Choking over my words, I said, “No. Breakfast is good. I’m hungry. You?”
“Starving.” The look in his eyes implied that he wasn’t necessarily referring to food.
I was starving, too.
“Okay, then,” I said as I retreated to my side of the tent to cool off.
It took us about an hour to break down our campsite and pack everything back into my car.
We opted to stop for takeout breakfast at a fast food place that was just before the on ramp to the highway. Chance had gone inside to order our huevos rancheros breakfast burritos and coffee. I used the opportunity to take my phone out and typed into Google: Chance Bateman Australia.
There he was. A plethora of pictures popped up. There was one in particular where he was shirtless, wearing nothing but a white t-shirt draped around his neck, and you could see just a tease of the top of his juicy ass. The picture showcased his signature sexy smirk that made me squirm in my seat. That cocky smile. Goddammit, he was handsome. That same image seemed to be the one that came up the most. It was also the one that was being sold as a poster for a cool $19.99 plus shipping and handling. There was even a picture of some girl standing next to the poster on her wall pretending to bite his ass. I suspected there were other people out there playing their own twisted versions of pin the tail on the Chance.
Knowing he’d be back any minute, I was reading through old articles and message boards so fast that my eyes hurt. It was definitely evident that Chance was more well-known for his debut game injury and his looks than anything else. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride for how he’d turned lemons into lemonade, though. Scrolling down, I came across some pictures of him at various events with the same attractive blonde model. Piper Ramsey. A twinge—well, maybe a boatload—of jealousy developed in the pit of my stomach.
A knock on the window startled me. I tossed the phone aside, and it fell into the driver’s seat. Well, more like I threw it over there.
“Open up for your coffee,” I heard him say through the window. I took my cup from him as he walked around and got into the driver’s seat. “What were you looking at?”
“Um, nothing. I was just…”
Shit.
Before I had a chance to explain myself, he lifted the phone, scrolling through the pictures with his thumb. He then threw it down onto the center console. “Well, now you’ve seen it all, haven’t you?”
“Yes…and it’s…pretty amazing.”
He let out a single angry laugh. “Amazing, eh?”
“Yes!”
“And tell me, Aubrey, what exactly is so amazing about working practically your entire life for one single moment and seeing it all go up in flames on the very first try? What is so amazing about being more famous for your failure than your success? You know what was so nice about this trip with you up until now? You didn’t see me as that guy that everyone thinks they know, and now you do.”
Shit. I’d really upset him.
“I’m sorry, but I wasn’t thinking those things at all.”
“What were you thinking then?”
“I was thinking about how wonderful it was that you could stand up proudly in the face of adversity and still make a name for yourself on your image alone. I was also thinking about how striking you are, if you really want to know. And I was wondering who that girl Piper was. I was curious about everything, yes, but not in a bad way. Not once did I think anything negative.”
Chance let out a long, deep breath and muttered, “Let’s just go.”
I felt so horrible for upsetting him and even though the internet was public, it somehow felt like I had invaded his privacy. More than anything, I felt like I had hurt him, and that hurt me, because whether or not I wanted to admit it, there was an unwanted ache in my chest. I could feel myself falling for him, and that scared me.
An uncomfortable silence clouded the air for the better part of an hour. The only time he’d move his hands from the wheel was to feed Esmerelda Snowflake pieces of hash brown patty dipped in cock sauce. Even the goat liked cock sauce.
At one point, he finally looked over at me. “I’m sorry I snapped at you.”
“It’s okay. I’m sorry that I made you uncomfortable.”
“I probably would have done the same thing if I were you. It’s just…all the stuff online, it’s all bullshit. That’s not the way to get to know me. If you want to know something, just ask me. Those people that post shit don’t really know me.”
“I do feel like I know the real you.”
“You probably know more than most people. I’ve been nothing but myself with you from the moment we met. Even though I give you shit, I feel comfortable around you, and that’s rare for me.”
There was that feeling in my chest again.
“I feel the same about you, and I don’t really understand it. I just know I’m really glad that we crossed paths.”
He tapped the bobblehead. “Just think…if you’d never picked up Mr. Obama here, who knows where we’d both be right now?” He pointed to the backseat. “Where would this beast be right now?”
“Probably passed out on the side of the road.”
Chance glanced back at the goat. “Instead, he’s eating our food and sleeping with both of us. No thanks to me. It was all you.” He flashed a sexy side glance and startled me when he put his hand on my knee, triggering a sudden rush of desire. “You’re sweet. You have a good heart. That prick, Harrison, is gonna be sorry someday.” When he took his hand away, I longed for its return. What he’d said also sent shivers throughout my body. An indescribable feeling overwhelmed me. I didn’t know how to respond, so I turned on the radio. Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys happened to be on.
Chance turned up the volume. “Look at that! They’re singing about you and your magic wand, Princess.”
I covered my mouth in laughter, and we both cracked up. We’d finally broken through the earlier tension, and that gave me a sense of relief.
After we stopped for lunch and had driven for several more hours, Chance turned to me. “Are you in a rush to get to Temecula by a certain time?”
“I don’t start my new position for another week, and the house I’m renting is fully furnished, so not really. Why?”
“Care to take a little detour before darkness falls?”
“Sure. I’d be up for that. What do you have in mind?”
“Somewhere rock hard and deep.” He winked.
Well, that piqued my curiosity.
Chapter Six
We parked the car near the perfect spot overlooking the steep rocky walls of the Grand Canyon. Its beauty was overwhelming.
“Oh my God, Chance. I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of stopping here myself. I’ve always wanted to see it in person. It hadn’t dawned on me that it was right on our way. It’s so breathtaking.”
I looked over at him and saw that he’d been staring at me instead of out toward the majestic peaks.
“Yeah. It’s very beautiful,” he said in a low voice.
“Let’s take a picture.”
With the Canyon as the backdrop, Chance snapped a selfie of us with his phone. He then texted it to me so I’d have it. The snapshot came out so good. The sun was shining into the blue of his eyes, and we both looked so happy and at peace. It made me wish this moment could go on forever, that we never had to leave this place.
As we sat looking out into a blaze of red colors while the sun set over the panoramic scenery, Chance suddenly said, “Tell me about your family.”
“My mother lives back in Chicago. She wasn’t happy about me moving at all. I’m her only child. But ever since she remarried, I’ve felt like she hasn’t needed me as much. My father died a year after I graduated from law school, so at least he got to see me live out his dream, which was that I become a lawyer like him.”
“It was his dream, but not yours…” he said in understanding.
“No. It’s really not what I wanted.”
“What is your dre
am?”
“I just want to be happy and fulfilled, but I have no clue what that even means anymore or how to get there. So much is up in the air right now for me. I feel like I’m at a crossroads in my life.”
“That’s not the worst thing in the world. Sounds like a good time to find yourself, especially since no one is tying you down.”
“Yeah, I suppose.”
“Speaking of which, I think we definitely scared off Harry Balls for good.”
Our laughter at his comment caused an echo.
I stretched my arms and stared up at the sky. “You know what? I’m definitely happy right now. This—our little adventure—has been good for my soul.”
He flashed a sincere smile. “You have a good soul. I could see that about you straight away despite your little bitch façade. You know why you’re happy?”
“Why?”
“Because you’re finally loosening up.”
“I guess you took the stick out of my ass while I was sleeping in the tent last night then?”
“Yup. Burned it in the campfire.” He nudged me with his shoulder.
I smiled and changed the subject off of me. “What about your family? Where are they?”
Chance paused and scratched his chin. “Like you, I also lost my father. He died of pancreatic cancer a few years after my injury.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“I just have one sister, Adele. She’s two years younger. With Dad gone, my mother and she decided to move back to the states, but I stayed back in Melbourne. I never planned to move back here with them, but Adele got into some really bad shit. She needed me. I had no choice but to leave everything there behind to come handle things here.”
“What happened?”
“It’s a long story, but basically, she took up with a drug dealer and started using as well. It was a fucking nightmare.”
“God, that’s awful.”
“I felt a lot of guilt because with my Dad gone, I was supposed to be the man of the family, looking out for her. I had my head stuck so far up my ass in Melbourne that I didn’t know how bad things were with Adele.”
“Where is she now?”
“Hermosa Beach…lives near me.”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s straightened up a lot, although she’s still a work in progress. She’s not with that motherfucker anymore. That’s the main thing.”
“And your Mom?”
“I was coming back from visiting her when I ran into you, actually. She’s living in Iowa temporarily now to be closer to her mother. My Gram is dying. But my mother was also living in California near us before Gram got sick.”
“I’m sorry to hear about your grandmother.”
“Thanks.”
“I think that was very selfless of you to drop everything and move back here for your sister.”
“Well, my life had been nothing but selfish up until then. Nothing should ever come before family. I learned that the hard way. Adele and my mother mean everything to me.”
“They’re lucky to have you. I wish I had a bigger family.”
“You’ll have one of your own someday.”
“I’d like to, but I’m not sure it’s in the cards for me. I haven’t had the best luck with men.”
“Don’t tell me there were bigger douchebags than Harrison?”
I chuckled. “Along the same lines.”
“Let me guess. After you broke up, I bet they all came running back. Am I right?”
Pausing, I said, “Now that I think about it…yeah. I’ve only had a few serious boyfriends, but they all did come back at one point or another asking for a second chance. How did you figure that?”
“Wild guess.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Girls like you are hard to find.”
“Girls like me? Explain.”
“Okay. It’s not hard to find a beautiful woman, right? Definitely not hard to find a smart woman. And there are definitely some women with good hearts. But in my experience, it’s extremely rare to find the whole package.”
“Don’t even try to say you have trouble finding women, Chance Bateman. You could have anyone you wanted.”
He squinted his eyes at me. “Is that what you think?”
“Am I wrong? You’re not a chick magnet?”
“Crazy psycho bitch magnet, maybe.”
“You’ve never found the whole package?”
“The one time I thought I had, it turned out I was dead wrong. I thought it was love, but in retrospect, it was merely infatuation.”
“Was that Piper?”
His expression turned sullen as he looked down. “Yeah.”
“What happened?”
“Piper was my fiancé.”
“Wow. You were going to marry her?”
“Yeah. Proposed to her three months into the relationship. Not too smart.”
“She’s gorgeous.”
“You’re prettier,” he said without hesitation.
“And you’re a fucking liar.”
“I have no reason to lie. I’ve seen her without makeup. I’ve seen you without makeup. I’m telling you that you’re prettier.”
From the pictures I’d seen, Piper was blonde, thin and conventionally beautiful. With my unruly auburn waves and curvy frame, I looked nothing like her.
“How can you say that? She’s a friggin supermodel. How can I possibly compete with that?”
“Your beauty is more natural. You don’t need a drop of makeup. Your hair is out of place and wild. Sexy. The freckles scattered across your nose give you character. I mentally play connect the dots with them. When you move, your tits move with you because they’re not fake. And don’t get me started on your ass. Shall I go on?”
Feeling suddenly shy, I grinned nervously and briefly looked away before asking, “What happened with her?”
“Well, as you know from your stalking me, Piper’s a small celebrity in her own right. I’d met her at a nightclub right around the time I was first signed to the team. She stuck by me for a while after the injury. She really enjoyed the limelight that came along with my sudden and odd fame. But as the months went on, her excitement started to wear off. I wasn’t enough for her anymore. When I’d gone through a bit of a depression, I stopped wanting to go out. She kept on with it and eventually took up with one of my teammates behind my back. She’s married to him now with two kids.”
“Wow. What a cunt.”
Chance bent his head back in laughter. “Princess, did you just use the C word?”
“Yup. First time in my life, but it was worth it.”
“I didn’t know you had such a dirty mouth.”
“Neither did I, but damn, it felt good to say it.”
“I liked hearing you say it. I think you should shout it out into the vast wide open canyon in fact.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah. Do it. Do it! Shout it out.”
“Cunt!”
“Say it again louder!”
“Cunt!” my voice echoed.
“Again.”
“CUNT!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
We heard a thump against the window coming from the car parked just behind us. Chance hopped up to check on things. “Ah, crap. You scared the shit out of Mutton. He just dropped down.”
“Oh no.”
“That’s not all.”
“What is it?” I got up and ran toward him.
“When I say scared the shit out of him…I now mean literally. Bugger took a dump all over your backseat.”
“What?”
After Chance did his best to clean the mess with some Wet Ones wipes, the mood of our Grand Canyon excursion had officially been ruined. It was getting too dark to enjoy it anyway.
“Do you mind if we don’t camp tonight?” I asked. “I’d like to shower and sleep in a bed.”
“What do you say we go find a hotel near here, have a nice dinner, hot showers and call it a night. I’d like to sleep
in your bed, too.”
“What did you say?”
“I said I’d like to sleep in a bed, too.”
“Oh.”
“What if we can’t find a hotel that will let us take him in?”
“We definitely won’t. So, we’re gonna have to sneak him in.”
Chance stopped at a drugstore on the way to the hotel while I waited in the car. When he returned, he handed me a plastic bag containing bottles of water, snacks, duct tape and…diapers.
“You bought diapers?”
“Yes. Huggies Pull Ups. We’re figuring out how to put one on him, especially if he’s got the runs, and we’re taking him into a nice hotel.”
“I can’t believe I hadn’t thought about this problem before. Had he not gone to the bathroom all this time?”
Chance pointed back behind us. “Did you see how much he shit just now? He was backed up for days!”
We both broke out into hysterical laughter, wiping tears from our eyes. When we finally calmed down, Chance started the car and drove toward the highway.
Somewhere in the middle of Arizona, Chance pulled into the parking lot of a pretty high end hotel about ten minutes off the interstate. After I got our room keys, we came up with a plan where I would distract the front desk clerk while Chance snuck the goat in. He’d wrapped him in one of my comforters and sped past the desk and into the elevator.
Chance had the door adjoining our separate rooms open when I got upstairs.
He’d already managed to put two Pull Ups on Esmerelda Snowflake, wrapping some tape around the top to secure them. Chance hadn’t noticed me, and I watched as the goat jumped into his arms and licked his face.
“Alright, buddy. Calm down. You’re a good mate, you know that? A good mate.”
“You’re being so sweet with him.”
Chance turned his head toward me suddenly, surprised to see me standing there. “Bugger’s growing on me.”
“I know the feeling.”
Because you’re growing on me.
“I was thinking I’d go out and get us something nice to eat. Do you like wine?”
“I do. I’ve actually been dying for a glass.”
“What kind do you like?”
“Any kind of white.”
“I like red. I’ll get both.”
Cocky Bastard Page 5
