Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHASE
When Addison got a murderous gleam in her eye, everyone needed to hold on to their fucking hats because shit was about to go down. I was surprised actual lasers didn’t shoot out of her eyes and incinerate the box she was currently fixating all her anger on.
“What the hell’s in there, and why do you want to burn it?” I reached for the cards she’d tossed on the floor, scanning them for a hint at her sudden mood shift.
The first card had a message written in bubbly pink letters.
I’ll give you a rubdown anytime you need to get that knee…and other things…feeling better.
I flipped to the next one.
I bet a blow job would take your mind off the pain…
And the next…
Call me anytime you need a release. You can just lie back and let me do all the work.
I snorted and rolled my eyes at the desperation pouring off these cards.
The sad thing was, the messages weren’t even from the same woman.
Trixie, Melody, and Sabrina all just wanted to make sure I was taken care of.
I’d never met these women a day in my life, and they still thought it was fine to send me shit like this.
But that was par for the course as a professional hockey player.
At least none of them had broken in to my home in order to greet me naked in my bed. Again.
Without answering my question, Addison spun on her heel and stormed off in the direction of the fireplace, box in hand.
I laughed, rising to my feet to follow her. “What are you doing, firefly?”
“I’m cold,” she said flatly, dropping the box on the floor.
I braced my arm on the mantel and watched her with amusement. “We haven’t lost power, so I can just turn up the heat if you want.”
Shaking her head, she gestured to the already burning fire she must’ve started when she woke up. “No need. This will work just fine.” She reached into the box and grabbed something from inside.
Before she could toss the stuffed animal to its fiery death, I wrapped my fingers around her wrist and stilled her movements. “What did this poor teddy bear wearing a mini Lockhart jersey ever do to you?”
She pressed her lips into a flat line and narrowed her eyes at me. “I didn’t realize you were so attached.”
Though I’d tried to keep my smile under wraps, there was no use tamping it down anymore. Not when it became perfectly clear what was going on here.
“What the hell are you smiling about?” she demanded, all fire and venom.
I grinned widely down at her. “You’re jealous,” I said, not bothering to keep the satisfaction out of my voice.
Did I like the fact that my girl thought she had something to be jealous about? Fuck no. Did I like the fact that my girl felt she had enough of a claim over me to get jealous in the first place? Fuck yes.
“I am not,” she snapped, her words sharp and her scowl sharper.
“Oh, you definitely are.”
Through clenched teeth, she said, “No, I’m not.”
“You are,” I insisted. “But you don’t need to be.”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “No? How often do you get messages like this?”
I shrugged. “No idea.”
“So you get them so often, you can’t even keep track?”
“I don’t pay attention to how often I get them because I don’t give a single flying fuck about them.” I stepped closer to her and reached out, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Apparently I’ve done a shitty job of letting you know this, but you’re the only one I care about.”
Her eyes darted between mine, and she was trying so hard to hide the hopefulness there.
I understood her trepidation. For years, Addison had set the pace in our relationship.
Since she hadn’t wanted anything serious, I’d followed her lead.
But in doing so, I’d pretended for years I wouldn’t cut off my own fucking legs just to be with her.
And now, here I was, challenging every preconceived notion she had.
Combating any doubt she had about us. But Addison was like a cornered animal when it came to dealing with emotions—her first instinct was to lash out.
Her second was to retreat. Which was why I wasn’t surprised when she turned on her heel without another word and stalked out of the room, heading straight for the stairs.
“We’re not done, Addison,” I called after her.
She didn’t respond, just quickened her pace. Unfortunately for her, even with a fucked knee, I caught up with her and was on her heels before she was halfway up the staircase.
“I mean it,” I said. “I’m tired of you running away every time I try to talk about this.”
Once she got to the top of the steps, she turned to face me. “I’m not run—” Her words cut off as I lifted her over my shoulder without breaking my stride and headed down the hallway to my bedroom, her fists pounding on my back the entire way.
“Put me down, you giant oaf! Just because I’m fun-sized doesn’t mean you can toss me around like a sack of potatoes anytime you want.”
“You fucking love when I toss you around.” I flipped her onto the bed and braced my hands on either side of her shoulders, pinning her in place.
“And just because you don’t want to listen doesn’t mean you get to run away every time I try to tell you something.
I’ve let you do this on your timetable, you beautiful little brat.
And now it’s time to do it on mine. We’re talking about this whether you’re ready or not. ”
She huffed out a disbelieving breath. “Oh, now you want to talk? I’ve been trying to talk to you for months, and it’s been nothing but crickets. And now you finally decide it’s time to hash shit out when I literally can’t leave? Real nice.”
“What the fuck do you mean, it’s been crickets? I’ve been trying to get you to talk to me for a year, and you’ve been ignoring me.”
Addison’s mouth dropped open. “Excuse the fuck out of me? I’ve been ignoring you? You are a big, fat liar.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and navigated to something before flipping it around and shoving it in my face. “See?”
I reared back until I could clearly decipher what she was showing me.
It was our text thread, but it looked drastically different from mine.
Where mine was a sea of blue without any gray to break it up, hers was a whole lot of…
nothing. Just a couple texts from her… One in early January, one in April, and one in June after I’d been injured.
But nothing from me.
That didn’t make any fucking sense. I remembered each of those texts, and I knew for a fact I’d responded.
Not only that, but I’d sent her hundreds of messages over the year.
Any time I thought about her, missed her, wanted to talk to her…
Basically, every fucking day, multiple times a day. But then why didn’t they show on her—
Realization slammed into me, and I breathed out a disbelieving laugh as I stared down at this woman I loved more than the fucking world but who drove me insane. “Jesus. I thought you were just being a stubborn little shit like usual, but you actually blocked me.”
She shoved my shoulder, her mouth hanging open. “I did not!”
“No?” I asked, brow raised. “Then how do you explain not getting any texts from me?”
“Uh, maybe because you didn’t send any?”
“Try again, firefly. I sent you at least one a day, every day. Except when I was too hopped up on pain meds to be aware of anything other than my next dose.”
But Addison was nothing if not a skeptic, and that was written across every line of her face.
“Don’t believe me? I know how much you’re going to hate this, but I’m happy to prove you wrong.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and handed it to her. “Here. Password is your birthday.”
Her gaze snapped to mine, shock and disbelief mingling there, whether from my password choice or the fact that I was giving her full access to my phone, I didn’t know.
I didn’t have anything to hide, and I was tired of the bullshit.
It was clear we’d both been on different pages this past year.
Hell, we’d been in entirely different books.
And it was well past time to set that shit straight.