Page 2 of Worth the Chase

I would have remembered doing something that dramatic, wouldn’t I?

Thoughts swirled in my head as I searched my past memories for the answer that was clearly eluding me. I’d kissed heronce. Right before I left for the NHL. But one kiss couldn’t have broken her heart. Granted, I was a hell of a kisser, but heartbreaking? I mean, I guessed it was possible.

“Don’t act like you don’t know exactly what you did, Matthew O’Grady,” she sassed, and I felt like a dog who’d just gotten their treat taken away.

“I don’t, Bells. I really don’t. Tell me. Please,” I continued my pleading, but she was unfazed.

“Just go away. I’m not a game. Or some prize you can pick out of a machine just because you’re bored.”

Whoa. Where’d that come from?

“I’m not bored, Bells.”

“You sure do act like it. Always hanging out at the Sugar Saloon, drinking yourself into a stupor like you have nothing else to do with your time.”

Shit.

I wasn’t bored per se, but I did hate being alone. Was no good at it really. There were people who thrived being by themselves, who had no issue with spending time in solitude, but I was definitely not one of them. Being alone was too loud. It allowed all the ugly thoughts to come screaming into my head. The ones I couldn’t shake or get rid of. So, yeah, fuck being by myself all the time. I needed to be distracted, and she was my absolute favorite distraction.

“I hang out at the saloon because that’s where you are, Bells. I could do anything I wanted with my time, but I choose to be with you.”

“Oh my God.” She rolled her eyes. “Give me a break. I might have fallen for all your pretty words when I was a kid, but I’m not a teenager anymore, and I don’t believe a thing you say.”

“Then, I’ll show you.” I slammed my hand on top of the bar before pointing a single finger at her.

“Please don’t,” she groaned, and I was pretty certain she meant it.

I really thought I’d be able to wear her down. I figured her sassy attitude and constant sarcastic responses were just a front. But I was starting to think that there might be more to it than that. Maybe she really did want me to go away forever.

Patrick and Addi excused themselves, leaving me alone with Bells, much to her disappointment. It was ironic that I was the one chasing her now when she’d done it for so many years before.

“Bells?” I said her name sweetly, and she gave me a look that could have killed weaker men.

“Go away, Matthew. I mean it. I know you think I’m joking, but I’m not.”

Right then, some guy I barely knew, but someone I had seen around the resort before, walked up and asked Bella for a water. She gave him a smile she’d yet to give me. The guy ate it up, loving every second of attention she offered. It made me jealous as hell.

I wanted that attention for myself.

“One night, Bells,” I whispered as soon as the guy finally took his stupid water and walked away.

“No nights, Matthew.”

“One.”

“None.”

“What do you have to lose?”

“Everything. Plus, Leo would kill you.”

Her brother wasn’t even here anymore. He’d moved away a few years back. What was he going to do, drive all the way out here to fight me and lose?

“You think he’d find out?” I asked, giving her my best smoldering look.

“No one in this town can keep a secret. Of course he’d find out.”

I leaned forward even more, my elbows on the bar top. “Let’s give them all something to talk about then.”

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