Page 102 of Worth the Chase

“But you’ll let me know if you get uncomfortable or you’re not okay, won’t you?” I glanced at her as I pulled out a gray suit.

“Of course. But I think I’ll be fine. You hired security, right?” She was thumbing through her clothes.

“Yeah. He starts today.”

“Thank you for that.”

“Baby, I’d do anything for you. Anything. You just name it.” I faced her, and she stopped moving her hangers to turn around and look at me.

“I know you would. I appreciate it so much.”

Her voice was filled with a sincerity that I didn’t need to hear. At least not from her. I knew how good and true Bella was. She’d never take advantage of me or use me for my money. Hell, the girl had loved me when I had nothing except my good looks. Not that I could blame her.

I finished getting dressed and saw the outfit Bells had pulled out and set on top of the dressing table. She’d actually pulled out a pair of pants and a bodysuit. It wasn’t her typical attire. No extra skin would be showing on my girl today. She usually wore a tank top or a cropped top. Not that I minded having her covered up. I just paid attention to the subtle differences.

“I’ll text you later. Hey, things with your parents and your brother went pretty well, don’t you think?”

We hadn’t even talked about seeing them yet.

“I do. It was hard to tell them, but still better than I’d expected. And I’m so relieved that Leo knows about us. I didn’t realize that I had been kind of stressed out, keeping that secret.”

“Yeah. If he was going to be pissed about anything, it could have been that part, and I wouldn’t have even blamed him,” I agreed. Looking back, I realized it had kind of been a shitty thing for us to do, but it was over now.

I wanted to bring up the self-defense class or the therapy that Thomas had mentioned, but it felt like I’d be piling way too many things on her all at once. I didn’t want to overwhelm her, so I decided we could talk about it later.

Besides, I had my own shit to deal with. I’d been getting referrals for sports psychologists from other retired hockey players over the last week. I hadn’t mentioned it to Bells yet because I hadn’t chosen one. I’d finally pull the plug and schedule an online meeting today. I had to work through losing hockey earlier than expected, and now, I had what had happened to her and how helpless I’d felt. It had never been a more pertinent time for me to get my shit together and become the kind of man Bells could be proud of—in every aspect, not just my ridiculously good looks and charm.

But truthfully, I wanted to be proud of myself too.

RIPPING IT OFF

BELLA

Matthew had left for the resort almost an hour ago. I loved him to pieces, but was grateful for the space. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since the incident, and so much had happened in such a short span of time.

I finished getting ready for work and stared at myself in the full-length mirror from every angle. I’d picked out clothes that hopefully wouldn’t give anyone the wrong impression. Of course, I knew that what I had worn yesterday had nothing to do with what had happened to me, but still… there was this little voice inside my head that nagged at me.

Don’t show too much skin.Don’t be too friendly. Maybe a little less makeup today?

It was completely messed up, but how many times had we heard about women who had been raped getting torn apart because of what they had worn? Too many to count, if I was being honest. And that kind of stuff lived in your subconscious whether you wanted it to or not.

So, here I was, wearing pants and a long-sleeved black bodysuit. My outfit was simple. Tasteful even. And it hid the bruises that had blossomed overnight on my arms. When Matthew had spotted them, he’d had to remove himself from our bed just to calm himself down. I’d never seen him so conflicted. He’d looked like he was battling a war all his own, and even though I wanted to comfort him, I knew that I needed to put myself first. His feelings mattered, but mine mattered more.

I wasn’t really nervous about going back to work. In fact, I wanted the normalcy and routine that it provided. Even though there would be a million questions and lingering sympathetic looks, it was either get it out of the way now or put it off forsome other day. There was no making it go away entirely or pretending like it never happened. I was sure the entire town had heard about it by now.

Which also made me think that the locals would be showing up at the restaurant today and forcing the tourists out. Not that I had any issue with that. It made me grateful that I’d called Ben earlier to see what his job status was. Luckily for me, he’d just quit Sugar Saloon a couple of weeks back, and he was available to start ASAP. He was meeting me at the restaurant in twenty minutes.

I grabbed my hair and pulled it back into a tight ponytail before dusting a light coat of mascara on my eyelashes. One last look at myself, and I was ready to go. At least as ready as I’d ever be.

I noticed the line out the window from my view at the bar as I sliced some limes and glanced around for where the new security cameras were. The rest of the staff had definitely heard what had happened, but aside from giving me hugs and asking if I was okay, they didn’t ask anything else.

When Ben walked in through the back door and stood in the wrong section, a little dazed, I called his name and waved him over.

“Hey,” he said, sounding out of breath once he reached me. “Is it always like this?” He motioned toward the line outside.

“I haven’t seen people waiting like that since we first opened.” I shrugged.

He held a hoodie and his baseball hat in his hands. “Wasn’t sure where to put my things.”

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