A Fighting Chance (9 page)

After replying
to Del, he called down to the desk and arranged to stay another night. He was going to have to move to another, smaller room because they were waiting to clean his for an impending arrival, but he didn’t mind. He’d already thrown everything in his bag anyway.

After doing a sweep of the place to make sure he hadn’t missed anything, Brendan grabbed the bag and took the elevator down to the
lobby level. As soon as he stepped out of the elevator bank, he heard Del’s laugh and spotted the three women.

They were walking with their shoulders close and their hands moving as they talked, and the memory of spotting them at the campus party he’d crashed years ago made him smile. The moment had been almost the same. A laugh that turned his head. Three beautiful women, but only one that
made his heart race.

He was trying to decide if he should let them go inside and then text Del that he was there, just in case she hadn’t told them about him. But then she saw him and waved, so he met them in front of the coffee shop. Her friends didn’t look surprised to see him, nor did they look particularly happy about it.

Then Kate extended her hand, which he shook. “Hi, Brendan.
It’s been a while.”

“A very long while,” Brittany added.

“Too long,” he said, giving them what he hoped was a winning smile. “Do you mind if I borrow Del for a few minutes?”

“Sure,” Kate said. “We’ll go order drinks and check out the cookie selection.”

“Such a hardship,” Brittany added, giving him a tight smile before following the future bride into the coffee shop.

“You’re
limping a little,” Del said when they were gone. “Is your thigh really bad?”

“It’s not great, but I’ll live. I should be one hundred percent by the time I show up at my mom’s for Christmas.” He glanced at the window and saw her friends staring at him through the glass. “I guess Kate and Brittany aren’t my biggest fans.”

“Of course not. They’re my best friends, so they’re one hundred
percent Team Del.” She shrugged. “Trust me, I got an earful this morning about why it’s a bad idea to even talk to you. But just now they smiled and didn’t object to giving us some privacy, which comes back around to them being my friends. They want me to be smart, but they also want me to be happy.”

This wasn’t his idea of privacy, so he laced his fingers through hers and moved away from
the window. “I want you to be happy, too.”

She smiled at him, squeezing his hand. “I’ve been very happy this weekend.”

He had been, too. Happier than he’d ever thought he’d be again. “I wish we weren’t standing in a lobby right now so I could kiss you.”

“It’s dumb because I’m here to have fun with Kate and Brittany, but I wish you didn’t have to go yet.”

“Yeah, about that.
I know you’re here for a weekend with your friends, but I extended my stay another night.” He lifted the bag in his other hand. “I’m moving to a different room, but I wanted to see you before I go to the desk and get the new key card.”

“Really?” She smiled, leaning closer to him. “You’re not expecting me to fake a headache or some other excuse to hide in my room with you, are you?”

“Of course not. But maybe you can sneak away once in a while for a kiss.”

“You’re changing your plans and paying for an extra night in this place for a few kisses?”

“From you, yes.” He laughed and then ducked his head to kiss her. Brendan meant for it to be soft and fleeting for her sake, but she opened her mouth to him, her fingernails biting into his back. He kissed her until somebody
walking by cleared her throat in a very pointed way, and Del stepped back.

“Kate and Brittany are both hoping to be on the road by six tomorrow evening. Even though I have to work Monday morning, I can stay a little later and have dinner with you if you want.”

That was going to put his arrival at the cabin—the one with no power or heat other than a woodstove—sometime in the middle of
the night, so he was going to freeze his balls off, but he didn’t care. “I want.”

“Good.” She gave him a quick kiss. “They’re waiting for me. I’ll text you if I can sneak in a kiss, okay?”

“Definitely.” He watched her walk into the coffee shop, unable to keep the stupid grin off of his face.

Once Del was out of sight, Brendan joined the line in the check-in area. He probably could
have gotten them to simply bring him a key card and change the room number in the computer, but he had time to kill. He’d drop his bag in the new room, call his dad and maybe watch some television to give his leg some rest.

Then he’d drop everything if Del sent him a text because she might only be able to give him a few brief moments of her time before dinner tomorrow night, but he’d take
every minute he could get.

Chapter Six

“You look like you’re going to cry.”

Del looked at Kate, who was frowning. “I’m not going to cry. I promise.”

“If you need to, it’s okay. When we’re done with our cookies, we can go to my room and get every dessert on the room service menu and watch movies.”

And that’s why they were her best friends. “We’re not doing that. We’re here to celebrate and
have a good time because you’re getting married soon and that’s what we’re going to do.”

“Oh, good.” Kate laughed. “I’m glad because, not to make it all about me or anything, but this weekend is all about me.”

“And slots,” Brittany said. “I’ve been here since last night and haven’t lost any money yet. I might have another cookie first, though.”

“No more cookies for me right now,”
Kate said. “I have my final dress fitting on Monday, so I need to burn some serious calories in the casino unless I’m going to eat salads the rest of the weekend.”

Del laughed. “You just offered to eat every dessert on the room service menu.”

“Yeah, and then wear my most stretchy yoga pants to my wedding. I’m that good a friend, Adeline.”

They talked about the wedding while they
drank coffee and ate the cookies her friends agreed were worth drinking coffee black for. Del tried not to be constantly aware of her cell phone sitting on the edge of the table, facedown. Brendan wouldn’t text, she thought. He knew she was there to be with her friends and he wouldn’t interrupt, but the sight of the phone kept her keenly aware that he was out there in the hotel somewhere, waiting
to kiss her again.

“We need to get rid of these bags,” Brittany said when they were done. “We’ll burn some calories going back to our rooms and then figure out which casino wing to start in. I’m ready to play some slots.”

“I’m going to make a call while I’m upstairs,” Del said. “I’ll meet you guys in the lobby in about thirty minutes?”

“Seriously?” Kate arched an eyebrow at her.
“He’s probably driving right now since it’s only been like half an hour.”

“And he probably has hands-free like everybody else, but I’m not calling Brendan so it doesn’t matter.”

“I don’t know if we should believe you,” Brittany said. “We had our faces pressed to the store window the entire time and that was not a casual goodbye kiss between old friends.”

Of course they’d been watching,
she thought. “I’m not calling Brendan because he’s not leaving. He extended his stay.”

They both stared at her, the silence speaking volumes. She probably should have told them that right away, but she’d actually considered not telling them at all. But she didn’t want to lie and sneak around behind their backs. As she’d told Brittany the night before, she was a grown woman.

“It doesn’t
change anything,” she said when the silence drew on to the point of being awkward. “This weekend is all about Kate.”

“We’re having a slumber party tonight,” Brittany said. “He’s not invited and you’re not sneaking out to meet him.”

Del hadn’t heard anything about a slumber party, but she wasn’t surprised. Even though they hadn’t been able to get a suite together, they’d all talked about
how fun it would be to relive their dorm room days. “I’m not bailing on you guys. He stayed so we can have dinner tomorrow night,
after
you both head home.”

That was a slight stretching of the truth, since she couldn’t remember if she’d told him when they were leaving before he made the decision, but it was still the truth.

“So who are you calling?” Kate asked, apparently mollified.

“My dad. It won’t take long.”

Brittany looked concerned. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine.” She just wanted to have a conversation with her father before she spent too much more time with Brendan. She needed to find out how strongly her father had felt about her ex-boyfriend so she could judge how he might feel about him now. Not that she was going to let either man dictate
her life again, but she wanted to know what she was up against. “It won’t take me long.”

When they stepped out into the lobby, she looked around for Brendan, but didn’t see him anywhere.

“Don’t you dare,” Kate said as they walked to the elevator bank.

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t text him. We’re dumping our shopping bags and you want to call your dad really quick. But if you invite
him to stop by your room, we’ll be waiting for you forever.”

“I won’t,” she promised. “We’ve got drinks to drink and money to lose.”

Brittany laughed as she hit the up button. “Hell yeah. But not too much because, you know, mortgage and stuff.”

Del was two floors above them and once she was in her room, she sent her dad a text. Can you video-chat for a few minutes?

It only
took a minute for him to respond. Let me go to the computer and I’ll call you.

She grabbed a water while she waited, knowing it would take him a few minutes to get to his den. He didn’t like video-chatting on his phone because he had trouble with the camera angles and felt self-conscious.

Once they’d connected, she sat at the desk and propped her elbow on the wood so the phone was supported.
“Hi, Dad.”

“Hi, honey. Aren’t you supposed to be having fun with Kate and Brittany right now?”

“I’m meeting them in a half hour and then we’ll probably be having fun in the casino until after our bedtime.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. I want to ask you something, though. And it’s really important to me that you just tell me what happened.”

His brow furrowed and he leaned
closer to the monitor. “That sounds ominous.”

“Brendan Quinn was here. At the casino, I mean. He’s an MMA fighter and he had a match, which he won by knockout, but that doesn’t matter. You remember him, right?”

“Brendan Quinn? You dated him in college.”

“It was more than that, Dad, and you know it. Did you tell him he wasn’t good enough for me?”

He sighed. “Not in so many words,
but I did have a talk with him. Man to man. I wanted him to understand what would happen if the relationship between you turned serious.”

“More serious than being in love?”

“Yes, Adeline.” She watched as he walked to the bar almost out of the camera’s range and poured himself some bourbon. “I explained to him that you came from very different worlds. He would never fit in here. And you
would struggle in his world. Over time, you’d be pulled between him and your family and you’d resent it. And no matter who you chose—him or us—you’d be unhappy in the future. Maybe not right away, but eventually.”

“You ran him off.”

“I didn’t threaten him. Or bribe him. I simply explained the reality of the situation to him in such a way that he could see the bigger picture.”

“What
are you even talking about? Different worlds? We’re not royalty, Dad. We’re not Kennedys. We don’t have state dinners or put three forks next to every plate. What do you mean he wouldn’t fit in?”

“It’s not about knowing which fork to use at a formal dinner. We’re not the Kennedy family, but you’ve still been brought up in a very financially comfortable household. You’re not used to worrying
about money.”

“I know that. Trust me, I do. And I appreciate it, but I don’t see what that has to do with Brendan. Or you thinking I’d have to choose between you and him.”

“Maybe you didn’t see it then, but if you’d married him, you’d probably have a couple of kids by now. He wasn’t a financially secure young man and you’d be stuck struggling to figure out how to make your house payments
and
emergency car repairs. There wouldn’t be any shopping trips or designer handbags or buying yourself a new car for your birthday.”

Stunned, Del shook her head, not even sure she could articulate how very much she hated the words coming out of his mouth at that moment. “First of all, marrying Brendan wouldn’t have magically erased
my
potential. I probably would
not
have kids by now because
I would have wanted to finish my degree and work on building my career first. If we’d stayed together, we’d probably just be starting to talk about babies now.”

When he opened his mouth, she held up her hand to the camera so he wouldn’t say anything. Not only did she not want to hear whatever it was he wanted to say, but she needed a moment to absorb how much her own words had hurt. She could
almost picture her and Brendan curled up on the couch together, talking about it being time to start a family.

“And secondly,” she said after she’d regained her composure enough to speak, “if you think designer handbags and driving a new vehicle matter more to me than he did, then you don’t know me at all. I would have carried my wallet and lip gloss in a paper bag.”

He pressed his lips
together, which she recognized as something he did when he was upset with himself and wasn’t sure how to fix something. “I didn’t... I thought it was more casual than that. Handbag was a bad choice of words. I thought—and still think—your life would be harder on so many levels with him and no father wants that for his daughter. I didn’t realize you really cared for him that deeply.”

“I loved
him.”

He closed his eyes briefly before giving her a sad look. “I’m sorry, honey.”

She believed him. While he definitely wore the pants in their family, he wasn’t manipulative and everything he’d ever done for his three children, he’d done out of love and concern.