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“We’ll stop,” Addy promises. “Right, girls?” She elbows Chloe.
“Fine,” Chloe mutters, and Lauren agrees, too.
I raise my brows and set my hand on my hip. “Not one more word about it, or I’m out. Okay?”
Chloe holds up her hands. “Touchy, touchy.”
She’s not wrong, and it’s most likely because I have not been touchy-touchied in way too long.
I get through book club without any more teasing, and after the birthday party celebrating a family’s seventy-five-year-old matriarch on Saturday, I head to the airport to catch my flight. I land in Vegas a little before ten at night, and I think about going out and doing something.
But I don’t have friends here yet, mostly because I’ve been staunchly avoiding this town, so I head straight for Mom and Dad’s mansion.
Mom is still awake when I get there, and Dad isn’t at home since the entire team stays at a hotel the night before a game.
That means my dad is in the same hotel as Asher.
I try as hard as I can to push him out of my thoughts, but it’s pretty damn hard when I’mnotin the same town as him, never mind when he’s only a few miles away.
She’s ready for bed, so she heads up after she makes sure I’m settled and comfortable, and I take the opportunity to catch up on reading the next book we’re talking about at book club.
I can’t concentrate, though. It’s easy to pretend like it was all some dream when I’m in a different state and over three hundred miles separate us. It’s less easy to do that when I know we’re laying our heads down in the same damn town.
Sleep eludes me, and we have the early game in the morning. I shower, curl my hair, and slip into the DALTON 5 jersey my dad left on my dresser for me. Jack Dalton isn’t the quarterback of the Vegas Aces anymore, but he does own the team, and I think my dad wanted me to wear his jersey as a nod to his new boss. I pair it with a black sequined skirt, and I’m ready to go.
On the ride to the stadium, my mom tells me how she bought a pair of season tickets twelve rows up from the fifty-yard line, where she can see the whole field and keep an eye on my dad.
My heart races as I consider that.
I can’t imagine how much she shelled out for the seats, but she always preferred to be in the center of the action versus up in the suites. It’s how she met my dad, after all.Herdad was a huge college football fanatic, and she went with him to a game at his alma mater. My dad was a senior at the time, and he spotted her in the crowd from the field, ran over to the stands after the game, and got her number.
The rest is history.
I always sort of imagined something like that happening for me, too, but my dad would never allow it.
The closer we get to the stadium, the harder it hits me that I’m going to be in the same building as the man I haven’t stopped thinking about since the charity ball. My heart isn’t just racing now because of the location of our seats.
The truth is that if my dad spotted my mom from the field all those years ago, Asher could spot me here, too.
Will he be happy to see me? I have no idea, and I’m not quite sure how I’ll feel, either.
My mom has been to this stadium a few times now, and as the car drops us at the front of the building, we head in with the fans. My heart beats faster as I walk through the metal detector.
Still faster as my ticket is scanned and I enter the building.
We walk through the concourse toward our section, and the closer we get to our seats, the more nervous I become. By the time we locate the twelfth row, my heart is racing.
I glance down at the field. We’re here early, but some of the players are out on the field warming up prior to the game. They’re in the zone, and I scan for him, but I don’t see him. It’s hard to tell from up here, though, especially because the players aren’t wearing their numbers ahead of the game. They’re wearing joggers and Vegas Aces shirts or sweatshirts to keep their muscles warmed up.
“Are you okay, honey?” my mom asks.
I nod. “I could use some water,” I croak. I push to a stand. “Need anything?”
“I’ll take a water, too. And a bag of peanuts.”
“Sure.” I rush up the stairs toward the concourse, and I’m not sure how I’m going to talk myself into returning to my seat.
How the hell can I bethisaffected afterone nightwith him?
