Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Dakota
“ Y ou have got to be fucking kidding me,” I groan as I scan the email that just hit my inbox.
In the days since my weekend with Chance, it feels like nothing has been going my way. I lost a case that should have been open and shut, I got a parking ticket while running to pick up my dry cleaning, and now one of my biggest cases has been delayed—again.
I don’t believe in karma or the universe playing tricks on me, but I have to admit something is happening since starting this agreement with him.
As if this is my punishment for breaking my rule of no hookups.
I don’t regret our time together. In fact, it was one of the best weekends I’ve had with a man. In a very un-Chance like manner, he was very sweet and attentive. He made me meals, fed me breakfast in bed and ordered the best food in the city for dinners. Even making Wyatt meet Addie at my place so I could have a fresh set of clothes, because as Chance put it, ‘there was no way Wyatt was going anywhere near my panty drawer.’
And I had to agree with him on that one.
It was even worth the slew of accusatory texts from Addie asking if I’d lost my mind and if Chance had abducted me and was holding me in his basement.
I actually had to call her on that one to assure her that I was not being held there against my will.
But, all of this doesn’t mean I don’t still have a nagging feeling that this is only going to end in heartbreak. More specifically, my heart being broken. I don’t think Chase has the vulnerability to have his heart broken, nor do I have the power to do so. It’s highly unlikely Chance lets anyone in close enough to have his heart threatened.
Our weekend together was purely about getting each other out of our systems. Scratching an itch. All he did was help me turn off my brain; stop me from overthinking like I always do.
And did he ever.
For once in my life, I gave in and just let myself feel . Feel how wonderful it is to have his lips on mine—just like I thought. To have his rough, calloused hands run along my bare skin. Just thinking about it makes me feel his phantom touches on my sides and through my hair. I thought I was going to combust when he gripped my throat during one of our lovemaking sessions. I’ve never had a man do that to me before, but now it’s all I can think about.
I have to stop myself from fanning my face, which I have no right reliving that, since it will not be happening again. The weekend was a one and done. I can’t let Chance have any more of me than he already does, or I may never recover.
“Dakota?” Ella, the company’s receptionist, asks as she pokes her head through my office door. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” I sigh, tossing my pen onto my desk. The last thing I need is to be hot and bothered at work. “The Bloomfield Farms case has been pushed back.”
“Again?” Ella walks into the room with a large vase of flowers in her hands and a frown on her face.
“Yeah, uh, what’s that?” I look skeptically at the rather expensive looking arrangement.
“These were just dropped off for you. It seems you have an admirer.” The frown is quickly replaced with a smile as she places the vase on my desk in front of me. “Are these from Chance?”
“Doubt it,” I grumble under my breath.
There’s no way Chance would do something like this. No matter how out of character it was for him to spend the weekend with me. Or do all those sweet and thoughtful things; this was in public. Where people would know.
No, these couldn’t be from Chance.
But at the same time, wasn’t that the point?
I pluck the card from the petals, noticing Ella looming over me, waiting for a response. We’re around the same age. She’s sweet with long, straight blonde hair and big blue eyes. She’s good at her job and has always been kind to me since I started working here. I think she’s somewhat of a hopeless romantic, judging by the way she always seems to be reading a romance novel or talking about the latest rom-com she’s watched. All of which have really ramped up since she married country star Greyson Wallace.
She could have quit her job and been a stay-at-home wife and mother to her new stepdaughter, but she said she likes to keep busy, and I can respect that.
As I pull the card from the envelope, I note the messy writing. As much as he confuses me and pisses me off, his writing makes me smile.
I let out a laugh and hold the card to my chest. Looking up, I see Ella with a bright smile.
“So, what did it say? It must have been something romantic by the smile on your face.”
Romantic? No. One hundred percent Chance Declan? Yes.
“Yeah, something like that.”
Ella keeps watching me with hearts in her eyes, her hands clasped together in front of her. “Are you guys serious? You must be. He’s never been seen with the same woman twice. I don’t think he’s ever sent flowers before.”
“How would you know that, Ella?”
“Small town, Dakota.” Ella rolls her eyes as she sits down in the chair across from me.
“Whiskey Falls isn’t that small.”
“Well, no. Not compared to other places around here, but still—people talk. Women talk. Plus, my brother’s is in the rodeo, and he knows about the girls Chance is usually seen with. They all talk when they get their hearts broken.”
“What do you mean?” I sit up straighter, taking an interest in what she might know about Chance that I don’t.
“Well, Kody is the typical man, so he doesn’t listen to their talk too much, but he gathered that Chance would have his fun and leave them. Never stayed much longer than what he wanted.”
“I see.” I look down at the card in my hands. I figured it was a big deal for Chance to ask me to stay. He’d held me tight to him, except to wake me in the middle of the night for round two. And then again, first thing Sunday morning for round three. I’ve never felt so exhausted and elated at the same time as when Chance finally drove me home late Sunday afternoon.
I knew it had been a big step for him to spend so much time with me. I just hadn’t realized how big.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be bringing up his exes with you.” Ella places her hand on top of mine. “It was thoughtless of me. I know I would hate it if someone kept bringing up Greyson’s ex to me, even though I know all about it and we’ve dealt with it.”
And did she ever. I remember her talking last year about how Greyson’s ex-fiancée had come and stirred up trouble for them when they were first getting serious. Thank God that worked out.
“No, it’s okay.” I give her a weak smile. “It’s not like I didn’t know he had a past.”
“Still.” She stands, giving me a sad look. “He seems different with you.”
“Do you know him?” I’m genuinely curious. Ella has never mentioned his name before now, and I highly doubt she’s ever been swept up in the likes of Chance Declan. She seems too sweet—and too smart—to even try.
Plus, now that she’s head-over-heels married to Greyson, I know her interest in Chance is nothing more than small town gossip.
“No, just from town and rodeo events. You don’t grow up in Whiskey Falls and not at least know of everyone, even if you don’t know them personally. And the Declan family is pretty well known around here. I just mean, from what I see, you’re not like his usual buckle bunny hanging off his arm.”
“I’m not a buckle bunny,” I say sternly, while recalling Chance calling me the ‘anti-buckle bunny.’ I try to hide my wince as the all-too-familiar stab in my heart reminds me that I’m not good enough to be one of his ‘usuals.’
“I know that.” She hides a smile by biting her lip. “You seem different, too, you know? Since you stepped out with him publicly, you look—happier.”
“Thank you.” I don’t know how to take that.
On one hand, it means that what we’re doing is working. People in town believe that we are a real happy couple and not just faking it with an expiration date.
On the other hand, am I also deceiving myself? Am I letting my own guard down too much in the name of our agreement?
“I’ll let you get back to work,” she says, standing up from her chair. “I’m really happy for you, Dakota. I’m not just saying that because I’m a newlywed and want everyone to be as happy as Greyson and I are. You truly deserve it, especially after everything that happened.”
With a smile, she turns and leaves me alone, closing the door behind her.
I run my finger along the petal of a rose, thinking about her words.
I don’t know if what I feel is happy, but I feel a shift in me I’ve never felt before. Maybe I don’t know what true happiness feels like. I thought I had it with Laughlin and look where that landed me.
There’s no way I could possibly be happy with Chance, is there? He’s the complete opposite of everything I thought I wanted in life. High-strung. Self-centred.
But then here was another side to him I saw on the weekend. A side that he maybe doesn’t show very many people, if anyone. A side that I could get used to.
Feeling the soft petals along my skin reminds me of his hands on me. While his hands weren’t anything like a flower, he treated me just as gently as I’m doing with the rose.
Well, until he wasn’t. The thought of those times made my cheeks heat and my core tighten.
I give my head a shake and drop my hand to my lap, recoiling as if I were burned. I have no right thinking of Chance like that, of us like that. We have an end date, and there will be no Chance or us after the rodeo. I need to smarten up and remind myself of that instead of getting caught up in fantasies. Reality is where my head needs to be. The reality that I’m nothing to Chance but a way to save his place within the rodeo and a way to let off steam.
Sitting up straighter, I vow that I’m going to remember that going forward, or I may not make it out of this agreement unscathed.