Page 4 of Going All In

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MADDOX

Addison is doing what she does best—talking—and no one seems to mind when I slip away from the table to follow Holly to the bathrooms.

I wait for her in the hallway between the two restrooms. When she emerges, her face is a mask of calm until she sees me. Then her brows pinch together, and her lips press into a thin line.

“What are you doing here?” she says, her voice sharper than I remember, but then what I’m remembering best are her breathy moans as I drove into her.

“I came to see if you were okay. I know we talked about your mom passing, and how close you were with your dad. It seems like we were all caught off-guard by this engagement.”

I’ll start with that. We’ll address the breathy moans later.

Holly and I had an amazing conversation that night last week. She caught my eye from across the bar, and there was something about her. Yeah, I know that’s like the most cliché opening ever, but I honestly just wanted to buy her a drink and get to know her.

When we ended up talking over French fries and sodas at an all-night diner down the block from Darby’s, the bar we were at, I was hooked.

Aside from her use of mayonnaise and hot sauce as a condiment, of course. There was no excuse for that. Ketchup is fine for French fries. More than fine, if you ask me. Ketchup is the ultimate condiment. I’ll defend it to my dying day.

Anyway, what started as just sharing some late-night snacks turned into more. Her roommate had taken home a guy from the bar, something I gathered she does a lot, and I offered Holly a place to stay for the night so she didn’t have walk in on them like she did the other time she told me about, when she startled a guy who slipped off the sofa, pulling the roommate down with him.

Apparently, the roommate hit her face on the coffee table, resulting in a black eye that she told everyone was a sex injury. I laughed so hard I almost snorted soda out of my nose.

That’s the Holly I want. The girl who was laughing so hard she could barely get the story out. The wary creature who snapped a photo of my driver’s license to send to said roommate before she agreed to stay with me. The confident woman who was the hottest sex I’ve had in years. Not this shell-shocked woman standing in front of me. I just want to gather her in my arms and kiss her until it’s all better.

“It’s… it’s okay. I’m just surprised. We should get back.” Holly pushes past me in the direction of the table, but I grab her arm.

“Holly. Talk to me.”

She shakes her arm loose. “I’m not sure what there is to say, Maddox. I need to think.”

I know she overthinks things. I can feel it happening right now. “We’re still on for tomorrow night, though, right? We can talk more then, away from the family stuff.”

She shakes her head, making my heart sink. “I-I need time, Maddox. Not tomorrow. Let me figure things out, and then we can talk.”

Holly stalks away toward our table, narrowly avoiding Addison, who raises her eyebrows at me in an unspoken question.

I shake my head—none of your business—and follow Holly back to the table. I get the distinct sense thatneeding timemeans she’s going to figure out all the reasons she shouldn’t date me.

Should I care, after one night? Probably not. I usually don’t. It’s not like I bring girls back to my place often, but when I do, it’s one night. Not even a whole night, usually. Giving her my number, asking her out for another night? This was way out on a limb for me, but when I crawled out here, it seemed like the right thing to do.

Now I feel like she’s about to cut me off and send me crashing to the ground.

* * *

I look both ways as I cross the street with the phone pressed to my ear. “You should have seen her face. Shock, then horror, then this mask of calm. It was creepy, man.”

“Maybe it was her reaction to you putting ketchup on an eighty-dollar steak.” My best friend Cam laughs on the other end. “Or maybe you read her wrong. Who knows?”

“I didn’t put ketchup on my steak, asshole. I can be classy when I need to be.”

My place is twenty blocks away from the restaurant, but I needed the walk. The temperature has dropped from earlier in the day, and the frost is literally nipping at my nose. I caught a glimpse of myself in a storefront window. I look like Rudolph the Fucking Red-Nosed Reindeer.

“Maybe she’s not happy about her dad getting remarried,” Cam offers.

I blow out a breath that appears in a cloud of mist in the cold air. I want to believe him. “Maybe. I’ll text her when I get home and my fingers work again.” I flex them, trying to get the blood flowing. “It got fucking cold tonight, man.”

“Good luck. Just don’t do the Maddox thing until you have all the facts. You can give us the details tomorrow when we play.” With that, he disconnects.

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