Page 84 of The Chase

“No occasion. It’s her second week of going to therapy, and she was a wreck after the first appointment.”

“Ah, so you want to cheer her up.”

I nodded. “It took a bit of convincing to get her to go. I thought she was going to walk out when I asked.”

“Oh. When she had that nightmare and tried to break up with you?”

I rubbed my jaw. “Yeah. That shit was scary. I’m so afraid of…”

“What?”

I groaned. “Did Rox tell you about Natalie?”

He shook his head.

“She told me I was a useless jock and—”

He interrupted me. “Max doesn’t think that about you. You’re trying to help her.”

I sighed. “I know. Sometimes it’s really hard, you know?”

“Yeah, I know. I’m dating your sister, who can be a pain in my ass, but I love her, so I always fight for her. You gotta fight for Max even when she makes it difficult and you want to throw in the towel.”

I nodded.

I was glad Benny said he fought for Rox because sometimes she made it hard on herself when she lashed out too quickly without thinking first. I could be that way too, but I’d been trying my hardest not to be that way with Max.

Benny smirked at me. “You seem nervous, bro! She’ll appreciate that you tried. I’ll walk you through everything.”

“I’ll owe you one.”

He gave me a conspiratorial look. “I might pull that favor soon.”

“My sister doesn’t want to play for the Philadelphia Liberty, huh?”

He groaned. “So stubborn! I’ll help you tonight if you talk to her about it. She needs to be out there on the ice with players of her stature. Beer League’s fine, but she should play professionally. Even if the money sucks.”

I put out my hand. “Deal.”

We shook on it, and then Benny dragged me out to the market.

I spent the rest of the afternoon under Benny’s careful eye cooking my girlfriend dinner. A few times, he told me I was doing it wrong. I didn’t know how he and Rox didn’t kill each other when they were cooking together. She liked to be in control in the kitchen, and Benny was micromanaging me.

We were plating everything when there was a knock on the door. I wiped my hands with a hand towel and went to open it. When I opened it, my beautiful girlfriend was standing behind it with a tear-stained face.

“Oh baby,” I cooed, and she walked into my arms.

I wrapped my arms around her and held her to my chest. I ran my hands down her back and rubbed it while I let her cry on my shoulder.

She lifted her head after a few seconds and wiped at her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

I tilted her chin up and gave her a quick kiss. “Nothing to be sorry about. Tell me about it?”

She shook her head. “No.” She cocked her head at the scene in the kitchen and then looked back at me. “Did you make me dinner?”

“Benny helped.”

“Thank you, TJ. That was really nice of you.”