Chapter 5

five

. . .

Easton

We broke into doubles teams, and seeing as Archer was normally my partner, I told Henley she would sub out for him.

I needed to focus. Her legs in that cute-as-fuck pickleball skirt made it hard to look anywhere else.

I shook it off. We worked together. She was Charles’s daughter, and as a good mentor, I was just trying to get her out of the office to have a little fun.

Today was our first day of league play. We would be playing other doubles teams from the club to get a feel for the teams this year. The scores didn’t count today.

I was a competitive asshole, so where everyone else thought today would be fun, it was anything but for me. I knew the Wilcox brothers were out for blood this year, and from the minute we stepped onto the courts, they were watching us.

“These two fuckers are going to act like they don’t take this seriously, but trust me when I tell you, Barry Wilcox would sell a kidney for the club trophy,” I said as I leaned close to Henley’s ear.

She smelled like roses and jasmine, and it was fucking with my focus.

Agreeing to partner with an amateur was probably not my best move. Clark offered to team up with her, but for whatever reason, that didn’t sit well with me.

Maybe it was the way she giggled and looked at him with stars in her eyes. It pissed me off.

I’d just have to overcompensate for her lack of skill and up my game. I could beat the Wilcox brothers by myself if I had to.

“Wow. You take your pickleball pretty seriously.” She chuckled.

“Buckle up, Princess. Things are about to get real.”

“What do we have here?” Barry asked, as he sauntered over like the slimeball he was. “Did you bring a beautiful woman to sub out for Archer to try to distract us?”

There was no need to distract this bastard. I didn’t need any help crushing him.

“Your tactics never cease to amaze me, Chadwick, or should I say, Chad-Six ,” Steven Wilcox barked out a laugh at our team name as his gaze landed on Henley, who stood beside me. “Catchy name. I see you chose not to change it up. Same name for three years seems a little boring.”

“If it ain’t broken, why fix it? Am I right, fellas? What did you guys go with this year? Cocks-R-Us? Or is it Little Cocks, Big Game again?”

Henley used her hand to cover her laugh, and the Wilcox brothers glared at me.

“Last year’s name was actually Big Will-Cox , Big Game.” Barry winked at the woman beside me.

“But I’m quite sure you’ve looked at the roster and already know that we went with Win -Cox,” Steven said, his eyes still on Henley.

“Keep dreaming. How about you stop staring at my coworker like she’s your next meal and start playing,” I growled.

Steven laughed. “Anywhere. Anytime.”

“Well, that’s now and here, genius. So get your paddle.” I reached for Henley’s hand and led her away.

“You need to take it down a notch, Chad-Six.” Henley laughed as we bent down to grab our paddles.

“This is no joke. You can hang out up front and just let the balls come back to me, unless you’re sure you can hit one and keep it in. You’ve played a little, right?”

“I never said I played a little . I said I’ve played.” She bent over and touched her toes before doing a few leg stretches. My gaze moved around to see every dude within a two-hundred-yard vicinity staring at her.

“Stop stretching,” I hissed. “These fuckers are watching you.”

She stood up and looked around. “You need to calm down, Chadwick. It’s not a weakness if the competition sees you stretching.”

She didn’t get it at all. I wasn’t worried about looking weak. They were checking her out, and I didn’t like it.

She was Charles’s daughter, for fuck’s sake.

“Let’s go,” I grumped.

“I can’t believe Easton Chadwick is playing with a sub. I thought you were all business when you were on the court,” Barry said, as he bounced the ball a few times.

“How about you just play the game and stop running your mouth?” I hissed, before moving toward Henley. “This is the kitchen. You stay up here. You can let the balls go right by you. I’ve got it.”

“How about you take care of your balls, and I’ll take care of mine.” She winked like this was some kind of joke.

I shook my head and moved to the back of the court. Steven served the ball, and I moved to the right immediately, swung my paddle back, and then gaped as Henley returned it with such a force that both Barry and Steven startled as it surged past them, just bouncing inside the line as they both watched it go by.

What the fuck was that?

She turned around and held her paddle up for me to tap mine against in celebration.

“Was that a lucky hit?” I whispered.

“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”

She moved back into position. Standing behind her wasn’t the best choice. Her ass was out, legs on full display, as she bent forward, ready to go.

The next forty minutes were mind-boggling.

Henley fucking Holloway is a pickleball goddess.

She moved like a gazelle on the court.

She didn’t miss a single return.

She was a natural.

We played like we’d been playing together for years. We absolutely crushed the Wilcox brothers. Archer and I would have destroyed them, but not quite like this.

We continued to dominate when we played Mary and Bob Johnson, but we toned our game down, and Henley definitely pulled back on her skills when we played them.

Like a goddamn pro.

She adjusted to the competition.

“What the fuck was that?” I leaned down, speaking close to her ear.

“What do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean,” I said, falling in stride beside her when she started walking toward the table, where the guys were sitting and waving us over.

“Well, well, well… leave it to E-money to bring a ringer to pickleball.” Axel handed Henley a bottle of water.

“A ringer is a bit dramatic.” She smirked.

“We were watching. You smoked the Cock-brothers. You’re as good as Easton,” Clark said over his laughter. “Did he screen you at the office?”

I scrubbed a hand over the back of my neck. “I had no idea she could play.”

“Right. You expect us to believe you just brought her to league play with no clue that she could play professional pickleball?”

“Wait. Does professional pickleball pay well? Because my new mentor at the office is a real broody guy, so maybe I should spend my days on the court.” She waggled her brows.

I rolled my eyes. “You acted like you knew nothing about the sport.”

“Oh, you mean when you told me to stay in the kitchen and let the balls go to you?” Her voice was all tease. “It shouldn’t be such a shock. There are 48 million pickleball players in the US. You just assumed I wasn’t one of them.”

“Have you played in a league before?” Clark asked.

“I played collegiate tennis at Stanford during my undergrad and then started playing pickleball recreationally with my grandfather.” She smiled, and her sapphire blues locked with mine.

“You could have told me so I didn’t spend all that time explaining the game.” I took a long sip from my water bottle. The sun was just going down, and the lights on the court flickered on.

“You were enjoying sharing all your pickleball wisdom with me, and I didn’t want to rain on your parade.” Her lips turned up in the corners, and the guys all laughed.

She was charming and beautiful, and she definitely had everyone’s attention.

“He sure does like to share his wisdom,” Bridger grumped. “I need a beer. Who wants to head to Booze & Brews?”

Henley looked up at me, and I realized in that moment that mixing booze with my boss’s daughter was not a good idea. I’d already crossed a line by bringing her here. I needed to keep things professional. “I’ll drop Henley off at home, then grab a shower and meet you there.”

“Hey. Maybe she wants to come with us,” Clark said, his gaze moving to her.

My brother was a wicked flirt. Hell, I’d noticed the way they’d all been checking her out.

“Oh, thank you. This was fun, but I’ve got some work to do. My best friend is coming to town tomorrow morning, so I need to go get some more unpacking done at my house.”

“You bought the brick house on the river, right?” Rafe asked. “Easton lives a few houses down from you.”

She turned to look at me with surprise. I hadn’t said anything. I wasn’t a fucking creeper. Sure, I’d seen her going for runs on the trail beside the water early every morning, but I wasn’t about to tell her that.

“You do? I didn’t know that.” She studied me.

“Yeah. I didn’t realize you bought that house,” I lied.

Axel coughed over the sip of water he’d just taken. “It’s Rosewood River, asshole. Everyone knows what house she bought.”

“I don’t read ‘The Taylor Tea,’ so I don’t keep up with town gossip.” It was true. I hated that fucking column, but you didn’t need to read it to know that Henley Holloway had bought the Paxon house on one of the most beautiful lots on the water.

“What’s ‘The Taylor Tea?’” she asked, as we all started walking toward the parking lot.

“The bane of our existence,” Bridger grumped.

“Some bullshit column where they print everyone’s business, and the Chadwicks make for good content,” I said.

“It’s town gossip. And people eat that shit up.” Rafe paused at his car.

“You were a topic the day you moved to town,” Axel said.

“You’re kidding me.” Henley laughed. “It’s like reality TV in Rosewood River, but in print.”

“It’s stupid,” I said, as each of the guys hugged Henley goodbye and walked toward their cars. “I’ll see you at the bar. I’m going to grab a shower, and I’ll walk over.”

They waved, and I led her to my car, opening the passenger door and watching as she slipped inside, dropping her bag of clothes at her feet.

I drove toward her house, only a few doors down from mine, and pulled into the driveway.

“Thanks for tonight.” She shrugged. “Thanks for this week, actually. It’s been a good first week here.”

“Sure.” I cleared my throat and glanced over at her. The light from the moon was flooding my car, and her lips parted the slightest bit. And, for whatever reason, it was sexy as hell. I definitely needed to get laid. I was horny, and my boss’s daughter was driving me mad. “Your best friend is coming to town tomorrow? That’ll be nice.”

“Yeah, Lulu lives in the city. I’m trying to convince her to move here, but she’s running a business, and she’s been traveling a lot lately.” She chuckled.

I nodded. “Do you go home often?”

“To the city?”

“Yes, isn’t that home?”

She glanced out the window before turning back to look at me. “Yeah, it’s definitely home. I went to school back east for high school but then came back for my undergrad before leaving again for law school. So home feels like it’s been a lot of places, too, I guess. My parents aren’t together, and my mom and her husband live in France, which is why I spent the summer there,” she said. “And I just don’t come to the city all that often because my father usually comes to see me if he can take time off. If he’s in the city, he’s working.”

“You and your father are close, huh? He was so excited for you to come work for the firm,” I said.

She smiled. “Yeah, he’s always been my favorite person. But I didn’t have the traditional upbringing that you probably had.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning I can tell how close you are with your family. I was an only child. I was raised by the people who worked for my father most of the time.” She shook her head. “I’m not complaining. I know I’m fortunate to be born into a family like mine, with so many opportunities afforded to me.”

Henley Holloway was like a riddle that I was dying to solve. “Did your parents divorce when you were young?”

“They divorced when I was four years old. My father had an affair, and then my mother went on to fall in love with the tennis pro at the club, and that’s who she lives with in France to this day. I stayed with my father, as my grandparents lived nearby, and I’d see them on the weekends. I spent summers with my mother. And then I left for boarding school when I was fifteen.”

There was a sadness there that I hadn’t noticed before. “That couldn’t have been easy on you as a kid.”

“I mean, I didn’t know any different. I’ve gone to the best schools that money can afford. I’ve traveled the world. I’m hardly someone you need to pity.” She tipped her chin up.

“I wasn’t pitying you. I was just saying it was probably hard.”

“It was fine.” She reached for the door handle and glanced over at me. “I’m guessing you need to get to that bar. Your day is almost complete.”

“Almost?”

“You said that you enjoy your job, pickleball, and sex. You’ve got one more thing to check off your list tonight.” She chuckled as she pushed the door open. “Have fun with that.”

My dick jumped to attention at the mention of sex. I internally cursed myself for sharing that with her earlier.

I jumped out of the car. “I always do, Princess.”

She rolled her eyes as she pulled her keys out of her purse. “You don’t need to walk me to the door. I’m a big girl, Easton.”

“My mother trained me well. Go inside and lock up.”

“I’m off the clock. You can stop bossing me around now.”

“That wouldn’t be any fun, would it?” I asked, as she unlocked the door and pushed the door open before turning around to face me.

“See you Monday.” She closed the door, and I jogged down to my car, wondering why the fuck I missed her already.

Time to head to the bar and get Henley Holloway out of my system.