Chapter 16 Camden
CAMDEN
“Yo, Monroe,” is called from the other side of the hotel door. Pretty sure that’s Jamie Murphy pounding his fist. “Get your pampered ass out here. We’re grabbing dinner.”
I open the door and laugh at the idiot standing in front of me with a black-and-gold Kings Santa hat on. “Come on, man. Everyone else is already downstairs.”
Murphy is kind of like the cruise director for the team. He’s always the one organizing what we’re doing. Always smiling. And always peppy. Basically, my opposite. But he’s also a good guy and one of Emmie’s best friends, so I try to humor him.
“Everyone?” I ask, not in the mood to deal with the whole team, but knowing Jamie, I don’t think that was meant literally.
He grins and shrugs a shoulder. “Everyone who matters.”
Yeah . . . That’s what I thought.
“Now get your shoes and let’s go. I’m fucking starving.”
“You’re always hungry, Murphy.” I throw on my shoes and grab my cellphone, wallet, and key card. “Are they in the hotel?”
I don’t bother asking who they are.
Jamie’s crew has been the same group of guys for all the years I’ve been on the team, with one or two more added as they’ve been drafted. It doesn’t hurt that his uncles are our coaches either.
“Yeah, man. They’re downstairs chillin’. Come on. You need to relax.”
I need something. Not sure if relaxing is it though.
We walk into the restaurant the team booked out for the night and find the rest of the guys already here. “Took you long enough,” Mav laughs as he pushes a plate my way. “You good?”
“Yeah. Just waiting on a text back from Holly,” I admit. “Doesn’t usually take this long for her to answer.”
“You want me to ask Emmie to check on her?” he offers.
Before I can tell him no, my phone vibrates with an incoming text.
Vixen
Hey, Grinch. Sorry, I just saw your message. I was a little busy cleaning up pureed peas from the ceiling.
A picture comes through of Sophie covered in green goop. A giant red bow is wrapped around her head, and Madden is licking her feet . . . with a bright green scarf wrapped around his neck.
Camden
What did you do to my dog?
Vixen
I made him match his owner.
Camden
You knew Sophie would wear the peas?
Vixen
No, you big Christmas grump. I bought him a Grinch scarf to match you. Only unlike you, he doesn’t hate Christmas.
Okay, maybe when I blow up the picture, I can see how that’s a Grinch scarf, but it’s not like it’s obvious.
Camden
I don’t hate Christmas.
Vixen
You’re welcome.
This woman is infuriating.
She sends another picture.
This one of her and Sophie outside in the snow.
My baby girl is bundled up in a white snow suit and reminds me of that kid from A Christmas Story. The one who can’t move. Only maybe not as miserable. But even Sophie is just looking at Holly like her pretty nanny has lost her mind.
A second one comes through, and both girls are giggling in this one.
It’s fucking beautiful, and my heart does a funny thing inside my chest . . . loosens something as I save it to my phone.
Vixen
Have a good game tomorrow. Sophie and I will be watching.
Camden
It’s a one o’clock game, so I shouldn’t be too late.
Vixen
We’ll be here.
And why do those words threaten every fucking wall I’ve spent a lifetime building?
Because the idea of Holly and Sophie waiting for me at home just feels right in a way it has no business feeling.
“You okay, Monroe?” Luke asks as he slides into the dark leather booth across from me. “You’ve got a funny look.” He circles his face. “Funnier than normal.”
“I’ll show you funny, Chase,” I groan and pocket my phone, not ready to talk to him about Holly. Not like this.
“How’s my sister making out? How big of a tree did she make you get?” Apparently, Luke didn’t get the not in the mood to talk memo.
I laugh, remembering the look on her face when I told her to just get the damn ten-foot tree. “Big enough. What’s the deal with her and the douche, Anson?”
Luke sips a beer. “One of these years, Dad won’t bring him back,” he grumbles. “He and Holly dated in high school and college. They broke up a few years ago, and he still has a thing for her. He is a douche, but he’s a harmless douche. Why? Was he bothering her?”
“Just got a weird vibe.” I think back to that night. To the way she moved into my side. The way he looked at her. “I don’t know. I didn’t like him.”
“You getting protective of my sister?” Luke asks, not sounding thrilled with the idea.
“What if I am?” I push back, not sure I give a shit if it pisses him off.
Even less sure when Holly became more than a nanny.
When she became someone I think about constantly.
Someone I have to fight myself and my own willpower about all the damn time.
“I’d say don’t fuck around with my sister, Monroe. She doesn’t play games. She’s sweet and kind and has a big fucking heart. If you want to date her, date her. But don’t play with her. Don’t be that guy, and we won’t have a problem.”
I nod and look over at Maverick laughing with Murphy and remember a similar conversation I had with him about Emmie . . . But I’m not Mav, and I’m not sure what I have to give a woman like Holly Chase.