Chapter 5
“Hey there!” A hand wraps around my wrist, pulling me back from the edge of the sidewalk. “I got you.”
The last thing I remember is turning around to say something to Gabe and walking through the open door of the restaurant, before I ran straight into a wall.
No, not a wall. A man. A wall of a man.
He wasn’t there at first, I’m sure of that.
Or was he? I guess I was a little distracted by Gabe and his sister bickering over what toppings to put on the pizza.
Allyson wanted the weekly special, but Gabe was adamant we should get his favorite: the Licorice Pizza.
I was turned off the second I heard the name, and had turned around to ask him if it had actual pieces of licorice on it, when I ran straight into—
“Are you okay? I’m so sorry, I didn’t…” His words trail off the moment I look up to meet his gaze. It’s warm and full of concern, but the space between his brows wrinkles, and his eyes squint in confusion. No, in recognition.
“Holy shit.” The words fall past my lips in a whisper. What is he doing here?
“Sloane?”
“Hey, what the hell, man?” Gabe approaches us, but I can’t tear my eyes from the man towering over me. “You ran straight into her!”
A woman scoffs from somewhere beside us. “Actually, she ran into him because she wasn’t looking where she was going.”
“Bennett, what are you doing here?” I ask, ignoring their argument about who is at fault.
“I could ask you the same thing.” His hand is still locked around my wrist, and the warmth of his touch radiates up my arm.
We’re close, too close for people who only spent one night together before going their separate ways and never speaking again.
So close that I can see the outline of his pupil against the dark chocolate mixture of his irises.
His eyes were one of the first things I noticed about him last year.
The brown color was so dark in the low light of the empty Desert Roadside Diner that they looked black.
Being this close to him takes me back to that night, standing in Sophia’s driveway.
How he leaned in, and I wished he would have kissed me, but he didn’t.
The night air carried that quiet, late-hour stillness where everything feels a little more honest, and as we approached Sophia’s front door, reality smacked me in the face.
Tonight was something for the movies, or those romance books my friends love so much.
World-famous athletes don’t ask random women out on dates unless they think it will lead to something else, and just because Bennett was extremely good-looking and polite and respectful did not mean I was going to invite him into my bed…
even if I’d thought about it a few times.
Despite his many pros, two things held me back from opening myself completely to him: one, nothing was ever that easy, and I knew from experience that when it seemed too good to be true, it probably was; and two, EWE.
“Thanks for tonight,” I said, crossing my arms. “It was fun.”
“Yeah, I had a good time.”
A beat of silence followed, and I shuffled the glossy paper between my fingers—the photo strips from the photo booth back at the diner. “Do you…Do you want one of these? The machine gave us two copies.”
Bennett looked down at the strips, and I noticed a slight tug in the corner of his mouth before he plucked one from my hand.
Our eyes met, and I felt a strange pull toward him, like a tug on my heart, bringing me closer.
He leaned in, slowly, like he was giving me time to stop it from happening, but I didn’t step back.
He paused, hovering close enough, but still too far away.
When I thought he was finally going to close the space between us, he exhaled.
“Goodnight, Sloane,” he said as he leaned down to kiss my forehead and walked away.
“You need to teach your friend some manners,” Gabe’s voice interrupts my thoughts. “If he’s not going to apologize, then—”
“Gabe,” I say sharply. The last thing we need is for him to start something he won’t be able to finish.
From the looks of the other two people standing here, I think it’s safe to say they are wrestlers, too, and I highly doubt Gabe could take either one of them.
“I’m fine, and he did apologize.” He doesn’t back down, though. “Gabe, it’s okay…I know him.”
“Y-You know him?”
“You know her?” the woman practically spits, and her black hair swishes in a long ponytail over her shoulder when her head whips toward Bennett. Is this his girlfriend? Does he even have a girlfriend? She seems overly protective of him, the way a girlfriend, or maybe a sister, might.
“Rae, Brody, this is Sloane,” Bennett says.
The woman—Rae, I assume—narrows her gaze before it falls from his face to meet my own.
She’s breathtaking. Large, round eyes, high cheekbones, and a well-defined jaw, with the most amazing skin I’ve ever seen.
It doesn’t look like she wears any makeup, and if she does, I can’t tell.
How in the hell does she keep her skin so clear?
“Hi, I’m Allyson,” Gabe’s sister says, stepping forward with an outstretched hand. “And this is my brother, Gabe.” Brody shuffles the pizza boxes to free one of his hands before he returns the gesture, then Ally moves to Rae, and finally to Bennett. “What was your name, again?”
“Most people call me Wolf,” he says, a slight quirk in the corner of his mouth.
He said the same thing to me backstage last year, but I decided to use his real name: Bennett.
I wasn’t going on a date with Wolf Bennett, EWE wrestler; I was going on a date with Bennett James.
He didn’t seem to mind, though…In fact, it almost seemed like he enjoyed it.
“It’s an old nickname from my days on the football field.
” Bennett lets his hand fall from Ally’s, and it brushes against mine.
When the hell did we get so close? “You guys live around here?”
“Just outside Barrington,” she says. “Visiting our parents for the long weekend. We like to drive into the Hollow for Marie’s at least once when we come into town.”
“I hate to break up this reunion, but we need to go,” Rae says, and urges the other man down the sidewalk without waiting for an answer.
“What are you guys doing tomorrow?” Bennett asks quickly.
What are we doing tomorrow? I have no idea.
Gabe didn’t exactly hand me an itinerary when we arrived at his parents’ this afternoon.
Until late last night, I had no plans to travel for the holiday weekend at all.
I was perfectly content to stay home, but Gabe wasn’t going to let that happen.
He insisted I join him, saying it would be good for me to get away for a few days, instead of holing myself up in my apartment as I try to figure out what the hell I’m going to do about this story.
I’ve been working on it for a week, trying to secure interviews with anyone who will talk to me—former EWE employees, current employees, fans, you name it—but still have no more information than what a basic internet search tells me.
He continues. “My parents are throwing a get-together for the holiday. You should come; you should all come.”
“We wouldn’t want to impose,” I say, folding my arms over my chest. This has to be a joke.
A small part of me wants to look around for the hidden camera.
There’s no way we just happened to be in the same small town a week after I was assigned the biggest story of my career, and he might be the only person who can help me write it.
How can I accept his invitation when I don’t even know where we stand? If that’s the case, I’d rather spend our holiday doing absolutely nothing, except maybe convincing Gabe to commandeer the family boat for a day on the water.
But there are no hidden cameras. This is really happening—the opportunity I’ve been waiting for is within arm’s reach, all I have to do is reach out and take it.
While it might not be a day talking to Amos, it’s close enough.
Bennett is one of the biggest names in the company, and his best friend is Brooks Taylor, the poster boy of professional wrestling.
If I can get close enough to Bennett, I may be able to secure an interview with someone at the company—maybe even Amos himself.
But still…I don’t know where we stand, and that bothers me. Are we…friends? Acquaintances? Or is this some pity invite for the way things ended last year? It doesn’t really matter, because I have no choice. We have to go. I may never get another opportunity like this.
“It’s no imposition, and to be completely honest, my mom would kill me if I didn’t invite you.” The soft chuckle that follows tells me he’s nervous.
Allyson shares a look with Gabe before she glances at me with a shrug. They see no problem with going…
Great, thanks for the help, guys.
“Well, I guess we have no choice but to accept,” I say.
Full lips pull into a wide grin before Wolf pulls his phone from the back pocket of his shorts. “Guess it’s time we finally exchange numbers, huh?”
“Only a year later.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that,” he says, scratching the back of his neck. “Hopefully, tomorrow can make up for my lack of manners the last time.”
My thumbs move on autopilot, typing the ten digits I know by heart, and hand his phone back.
An electrical current rushes through my system when his fingers brush against mine.
Bennett steps forward, pressing a lingering kiss to my cheek.
This is the opposite of how we left things in Phoenix, but exactly how the night started.
The whole thing makes my head spin. I imagine this must be what a box of matches feels like when someone lights up the whole thing, letting it burn row by row until it’s rendered useless. But in this case, I’m not sure who is the flame and who is the match.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says, then bids goodbye to my friends with a slight bow of his head.