Page 62 of Unleashing Chaos

Jace flashes me a cheeky grin, and Cannon gives me a surprised raise of his brow and asks, “What were you two up to while I was gone?”

“Nothing really. It was like a trip to hell without you here,” Jace answers.

I clap my hand over my mouth, smothering a giggle. The way he talks about my home realm is so tongue in cheek, but I don’t miss the adoration in his eyes. He enjoyed his time with my family. A week ago he asked me to explain my family line and some of the legends of my realm. In exchange, he told me about his career and his decision to become a business owner. The give and take of our conversations has become one of my favorite things. Besides giving his ass a little swat.

Cannon comes over to the living room and flings himself in the chair across from me. “So . . .”

I lift an eyebrow and repeat, “So?”

“I have this friend who has two tickets to a concert downtown Saturday night. His date bailed on him, and I thought you might want to go.”

A chuckle rings out from the kitchen, accompanied by the tinny sound of a wooden spoon sliding in circles inside a pot. “Real smooth, bro.”

Cannon cranes his head over the chair back, looking in Jace’s direction. “I have the balls to ask the lady out on a date if that’s what I wanted to do.”

I cover my mouth with my fist. It’s a clear jab. Cannon has been saying for weeks that Jace has a thing for me. Now I know he does, but he’s dead set on not acting upon it. Shots have been fired, and Cannon took no prisoners.

“I don’t date,” Jace grumbles.

“Your loss, man.” Cannon shakes his head and hands his phone to me. “His name is Seth. Cool guy. Totally chill. I think you would have a good time with him.”

I look at the picture of a handsome guy with light-brown hair and hazel eyes, a smattering of freckles across his nose. He wears a baseball uniform with a field behind him.

“Is he really a baseball player?” I ask, unable to hide my excitement. One of my favorite rom-com actresses was in a movie about baseball. It was hard not to drool over the men in formfitting pants swinging at a ball with some kind of barbaric club.

“He is.”

Jace drops a pan in the sink with a loud clank. “Don’t set her up with a jock.”

I twist around on the couch so I’m facing my roommate, whose skin has suddenly taken on a slightly green hue. Well, it might as well have because he looks so jealous that I wonder if my brother Julius rubbed off on him while we were in Infernis.

“Oi, you over there, shut up,” I say with what I hope is a light, carefree tone. “I happen to like baseball.”

“Yeah, man, baseball players barely even qualify as ‘jocks.’ They’re not nearly as meatheaded as some of the other athletes I’ve known,” Cannon adds. “Seth’s a good guy.”

“I just think Desi needs . . .” Jace yanks open the refrigerator and pulls out a carton of heavy cream. “Someone who’ll put her first. Do you really think this guy is going to give up his baseball career?”

Cannon and I lock eyes. The exasperation on his face indicates his frustration with Jace. They always get along about everything. I hate to see a disagreement about my dating life putting a kink in their friendship.

“She’s running out of time, Jace. At this point, every decent guy should be a possibility.”

Jace fills a pot of water and slams down on the faucet handle to turn it off. He was in such a good mood a few minutes ago. I don’t understand why this conversation is getting to him. He doesn’t want to be one of my possibilities. He can’t possibly believe that I wasn’t going to come back and keep looking for a real partner.

“I mean, yeah, you’re right,” Jace says, mixing up ingredients for the sauce. “But shouldn’t we try to at least, I don’t know, make sure that we’re helping her choose men who are actually viable options? And not ones who are probably playboys who can’t commit to a cologne, let alone a woman for et—the rest of his life.”

I shrug and glance at Cannon. “That’s a fair enough point, but . . .” I look down at the picture of Seth again and wiggle my eyebrows at Cannon. “You went through all the trouble of setting this one up so I might as well, right?”

“You should. And you never know, maybe you and Seth will have a life-changing connection, and it all works out.”

Handing his phone back to him, I say, “Will you send him my number so we can work out a meet-up spot?”

“Absolutely.”

“Make sure your tracking is on. We don’t want another issue like the one at Apex Fusion,” Jace mumbles, adding more spice to the sauce.

“I will,” I say.

While Jace finishes dinner, Cannon gives me all the information about the singer performing Saturday night. He plays me their music and shows me footage from one of their concerts. We remain huddled on the couch until Jace calls us to eat.

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