6. Chapter 3 #2
Al cleared his throat. “Ease up on the young fella, Mari. He’s only been here five minutes,” he chirped.
I was preparing for an eye roll when Chance spoke up.
“Nah, don’t stress it, Allen. Not the first time a woman has expected me to bow down to her.”
My eyebrows flicked up of their own accord.
His blue eyes bore into mine once again, a small dimple that popping on the left side of his mouth when his smirk deepened.
He took a step closer to me, the smell of one of those annoyingly delicious-smelling colognes and coffee that was oozing out of him filling my nostrils.
“Wouldn’t have thought any woman would give you the time of day with the attitude the colour of a shit stain,” I scoffed.
“You’d be surprised.” His smile was infuriatingly easy.
“I can assure you, I wouldn’t be.”
“They’ve definitely met before,” JJ not-so-whisperingly whispered to Al and Nan.
“No, we haven’t!” I snapped.
“What’s the matter, Sunny? Don’t want to tell your friends about our little run-in on Friday night?” That easy smile was gone, replaced with an arrogant, heated smirk.
“Friday night?” Nan asked, her eyebrows up expectantly.
“Didn’t she tell you why she only came home with half of your pizza order?
” His face softened to a gentle expression of amusement when he looked to Nan, before hardening right back up when he looked down to me.
“Do you know how much of a hassle it was to undo the shit you caused me on Friday night?”
“Oh yeah. I’m sure washing orange soft drink out of your pretty green shirt was such a pain in the ass,” I retorted.
“You what ?!” Nan scolded.
“Nan—” I started.
“Marilyn Trevino, you better start talking.” She put her hands on her hips. Somehow, even though she was half a foot shorter than me, she still managed to stand over me.
“None of this would have happened if your non-biological second grandchild hadn’t ordered the entirety of Lozza’s menu,” I defended.
“It’s really not a big deal, Marilyn,” Chance crooned. “I have a new phone on order.”
My jaw dropped.
You fucking—
“You did what to his phone?!” Nan shrieked.
A look of disguised triumph crawled up onto Chance’s face. I spun around to Al for help, who simply raised his eyebrows, clearly unimpressed.
“It was an accident! He had his head up his ass and couldn’t see I was walking through the door with the leaning Tower of Pisa in my hands!”
Nan shook her head and turned back to Chance. “The gym will compensate for your loss,” she told him.
“I—”
“Thank you, Marilyn. But that’s really not necessary,” the asshole replied.
“Please, I insist.” Her eyes flicked over to me, telling me we would be discussing the matter later.
I sighed. Aw, shit.
“Righto, now that we’re done with the theatrics. Mari, show the lad to his office, will ya?” Al asked, nodding me along.
“Around the corner, past the mat spaces, first door on the left,” I told him.
Nan lifted her chin and gave me a look that said, ‘Pull your head in before I do it for you’ .
I rolled my eyes. “Right this way then.”
~
I grumbled a string of colourful curses at my 4 o’clock alarm.
Chance-freaking-Riordan had already gotten to my head.
I’d lain awake for nearly half of the night, unable to get fucking comfortable after the day’s events. He was so blasé and collected and laid back—with everyone but me of course . But he was somehow meant to step into Allen’s shoes?
He was meant to forge the best fighters out of Knock’s.
He was meant to continue the legacy that my father and Allen had fought for.
He was meant to not flirt with the staff members.
I cringed at the continuous replay of Chance’s introduction to Liv, one of our Brazilian jiu-jitsu coaches.
“Oh, Chance. What a great name. I’m Liv, Liv Coleman. Pleasure to make your acquaintance,” she purred, wrapping her hand in his.
“Trust me, the pleasure is all mine.” He winked.
Of course he had been happy to meet her—she was a drop dead gorgeous black belt in BJJ. But did it have to be her? Of all people? I don’t even know what I was thinking—perhaps that he would be repulsed by her forwardness?
You idiot, why would he be repulsed? She’s stunning.
A girl could dream.
Whatever.
I took my time walking to Knock’s, as I usually did in the mornings.
The dawns around this time of year were always at their peak with the slightly cooler weather and consistently clear skies.
The big, bright, burnt orange sign came into view, the beginning of the rising sun’s heavenly rays shining from it.
The streetlights began to flicker, almost at the time to turn off.
But at the crest of the driveway, an unusual shadow fell under the tall figure’s feet.
I would have preferred to have Gus with me but since the last time Nan got sick, he’d made it a part of his daily routine to wake her up in he mornings.
He always used his patented, proven method of continuous love-licks to the face until she rolled over and put her glasses on.
Nan would usually bring him in around lunchtime, and he would spend the rest of the day with me.
My hackles rose as I neared closer to the figure.
Heart pounding, I pressed the outer button on my headphones to subtly turn them off and pushed my gait into walking on my toes in anticipation.
I grabbed onto the blade I had hidden in my gym bag strap—a handy contraption JJ had helped me build after last year’s drama.
Being in a small town, outsiders were the only real risk of safety.
In Soggla, everyone knew everyone, so there were never any break-ins when you’d probably recognise the person trying to heist your TV.
The dark figure turned around and met my eyes. That blue that had filled last night’s thought-train bore into me like a laser.
“Morning, Sunny.”