a professional hockey player is very plush.”
Despite my irritation, I snorted a laugh and walked over to her, squatting down at her back. “You’re acting like a brat about this.”
“So why don’t you leave me alone and let me act like a brat all by myself, then?”
She had the tenacity of a bulldog, and I knew there would be no changing her mind. So, with a sigh, I stood and headed back to my room. I grabbed the down comforter off my bed before bringing it into the guest room and laying it on top of her.
“My room’s at the end of the hall when you get tired of this,” I said.
“Don’t count on it.”
I wasn’t going to. Which was exactly why I planned to come back in thirty minutes when I knew she’d be dead to the world and carry her there myself.
While waiting for her to fall asleep, I headed downstairs, calling my parents to make sure they were settled at home and didn’t need anything.
“Hello?” my mom answered, sounding wide awake despite the late hour.
“Hey, Mom. You and Dad doing okay over there?”
“My sweet boy, always looking out for us. Yes, Dad and I are doing just fine. We’re settled in with no plans to go anywhere. And Aiden’s new book just arrived yesterday, so your father is quite engrossed right now. I don’t think we’ll have any problem amusing ourselves while we’re snowed in.”
I snorted. “Thanks for that.”
She laughed, completely unrepentant of her overshare.
But I was used to it. Morgan and I had seen more than our fair share because our parents couldn’t keep their hands off each other through our adolescence.
And after, actually. When my parents were in their midforties, and Morgan and I were nearing our teen years, the twins had been the find-out portion of the fuck-around equation.
“How about you, sweetheart?” she asked. “You okay in that great big house all by yourself?”
I cleared my throat. “Actually, I’m not by myself.”
“Oh? Is Levi with you?”
“No. Addie is.”
There was a pause on the other line, then all background noise ceased, as if she’d shut off the TV so she could give me her full attention.
“Addison, huh? You don’t say.” Amusement saturated her tone, and I could practically see the sparkle in her eye.
“Well, isn’t she lucky to have you there looking out for her?
I wonder what you two will fill your time with while you’re stuck together… ”
She didn’t even bother to hide the hopeful note in her voice.
For years, she’d made not-so-subtle hints about the fact that she thought Addison and I would be a perfect couple—how she’d gotten that when all she’d seen was Addie biting my head off, I’d never know, but moms were scary intuitive like that.
And though I didn’t disagree with her, I’d also never been able to tell her what was going on between the two of us.
I loved my mom more than just about anything, but she couldn’t keep a secret to save her life.
And Addison had made it perfectly clear no one in Starlight Cove was supposed to know about us.
“Not sure we’ll be doing much of anything. Right now, she’s curled up on the floor in an extra bedroom because she’s mad at me and too stubborn to sleep in an actual bed.”
My mom blew out a pfft. “That girl is always mad at you. But you know what I say, a little fire in a relationship keeps things spicy. Not that you two are in a relationship, of course…” She trailed off, the pause weighted. “Unless you have something to tell me?”
I snorted and shook my head. “No, Mom. Nothing to tell you.”
She heaved a deep sigh, as if I’d crushed all her dreams with that statement. “That’s too bad. But I want you to know that even though the plant nursery is all set up, it’s easily moved. If, for some reason, we would need the space for something else… Like, perhaps a different kind of nursery.”
“Smooth, Mom.”
“What?” she asked, all faux-innocence.
“Addison’s currently not speaking to me,” I said dryly. “I think talking about babies is a little premature.”
Mom huffed. “Well, I’m not getting any younger. I want some grandkids to spoil! And God knows with the jackass Morgan married, I’m not gonna get them from her. And the twins just started college, so they better not be giving me grandbabies just yet. You’re our only hope.”
I sank back into the couch and rolled my eyes toward the ceiling. “I’m a professional hockey player, still under contract, who spends three-quarters of a year out of town. And you’re forgetting the most important fact—I don’t even have a girlfriend.”
Now was not the time to let my mom in on the fact that while I hadn’t necessarily had a girlfriend, I’d been Addison’s for years.
Mom blew out another long-suffering sigh. “So you say. But I hear snowstorms are a great time to change that…”
“All right, Mom. Settle down.”
“Fine. I’ll let you get back to whatever you’re doing over there. Don’t you dare let her sleep on the floor, Chase Matthew.”
“You know I wouldn’t.”
“And for God’s sake, stop irritating the poor girl! Hate sex is fine once in a while, but it won’t sustain a relationship.”
I huffed out a laugh and scrubbed a hand over my face. “You’re relentless, you know that?”
“You’ll find that any mom anxious for grandbabies is rarely anything but.”
After finishing up our conversation and ending the call, I shot off a message to my rehab coordinator, letting him know I was shut in for a few days, so I’d miss my PT appointment tomorrow and we’d have to reschedule our call.
Once that was taken care of, I made my way back into the guest room and found Addison curled in a ball, shivering, the fluffy down comforter shoved in the corner.
“You stubborn little shit,” I murmured, shaking my head.
Grabbing the comforter, I threw it over my shoulder before squatting down to scoop her up from the floor. She weighed next to nothing, but my knee still let me know exactly what it thought of my doing this, a sharp pain reverberating down my leg as I carried her to my room.
Addison slept like the dead, so it didn’t surprise me that she didn’t stir even after I laid her down and tucked her in beneath the covers. I stripped out of my clothes, leaving on my boxer briefs, and climbed in with plenty of room between us, intent on staying on my side of the bed.
My intentions didn’t matter, though, because as soon as I settled on the mattress, she rolled over and scooted closer to me. Her hands were like ice on my bare chest as she sought out my heat, and a satisfied sigh left her as she cuddled close.
“You couldn’t just use the damn comforter?” I murmured into her hair. I inhaled deeply, sucking her Addison scent into my lungs as I wrapped my arms around her and tucked her shivering form into my side.
“It was the principle of the thing. And I’m still mad at you,” she mumbled into my chest. But the way she curled into my side, hooking her leg over my hips to get as close as possible contradicted her words.
I ran my hand up and down her back, loving the feel of her draped over me, her head tucked in the crook beneath my chin, her body naturally fitting against mine, like two puzzle pieces slotting into place. “You can still be mad at me while I’m holding you. It’s never stopped you before.”
She didn’t respond, but soon enough, her breaths were even, her body heavy against mine as she once again fell into sleep, and I couldn’t help but lie there and bask in it.
This wasn’t something we’d ever had. Our time together had always been comprised of stolen moments.
Hours here or there when we could sneak away from prying eyes and ears.
But holding her while she slept was something I’d imagined thousands of times.
Wondering if she was a bed hog—absolutely.
Or if she snored—yes, if you counted the tiny little snuffles coming out of her nose as snoring.
Or if she talked in her sleep—sadly, no.
Even though she was mad at me, and even though these weren’t the best circumstances, I was going to savor every single moment of this night, sleeping with her curled in my arms.