Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
ADDISON
Brady’s estimate had been scarily accurate.
By the time the secluded road leading to Chase’s cabin was cleared, we’d been snowed in for fifty-six hours.
Where, initially, I’d been counting down the minutes until I could leave, in the end, I’d been wishing those minutes would tick by a little slower, just so I could stay a bit longer.
Despite wanting to remain wrapped up in the bubble Chase and I had been in where it felt like nothing could touch us, real life waited. That meant that I had resort shit to do, and he had a knee to rehab, plus hockey commitments to get back to.
Not to mention, I had to have a major debrief session with my bestie.
While Aiden was supervising the front desk, Avery and I grabbed some lunch—and by that, I meant we each had a pint of ice cream…
gossip wasn’t the same without our favorite guys, Ben and Jerry—and I spilled everything.
From the call with the agent’s office to showing up at Chase’s home not realizing it was his to Brady’s call and my entrapment.
The dream that led to me attacking Chase in the middle of the night, finding the puck bunny gifts, our fight… and our reconciliation.
“And then, in the middle of it all, we figured out he’s somehow been blocked this whole damn time.” Digging out a spoonful of ice cream, I shook my head, still not understanding how the hell that had happened.
“Wait, what?” Avery said. “How could he be blocked when you didn’t—oh shit. Um…we did do that, didn’t we?”
I snapped my gaze to hers and narrowed my eyes. “We did do what? And what do you mean, we?”
With a grimace, she shifted in her seat. “You remember when you came to visit me at my mom’s after Christmas? When you and Chase got into that fight?”
How could I forget? It was the last time he and I had been in the same room up until he’d strolled into One Night Stan’s.
The night that had changed everything… When he’d casually suggested we should just get married in order to spend more time together, and I’d lost my shit because I couldn’t just leave my whole life behind because he missed me.
What he hadn’t said aloud was that I should follow him around and be happy being a WAG.
“When we got super drunk and woke up the next morning in a sea of burrito wrappers?” I asked.
“That’s the one,” she confirmed.
I shook my head. “Honestly, no, I don’t remember a whole lot about that night. At least not after I got to your place.”
“Well, at about three a.m., after we’d drunk our weight in margaritas, you said you needed to just cut him out of your life once and for all so you could stop thinking about him.
So”—she shrugged as if she hadn’t changed the entire trajectory of Chase’s and my relationship—“I cut him out of your life. And then I…sort of forgot I did that. We really did have a fuckton of tequila that night.”
I huffed out a shocked breath, mouth agape as I stared at her. “Avery!”
“What?” she asked, all wide-eyed and not so innocent. “I thought I was being a good friend and doing what you needed! You can’t blame me for that.”
“I can, and I do.”
“Well, how the hell was I supposed to know he was secretly pining for you the entirety of your relationship and that he’d get a tattoo to prove it?
I was just being all Bestie Revenge Warrior for you.
” She jabbed her spoon in my direction. “And I’d do it again in a heartbeat—you would, too.
We already established that during the Great Blocking Pact of sophomore year when that guy broke my heart and you weren’t having it. ”
“Oh my God.” A mixture of a laugh and a groan slipped out as I dropped my forehead to the counter. “I can’t believe that’s what happened. I forced myself to hate him for a year, and for what?”
“Maybe you needed that separation,” she said, her tone gentle. “If you’d been distracted by him, maybe the resort wouldn’t be doing as well as it is. Your attention would’ve been divided, so you wouldn’t have been able to put all you have into it.”
I couldn’t deny her logic. I’d been distracted enough when Chase had been injured, and I’d forced myself to lock that away when I hadn’t heard back from him. But if I had? If I’d been in contact with him all year…if we’d been able to actually talk about where we’d left things?
Well, I didn’t know where any of us would be now.
“So, what does this all mean?” she asked around a mouthful of Chocolate Therapy.
I inhaled deeply before letting it out on a slow sigh. “It means we wasted a lot of time.”
“No.” She shook her head. “What does it mean? Is he staying in Starlight Cove now? Is he going back to Vancouver? If he is, does he want you to go with him?”
I didn’t have an answer to any of those questions. Mostly because I hadn’t asked. While Chase and I had ten years of history, those years had been tumultuous at best. And two days of understanding, connection, and real conversation couldn’t possibly make up for that.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I didn’t ask.”
“Are you going to?”
I couldn’t meet her questioning gaze as I admitted what I feared most. “What if he’s not staying? What if he doesn’t want me to go with him?”
“But what if he is? What if he does?” She placed her hand on top of mine and squeezed.
“Look, you know I’m not Chase’s biggest fan.
But that was because I had to witness the fallout.
I was your sounding board any time he pissed you off, and I was there every time shit got bad, picking up the ravaged pieces of you. ”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be dramatic. I wasn’t ravaged.”
Avery stared at me blankly. “At one point, I had to physically shove you in the shower because it had been eight days, and you stunk up the entire dorm room.”
“I was eighteen. Give me a break.”
“I’m just saying. Shit happened. But I see how you are around him.
You can pretend all you want—and God knows you do—but you orbit each other.
I don’t think you even realize it, but you are intimately aware of him every time he walks into the room.
And that man’s eyes never leave you, not to mention he permanently marked his body with something that’s only meaningful to the two of you.
” She shook her head. “How your brothers haven’t figured you two out is beyond me.
I can only assume it’s because they’ve blocked out the possibility of their baby sister having sex, so they ignore anything and everything associated with it.
But I digress.” She shrugged and glanced at me as she scooped a bite of ice cream.
“I don’t know. I feel like it’s worth asking. ”
She was right. Of course she was right. But logic didn’t have a place here. Not yet, when it felt like Chase and I were still on rocky ground. Maybe after we had more time under our belt in this new normal. It was only February. A lot could happen in two months.
“What’s worth asking?” Levi asked, strolling into the kitchen and startling a yelp out of me.
I shot Avery a wide-eyed stare, one that clearly conveyed, Oh shit, did he hear us? She pressed her lips together and gave the subtlest shake of her head.
“Um…” I hedged, trying to come up with something plausible and latching on the first thing that came to mind. “How many times the puck bunnies have broken in to Chase’s house or hotel rooms.”
Levi snorted and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Though maybe I should. That’d definitely be the final nail in the coffin of your high school infatuation.”
I snapped my gaze to his. “What do you mean, my high school infatuation?”
He rolled his eyes and lifted a brow. “You didn’t think it was a secret, did you?” Without waiting for me to answer, he shook his head. “I’m just glad it passed. Because I wouldn’t be the only one who lost my shit if you came home with a guy like Chase.”
Because, apparently, according to Levi, my other brothers would be boneheaded idiots about it, too.
“A guy like Chase, huh?” I asked, my voice deceptively calm.
“You mean someone who’s determined and committed enough to make it as a professional athlete?
Someone who’s kind enough to work his ass off and send home money so his parents wouldn’t go bankrupt because of Morgan’s treatment?
Someone who’s funny enough to make even your grumpy ass crack a smile?
Someone who’s loved by our whole family? Someone like that?”
Levi’s eyebrows inched up his forehead more with every word that came out of my mouth until he was staring at me with wide eyes by the end of my diatribe. “Shit,” he said, shooting a what the fuck glance at Avery. “Apparently you guys really bonded during the storm.”
Avery choked on her ice cream and then proceeded to cough hard enough to bring tears to her eyes. She muttered a quick, “Sorry,” before grabbing a water and sneaking out of the room, leaving just me and my dumb brother.
“I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said with a shrug.
“You did. You meant that even the guy who’s been your best friend since you were in diapers—the one who’s like another brother to you—somehow isn’t good enough for me. I sure hope Chase doesn’t know how little you think of him.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. Stop trying to use your voodoo girl word tricks on me just to get me in trouble.”
“I don’t have to use anything on you. You’re getting yourself in trouble all on your own. Fortunately, no one else is here to listen to your shitty commentary.”
“What’s your deal?” he asked, his brow furrowed as he stared at me. “Are you seeing someone like Chase or what?”
I put the lid on my ice cream and shoved it back into the freezer, suddenly having lost my appetite. “Well, if I were, I sure as hell wouldn’t tell you now.”
I strode out of the kitchen without a backward glance, because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep my mouth shut if I stayed a second longer.
That was another thing Chase and I hadn’t discussed…what—or even if—to tell Levi. But right now, with everything between Chase and me so precarious, I didn’t want to go there. Not yet anyway. My brother finding out about the two of us was the last thing I wanted or needed to worry about.