What He Bargains (What He Wants, Book Nineteen) (77 page)

“Whatever,” Krissi said, and returned her attention to her phone.

Faith realized she wasn’t going to get any help from her sister.

Her father appeared first, scratching his ample belly hanging out from beneath his old New England jersey. “That was fun,” he said, belching. “Ready?”

“Mom’s not out yet,” Faith told him. “But I want to talk to you about something.

Her father looked at her with suspicion in his bloodshot eyes. “What?”

“Kriss needs to drive on the way home,” she said, trying to sound firm.

His gaze grew cool. “I’m driving
my
damn car. Not this shit again, Faith.”

“Dad, you and Mom have had way too much to drink.”

“That’s your opinion. But I know how I drive and I know when I’m fine, and I’m fine. End of story.” He started walking and began to disappear into the crowd, not even waiting for her mother to emerge.

Krissi turned to go with him, but Faith grabbed her shirtsleeve. “No,” she said, gritting her teeth. “You’re not getting in the car with that idiot.”

Faith’s sister gave her a relieved grin. “So I can go with you then?”

Now Faith sighed, looking up towards the heavens. She’d tried to lose her family and it had ended predictably.

FAIL.

“Of course you can come with me,” she said, resigned to her fate.

“Cool!” Krissi said, laughing and putting her phone away.

They waited for their mother, who came out looking angrily for their father, and when they told her he’d already left, opted to also accompany Faith and Krissi home in Faith’s car.

“He won’t be home until late tonight or tomorrow anyway,” Mom said, her cheeks red, lighting a cigarette as they hit the parking lot. “Useless is what that man is. I always knew it.”

Faith knew better than to say anything when her mother got like this. The three of them got into her car and Mom promptly passed out in the backseat, while Krissi put her iPod on and started playing her favorite songs on the car radio.

Soon, they were leaving the stadium and headed home.

Faith felt her stomach sink as the sign for the highway pointed right and she promptly made her way to the onramp with the rest of the traffic heading back towards the city.

He wasn’t going to call you anyway
, she told herself.

Except that twenty minutes later, she felt her phone buzz in her pocket, indicating a text message, and she knew exactly who the text was from.

She didn’t even look at the phone with her sister sitting next to her, and especially not while driving, as much as she wanted to.

Besides, it didn’t matter. She’d blown her chance to spend time with Chase Winters and there was very little likelihood that she’d get another chance again.

A
fter dropping
her sister and mother off and waving goodbye to them, Faith finally pulled out her cell phone and looked at her latest text message.

Call me.

That was all it said. The number wasn’t recognizable, but she knew it was from him just the same.

Call me.

There had been nothing since then, and that had been sent to her about twenty-five minutes ago. Faith’s hands were shaking and her insides vibrated with anticipatory anxiety as she thought about actually placing a call to the quarterback of The New England Nationals.

Just a few hours after his home opener, when he’d played his first professional game and brought the house down with his spectacular moves on the field.

I can’t do it. I can’t call him.

She wondered if she would lose her nerve and just never respond to him out of sheer terror. But then she remembered what it had felt like to be in his presence.

The feeling of his lips on hers was still just as vivid in her mind as it had been thirty seconds after it happened. She pictured him standing there in that towel, most of his athletic body exposed to her as he stared at her with those dark, frighteningly sexual eyes.

And then she recalled watching him perform on the field. He was so quick, so powerful and his movements showed a completely fearless knowledge of his own abilities, his skill and dexterity.

A man who could move like that on the field could probably do things to her in bed that would defy imagination.

The look in his eyes said that he knew it too.

Faith’s car was still idling in front of her parents’ house, and she shook her head, not wanting to stay there long enough to draw attention. She drove away, turned onto another road and then parked in the lot of a convenience store nearby.

“You can do this—he’s just a guy,” she told herself, taking a deep breath as she called the number back.

As the phone rang in her ear, part of her wished for him not to pick up because it would be so much easier to just leave a quick message—or better yet, hang up and then text something instead. The other part of her was praying that he would answer, because she wanted to hear his voice on the other line and know that he still wanted to talk to her.

Wanted to know that this whole thing was real, even though it couldn’t be real.

And then the unthinkable happened, and he picked up. “Where are you?” His tone was demanding, insistent, completely lacking in polite formalities.

Faith swallowed, her heart feeling like it was beating in her throat. “I—I had to leave to drive my sister home.”

There was a deep exhalation on the other end, and then silence.

Panicking, she continued. “My Dad took off in his car and I couldn’t just leave my sister and my Mom there while I ran off to…” her voice trailed.

“Ran off to what?” he said, and his tone was unreadable now.

“Ran off to see you,” she replied.

There was another long silence. “You should’ve found a way,” was all he said.

“I wanted to.”

“If you wanted it bad enough, you would’ve been here.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, feeling desperate now, like she was losing him. “I really enjoyed the game,” Faith added, trying to lighten her voice and show her enthusiasm. “You were wonderful…I mean, I don’t know. It seemed like you did great.”

Somehow, she felt like she was digging herself out of a very deep hole now.

“Look, I gotta go,” Chase told her. “It was nice meeting you, Faith.”

“So,” she said, wanting to ask if they would speak or see one another again, but she was terrified the answer might be no.

“So,” Chase said, “do I have a new fan or what?”

“Definitely,” she replied, breathless, wanting to say more, wanting to tell him what she would do to his body if he’d let her. And that was shocking and frightening in and of itself, because Faith had never been the kind of girl to throw herself at someone.

“Good,” Chase said, and then he was gone.

Faith stared at her phone. “Hello?” she asked, knowing he wasn’t there. He’d sort of hung up on her at the end, hadn’t he?

She felt the first prickling of tears behind her eyes.

That was it, then, she realized. She’d had her chance and she’d blown it.

But if that was the case, then in all likelihood, Chase hadn’t wanted much more than a quick bout of meaningless sex with her.

Strangely, even if that was all he wanted, the thought that she couldn’t even have that with him was incredibly saddening. Faith hadn’t allowed herself to realize just how big of an impact he’d had on her in such a short time.

Somehow, Chase Winters had pried open a secret door, an entrance to her heart and her body and soul that she hadn’t even known existed. And she wanted him badly, wanted him more than anyone or anything she’d ever encountered.

Maybe it’s a godsend that he’s done with you. Because you’re obviously no match for him in any way shape or form. I mean look at you. Five minutes in this guy’s presence and you’re practically willing to crawl on your hands and knees to be with him again.

Faith wiped her eyes and tried to smile.

I’ll always have a fun story about the time a famous athlete kissed me. That’s something, isn’t it?

But as she drove home, she knew that it wasn’t nearly enough.

“
Y
ou look tired
,” her boss said.

“I do?”

“Yeah.” Greg Bloom surveyed her, his eyes scanning her up and down as he stood in the entryway of her cubicle. “And you have a coffee stain on your pants.”

“Oh.” Faith looked down and saw that she did in fact have a light stain on her bright white pants, near her right pocket. “Shoot, I must’ve done that when I was bringing coffee in for everyone.”

“Well, try and be more careful. And you could also try and look half awake. Did I hear something about you going to the Nationals game yesterday?”

Faith wanted to kill whoever had blabbed that piece of news. She tried to smile instead. “I won a contest.”

Greg pointed a long finger at her. “I didn’t hire a contestant, I hired a temp. We need you in here fresh-eyed and bushy-tailed, Faith. Your ass is dragging.”

“Sorry, Greg. I’ll do better.”

“I need those case reports scanned in today, the next batch. We’ve got deadlines and I actually care about meeting them. Get on it pronto.” He turned and disappeared around the corner before the words of acquiescence could even leave her mouth.

Faith hated him so much, but there was nothing she could do about it.

This was the first long-term temp assignment she’d had since moving out of her parents’ home, and it was steady work that paid reasonably well, even if the work itself was completely dreary and dull.

And Greg had been right that she was tired. Exhausted, actually, from lying awake all night thinking about Chase Winters and wondering if she’d ever hear from him again, or whether she should try and text him if she didn’t.

At five a.m. she’d been up and listening to the local sports radio A.M. station—which was Dad’s favorite, but something she’d always hated. That was, until Chase had come into her life, and now she suddenly couldn’t get enough sports talk, football talk, especially if Chase’s name might come up, which it usually did nowadays.

But now was not the time to be thinking about football. Greg was on her ass and she had to get a move on.

Shaking herself out of her weary state, Faith got the scanner set up in her cubicle and then began using the staple remover to take the staples out of a batch of case report pages. It was mind numbingly dull work. Removing staples and paperclips, then putting the pages into the scanner and making sure it took every page and scanned them into the computer properly.

Sometimes the scanner got finicky and began scanning pages two at a time, or sometimes she missed a staple and the pages would get all messed up and rip.

It was time-consuming but completely brainless, and after more than a month of doing it, Faith was about to go crazy. She’d have done anything to be given a bit of other work to do (the only other duties she had was occasionally being sent on coffee or lunch runs), but Greg seemed intent on grinding her into dust with this scanning project.

He hated her. He’d hated her ever since her first week, when he’d hit on her and she’d tactfully turned him down.

At least, she’d thought she’d been tactful, but he must not have seen it that way.

Ever since then, Greg had taken glee in demeaning her in front of the other workers and constantly threatening to have her replaced.

Yet she was still there and still scanning, which was both a blessing and a curse.

The bottom line was that Faith needed the money from this job. As it was, she was just barely treading water, living week-to-week and having nothing left over once she was done paying her rent and utilities and eating.

If Greg got sick of her and fired her (which he could do on a whim), and if she couldn’t get a placement within a week or two, she would be forced to move home—and that was not an option she wanted to consider on even her worst day.

Needless to say, it wasn’t looking like a fun Monday, but thanks to the free coffee in the break room, Faith was able to make it through the day without losing it. She scanned all day long, making sure to keep her lunch to thirty minutes and not even taking her normal fifteen-minute breaks in the morning and afternoon.

The good thing about scanning was, it allowed her mind to wander, and that allowed her to think about Chase Winters, to remember the short time they’d spent together yesterday before the game.

No matter how many times she thought about it and replayed it, it never got old. Besides, in her fantasies, Chase didn’t just kiss her. Sometimes he took off all her clothes piece by piece, other times he told her he loved her. The permutations were endless, and it made the day go by a little faster than it normally would have.

At five o’clock, she was done.

Greg stopped by her cubicle as she was shouldering her purse and turning off her computer.

“How many files did you do today?” he asked, scratching his jaw and then giving an exaggerated sniff, as if he didn’t even like how she smelled.

“I’m not sure. Maybe forty-five?”

Greg nodded his head. “That’s okay, if you actually did that many. Tomorrow I want you to send me the updated spreadsheet so I can look at your progress.”

“Okay, sure.” She tried to smile but he didn’t even look at her, just glanced away.

“And try and get some sleep, Connor. That way I won’t feel like I’m talking to a zombie.” He sniffed the air again and then left.

“Have a nice night!” she called after him, rolling her eyes.

A moment later, she was leaving, making sure to wait long enough that she wouldn’t have to share an elevator with her boss.

Once she got outside the building, Faith breathed a deep sigh of relief. Then she managed to catch the bus just in time, and she rode that out to the T, which she took three stops, got off and walked to the Super Stop and Shop.

Faith got a couple bags of groceries and then walked about a mile home to her apartment.

She was completely spent by the time she got home and put her groceries away. But Faith still needed to eat, so she quickly boiled some water and made Mac & Cheese, which she ate in front of her computer, watching yesterday’s press conference from the New England Nationals website.