Worth the Chase (Sugar Mountain #3)

THIS DAMN GIRL

MATTHEW

I could have any woman at my brother’s wedding that I wanted. Minus the bride, of course—who was now my sister-in-law. But the rest of them, I had my pick, and I damn well knew it. Don’t shoot the messenger. I was only stating facts.

I was a retired NHL player with more money than I knew what to do with. But that wasn’t why the ladies of Sugar Mountain sought me out. It was because I was an O’Grady—the family who owned Sugar Mountain Resort—the youngest brother of three, and the last one standing. The only single and unattached O’Grady man left—if you didn’t count Dad, which I definitely didn’t. *shudders* That made me one hell of a hot commodity in my hometown.

I’d once told my two older brothers that we were the kings of Sugar Mountain, and I’d meant it.

We had been.

We still were.

Married or not.

So, tell me then, when I could have my pick of any female in this place, why couldn’t I seem to stay away from the one person who acted like she couldn’t stand me?

Isabella Sanchez—aka Bella, aka Bells, aka as my high school best friend’s little sister.

But she wasn’t so little anymore. And honestly, I hadn’t even talked to her brother in years. Being a pro hockey player didn’t really leave a lot of time to nurture friendships and relationships. At eighteen years old, I had been more focused on practicing, bonding with my teammates, and fucking like I might never get the chance to do it again.

But ever since I’d come back home a year ago, I’d been drawn to Bells’s presence like my life depended on it somehow. Of course, it didn’t, but try telling my dick that. It was like a homing device, always pointing straight at her, leading the way to wherever she was. And like a good boy, I obediently followed.

When I’d left Sugar Mountain, Bells had been all of fifteen. She’d always been this adorable, tiny little thing, bouncing around like a fairy, watching my every move. It was common knowledge in the Sanchez house that she had a crush on me. And I had to admit that I liked her adoration a little too much, which was probably why her brother, Leo, threatened to cut off my balls if I ever touched her. But Bells always made me feel worthy when I wasn’t sure that I was. Especially after my mom died and my world felt like it didn’t make any sense. She looked at me like I could do anything, and I’d started believing that maybe I could.

But twenty-two-year-old Bells was a whole different animal. She’d grown into an absolute smokeshow of a female. Gorgeous wasn’t a strong enough word to describe her. Her dark hair was longer than I’d ever seen it, and her eyes had somehow turned more hazel than brown. She was still a petite little thing, and I wasn’t sure she’d even grown a single inch since I’d been gone, but she had this confidence that radiated from the inside out.

She was a force.

A hurricane.

A storm I wanted to get all caught up in.

Teenage Bells used to watch me with hearts in her eyes, but adult Bells looked at me with a gaze that resembled the eye-rolling emoji. I hated it, but I was apparently a glutton for punishment because I couldn’t seem to stay away.

Which was why if you were at my oldest brother, Thomas’s, wedding right now, you’d find me standing at the bar, either staring at the woman or saying something that only seemed to annoy her further.

“What are you doing to our bartender, little brother?” My other brother, Patrick, waltzed up with his fiancée, Addi, and interrupted the mood I’d been trying to set.

It hadn’t been working anyway, but still. They were a distraction that wouldn’t help.

“Trying to convince her to go home with me after these lovely festivities are done,” I answered truthfully because I was. I had been trying to get her to say yes for the last twenty minutes.

I’d never had a woman turn me down before. Cocky? Sure. Arrogant? Absolutely. But that didn’t make it any less true. Women were not a problem for me. They never had been. Bells looking at me like I was wasting her time was an expression I swore I’d never get used to. Especially coming from her.

And when she laughed so hard at my offer to take her home that I thought she might start choking, I felt like a kid who’d just gotten shot down in front of the whole school.

“Please take him away,” she said.

“Not until you say yes, Bells,” I began to beg, pressing my hands together in a prayer pose. “Say yes. Come home with me.”

She sucked in a soft breath before saying, “I’m not letting you break my heart twice.”

I wasn’t sure if she’d meant for any of us to hear those words, but I’d definitely heard them. So had Patrick and Addi, if the confused looks on their faces were any indication.

When Addi whipped her head toward me, I offered a nonchalant shrug. She shot me a look that told me we’d be discussing this later, but there wasn’t anything to discuss.

“Break your heart?” I repeated before I focused my eyes on her hazel beauties. “When did I break your heart?”

I would have remembered doing something that dramatic, wouldn’t I?

Thoughts swirled in my head as I searched my past memories for the answer that was clearly eluding me. I’d kissed her once. Right before I left for the NHL. But one kiss couldn’t have broken her heart. Granted, I was a hell of a kisser, but heartbreaking? I mean, I guessed it was possible.

“Don’t act like you don’t know exactly what you did, Matthew O’Grady,” she sassed, and I felt like a dog who’d just gotten their treat taken away.

“I don’t, Bells. I really don’t. Tell me. Please,” I continued my pleading, but she was unfazed.

“Just go away. I’m not a game. Or some prize you can pick out of a machine just because you’re bored.”

Whoa. Where’d that come from?

“I’m not bored, Bells.”

“You sure do act like it. Always hanging out at the Sugar Saloon, drinking yourself into a stupor like you have nothing else to do with your time.”

Shit.

I wasn’t bored per se, but I did hate being alone. Was no good at it really. There were people who thrived being by themselves, who had no issue with spending time in solitude, but I was definitely not one of them. Being alone was too loud. It allowed all the ugly thoughts to come screaming into my head. The ones I couldn’t shake or get rid of. So, yeah, fuck being by myself all the time. I needed to be distracted, and she was my absolute favorite distraction.

“I hang out at the saloon because that’s where you are, Bells. I could do anything I wanted with my time, but I choose to be with you.”

“Oh my God.” She rolled her eyes. “Give me a break. I might have fallen for all your pretty words when I was a kid, but I’m not a teenager anymore, and I don’t believe a thing you say.”

“Then, I’ll show you.” I slammed my hand on top of the bar before pointing a single finger at her.

“Please don’t,” she groaned, and I was pretty certain she meant it.

I really thought I’d be able to wear her down. I figured her sassy attitude and constant sarcastic responses were just a front. But I was starting to think that there might be more to it than that. Maybe she really did want me to go away forever.

Patrick and Addi excused themselves, leaving me alone with Bells, much to her disappointment. It was ironic that I was the one chasing her now when she’d done it for so many years before.

“Bells?” I said her name sweetly, and she gave me a look that could have killed weaker men.

“Go away, Matthew. I mean it. I know you think I’m joking, but I’m not.”

Right then, some guy I barely knew, but someone I had seen around the resort before, walked up and asked Bella for a water. She gave him a smile she’d yet to give me. The guy ate it up, loving every second of attention she offered. It made me jealous as hell.

I wanted that attention for myself.

“One night, Bells,” I whispered as soon as the guy finally took his stupid water and walked away.

“No nights, Matthew.”

“One.”

“None.”

“What do you have to lose?”

“Everything. Plus, Leo would kill you.”

Her brother wasn’t even here anymore. He’d moved away a few years back. What was he going to do, drive all the way out here to fight me and lose?

“You think he’d find out?” I asked, giving her my best smoldering look.

“No one in this town can keep a secret. Of course he’d find out.”

I leaned forward even more, my elbows on the bar top. “Let’s give them all something to talk about then.”

“No,” she said before turning her back on me. She started rinsing out a stack of used glasses.

She thought this conversation was over, but it was just beginning. Because even though I could have any woman in this place, I only wanted one. And I wasn’t the type of guy who gave up that easily, even if the odds were definitely not in my favor.