Chapter 1 #2
By the time I got downstairs, everyone else was already gathered in the lobby and I still didn’t have a text or call from Rowan.
Mason was leaning against a pillar, talking animatedly with Enzo and Coach Luis.
Derek stood nearby, smiling at a couple of women who’d just walked in. But still no sign of my boyfriend.
I stopped near them. “Anyone hear from Rowan yet?” I asked, although I assumed if anyone had heard from him, it would be me.
Derek lifted his gaze. “I texted him about dinner, but he hasn’t responded yet.”
I checked my phone again before I could stop myself.
Nothing.
Mason noticed. Of course he did. “You all right?”
“Yeah.”
He squinted at me. “You don’t look like it.”
“I’m fine.”
A minute later, Devon walked over, glanced at the small circle we’d formed, and asked, “Problem?”
“Rowan hasn’t shown,” Enzo said.
Devon’s brow furrowed slightly. “He in his room?”
“I knocked,” I mentioned. “But he didn’t answer. I tried texting him too.”
Mason shoved his hands in his pockets. “Should we have someone from the hotel check on him?”
Devon exhaled. “Not yet. He’s a grown man, and it hasn’t even been that long. There are a number of reasons he’s not answering. If we don’t hear from him by the time we’re done with dinner, then we can come up with a plan.”
Maybe he was right. If I weren’t in love with Rowan, I probably wouldn’t be as worried.
Devon glanced toward the doors, then back at us. “Standing around isn’t going to do any good, and we still need to eat. How about we grab something from the restaurant here? Maybe we’ll catch him when he comes back.”
I wasn’t thrilled with not searching for him immediately, but at least we weren’t leaving the building. Once inside the restaurant, the hostess led us to a table near a window where we could see the lobby, and everyone settled in.
Before I had a chance to look at the menu, my attention went straight to the dark screen in my hand. Rowan still hadn’t responded to my text or call.
Derek leaned slightly forward. “You sure Rowan didn’t say anything to anyone?”
“No,” several of us replied.
“Maybe he had his headphones in when you went to his room. Pretty sure he has those noise-canceling ones,” Enzo suggested.
“Maybe,” I agreed, and while that was a logical explanation, I was pretty sure Rowan would have seen the texts and calls on his phone screen. And if he had, then that meant something else was going on, and every possible scenario seemed worse than him ignoring me.
After all, Rowan wasn’t the disappear-without-a-word type, especially not on a night when we’d both won and should’ve been riding that high together. We should’ve been sneaking glances across the table and waiting for everyone to go to sleep so he could slip into my room.
Instead, I was sitting in a restaurant pretending not to panic while staring at a silent phone as conversations buzzed all around me.
Mason recounted parts of my fight with enough exaggeration that by the end, I was pretty sure he believed I’d knocked my opponent unconscious just by staring at him.
Enzo laughed at something Derek said. Devon talked to Coach Luis across the table about matchups, timing, and who’d impressed whom tonight.
For the most part, I ignored them and typed out more messages to Rowan:
Answer me
Then:
Please tell me you’re okay
My food arrived, and I barely touched it.
Derek tipped his head to the side. “You’re seriously not eating?”
“I’m not that hungry.”
Mason stared at me. “Who are you, and what have you done with Keaton?”
Normally, I would’ve had a snarky reply. Tonight, I just shrugged and picked up my glass of iced tea to take a sip.
That must’ve told them more than I had meant to convey, because the mood around the table changed after that. Not enough to kill the celebration, but enough that I caught Derek glancing at his phone a couple of times. Even Mason got quieter.
Then Devon’s phone buzzed. He looked down at the screen and immediately straightened a little.
“Everything okay?” Coach Luis asked.
Devon’s mouth curved. “Actually, yeah.” He glanced across the table at me. “I have some news.”
I sat up straighter. Had Rowan texted him back?
He looked back at his phone. “Marcos Silva with Elevate Sports Management wants to meet with you tomorrow morning.”
Mason let out a low whistle. “Holy shit.”
He could say that again. My heart rate sped up.
Marcos Silva’s reputation reached far beyond fighters trying to make a name for themselves.
He represented athletes across multiple sports—MMA, baseball, football, and hockey.
He wasn’t some random agent dangling a dream.
He was the real deal, backed by an entire agency.
“Why?” I asked, and I immediately wanted to punch myself for how stupid that sounded.
Devon chuckled. “Because you had a good fucking night.”
“You’re serious?”
“I don’t joke about something this huge,” he replied.
It was huge and exactly the kind of thing I’d been working toward. Meeting with Marcos Silva could change my future.
Devon looked at his phone again, his thumb moving over the screen. “He wants to sit down, talk about representation, and see where your head’s at.”
Six months ago, hearing that Marcos wanted to meet with me would’ve been all I could think about.
Now, I couldn’t stop wondering why Devon hadn’t mentioned Enzo or Rowan getting the same offer.
They’d both won their fights too. Then my thoughts circled back to Rowan and the fact that he still hadn’t answered me.
Devon glanced up. “He’s available at eight-thirty. Does that work for you?”
I blinked. “What?”
“Tomorrow morning. Marcos said he’s available at eight-thirty. If he wants to make time for you while you’re in town, I highly suggest you take him up on the offer.”
I opened my mouth then closed it. What was I supposed to say? No, sorry, I might need to go lose my mind looking for the guy I’m secretly in a relationship with, even though I have no clue where he is or whether anything is actually wrong.
Instead, I nodded. “Yeah. That works.”
“Good.” Devon typed something on his phone. “That’ll still give us plenty of time to make our flight tomorrow.”
Derek reached over and smacked my shoulder. “Congrats, man.”
I forced a smile that probably looked as strained as it felt. “Thanks.”
The rest of dinner dragged on. At one point, Mason tried to convince the server to bring him extra fries, while Derek tried to get her number. All I could do was sit there, thinking how my biggest dream was within reach, but the person I wanted to share it with was missing.
When dinner ended, my nerves were raw, and I wasn’t the only one worried. Derek, Enzo, and Mason followed me to Rowan’s room. I knocked, hard enough this time to leave no doubt he’d be able to hear it if he was inside.
Nothing.
I knocked again and again but he never answered.
Derek swore under his breath. “What should we do?”
Enzo rubbed the back of his neck. “Get security?”
“For what?” I snapped, then immediately regretted it. “Sorry.”
Mason gripped my shoulder. “Don’t apologize. This is getting weird.”
Devon came up behind us. “Still nothing?”
“No,” I huffed.
“I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for all of this. He’ll probably pop up in the morning, but I can check with some of the promotion staff to find out if they saw him,” Devon said before he and Coach Luis made their way to their rooms, talking quietly.
“The ring girls were hot. Maybe he’s off hooking up with one of them.” Derek chuckled.
If only he knew.
I lifted a shoulder and lied, “Guess that’s possible.”
Eventually, the guys headed toward their rooms and asked me to let them know if I heard from him. Enzo looked genuinely unsettled while Derek kept glancing back down the hallway. Even Mason, who usually turned everything into a joke, didn’t offer a smile.
Then it was just me, standing outside Rowan’s room, my phone in hand, with no idea what the hell I was supposed to do next. With nowhere else to go, I eventually went back to my room, and the silence inside the small space was unbearable.
Sitting on the bed, I called him again, but it went straight to voicemail this time, and something in my chest tightened so much it actually hurt. I leaned forward to rest my elbows on my knees and stared at the carpet as every possible scenario tried clawing its way through my brain.
Maybe he’d gone out and left his phone behind. Maybe something had happened, and I just didn’t know about it yet. Maybe he’d gotten mugged—
I shut that thought down immediately.
He was fine.
He had to be.