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With every second she witnessed Brian’s excitement, her own seemed to cool. Yeah, Team Unlimited, but at what cost? She’d do well to be wary. She took a step back and turned to inspect a scratch on the wall. “I don’t know.”
“You—you don’t know?” Brian seemed to be incredulous. No, that was too mild a word. He was downright shell-shocked. “I come all the way to Whistler—”
“Which no one asked you to do—” Addisyn interjected coolly.
“Baby, you can’t miss this chance!”
Addisyn took a deep breath. Everything was so badly scrambled inside her she couldn’t even diagnose her emotions. But wasn’t this what she had always longed for? What was wrong with her?
One thing she knew for sure. Until she could take a closer look at what was happening inside her heart, she couldn’t make any sweeping decisions. “I need to think about it, Brian.” Her voice was steady, even if her spirit wasn’t. “This has been very—unexpected. Also, I have a job at the local coffee shop here now.” She took a deep breath. “I will let you know tomorrow.”
“Addisyn—baby—this is—” Brian seemed at a complete loss for words. “We have limited time—the flight leaves at five thirty tomorrow afternoon, and there’s still the bus ride back to Vancouver before we could even—”
Addisyn strode resolutely to the door and held it open. “Come by here tomorrow afternoon at one o’clock. I’ll give you my decision then.”
Addisyn could see the frustration bubbling up in Brian’s mind, but he seemed to swallow his irritation as he left the room. On the threshold he turned. “Fine. Tomorrow. But—” His eyes bored into hers. “This is your future!”
And he was gone.
Addisyn closed the door and locked it. Then she walked slowly to the bed and plopped down on it.
Her insides were a cauldron of emotions. Shock—confusion—anxiety—uncertainty. But as she tried to grasp what was going on, as she held her emotions up to the light, one by one, to examine them, she suddenly realized one was missing. The one Brian had expected to evoke. The one that she herself would have expected more than any other.
In the swirling storm of her heart—where was excitement?
IT TOOK ALLhis willpower not to slam Addisyn’s door shut behind him. Brian squeezed his eyes shut and raked his fingers through his hair. Seriously, what was wrong with that girl?
He waited for a moment outside her door. Half expecting that she’d come running out, frantic to catch him. She’d look up at him with those melting eyes and tell him she’d lost her mind temporarily, tell him that passing up a chance like this would be nothing short of insane.
She’d thank him for getting her the deal and pull her dreams out of whatever storage box in her heart she’d crammed them into. He’d wrap his arms around her, feel her heartbeat against his once more. Next thing you knew, he’d be sipping pinot noir on a first-class flight to Chicago, with his sweet little baby perched next to him. Maybe resting her head on his shoulder or holding his hand.
He gritted his teeth and glared back at the door. It remained firmly shut. Seeing her had nearly driven him crazy. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. Perfect for the ice rink, where skaters were chosen—Brian was sure of it—on appearance and personality as much as talent or ability.
He tiptoed to the door and tried to listen. Only complete stillness. Clearly she wasn’t feverishly packing bags or even pacing the room in concern.
Anger pulsed hard and strong through Brian’s body. For a moment, he was a heartbeat away from kicking her door in and pitching a king-sized fit. Just in time, he stopped himself.If you lose it now, you blow it! Keep cool, man.He swung away from the door and strode back down the hall toward the elevator. What could she be thinking? She wasn’t, that was all. She couldn’t be. No athlete in her right mind would pass up a chance at Team Unlimited. Team Unlimited! The outlandishness of it felt like a physical blow.
He stabbed the elevator button and stood with folded arms as it began its descent. At the lobby, he took a deep breath and smoothed his hair before exiting.
When he came out of the elevator, he wasn’t the same man who’d entered it with a heart full of rage. No. He couldn’t afford that. Instead, he was now the picture of cool precision. With elaborate care, he pulled down his shirt sleeves, twisting his arms to find the best fit, and straightened his collar.
He made his way to the lobby area and sank into one of the overstuffed red armchairs. The pattern was blurred where so many had rested their elbows on the armrests. He couldn’t avoid a sneer of disgust. Addisyn hadn’t invested a lot of money into getting a nice place, that was for sure. The carpet looked like it hadn’t been vacuumed in a month.
He leaned back and crossed his legs. Okay. Time to do some deep thinking.
I have a job at the coffee shop.Addisyn’s words drifted through his mind. He tried to put himself in her shoes—admittedly, a challenge he’d always found difficult. So, when she got here, maybe she was bored, or needed a little extra pocket money. Okay, so she got a job at a coffee shop. Fair enough, so far—but she wanted to keep it now? He frowned and shook his head. Seriously, that made zero sense. With a chance at Team Unlimited on the horizon, she should have been turning her apron in immediately. Nobody would choose being a barista over being an Olympian! Yet she’d cited this stupid blue-collar job as her excuse for staying in Whistler.
No matter how he examined the facts, they didn’t fit. There had to be something else at play here.
Was it that guy? Suddenly he felt cold all over. The long-haired Uber-driver dude? No. No, surely not. Addisyn couldn’t have fallen in—
Could she?
His heartbeat skipped and slurred. Boiling anger made it feel as if his hair was standing on end. He clenched his jaw and fisted his hands.
Calm down.It wasn’t possible. Addisyn wouldn’t fall for a guy like that—even if he was, Brian had to grudgingly admit, rather nice-looking in a rough way. Brian pictured the man again, his lean frame, his wavy hair, his stocking cap and plaid shirt. Typical millennial hippie. No, Addisyn wouldn’t look twice at a loser like that.
Would she?
Recovering from the numbness of epiphany, Brian’s brain began to gradually accept the idea as possible. Maybe even—plausible? He willed his heartrate to slow as he mentally ticked off the reasons it was more than a crazy paranoid idea. She’d come to Whistler alone and lonely. The guy wasn’t ugly, even if he was quite obviously not somebody with his act all together. He drove for Uber—an inglorious job, but then her height of ambition was apparently working at a coffee shop. And wouldn’t an Uber driver drink plenty of coffee? Most telling of all, the guy had a picture of Addisyn taped to his dash. And not just Addisyn—Addisyn and him. Together. Didn’t there have to be—well, something there?
Hot blood pumped through Brian’s veins. What had this jerk been doing? Some nerve, helping himself to Brian’s girl. Sure, Addisyn should have told him she was taken, but that in no way excused this punk. Pictures of them eating together, laughing together, maybe even cuddling together flashed through Brian’s mind.
For an instant the anger seemed to strangle him. He thought about hunting the lowlife down, giving him the ultimatum, letting him know if he so much as thought about Addisyn again, he’d get all his teeth knocked out.
Could this have happened? Addisyn felt impossibly distant suddenly—as if she’d slipped out of his grasp and hung, tantalizingly beautiful and desirable, just above his reach. After all this—cajoling Ed, braving Avery, flying all over North America—that was it? The end of her Olympic career? And her exit from Brian’s life? For some low-life drifter with that irritating West Coast dip to his voice?
Brian forced himself to take a deep breath. No! She hadn’t seen the last of him yet. Oh, he’d be there tomorrow, all right. And in less than twenty-four hours from now, she’d be on a plane with him, heading back to Chicago. That Uber driver wasn’t an impediment. Not in the least.
No, he was just one more reason for Brian to get his baby out of Whistler—asap.
