Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
ADDISON
A bachelor auction? A fucking bachelor auction? He was a professional athlete and could go literally anywhere in the world, but he chose to come back to my town and ruin my life? And now I was supposed to watch him strutting onstage and stand by while some wannabe WAG bid on him?
I didn’t fucking think so.
It made no sense why this bothered me so much.
Chase wasn’t mine, as he’d made perfectly clear.
If this past year had shown me anything, it was that I wasn’t important to him at all.
Not enough to warrant a text to let me know he wasn’t dying.
Or that he’d come out of surgery okay. Or that he’d be back to his irritating, idiot self in no time.
Those hours following his brutal crash on the ice in game seven of the finals, where he went down like a box of rocks and had to be helped off the ice, had been some of the worst in my life. Only rivaled by the hours we’d spent searching the ocean in vain for my mom.
And then to have to find out from my brother that Chase was having surgery—then, later, was out of surgery and recovering at home…was at training camp and back on the ice…was set to play the first game of the season? It was salt in an open wound.
So, yeah. He could take his bachelor auction and shove it all the way up his ass for all I cared.
Mabel was probably down there right now giving him pointers on what to do and how to act at the auction, but that didn’t mean I had to stick around for it.
What I needed now was a distraction. If he wanted to put himself on the auction block, that was his choice.
But no way was I going to let him know it bothered me.
It was time to show him I hadn’t been sitting around all this time, waiting for him to grace me with his presence.
I needed to let him know his return to Starlight Cove had absolutely no bearing on my life, and I knew exactly how to make that happen.
I pulled out my phone, navigating to the dating app Avery had bullied me into downloading forever ago. Despite her telling me for the past nine months that I needed to start dating, I hadn’t used it once since she’d set up my profile.
But there was no time like the present.
I clicked on the icon featuring a heart with a cupid’s arrow through it, my eyebrows lifting when I saw what was waiting for me after logging in. “Damn. What the hell did she write about me?”
This app was unique in that it put everything in the woman’s court—which was the only reason I’d agreed to sign up in the first place. Men showed their interest by sending a message, and the women could either ignore or accept. No unknowns. No unanswered swipes.
And what was currently in my court were seventy-eight unread messages awaiting my attention.
Most of the guys weren’t in Starlight Cove but instead in the surrounding areas—some as far as a few hours from here—and since I wanted to do this tonight, I needed to find someone local. I scrolled through dozens before landing on a possibility.
Chad, age thirty-two, 6’ according to his profile, which meant he was really 5’10”.
But that was fine, considering I topped out at 5’2” on a good day.
He liked football—bonus points for not being a hockey fan—hiking, and hanging out with his friends.
And the quote he chose to highlight was, “I’m not a professional photographer, but I can definitely picture us arguing about who should pay for dinner. ”
I wrinkled my nose. Who not only thought that, but then decided it was good enough to add to his profile in an attempt to snag some dates?
This guy, apparently. There was no denying his profile wasn’t great.
And if I were in this for anything more than spite, I definitely wouldn’t have picked Chad the cheapskate.
But he was cute and local, and I’d bet money he didn’t have the ladies banging down his door, so he was probably free tonight.
I opened the message thread, cringing at his intro message to me—What’s a guy like me doing without your number?—not to mention his screen name.
God, this was going to be awful. Absolutely fucking terrible. But I was doing it. And I figured there was no sense beating around the bush since I was on a time crunch. So instead of pleasantries, I got straight to the point.
TinyTornado: Are you free tonight at seven?
It took less than thirty seconds before the dancing ellipses appeared, indicating he was typing a response.
69isMyFavoriteNumber: Hell yeah I am. What are you thinking?
Well, that was easier than I thought it would be. Though I shouldn’t have been surprised. Single men—and even not-so-single men—were thirsty fuckers.
TinyTornado: Dinner at Ambrosia. Pick me up at Starlight Cove Resort at 7.
69isMyFavoriteNumber: I’ll be there
The dancing ellipses told me he was typing another message, but I closed the app. It didn’t matter what else he had to say. He confirmed our date for tonight, and I had shit to check off my to-do list before I could get ready for it, so I didn’t have time to chitchat.
A couple hours later, after finishing what I could for the day, I texted Avery and begged for her help.
Addison:
I have a date tonight
Avery:
You WHAT?
Addison:
I finally went on that app you set up for me
I picked one of the least cringey guys
Which isn’t saying much
Avery:
I see. And this wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with a certain 6’3”, incredibly built, extremely charming pro hockey player who’s staying in the room next to yours, would it?
Addison:
I have no idea what you’re talking about
Avery:
Sure you don’t
Addison:
Are you going to come over here and help me find something to wear or not?
I’d barely hit send before there was a knock on my door, and I opened it to Avery’s bright smile. “How’d you get here so fast?”
“As soon as you said you had a date, I was already on my way.” She hip checked me as she strode into my room, heading straight for my closet.
As she was sorting through my options, she called over her shoulder, “What kind of vibe are we going for? Do you want cute girl next door? Just one of the guys? Or are we going straight-up vixen tonight?”
I dropped onto my bed, leaning back and bracing myself on my hands. “I think you know the answer to that.”
“Vixen it is,” she said, shooting a mischievous grin my way.
After lots of mumbling on her end that I wasn’t able to make out from where she’d burrowed her way into my closet, she pulled out a red dress I’d had for years.
In fact, I was pretty sure she was the one who’d bought it for me in the first place.
I’d worn it exactly once, to a New Year’s Eve party after I moved back home following graduation.
A party a certain hockey player had been attending and had gone absolutely feral when he’d seen me wearing it…
“You know Chase is going to lose his shit if he sees me in that dress, right?” I asked, raising my brows at her.
I hadn’t spared any details when I’d told her what had happened that night.
How he hadn’t been able to keep his hands off me and had fucked me in a darkened hall while half of Starlight Cove had been counting down to midnight.
She smirked, tossing the dress onto my bed. “Why do you think I chose it? Let’s show him what he’s been missing. And, more importantly, what he no longer has.”