Page 77 of The Chase

I squinted at Riley in thought.

“Shirtless,” Riley said as he took another sip of his drink. “She won’t be able to look away.”

I laughed. “Are you suggesting he thirst trap D into a proposal?”

Noah was stroking his beard in thought. “It’s not a completely terrible idea. I’ll put it in the ‘maybe’ column.”

We had a couple more rounds, and Benny got really drunk, which was hilarious. He was one of the biggest guys on the team, but he couldn’t hold his liquor. We always gave him shit for it, and it would never stop being funny to me.

My vision swam when I got back to my hotel room. I took a shower to mellow out before crawling into bed and video chatting with Max.

I smiled when her face showed up on my phone screen.

She gave me that sweet smile. “Hey, baby. You look a little worse for wear.”

“Hey, baby girl. Fuck, it’s late,” I said.

She laughed. “S’okay. It’s a weekend, remember?”

“I don’t even know what day it is,” I admitted.

“You seem tipsy, baby. Why don’t I let you go to sleep, and I’ll see you tomorrow when you get home, okay?”

“I wanted to see your face and hear your voice before I went to bed. I miss you.”

She smiled sweetly again. “I miss you too.”

“How did the appointment go?”

She frowned. “It’s tomorrow.”

“You want me to go with you?”

She shook her head. “You won’t be back by then.”

I frowned. “Okay…you’re gonna go, right?”

She clenched her jaw. She didn’t want to talk about this, but I was worried about her. “Told you I would.”

I nodded and tried not to frown. I didn’t want her to be tormented by her past anymore, but it was so frustrating how she shut down when I suggested she get help.

She sighed. “We’ll talk about this when you get back, okay? I’m sorry, I’m being difficult. You played awesome tonight!”

“You know how you can make it up to me?” I asked.

“How?”

I gave her my lopsided grin. “We can have a sexy video chat.”

She tipped back her head and laughed. “You’re ridiculous!”

“What’s ridiculous about that?”

I was only teasing her. I knew it wasn’t something she was comfortable with. I was just trying to lighten the mood and see her smile again.

She bit her lip like she was actually thinking about it for a moment. “Okay,” she whispered.

I must have been too drunk because I didn’t think I heard her right. Then I nearly dropped my phone when she took off her shirt.