This isn’t the first time Chase gets mobbed by fans. It happens multiple times a day. This one is what Chase said the guys on the team call a Bruiser Babe—they flock to him like flamingos to a pond. She’s a bubbly brunette with team colors and a tattoo of the logo, which she proudly shares.
Chase is polite, signs her shirt, and they take several selfies.
I’m no Bruiser Babe. More like Auntie Awkward. If only I could find a guy who prefers quiet nights in, scented candles, popcorn, and Ted Lasso marathons.
I can’t deny that I wish I was looking at him. We’ve hadmoments,but those thirty seconds at the table were something else. His head was tilted just so. My cheeks flushed. Our mouths were close. So close.
But I have to crush this crush! I’m on a mission, people.
29
CHASE
With a grunt, I ask, “Can we be done now?”
Pippa checks the schedule on her phone. “No, you have a date.”
“What was that?” I thumb over my shoulder toward the pizza parlor.
“You playing hooky and eating lunch.”
“I was hoping it was more than that.”
Pippa stops on the sidewalk. In a whisper, she says, “One word: playbook. You can’t break the rules. I can’t either.”
“Sounds like you’re trying to talk yourself out of something.”
“I just don’t want to see you get in more trouble.”
“I can handle it. What I can’t deal with is this back and forth, hot and cold. You know you want me.” I drop the comment and leave it right there on the sidewalk between us, wondering what she’ll do with it.
“Chase. I can’t have you. Plus, we’re too different. You’re smooth and suave. I’m awkward and uncertain.”
“Not the case if those are bad things, but I like you the way you are.”
“I’m not normal. We both know that.”
I step closer because right here wouldn’t be a bad spot to pick up where we left off in the pizza shop. “I like your version of normal, Pippa.”
She gazes down at her feet. “To be clear, I’m not lacking self-confidence. I just don’t want to stick out. I refuse to call myself a hot mess, but I don’t exactly have it together.”
“Together,” I echo, wanting nothing more than for us to be going on dates, kissing, being together.
“Yeah, I have rules that stitch my life together.”
“And lists...” I trail off as I recall the crush list she was writing on the airplane and the one on my phone that I took a snapshot of in Rhiannon’s office.
Pippa’s comment about having a crush on me when we were at the Smythe’s comes at me sideways. She’s trying to get over me...and I have the original crush list and was the subject of it.
I’m about to confess this connection I just made when Pippa’s phone beeps and she whisks us to the location for my date.
Regret and resentment start to stack up like dominoes and I’m not sure how much longer I can handle being the nice guy and fighting against doing what I want...which is life with Pippa.
During some ofCoach Hammer’s more grueling workouts, when my energy wanes, I slip into a zone. Not to be confused withthezone, when I’m at my best. A zone is more what I imagine being a zombie or a robot must be like. It’s a place to go where I stop thinking and just do the work in front of me.
To be clear, I was not attacked by the undead or taken over by a cyborg (though the guys and I would love a zombie versus robot movie!), but I am just going through the motionswith these stupidCrush or Cupiddates. They’re increasingly ridiculous and pointless. I’m starting to wonder if Rhiannon is getting revenge on something I don’t remember doing.
Because nothing is worse than having Pippa watch me stroll the Boston Harbor with Ainsley, visit the museum with Jessy, or go out to dinner with Yasmin. It’s a nightmare because all I want is to be doing those things with Pippa.
