Page 136 of Thrown for a Loop
Harp taps me on the shoulder blade. “Think you can take it from here?”
“I’ll try. Chase? Honey?”
Four heads swivel in my direction. And then one of the beer bellies whistles. “Wow, Merritt. She’s come to claim you. That’s a good sign.”
Chase looks up at me with tired eyes. “Zoe. I panicked again. I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry,” I insist. “I wanted to tell you about the job, but I didn’t know how. He’s using me, Chase. To keep you.”
He looks down into his beer. “I realize that. Bess is blowing up my phone.”
“Um, guys?” I say, waving a hand at the table. “Any chance I could talk to Chase? I think it’s important.”
“I suppose,” the ringleader says, sliding out of the booth. “Be easy on him. He plays Washington in two days, and we need that win.”
They make themselves scarce, and Harp clears away the empties. Then I slide into the same side of the booth as Chase and take him in. He looks like a runway model at the end of fashion week, all half-lidded eyes and beautiful exhaustion. “You okay?”
He nods. “Those guys aren’t so bad. They like me now that I remembered how to score. They bought me beers and told me not to panic.”
“I’m sorry I screwed up,” I say. Then I reach for his hand, terrified that he’ll pull it away.
But he doesn’t. His fingers close around mine. “What were you thinking? How can we outwit Sharp if we don’t work together? Are we a team or not?”
“Yes, we are.”
“Then how could you hide this?” His blue eyes get sad. “That’sjust not fair. Haven’t we had enough of letting other people manipulate us?”
“I didn’t know what to do, Chase! I want you to have all the choices you deserve. I didn’t want you to make a sacrifice based on the manipulations of the slimiest man in sports.”
He lifts my hand and kisses my palm. “Zoe, that should be mychoice. I thought we were in our honesty era.”
“I want that,” I say, feeling my throat closing up. “But it’shard, Chase. I’m not used to having a confidante. And you’re not, either. Tell me this—” I reach over and tug his shirt a little, making the collar stretch. “How’d you really get that scar? Bearing in mind that there aren’t many sharks in Minnesota.”
His eyes flip up to mine. “Shit.” He looks away. “My father. He attacked me with a broken beer bottle when I was thirteen.”
I can’t hold back my wince. “Oh God.”
“He was…” Chase seems to grasp for words. “Awful. Abusive. I’m glad you never met him.”
Something clicks. “He died recently? And left you a few thousand dollars?”
“Uh, yeah.” Chase gives me a sheepish look. “It’s been a terrible year. I hadn’t spoken to him in years, but it still hurt me a little. I can’t even say why.”
“It’s almost like there’s a reason you have trust issues.”
He gives me a slow smile. “We’re quite a pair.”
“Both a little broken around the edges,” I agree. “You hid it really well from me, Chase. When I met you, I thought you had the whole world figured out.”
He drapes an arm around my shoulders. “Sometimes I thought I did. I was wrong.”
I lean my head against his sturdy body. “I love you. And nextyear I want to be wherever you are. I just don’t know how to get there.”
“We want the same things.” He tugs me closer. “Then let’s make this easy. Sharp is a bastard. But I still want to play for that asshole next season.”
“Even if Montreal offers you a fortune?”
He kisses my temple. “Yeah, maybe even then. Money is not my problem, Zoe. It hasn’t been for years. And if you can’t find a job that uses all your skills in Montreal, what good is an extra couple of million?”
