Page 41 of Under the Lights
“I would have gone with him if I’d known. I could have given him a hand.”
She shrugged. “Would you like some breakfast?”
He was starving, but he had too much guilt going on this morning where she was concerned to ask her to cook for him, too. “I’m heading to O’Rourke’s, actually, but thank you.”
“Give them my best.” She took her grocery list pad and a pen and opened the pantry door.
Chase drank the coffee as quickly as he could and got out of there. He knew it was probably his imagination—or guilty conscience, maybe—but Mrs. McDonnell didn’t seem as warm as usual. If knowing he’d been with Kelly was at the root of it, he dreaded what Coach’s reaction would be.
Once he hit the front porch, he sent texts to the guys, letting them know he was buying breakfast if anybody wanted in, but only Alex and Sam were free. Since they were farther away and he didn’t want to go back into the house, Chase killed some time by walking to the restaurant.
Because he had to stop and talk to what seemed like a million people, the guys already had a table when he arrived. He slid into the booth next to Alex, since Sam was wider, and gratefully accepted a full coffee mug from their server.
He looked across the table at Sam, who looked tired as hell. “You look like shit.”
“Good morning.”
“Yeah, good morning. You look like shit.”
Sam shrugged. “Didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”
Unlike Chase, who’d slept like a rock once he’d left Kelly’s apartment and snuck into Coach’s house. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll accidentally leave the coffeepot on the table.”
Over breakfast, Alex told them stories about some of the places he’d traveled for work. Being a freelance photojournalist, his work varied, and sometimes he was in a quiet town in Italy, capturing the architecture, and sometimes he was in the middle of a violent coup. It sounded like a great life to Chase, except for the fact that he refused to fly. It would take a long damn time to get to the Middle East without a plane.
He kept the conversation going as long as he could, but both guys had made commitments for the day with their host players. Since Chase had a host coach instead of a host player, he made the walk back to the house, hoping Mrs. McDonnell would have something for him to do.
Coach was sitting in a rocker on the front porch when Chase walked up the steps, and the sight of him formed a knot in his stomach so tight he wished he hadn’t eaten a huge breakfast. “Morning, Coach.”
“Morning. Have a good breakfast?”
“Yes, sir.” The man was giving him nothing as far as a possible emotional response. “Cassandra doesn’t serve up quite as good a breakfast as Mrs. McDonnell, but it’s not half bad.”
Coach smiled and the knot in Chase’s gut loosened a little. “You know, you’re a grown man now, and she’s said she doesn’t mind if you call her Helen.”
“I appreciate that, but it doesn’t feel right.”
“That’s what I figured you’d say. You all had your share of troubles, but you were all good boys at heart.”
Guilt reared its ugly head again, but Chase hid it behind a smile. “There were times you were the only person who seemed to believe that.”
“It might have felt that way, but I wasn’t the only one. And it makes me proud none of you ever disappointed me.”
Chase wasn’t sure if he was simply reminiscing or if Coach was trying to give him some kind of message, so he just nodded and kept his mouth shut. He figured if Coach knew where Chase had been last night and was mad about it, he’d have let him know by now.
Hell, maybe Coach would even be happy about it. Chase had always been close to him, so maybe the older man was thinking about him as a potential son-in-law. One who was good at heart and had never disappointed him.
But Chase wasn’t looking to be anybody’s son-in-law anytime soon. And Kelly wouldn’t have him if he were. It had been a no-strings bit of fun—maybe even a one-night thing, though he hoped not—and that was it.
He was pretty sure if Coach knew the truth of what was going on, he would be pretty disappointed in Chase, after all.
—
Because she didn’t have a family at home, which made one day more or less like any other, Kelly often worked Sundays. She didn’t mind. They were slow days, with most of them spent monitoring the flow of traffic heading south through the town as the tourists went home.
This particular Sunday she would have liked to spend in her bed, basking in the glow of great sex. Instead, she was driving around, trying not to dwell on whether Chase would call her or if she should call him or if there should be any phone call at all. Since she’d never done the casual-fling thing before, she wasn’t really sure what the rules were.
The only thing she knew for sure was that she wanted to be alone with him again, and sooner rather than later. They didn’t have a lot of time.
