Page 7 of Crazy Love

If they only knew. It was embarrassing how hard I looked for her that night. Begged the front desk to let me know who she was, looked at the bar and the beach and the pool and the restaurant…and then finally, I came to terms with the fact that she’d left my room…on purpose…and she hadn’t come back.

“Very funny,” I mutter. “We had this connection…I thought. And then…she left. We were about to…well, I don’t know how far it would’ve gone, but I left to help Poppy’s friends…” I nod at Rhodes and he winces. “And when I got back, she was gone. Just disappeared.” I sag against my chair. “I think I’ve lost my touch. Definitely lost my mojo.”

The guys laugh, thinking I’m joking, because 99.9% of the time, Iamjoking. The table goes quiet, the guys exchanging glances before Henley says, “You? Lose your mojo? Not possible.”

“I’m actually getting tired of the clubbing scene,” I add.

They stare at me like they don’t recognize me. Hell, I don’t recognize myself.

Henley gives me a shit-eating grin. “It had to happen at some point.” He pounds my back.

I roll my eyes. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“Oh, we’re gonna have the best time with this,” Rhodes says. His smirk is at an all-time high.

“Maybe she had a reason for not showing,” Bowie says.

“Yeah, something out of her control,” Weston adds.

“Or maybe she just wasn’t as into me as I thought,” I say, the words hurting as much now as they did when I looked for her. “Either way, it doesn’t matter. I need to forget about her. It’s not like I can find her.”

I’ve tried and come up empty.

Before anyone can respond, my phone buzzes on the table. I glance at the screen and pick it up. “It’s Sam. I better take this.” I click the screen. “Hey, Sam. What’s up?”

The sound of his voice hits me like a punch in the gut and my chest tightens. He’s crying—something I’ve never heard him do in the years I’ve been mentoring him. He’s tough, tougher than most eleven-year-olds have any right to be, but right now, he sounds broken.

“Penn,” he chokes out. “I…I need you.”

“Hey, hey,” I say quickly, my heart pounding. “I’m here, buddy. Take a deep breath. What’s going on?”

He sniffles and the line is quiet for a moment before he speaks again. “I-I messed up. I’m in trouble.”

I stand up, already moving toward the door. “Where are you, Sam? I’m coming to you.”

The guys are watching with concern, but I don’t have time to explain. All I can think about is Sam, how he hasn’t been himself lately either, but I haven’t been able to get to the bottom of it. I haven’t spent as much time with him as normal because I’ve been gearing up for training camp, which starts soon, but we try to FaceTime every day. Now, hearing the fear in his voice, I know I’ve been right to be concerned.

“I’m at the police station. They said I could call you.”

“The police station?”

“Yeah,” his voice cracks.

“Okay, I’ll be right there. Less than ten minutes, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you,” he says, and I hear him sniffling again before he ends the call.

“You need help?” Rhodes asks.

“I’m not sure yet. He’s at the police station.”

“Let us know,” Henley says.

“I can go with you,” Weston says.

“That’s okay. I’ll see what’s up first and then let you know,” I say.

He nods and Bowie squeezes my shoulder. “We’ll be there in a heartbeat if you need us.”

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