CHAPTER 10 DANNY
I’m out with some buddies when her text comes through.
And the next one.
And the next.
I laugh as if I didn’t know who it was from the second I spotted the unknown number.
The unknown number that I immediately saved to my contacts.
I have her number. The question now is…what am I going to do with it?
I’m out with AJ, Rush, and our team trainer, Nick, at the bar off Strip where we always hang out. They were there when I bolted from the Wynn, so I met them. I’m three beers deep now, and I stare at her text as I try to figure out what to say.
I go with the truth.
Me: I tried to get back but security was tight. I’m disappointed, too.
I spot the little bubbles appear that tell me she’s writing me back, and then they disappear as if she thought twice about what she was typing. They start up again, and then they dip away. I watch as I try to puzzle out the mind of Alexis Bodega, and then I shoot my shot.
Me: How long are you in town?
The bubbles disappear again, which tell me she’s rethinking what she was about to say. And finally, a reply.
Alexis: I’m here three more nights. Then I head back to LA, and in two weeks, my Strong Force tour begins.
Strong Force. As if that doesn’t define this woman to her core.
But that’s the whole thing. I’ve heard of her tour—eighty-seven dates across the US over the next five months and then a two-month stint overseas with thirty more shows.
It’s a huge production, and I secured tickets to the show in Vegas the second I heard about it. But it also means that she’ll be booked from now until October.
And so will I. Until November, with any luck.
We’ve got a hundred sixty-two games this season—well, a hundred sixty now, plus the postseason.
It’s hardly the right time to try to start something, particularly when I don’t know much about her personal situation other than what I read on the internet…which, let’s be honest, could be entirely false.
I should just cut my losses and move on.
But something compels my fingers to type out a reply.
Me: Game time tomorrow is 6:05 and I need to be at the stadium by 2:00. You free for brunch?
Those goddamn bubbles are back, and I’m staring at them when my phone is hit from behind and clatters from my hands onto the table in front of me.
I glare up at the offender as AJ laughs and asks, “Who’s that?”
“None of your business, dickhead,” I mutter as I click off the screen.
And that’s when the waitress, Kelly, drops by for…I’m not sure. Our drinks are full, and I’m pretty sure she just wants to flirt.
Okay, fine. The truth is that we’ve hooked up two or three times, and that’s likely why she’s here.
She’s looking for an invitation back to my place when she gets off tonight so I can get her off.
But I’m not interested in waitress Kelly or leopard fingernails girl or any of the other women I’ve bedded in this city, or in Denver, or when my team is visiting any other city.
Maybe the leopard did teach me a lesson. Maybe the red flag that should’ve been waving in my face that night actually did wave.
Maybe that wake-up call I thought I should be having was real.
I don’t want any of those girls. I want Alexis Motherfucking Bodega.
It’s possible I just need to bang her out of my thoughts, but those feelings the day we met were real. Too real. Scary real.
It was instant. It was intense. It was terrifying.
And I want more. I need to be able to explore it to see if it’s real or if it’s just being starstruck by someone of her caliber.
But I’m still not sure she’s mine to have.
“Need anything, boys?” Kelly asks.
I offer her a tight smile. “We’re fine here.”
She looks a little off put by my words, but I guess the last time she asked that, I’d whispered in her ear something about how I did in fact need something.
I needed to watch my cock as it slid into her cunt.
And she very obviously wants that again, but I’m very obviously not offering that tonight.
How can I when my mind is elsewhere?
As soon as Kelly leaves, AJ leans toward Rush. “Brewer just totally blew off Kelly for whoever’s on that phone.”
“Hand it over,” Rush says, holding out a hand for my phone.
“Fuck off,” I mutter petulantly as I slide the phone into my pocket.
It vibrates there—either a notification of something else, or she wrote back.
I might be having brunch tomorrow with Alexis Bodega, and the answer is in my pocket but my asshole friends are preventing me from knowing.
“Wait a minute. Did Brewer catch feelings for someone?” Rush asks AJ, as if I’m not sitting right across the table from the two of them.
Nick is inside the booth on my side, and I glance over at him for help. He just holds up both hands as if he’s staying out of it.
I chug down the rest of my beer. I’m certain she has replied by now, and these shenanigans are keeping me from responding, and I hate that I’m itching to get a look at my goddamn phone just to see if she texted me.
This is stupid.
I throw my hands up into the air. “Fuck this. I’m taking a piss.”
The truth is I don’t need to use the restroom, but I need a second away from these assholes so I can see what she said.
And so I take my moment.
As soon as the bathroom door shuts behind me, I yank my phone out of my pocket. My hands tremble a little as I unlock the screen, and my chest tightens with nerves.
What the hell is this?
Alexis: I can meet at ten but it has to be private. My hotel or your place?
She can probably sneak out of her hotel easier than I can sneak into her hotel room since surely people are watching.
Me: My place. I’ll see you at ten.
I text her my address, and nerves filter through my chest.
Holy shit.
Alexis Bodega is coming to my house tomorrow for brunch.
Fuck these guys.
I need to get home and put my stack of porn away.