Page 69 of Under the Lights
Gretchen leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “I assumed your original plan would go down in flames. I mean, it’s obvious you guys like each other. You’re always looking for each other and laughing together. And there’s the fun sex thing. Why not call it what it is?”
“Because it can’t be that.” She’d been annoyed with Chase since the kiss, but now it gave way to a sense of loss. “Yeah, it’s been great and we’ve had a great time, but it was temporary. He got to leave his life in New Jersey behind for a while, and even I’ve been out of routine with this whole Eagles Fest thing. It’s like a vacation fling that can’t be sustained back in the real world.”
“You don’t sound like somebody having a fun vacation fling. You sound like somebody who’s trying to convince herself that’sallshe’s having but doesn’t really believe it.”
“I’m going to miss him,” Kelly admitted. Saying it out loud was both a relief and torture. It made his leaving seem even more immediate.
“I hate to state the obvious here, but you could always just... have a relationship. So he has to go back to New Jersey for a while. You keep in touch. Call, text, video chat. Maybe meet in the middle at a nice hotel once in a while for the fun sex thing, until you figure out what and where the future is.”
“I’m not taking a chance on an unsettled guy again, and he doesn’t even know what he wants. Been there, done that, paid the lawyer fees.” Kelly shook her head. “It’s better to part ways now, before we get all emotionally wrapped up in each other.”
“I hate to say it, but I think you’re too late.”
Kelly shook her head but didn’t waste any more breath denying it. At some point, yeah, her emotions had seeped in, and she cared more about Chase than one probably cared about a random vacation fling.
But that didn’t mean she could just lay out her emotions for everybody to see. She’d been a mess after the divorce, and her friends and family had seen it. She never wanted to be smothered in that much pity and helpfulness ever again. Her time with Chase was coming to an end, and she was going to accept that with dry eyes and her head held high.
—
“You don’t look like a man who’s celebrating,” Alex said, pointing a slice of pizza in Chase’s direction.
They’d lost the game, so he was a little confused as to what Alex meant by that. “What, exactly, are we celebrating?”
“It’s over. All we have to do now is get paraded around town on a float and then we’re free to go.”
Sam nodded. “I, for one, am celebrating the fact that I never have to play football again. I’m too old for that shit.”
Chase laughed. “I can’t argue with that.”
“It looked like Chase might have more of a reason to celebrate than some other guys,” Briscoe said, raising his eyebrows as if to emphasize the point.
Chase groaned and bit into his pizza. He knew where this was going, and it was nowhere he particularly wanted to go.
“I don’t think it was exactly a secret,” Alex said.
“No,” Briscoe admitted. “But it seemed like they were trying to pretend it was.”
“It wasn’t a secret,” Chase said. “It wasn’t anybody else’s business, either.”
“Has Coach said anything about it?” Alex asked. “You were always one of his favorites, but she’s his only kid. And a daughter at that.”
“He didn’t say much, until tonight when I pretty much forced him into acknowledging what was going on by kissing her in front of the entire town.”
“And what did he say?”
“I can sum up his thoughts on the matter as the sooner I leave town, the better.”
Sam winced. “Ouch.”
“Yeah.”
“What family thinks is important, but it’s what Kelly wants that really matters,” Briscoe said, probably pulling from all the wisdom that came with being a married man.
Sam must have thought the same thing, because he gave him a dark look. “I know you’re doing the ’til-death-do-you-part thing, Briscoe, but not all sex ends in happily ever after. Sometimes it’s just sex.”
Briscoe shrugged, not intimidated by Sam at all. “And sometimes it’s not.”
Chase didn’t tell them Kelly wasn’t looking for happily ever after, either. At least not with him. Briscoe had family in town, and Chase didn’t want any more gossip going around about Kelly than already was. He’d rather everybody think he was the dumb schmuck who had a shot with her and blew it than have them hold their ridiculous double standards regarding sex against her.
