Page 21 of Chasing After You
MATTI
“Please tell me you’re about to board a plane.”
Knox chuckles on the other end of the line. “Brother, I’m already on one.”
“And everyone else?”
“Here too.”
I sigh, letting my head roll back on the sofa’s leather cushions. “Thank God.” I lift my head upright again. “What time do you get here?”
“Well, we have to get on and off about six different airplanes with next to no layovers which means we’ll be getting our cardio in along the way, but thanks to the time difference, I do believe we’ll be joining you for breakfast.”
I can hear Jason talking in the background. A second later Knox adds, “Jason wants waffles when he gets there.”
“I’ll have a whole fucking buffet delivered to the cabin for you, promise.” If by some wild chance, the lodge doesn’t offer it, I’ll have someone else cater breakfast. At this point, I really don’t care what it takes, I’m meeting every frivolous request they make. After what they’re doing for me, coming here like this, I owe them. “Any other special orders, just text me and I’ll have it here.” I stab at some potatoes on my plate. I ordered something called the ‘cowboy grub’ from the room service menu which turned out to be meatloaf, corn on the cob, and roasted potatoes. I know loads of people adore their meatloaf and all the homecooked vibes it’s supposed to deliver, but I just can’t. So, my fork continues to swerve around it and go for the spuds. “Want me to have the lodge send a car and driver for you guys?”
“Nah.” Knox’s voice gets muffled for a moment like he’s turned away to thank someone. “Kenley booked us a car while I was getting the flights. We’re good to go.”
“Cool.” I poke at another piece of potato with the prongs. “Vale doesn’t hate me, by the way.”
“Hey,” Knox laughs. “Things are already looking up.”
I tip my head back and forth while I chew, uncommitted to his declaration of improvement. “We’ll see.”
“Shit, I gotta go,” Knox hisses suddenly, “I guess we’re taking off.”
“See you in the morning,” I pause. “Knox?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
“You’d do it for me, brother. We both know you’ve done a hell of a lot more.”
Then he hangs up, leaving me alone with my meatloaf and random chunks of potato.
I’m about to call it quits with my dinner and head to bed when there’s a knock at the door.
Instantly, I sit up.
Who would come here this time of night? Nessa?
No way.
“It’s Vale. Open up.”
Somehow, even more unexpected.
Dropping my plate on the breakfast bar on the way, I meander to the door.
“What are you doing here?” I could have opened with something nicer. Something a little more welcoming. But my nerves are frayed, and I’m sleep-deprived and it’s still fucking Vale, so that’s all I got.
“I’ve thought it over, and I decided I’m going to help you. So that’s what I’m doing here. Fixing your life.”
I respond to that bullshit answer by glaring at him in silence.
“Fine. Your whole life probably isn’t completely jacked,” he concedes, walking right past me back to the living room where he plops himself down on my sofa. “But you can’t deny you might have a real fucking problem if you came here to win Nessa back only to find her standing next to some new dude.”
