Page 14 of Keep Me Never
Paige laughs lightly, her palms coming out to give me a little shove.
Apparently, my subconscious is in control tonight because the next thing I know, I’ve got both her wrists in my hands, and I’ve pulled her a bit closer.
She tips her head back, and I mean all the way back, to meet my eyes.
A little hair is stuck to her face paint, right over the top curve of the number three, hiding the proof that it’s me on her cheek and no one else. For some reason, I don’t like that.
I slide my pinkie along her temple and down the side of her face until the blond curl is freed. I stare at the spot, a sense of approval I don’t quite understand warming my blood.
“There.” My voice comes out lower, almost…husky?
No. Can’t be that.
My eyes move to hers and she just stares.
“You played well tonight,” she whispers.
My smile is slow. “So you said. Thank you…again.”
“Oh” is her knee-jerk response, and then she shakes her head, embarrassment coloring her skin. “Oh yeah. Sorry.”
I bite the inside of my cheek, a foreign feeling growing within me. “You better run, or Brady’s gonna leave you.”
She watches a few seconds longer and then she nods, backing away, but she doesn’t look away.
I do, moving straight for the cab of my truck. I’m tugging the door open when she calls my name.
“Hey, Chase.”
I turn in time to catch her tucking her hair behind her ear.
“See you at the party?”
My throat grows thick, but she doesn’t let me answer, turning and skipping over to Brady and Cam. For that, I’m grateful. I don’t want to hurt her feelings, and I don’t know how to navigate a friendship with a woman, not anymore.
The last time I had a friend that I started to look at a little, well,more, I hurt a lot of people. I don’t want to hurt her—or anyone, for that matter.
So I don’t go home, where the party is kicking off.
I drive around to the back of the stadium and park in the farthest corner of the lot. I stay there until the sun rises, and when I wake, it’s with an overbearing weight of helplessness because I might have woken on another day, yet I’m still trapped in a nightmare.
CHAPTER FIVE
Paige
“So, Paige, your grandfather tells me you’re a fan of football.” Eloise, Grant’s secretary, smiles from across the long table.
“I am.” I nod. “My dad actually played in college, so growing up, he would take me to all these random college games, mostly places we could drive to for the day or night, but we did go all the way to Texas once for my birthday. And the last couple years, my friends and I have gone to at least one away game we’ve had to travel for. This year we have plans to fly out for the night to their Vegas game, since they’ve all finally turned twenty-one.”
“Oh, fun! You’re what, twenty-three?” Her brown eyes narrow slightly, though she’s trying not to judge.
Dabbing my mouth with the linen, I nod, taking a small sip of the wine that was poured for me. I’d rather have a beer, but something tells me my grandfather doesn’t stock something as, well, basic as that in his cellar.
“I am. When my dad passed away, I both had to and needed to take time off to…arrange what needed arranging.” Pity, plain and clear, slips over every person around this table, and it’s a bit uncomfortable coming from virtual strangers. “Actually, my parents met at a college football game. The last one of the season, in fact.”
“How lovely.” She offers a tense smile.
I peek at Grant, and I can’t tell if it’s regret or frustration creasing his brows. I wonder if he wants to know that, accordingto my dad, my mother was sober at the time, having gotten over her addiction about a year before that. It wasn’t until five years later that she realized she loved something else more than my dad and the baby she’d just given birth to—drugs.
