Page 71 of Forever Player

I stop by the day care and speak to Natasha since she is the manager. We make a plan for me to be in touch once Yana calls me with my schedule. I’m about to leave the gym when I realize I don’t have an Uber account and I am not calling Brett to send me a car. I take a seat on one of the benches in the front entrance so I can set up my own account. I download the app and I begin to put in my information when Silas walks by, wearing a black winter puffer coat.

“Do you need a ride somewhere?” he asks.

“That’s okay, thanks. I was just about to call an Uber,” I reply.

“Don’t be silly, I was just leaving. I can drop you off,” he says without knowing where I need to go.

I give him Brett’s address.

“Are you sure it isn’t out of the way for you?” I double-check.

“It’s not far from where I need to go,” he states.

“Thanks.”

I head out to the parking lot with Silas, and we get into his Honda CRV.

We head into traffic.

“You’re originally from Tennessee, right?” he asks.

“Yup,” I say, surprised he remembers. I don’t have much of an accent since I tried really hard to lose it when I moved to New York for college.

“Cool. I can’t imagine what it’s like living in a small town. I’ve lived in the city all my life,” he says.

“Life is definitely slower back in Sugar Meadow.”

“Oh, that’s such a cute name,” he says.

I’m not sure what to say to that.

“Thanks?”

He laughs. “You’re adorable, Willow.”

I freeze.

He doesn’t notice.

“So does your family have a farm out there with horses and the works?” he asks.

“Yup, we got horses, goats, and sheep and my one brother makes cheese from the sheep and goats’ milk. We are a true farming family.”

“So cool.”

We drive for another five minutes in silence. When I point for him to drop me at the curb in front of Brett’s building, he says, “Whoa, nice place.”

“Thanks,” I reply without further explanation. I obviously couldn’t afford a place like this on a trainer’s salary. “I appreciate the ride.”

“Take care,” he says.

I leave his SUV and head inside the apartment. Brett is going to want to talk about my reaction at the restaurant, but I don’t really have anything to say. I’m not going to tell him I feel like I can never match up to his previous conquests. It also wasn’t cool of him to take me to a place where he’s clearly slept with the waitresses, although that may put all restaurants in the vicinity of this apartment on an off-limits list if I said something. Brett has a busy past where women are concerned. I knew this about him from the first night we met. It was supposed to only be one night of lust, and yet here we are. He’s pushing for more. I don’t know what to do. Not when I have feelings for him. This whole situation feels like my heart is on a train going way too fast with the inevitability it’s going to crash.

CHAPTERNINETEEN

Brett

With Maylee asleep in her crib, I decide to do floor exercises to burn off some extra steam. I am on my fortieth push-up when Willow walks through the door. I pause and sit on my ass to catch my breath, resting my arms on my knees.

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