Chapter 29
Five days.
Five days since our date. Since I kissed the softest lips on the planet. Since I heard her laugh and saw that beautiful smile that hits me like a body check.
Five days of absolute torture.
I miss her.
Fuck. I miss her so much.
This whole giving her space thing is killing me. I’m trying to be patient. I’m trying to honor what I said to her that night, but it’s so fucking hard because I just want to go to her. Every time I think about driving over to her place, I remind myself that she’ll come to me when she’s ready.
I want her in my arms. Instead, I’m holding a pizza peel, thanks to Valerie and her social media content ideas. She put out a poll asking fans what they wanted to see from the Tornadoes, and apparently, making pizzas won by a landslide.
Now, we’re at Rink-side Slice, dressed in aprons and hairnets. The joint is packed with fans, their phones out and music blasting. Tomato sauce and subtle notes of cheese linger in the air.
The rules are simple. Fans step up and pick which player they want to make their pizza.
“Alright, Tornadoes,” Valerie calls from the counter. “Whoever makes the most pizzas by midnight gets to pick the charity.”
“Pretty sure the charity should be called Buy Oliver Some Humility,” Logan mutters beside me while tying his apron.
“Green is not your color, rookie,” Oliver fires back playfully, stretching his dough.
“Rookie’s right—you look like you’re auditioning for a cooking show,” I say as Hayes snorts beside us. “And ease up on the cheese. Who are you, Oprah?”
“You get mozzarella! You get mozzarella! You get mozzarella!” Rudy yells, flicking cheese into the air like confetti. The fans eat it up.
Valerie, not so much.
“Focus, boys,” she says, clapping once before looking down at her clipboard. “Harper, you’ve only made… seven pizzas.”
“Eight,” I correct. “And at least all of mine are round. Unlike Oliver’s. Every one of his is shaped like a different continent.”
Oliver gasps, the sound so theatrical it could almost be performed on stage. “This is abstract art,” he says, lifting his pizza dough. “Don’t be hating on my creativity.”
A blob of dough smacks him in the cheek, and before Valerie can finish yelling, “If anyone so much as thinks of throwing sau—” a red splatter hits her cardigan.
Oh, shit.
Austin’s chuckle breaks the silence as he lowers the ladle.
“Watch your back pole hugger, it’s pranking season,” she deadpans.
“I’m shaking in my crease, Princess,” Austin retorts.
Logan smirks.
“You’re all children,” Valerie says, rolling her eyes.
“Children raising money for a pretty decent cause,” Oliver says with a grin.
Valerie sighs, shrugging off her cardigan. “Forty-nine pizzas and counting,” she says. “Oliver, you’re up again.”
The fans roar as Oliver bows, but it’s just background noise.
I’m chopping basil and thinking about Erin’s sweet dimple like a pathetic lovesick idiot.
I glance up at the clock. 11:54 p.m. It’s almost midnight.
Thank God.
Normally, I’d be having a blast. The teasing, fans, and madness is usually right up my alley. But not tonight. Not when my mind has been in disarray for five straight days.
I don’t care about pizza.
I care about Erin.
“Pretty Boy, last one’s yours,” Valerie calls, marking her clipboard. “Make it count.”
I sigh and drag myself up to the counter to get this over with. And time stands still.
“Erin?” I breathe, a mixture of shock and relief coursing through me as she stands on the opposite side.
“Valerie drives a hard bargain,” she says, smiling just a little. “But she said if I paid double we could skip the pizza making and talk. Will you walk me home?”
I’m already pulling off my apron and hairnet.
We slip out the fire exit and into the quiet alley. The night sky blankets the town in darkness. The midnight breeze is cool against my skin. I take her hand and lead her down Main Street, streetlights radiating a mellow glow across the sidewalk.
It takes five minutes to get back to her place. The second we step inside, it’s as if I’ve come home. We move to her sofa, sitting close, and facing each other.
I drink her in every detail I’ve been craving since the last time I saw her.
She lets out a shaky breath and meets my gaze. Her eyes are clear, not haunted anymore.
“Do you remember when I told you I sometimes hear my mother’s voice?” she asks quietly.
“I do.”
“It’s been there for as long as I can remember,” she says, looking away. “Our instant connection scared me. I let my guard down with you. The night you kissed me…” She pauses, exhaling. “I heard it again.”
“That’s why you spiraled,” I say, putting it together. “You heard your mom.”
“No.” Her eyes meet mine. “I heard me.”
I blink. “What?”
“When I froze after you kissed me, everything I once believed to be true cracked wide open. My mother’s voice wasn’t the problem. I am.”
“Erin,” I shake my head, “you didn’t have to carry that alone, sweetheart.”
“I know,” she says. “I made an appointment with my therapist. I think I want to start my sessions again to work on these new developments.”
“That sounds good for you.”
Her lips tilt up slightly. “You are what’s good for me, Chase Harper.”
My stomach jumps.
She lets out a trembling breath. “I want you,” she whispers, her words drenched in desperate need.
“You quiet the noise in my head. When I’m with you, I’ve never felt safer.
You make me feel everything, and I was scared of that for a long time, but I don’t want to be.
I’m falling for you, Chase. I have been for a long time. And I’m ready now.”
My brave fucking girl.
“I’m falling for you too, Erin,” I say, not wanting to scare her off by telling her I’m already so fucking far gone for her.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to say it. I just needed a minute.”
I scoot forward and cup her face. “You don’t ever have to be sorry for that, baby.”
“So, would it be okay if I kissed you?”
My lips lift into a smirk. “You have no idea how much I’d love that.”
“Okay,” she whispers, shuffling closer. Her diaphragm rises and falls, each inhale and exhale so close I can almost hear the thud of her heartbeat.
“Take your time.”
Her eyes fall shut. Then she leans in closer. I don’t even blink, too afraid I’ll miss one of the best moments of my life.
Her breath fans across my face, and then I feel them, her perfect honey lips on mine. A rush of control surges up my spine, begging me to take over. But I hold my ground, giving her space to lead.
She pulls back, everything in me unraveling when she whispers, “Show me.”
My hands cup her cheeks, tilting her head back as I capture her lips again. I lick at the seam of them. Ever so slowly, they part for me, granting me access. The first brush of her tongue against mine wakes up my whole body. When she moans, it takes everything in me not to lay her down.
I pull back, forcing air into my lungs. She opens her eyes and flashes me that damn dimple of hers. I’m gone all over again.
“Damn, baby.” My voice is hoarse.
“Yeah,” her lips pull into a grin, “I wouldn’t be totally mad if we kept doing that.”
“Wouldn’t hear me complaining.” I gaze into her eyes. “How’s the noise?”
“So quiet,” she whispers. “I like it.”
For a long beat, neither of us moves. The world stills, settling into this peaceful state.
“I was so scared of this,” she murmurs.
“Of me?”
“Of me with you,” she admits. “I was scared that if I let you close enough that all the parts of me I’ve tried to hide would untangle themselves.”
“You don’t ever have to hide from me, Erin,” I whisper.
Vulnerability swims in her pretty eyes. And then she gives me a look that says she believes me.
“I missed you, baby.”
“I missed you, too. And I promise I’m not going anywhere. I want a second date. A third date. I want all your dates. I want to be yours.”
I chuckle. “Baby, you’ve always been mine. And you always will be.”
I kiss her forehead, and her eyes flutter closed, soaking in the moment.
“Stay for a while?”
I settle into the sofa, her head resting against me and my arms wrapped around her. The scent of peach and mango fill the air, and everything is right. Exactly how it’s supposed to be.
“Hey Eighty-Seven,” she whispers. “Thanks for waiting for me.”
I close my eyes and hold her tighter. “Always, baby. Always.”
And for the first time in five damn days, my worries fade.