With tears trickling down my cheeks, I pull out of the parking garage and turn toward home, my mind blank and my chest heavy. The drive passes in a blur and as I pull into my parking spot at the apartment, I wonder how I even made it this far without crashing. Once the car is in park, I flip the mirror down and try to do some damage control on my face. I may be slowly dying on the inside, but the doorman and my neighbors don’t need to know that.
When I feel like I’m as presentable as I’m going to get, I climb out of the car and head inside, avoiding the gazes of everyone who passes me. In the elevator, I slip my sunglasses on to hide how red and puffy my eyes are. A few people give me weird looks, but I ignore them. Who gives a shit what they think anyway, right? The elevator stops on my floor and I shuffle past the woman in front of me as I exit the car and step into the hallway.
“Excuse you,” she huffs but I don’t have the energy to bother with her. With my head down, I walk to my apartment and stop when black boots come into view. My head snaps up and a soft gasp slips past my lips.
“Chance, what are you doing here?” I ask, eyeing the bottle of my favorite wine in his hand.
“Sweetheart, you didn’t really think I was going to leave you alone after that call, did you?”
God, what did I ever do to deserve this man?
Another sob tears through me and his brow furrows in concern as he closes the space between us and wraps his arms around me. I feel more secure than I have since Julian left my office and I cling to him, hoping he never lets me go.
“Baby,” he whispers into my hair, squeezing me tighter.
“You didn’t have to come here but I’m really glad you did,” I tell him, my voice hoarse from all the tears I’ve shed this afternoon. His lips press against my forehead.
“I always know what you need.”
“You really do, don’t you?” Even when I was fighting every single thing I felt for him, Chance always knew the truth.
“Why don’t we go inside and I’ll get a fire going? You can curl up on my lap and tell me what happened. That sound like a deal?”
I nod against his chest and I feel rather than hear his chuckle as he takes the keys from my hand and opens the front door with me still wrapped up in his arms. He navigates us inside and closes the door behind me before setting the wine down. I finally pull myself out of his grasp and kick my heels off.
“Let me just go change really quick,” I say, scooping my shoes up, and he nods. Leaving him in the kitchen, I pad into my bedroom and drop my heels in the closet as I go to the drawers on the back wall. I quickly strip off everything but my panties before grabbing Chance’s shirt that I stole from the clubhouse and pulling it over my head. For a second, I consider putting shorts on before deciding that I’m most comfortable like this.
Chance is sitting on the couch with a fire roaring in front of him when I walk into the living room and he glances back at me, his eyebrows shooting up.
“Love the threads, Princess.”
I offer him a smile. “Me, too. It still smells like you.”
“Oh, yeah?” he asks, holding his hand out to me. “What do I smell like?”
I take his hand and let him pull me into his lap as he wraps his arms around me. “Cinnamon gum.”
He throws his head back and laughs. “And you like that?”
“I love it.”
“I’ll have to remember to thank Jerry for that.”
I tilt my head to the side and scowl. “Why?”
“When my mom first introduced Jerry to me, he brought me a pack of cinnamon gum and it just kind of became our thing. After she left him, I would find packs of gum in the mailbox or on my windowsill and I knew he was always watching out for me.”
“That’s so sweet,” I whisper.
Nodding his head, he kisses my head and hands me a glass of wine as he pinches the shirt between his fingers. “When did you lift this off me?”
“The night of the party,” I say, my smile drooping as I think about that night. He nods, reaching forward and lacing his fingers through mine before bringing my hand to his lips.
“So, you want to tell me what happened today?”
I toy with the stem of the wine glass, fighting back tears as I take a deep breath. “My sister’s fiancé showed up at my job.”
“And?” he asks, his voice soft. It encourages me to keep talking.
“And he told me Ivy wanted me out of her life completely and I was no longer invited to their wedding.”
“Oh, baby,” he whispers, pulling me closer and I bury my head in his neck. “Did y’all have a big fight?”
I shake my head. “No. It doesn’t make any sense. Unless…”
“Unless what?” he asks when my voice trails off and I shake my head again, not sure that I’m ready to talk about this with him. Then again, this is what he does. If I can’t trust Chance with this, then who can I trust?
“I don’t like her fiancé. We had lunch together earlier this week and I noticed a bruise on her wrist. She said it was nothing but when we all had dinner on Tuesday, I saw another bruise. When they left, Aunt Dottie and I spied on them through the window…” My voice cracks and Chance tenses underneath me.
“What did you see, Carly?”
I draw in a ragged breath. “He slapped her right there in the middle of the street.”
“I’m so sorry,” he whispers, his voice full of pain and I know he means it. Chance deals with the horrors of these situations all day long so he knows what I’m going through. “Who’s her fiancé?”
“Julian Henshaw.”
He’s quiet for a moment. “The mayor’s kid?”
“Yep.”
“And your sister doesn’t want help?”
I shake my head, my heart aching again. “No. As far as Ivy is concerned, Julian hangs the moon but I’m so worried about her, Chance. Something about that guy… he’s scary.”
He takes my wine glass from my hand and grabs my hips, lifting me off him so he can turn me to face him. I straddle his legs and meet his eyes.
“I hate that I can’t fix this right now. Please know the second she says she wants help, the guys and I will be there for you.”
A weight I didn’t even realize was there lifts off me and a tear spills down my cheek. “Thank you, Chance. You have no idea how much that helps.”
At the very least, I have a plan. Now we just need Ivy to wake up and realize that she needs to get out.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chance
“Here’s your table, sir,” the hostess says, stopping in front of the U-shaped booth I reserved for tonight.
“Thanks.”
Carly slides in one side of the booth and I sit across from her as the hostess lays our menus down in front of us. When she leaves, I glance out the large floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over the Mississippi Rover with the lights of Port Allen shimmering on the water’s surface. Thinking over what I have planned tonight, I can’t help but smile. Hopefully, Carly has never heard of this place and she’ll be surprised. When I originally asked her out, I wanted to wow her but now I’m just hoping to take her mind off Ivy for a while.