Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHASE
Unsurprisingly, I woke to an empty bed. I’d been expecting this.
First and foremost because when shit got real, Addison’s first response was to avoid, avoid, avoid.
For another thing, we’d never had to do the whole morning-after awkwardness.
We hadn’t slept a full night in the same bed since I’d taken her virginity before dropping her off at college the very next morning.
When I’d told her we couldn’t be anything.
Back then, I’d thought I’d had to choose between pursuing something with Addison or giving my all to hockey to make sure my sister had the best medical care available to her.
I’d been a dumb kid who’d thought in black-and-white, and I’d paid for that over these past ten years.
It was a misconception I was no longer burdened with.
Being our first sleepover in ten years on its own would’ve been enough to send Addison running. But combining it with the uncertainty I knew she’d be feeling, and this morning was shaping up to be a perfect storm for second-guessing.
I scrubbed a hand down my face and tossed back the covers. While my dick was up and ready for action, I figured Addison probably wouldn’t be very receptive to me walking out there naked, so I tugged on a pair of gray sweatpants before heading downstairs.
It didn’t take long to find her. Though, the boxes strewn across my floor like casualties gave a big clue to her whereabouts.
While the movers had already unpacked the vast majority of my things, there was some shit they just didn’t need to have their hands in, and I hadn’t yet had a chance to take care of it.
Addison, apparently, didn’t have that same problem.
The great room looked like a hurricane had torn through it. Empty boxes were stacked in haphazard towers, packing paper was strewn everywhere, and bubble wrap littered the floor.
And in the middle of it all, there she sat, my tiny tornado.
Her rustling and sorting had masked my entrance, making her none the wiser to my presence.
So, I leaned against the wall, arms crossed, and just observed.
I rarely got to watch her like this, without her being aware, so I was going to take full advantage of it.
She sat cross-legged on the floor and muttered to herself—something I couldn’t make out—as she dug in a half-empty box, unapologetically going through my shit.
I didn’t care. There wasn’t anything anywhere she couldn’t see. No part of my life she couldn’t shine a spotlight on or dissect.
She wore the same sweatshirt she’d had on last night, and I could finally appreciate it now when she wasn’t a shivering bundle of stubbornness curled on my floor.
My dick twitched at the sight, already hungry for a repeat of last night.
I fucking loved her in my clothes. The only way it could’ve been better was if she were wearing my jersey.
But then, it would’ve been game fucking over as soon as I saw it.
I’d have fallen to my knees in front of her, bunched the material up at her hips, and begged to lick her pussy while she wore my name across her back.
Great. And now I was hard as a fucking rock, imagining just that.
After watching her in silence for a while, I started to feel like a creep, so I cleared my throat. “Whatcha doin’ in here, firefly?”
She screamed loud enough to be heard all the way in town, flailing and sending the stack of boxes next to her toppling over. I couldn’t help the laugh that burst out, and she shot a glare my way. “You asshole.”
With a grin, I pushed off the wall and strode her way, stepping over the debris as I went. I squatted down next to her, leaning this way and that to try to catch her eye, but she avoided my gaze like a fucking professional. “Addie?”
No response.
“Addison.”
Nothing.
Such a beautiful, stubborn, pain in my ass…
“Firefly, will you—”
My phone rang from the pocket of my sweats, cutting me off.
I swore under my breath and pulled it from my pocket, wishing I would’ve just left it upstairs.
I blew out a sigh when I saw my agent’s name on the screen.
Considering the two missed calls from him and the fact that we obviously hadn’t connected yesterday thanks to his grounded flight, I couldn’t ignore it.
I held out my phone and said, “I gotta take this.”
Addison didn’t acknowledge me, but I didn’t miss the way her eyebrows twitched when I sat next to her and accepted the call.
“Marty,” I said in lieu of greeting.
“Finally!” my agent boomed. I’d known the man for ten years, and in all that time, I’d never heard him speak at a decibel below earsplitting. “After that mess of a storm and you not answering your damn phone, I was beginning to wonder if my star player was okay. You doing all right up there, kid?”
“Things are a little chilly in here right now,” I said, my eyes locked on Addison as she pretended to ignore me. “But I’m all right.”
“Good, good. Sorry our plans got screwed up with the weather, but I hope you were able to wow her for us.”
Somehow, I didn’t think he was referring to the number of orgasms I’d given her last night. “Trying to…”
“Trying? As in, still doing so? The meeting go a little bit longer than you planned?” he said, amusement and the underlying attaboy clear in his tone.
Regardless of whether his assumptions were true, I didn’t like him thinking about her like that at all. “The storm shut down everything, including her way out,” I said, sharper than was probably called for if Addison’s widening eyes were anything to go by.
“Right, right. Well, since it sounds like you’re stuck there for the foreseeable future, how about we talk a little bit about these other opportunities I’ve got in the pipeline for you?”
I didn’t want to do this. Now, especially, with Addison sitting right next to me.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want her to know about this part of my life.
It was just that I’d tried so hard for so long to keep her out of it.
To make sure she still saw me as just a guy from Starlight Cove.
Not a professional hockey player worth millions who was turning up his nose at endorsements that would gain him millions more.
I also just didn’t want to think about endorsements right now. All my focus needed to go to healing my body so I could play again—and Addison. That was it.
But I’d promised Marty if he’d set up the endorsement for the resort, I’d consider the other opportunities he had available, so I was stuck.
“Fine. What’ve you got for me?”
For the next ten minutes, I listened to him rattle off various businesses that wanted a partnership and the obscene paycheck that came with them, while also keeping an eye on Addison’s reactions.
Based on them, it was clear she could hear some of what Marty was saying.
Namely, when any specific dollar amounts came up.
I already felt like I was fighting a losing battle being back here, attempting to win her over in a way I’d never had to before.
In a way I’d never allowed myself to even try for.
And I worried this was only going to be another strike against me—the reminder of my life away from Starlight Cove. Away from her.
“Is this something we can discuss later?” I finally asked.
“Not too much later,” Marty said. “I want to get these locked in while they’re biting. They’re interested right now, even while you’re on LTIR, so let’s not give them a chance to second-guess this.”
Read: it was a fucking miracle someone wanted me when I was on long-term injured reserve, my body was fucked, I couldn’t play, and my future in the sport was unknown.
“But this absolutely cannot wait until you’re back in Vancouver,” he continued. “I want to get these contracts signed before you’re on the ice again.”
Addison’s shoulders stiffened more with every word that came out of his mouth, and I couldn’t get him off the phone fast enough.
Because I had done such a stellar fucking job of keeping her separate from my life in Vancouver, she didn’t know what any of it meant.
And she probably thought I was a first-class asshole for so casually discussing multimillion-dollar paychecks without jumping at every single opportunity.
“Got it,” I said, my eyes still locked on Addison. “I’ll call you next week, so we can discuss it more.”
After I ended the call, there was a beat of silence. Two. Three.
Then, she said, “Don’t let me stand in the way of millions. If you want me to give you some privacy, just say so. I’m sure you’ve got a gigantic tub in one of these bathrooms that I can soak in for a few hours.”
Was that why her shoulders were so stiff?
She thought I didn’t want her hearing me make these deals?
What would she think if I told her I wasn’t sure I wanted to make them at all?
How would she look at me then? If she knew I was willingly turning down the opportunity to earn the kind of money that would be life-changing for anyone.
The kind that would alter the future of the resort.
The future of their entire family. That would give them the kind of legacy money I’d worked my ass off and sacrificed my body for.
But before I could tell her any of that, she froze in her aggressive sorting through one of the boxes.
And then she snatched a small card from inside, her eyes scanning across it as she read.
Then she plucked another. And another. And another.
They just kept coming, and her anger ratcheted up with each one.
I furrowed my brow, staring at them as if that would clue me in to what they were.
Probably cards from the dozens of pity deliveries I’d received after the team’s confirmation I was going on LTIR.
But I didn’t know why they’d make her so mad.
Truthfully, I hadn’t read any of them. My teammates didn’t have shit like that delivered, and neither did my family or friends.
That meant I didn’t give a single fuck about whoever they were from, so they were easy to ignore.
There must’ve been a miscommunication somewhere, because I’d told the movers to get rid of all that shit, but instead, it all ended up across the country in my new living room.
Finally, after several long moments of Addison getting increasingly more pissed off, she slammed the cards down on the floor before standing and hefting the entire box into her arms. “Well, you can save some of that wood for later. I’ve got all the kindling we need right here.”