Chapter 17 Desiree Dixon

Touchy-Touchied

“Come on, Desi. You missed the first home game because of a wedding. Can’t you come to the second?” my mom asks.

I stare out my windshield as I try to push this conversation to the end. I thought I’d give my mom a quick call before I headed to Chloe and Lauren’s apartment for our book club meeting tonight, but she’s begging me to come visit, and I have a feeling she isn’t going to let me hang up until I’ve committed to coming.

Truth be told, I’ve been avoiding Vegas.

I tried it once more in July before my dad took off for training camp at the extreme goading of my best friends, and I never ran into Asher.

I told myself that if it was meant to be, we’d run into each other again.

Well, we didn’t, and it’s time for me to move on.

Only…I haven’t. Not exactly.

I’ve tried. Believe me, I’ve tried.

Chloe talked me into a dating app.

I went on three dates only to discover that the particular dating app I chose was a hookup app, and I wasn’t interested enough in any of the three men to sleep with them five minutes after meeting them.

They didn’t have the magic Asher and I had. I can’t seem to recreate that no matter how hard I try, but it’s been over three months at this point. I think I must be remembering it differently than how it really happened. I must be putting him on some sort of pedestal.

And I know if I go to the game and stand in the family area afterward, waiting for my father to walk out, and I watch Asher walk out and kiss some other woman waiting for him, it’ll only break my heart.

I also know it’ll reveal to him who my father is, and I have no idea what effect that’ll have.

And that’s why I’ve stayed away.

I want to see him again, but I want to do it in a way that doesn’t make me look like I’m desperately chasing after him. Not when he hurt me by never calling me.

It might’ve only been one night, but the more time that passes, the more anger I feel. The more rage.

Why the hell didn’t he call? Didn’t he feel that connection the way I felt it?

“Yeah,” I finally tell my mom over the phone. The truth is that I’m not really all that busy at work. The busy season of summer has come to an end, and I’ve been slowly backing away from projects as I’ve been taking the time to read up on creating my own business. “I suppose I can join you at the second game.”

“For the whole weekend?” she asks hopefully.

“I actually do have an event on Saturday afternoon, but I can fly out afterward and stay through Thursday evening.”

“We get you for five whole days?” she asks.

I laugh. “Unless I make friends there.”

“Oh, yes! Steve and Barb’s daughter. She’s a couple years younger than you, and then there’s Ellie Dalton, who is such a sweetheart, and she’s a couple years older than you, I think.” She’s babbling, and wait a second...

“Did you just say Ellie?”

“Mm-hmm, yes. Why?”

“I met her at the charity ball. She was really nice,” I say.

“Yes! That’s her. She works with a lot of the players as a publicist. Oh! And Erin, who runs the charitable contributions along with Lily, the team owner’s secretary. They were the two behind the charity ball, and I’ve heard murmurs that they want to outsource the planning next year.” She says it as a hint, like I could get my hands in that pot, but she’s always dreamed much bigger than reality. I already get the hint that she’d love nothing more than for me to move to Vegas and take on the charity ball as my first client when I open my own event planning business, but there are several issues with that.

One being that I’m not planning to move to Vegas.

Another being that all the research I’ve done about starting up my own business is based in San Diego…not Las Vegas.

“I’d love to meet all of them,” I say, rather than giving into the big plans she’s making for me.

“I’ll tell Vicki to book your travel.”

“Thanks, Mom. I need to go. The girls are waiting for me.”

“I can’t wait to see you, honey. Have fun, and tell the girls hi for me.”

“I will. Love you.” I end the call after she tells me she loves me, too, and I head up to Chloe and Lauren’s third-floor apartment. Addy’s already there, and all three women are waiting for me when Lauren opens the door.

“Finally,” she scolds jokingly.

“Sorry. I was on the phone with my mom, and she wouldn’t let me hang up until I committed to a visit.” I roll my eyes.

“And?” Chloe prompts, her eyes lighting up.

The three of them have been up my ass about getting back to Vegas, and it’s only made me push harder in the other direction, as one does.

I sigh. “And I’m going this weekend to attend the game with my mother, and I’ll be staying a few days.”

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!” Chloe squeals as Addy claps her hands and Lauren says, “This is it!”

I roll my eyes at the three of them. “You are all way too much. He’s not interested, and I don’t know why you all think this means I’m going to see him again. I went in July, and he wasn’t there, remember? He’s moved on, I’ve moved on, it’s fine.” It’s also a lie. I don’t know if he’s moved on, and I don’t know if I have, either.

“I’m even more convinced this is happening,” Chloe says as she shakes her head at me.

“Can we get to the book?” I ask, holding up my copy.

“Desi and Asher sitting in a tree,” Lauren singsongs.

I purse my lips as that rage over him not calling me brims back to the surface. I don’t want to take it out on them, but they’ve been teasing me for three months, and frankly, I’m sick of it.

I stand, and I head toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Addy asks.

“I’d rather go home than sit through this,” I say.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Lauren huffs.

“We’ll stop,” Addy promises. “Right, girls?” She elbows Chloe.

“Fine,” Chloe mutters, and Lauren agrees, too.

I raise my brows and set my hand on my hip. “Not one more word about it, or I’m out. Okay?”

Chloe holds up her hands. “Touchy, touchy.”

She’s not wrong, and it’s most likely because I have not been touchy-touchied in way too long.

I get through book club without any more teasing, and after the birthday party celebrating a family’s seventy-five-year-old matriarch on Saturday, I head to the airport to catch my flight. I land in Vegas a little before ten at night, and I think about going out and doing something.

But I don’t have friends here yet, mostly because I’ve been staunchly avoiding this town, so I head straight for Mom and Dad’s mansion.

Mom is still awake when I get there, and Dad isn’t at home since the entire team stays at a hotel the night before a game.

That means my dad is in the same hotel as Asher.

I try as hard as I can to push him out of my thoughts, but it’s pretty damn hard when I’m not in the same town as him, never mind when he’s only a few miles away.

She’s ready for bed, so she heads up after she makes sure I’m settled and comfortable, and I take the opportunity to catch up on reading the next book we’re talking about at book club.

I can’t concentrate, though. It’s easy to pretend like it was all some dream when I’m in a different state and over three hundred miles separate us. It’s less easy to do that when I know we’re laying our heads down in the same damn town.

Sleep eludes me, and we have the early game in the morning. I shower, curl my hair, and slip into the DALTON 5 jersey my dad left on my dresser for me. Jack Dalton isn’t the quarterback of the Vegas Aces anymore, but he does own the team, and I think my dad wanted me to wear his jersey as a nod to his new boss. I pair it with a black sequined skirt, and I’m ready to go.

On the ride to the stadium, my mom tells me how she bought a pair of season tickets twelve rows up from the fifty-yard line, where she can see the whole field and keep an eye on my dad.

My heart races as I consider that.

I can’t imagine how much she shelled out for the seats, but she always preferred to be in the center of the action versus up in the suites. It’s how she met my dad, after all. Her dad was a huge college football fanatic, and she went with him to a game at his alma mater. My dad was a senior at the time, and he spotted her in the crowd from the field, ran over to the stands after the game, and got her number.

The rest is history.

I always sort of imagined something like that happening for me, too, but my dad would never allow it.

The closer we get to the stadium, the harder it hits me that I’m going to be in the same building as the man I haven’t stopped thinking about since the charity ball. My heart isn’t just racing now because of the location of our seats.

The truth is that if my dad spotted my mom from the field all those years ago, Asher could spot me here, too.

Will he be happy to see me? I have no idea, and I’m not quite sure how I’ll feel, either.

My mom has been to this stadium a few times now, and as the car drops us at the front of the building, we head in with the fans. My heart beats faster as I walk through the metal detector.

Still faster as my ticket is scanned and I enter the building.

We walk through the concourse toward our section, and the closer we get to our seats, the more nervous I become. By the time we locate the twelfth row, my heart is racing.

I glance down at the field. We’re here early, but some of the players are out on the field warming up prior to the game. They’re in the zone, and I scan for him, but I don’t see him. It’s hard to tell from up here, though, especially because the players aren’t wearing their numbers ahead of the game. They’re wearing joggers and Vegas Aces shirts or sweatshirts to keep their muscles warmed up.

“Are you okay, honey?” my mom asks.

I nod. “I could use some water,” I croak. I push to a stand. “Need anything?”

“I’ll take a water, too. And a bag of peanuts.”

“Sure.” I rush up the stairs toward the concourse, and I’m not sure how I’m going to talk myself into returning to my seat.

How the hell can I be this affected after one night with him?

And what the hell am I going to do after the game when I’ll surely run into him?