No Chance by Lisa Suzanne

CHAPTER 13: BRETT

I tap open on my phone’s app, and the hotel room door unlocks with a click. I open the door as quietly as I can since it’s a little after one in the morning and I assume everyone is sleeping. Hannah left a light on in the living area of the suite. The bedroom door is leaned closed but not shut all the way, and I peek in. There are two queen beds, one occupied by Hannah, and a travel crib set up beside her where I spot a sleeping baby.

Jesus.

If someone would’ve told me I’d be touring with a girl and my son, I would’ve laughed in their faces. I still can’t quite believe it. I still know nothing about the girl or the kid, but we’ve got this whole forced proximity thing happening, so I’ve got the time if I’m so inclined.

I’m still not sure whether I’m inclined.

Hannah seems nice enough, but that’s where it begins and ends with her. The more I’m around her, the more I notice how attractive she is, but she’s not my type. And even if she was, it doesn’t matter. Getting involved with her would be a stupid idea considering the circumstances.

But I opted out of going on a hunt tonight with Tommy, and I’m already pining for the way my life was. Things were moving along just fine. I was ignorant to the fact that I had fathered a child. And now he’s staying in a hotel with me—even though we’re in her hometown still, I felt the need to get her and my kid out of that shitty apartment as soon as possible.

I step into the room. Hannah’s sleeping soundly, her quiet, even breathing a telltale sign. I lean over the travel crib and watch Chance for a few beats. He’s sleeping on his stomach with his cheek smashed into the mattress. His butt is up in the air a little with his legs tucked under him. It doesn’t look like the most comfortable position. In fact, he sort of looks like a little frog, but I watch as his whole body rises and falls infinitesimally with each breath he takes.

I take a quick shower, and as soon as I shut off the water, I hear a baby crying.

“Shit,” I mutter to myself. I grab the towel and dry off as quickly as I can, and then I wrap it around my waist and rush out.

I’m not sure why I rush out, exactly, because I have no idea what to do once I get out there, but it’s some natural instinct to quiet a crying baby I suppose.

Hannah beat me to it. She’s lifting him gently out of the crib as I burst into the room wearing just a towel.

She jolts as she hears me, startled, and she freezes for a beat with a crying Chance in her arms. Her eyes flick down my body toward the towel covering up the goods, and I can’t help the sly smile that tugs at my lips as I watch her jaw slacken in the light peeking into the room from the living area of our suite.

Women tend to have a similar visceral response to my body. It’s maybe the one family trait passed down to me that I’m grateful for. Every time my father reminded me that I needed to suck it up and be a man, I’d turn to exercise to work off the anger.

It worked, I guess.

She seems to snap out of it as her wide eyes move back to mine. She shakes her head a little, and then she says softly, “I’m so sorry. I’ll get him calmed down. It’s just a new place, that’s all.”

It’s my turn to take in the view. She turns to the baby to soothe him, and that’s when I spot her barely there shorts and the little t-shirt she’s sleeping in...the one that tells me she isn’t wearing a bra, and my mouth waters a little at the thought.

I shake it off. “It’s fine. Don’t apologize.” I head toward my duffel bag to grab some clothes.

He quiets down quickly as she sings a quiet song to him, and once he’s calm, she sets him back into the crib. I go to the bathroom to get dressed and brush my teeth, and when I return to the bedroom, all is calm and quiet.

“Goodnight,” she says softly.

“Night. What was that song you were singing?” I ask in a whisper so as not to wake the sleeping baby.

“It’s called ‘Goodnight Moon,’” she whispers back in the dark. “There’s a book by the same name. Unrelated.”

I chuckle.

“Brie said our mom used to sing it to us. I don’t remember, but Brie always sang it to Chance.”

I don’t even know what to say to that. It’s all just a reminder of how much this girl has lost in her life. “It’s nice that you’re carrying on the tradition.”

“I think it comforts him,” she says. “And maybe me a little bit, too.”

I let those be the last words as she drifts to sleep, but I find myself unable to fall asleep. This is the first time in months that I’ve gone to bed completely sober. No weed tonight. No alcohol. I just wasn’t in the mood to party even though I went out with Tommy. He went home with some chick after our event tonight, and I took an Uber to the hotel.

It’s not unusual for us to split up once we’ve found our bait, but tonight...I didn’t even look for bait. Even thinking the word bait for a woman feels a little gross to me, and I’m not sure why. I’m not sure what changed, but when I think of passing that word down to my kid and him referring to a woman as “bait,” my stomach twists a little, and not in a good way.

But seeing Hannah calm him down, seeing the trust he has in her...that makes my stomach twist, too—just in a completely different way. In a way I haven’t quite identified yet.

When morning peeks through the hotel curtains, I get out of bed. Sleep was elusive all night, and I’m tired of tossing and turning. I close the bedroom door to let those two get more rest, and I head out to the balcony. I sit on one of the two chairs out there and stick my feet up on the railing as I look out over the view. We only get hotels when we’re in a city for multiple nights, and this time we stayed at a place close to last night’s event in Scottsdale. The sun is up and already hot as fuck over the golf course, but at least the view’s nice. Palm trees up close, mountains in the distance.

But it’s seven in the morning and already over a hundred degrees, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why anyone would subject themselves to that. I’ll have to ask Hannah.

I blow out a breath as I think about Hannah.

The way her eyes fell to my abs as she spotted me in my towel.

The little bit of surprise there, like she wasn’t expecting what she saw.

The barely there shorts.

The t-shirt that highlighted those perky tits.

My dick wakes up at the thought, but I silently berate him. Down boy.

She just lost her sister. She’s not in the place for all that.

I call room service and realize I have no idea what she or the baby eat for breakfast, so I just order some coffee, a variety of breakfast pastries, and some fruit. I could always order more when they’re up.

I wonder how late Hannah will sleep. Her sister’s service is in a few hours, so I’m guessing she’ll be up soon to shower and get ready for that. But I don’t really know.

It’s just as I have that thought that she steps through the slider. Her hair is down rather than the usual ponytail she wears. It’s longer than I realized, down to about the middle of her back, and it’s wild and messy from sleep. She rubs her eyes beneath her glasses before she collapses into the chair beside me, still wearing that blessed tight shirt and those flawless short shorts.

“Morning,” she says, squinting against the bright sunshine.

I can’t help my glance at her tits before I move my eyes back to the golf course. “Morning,” I grunt. “I ordered some food. Should be here soon.”

“That was nice of you,” she says. “Thank you.”

I press my lips together and nod, finding myself backing away a bit before I’m even giving her the chance to get to know me. It’s not really fair to her, but I don’t know her intentions and I want to make it very clear that I’m just being nice. It’s not like she and I will ever be a thing.

Today’s probably not the day to drill that point in, though.

“I’ll go shower.” She doesn’t get up. Doesn’t even attempt to get up. I chuckle, and she glances over at me. Her brows dip down when our eyes meet. “What?”

“You said you’ll go shower and then you didn’t move.”

“Oh,” she says, and she huffs out a sound that sort of resembles a chuckle but her lips don’t move into a smile. It’s then I realize I haven’t really seen a genuine smile from this girl. “Yeah. It takes me a minute to wake up.”

My eyes are still on her. “I have a question for you.”

She raises her brows as if to tell me to ask away.

“Why does anybody live in this oven of a city?” I blurt.

This time the chuckle is a bit closer to a laugh. “Phoenix really is a lovely place to live. It’s hot in the summer, but the shade’s not so bad and the rest of the year more than makes up for it.”

“If you say so.”

“Come back in January when it’s snowing in most of the country and then tell me how much it sucks.”

I laugh. “You got me there.”

“I guess I need to go get ready.”

“Yeah,” I murmur. “I know today won’t be easy, so please just tell me what I can do to help.”

“You’ve done plenty. I can’t thank you enough for paying for the services.” She nods toward the doors behind us. “For the hotel. For allowing me to come with Chance on this tour and not splitting us up. It’s all a lot and I don’t think I’ve quite realized everything that’s changing just yet.”

I press my lips together and give her a short nod.

She stands and stretches as she looks out over the golf course, and my eyes fall onto a little peek of the skin of her back as that blessed shirt lifts just a little at her stretch.

Wait a minute.

Was that...was that ink back there?

I need another peek.

I don’t want to admit this, and I won’t to anybody other than myself...but I’m suddenly intrigued.