“Obviously,” I reply.
The waitress comes by, and Serena orders us two double bacon cheeseburgers, fries, and onion rings.
“How’s the furniture buying going?” Serena asks when the waitress has disappeared. She smiles like she already knows the answer.
“Good,” I lie.
“Really? What have you bought?”
I make a face. “OK, I haven’t bought anything yet, but I’m thinking about it.”
“Wow. Thinking about it. That’s progress.”
“Hey, cut me some slack. I’ve never had to buy furniture before and now I have to do it twice.”
Serena laughs. “Yes, poor you with your apartment in the city and your brand new house at the ranch.”
I can’t help but laugh, too. Serena is right, as always. I know how lucky I am. When I first moved back to Denver, I lived in the spare room of the Stormhawks’ kicker. Neither JT nor I needed to share, but we both liked the company. Until he fell in love and wanted to move his girlfriend in. I’d probably be in someone else’s spare room, like I was in Kansas too, if Jake hadn’t mentioned the apartment for sale in his building.
“If you had it your way, you’d still be in your old bedroom at the ranch,” Serena says.
“I think Madison would have something to say about that.”
“She’s taken it over, huh?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” I say. “She’s kept all my old Stormhawks merch but added a ton of horse stuff to it.”
“Sounds like Mad.”
I picture Oakwood in my mind. Land stretching out in every direction, wild and beautiful. The craggy foothills in the distance, and the Rockies beyond, breaking into the sky. Neat paddocks of horses and the huge red barn that sits near the ranch house where Dylan, Izzy, and Madison now live.
The house used to be Mama’s, and it’s where I grew up. But when Dylan turned Oakwood into a working ranch again last year, picking up Dad’s legacy to breed horses for the rodeo, Mama decided we were all living on top of each other.
The house belongs to the rancher and that’s Dylan now, she said last summer, before excitedly laying out her plans for three new houses by the lake, allowing us all to stay on the ranch, but giving us our own space, too. Mine sits in the middle, with Jake and Harper on one side and Mama on the other. We still spendmost of our time in Mama’s kitchen eating her famous chili, or at the big house, in and out of each other’s lives like it’s always been.
So yeah, I know how lucky I am, aside from the fact I’ve gone from not putting up more than a poster in my college dorm to a whole apartment and house that needs furnishing. I’ve got the minimum, of course—bed, couch, TV. Serena’s been gently urging me for a while now to make both places more homely. I know I should, I just don’t know where to start. Even I can hear how lame my excuses sound. The truth is, I don’t really know what’s stopping me.
The bell above the door jingles, and I glance up, half dreading another crowd of female fans, but I smile as Harper breezes in, all polished hair with a phone in her hand.
“Hey, Jake said you were here,” she says, sliding in beside me. “I’m not stopping—just grabbing coffee on my way to interview Paul Vento.”
“The retired hockey star?” Serena asks as the waitress takes Harper’s order.
Harper nods. “He’s set up his own strand of yoga studios now. He’s trying to get pro athletes to incorporate yoga into their training.”
“Smart,” Serena says. “Yoga increases flexibility and balance, but it’s also proven to drop cortisol levels. Less stress means quicker muscle recovery times.”
“Of course you know that.” I chuckle.
Serena just smiles, unbothered. “You’d know it too if you read some books.”
“Anyway,” Harper continues as the waitress returns with a to-go cup. “Glad to see you’re in one piece, Chase. Jake told me about the mob.”
Serena frowns. “What mob?”
“The stupid Chasing Love hashtag,” I mutter, feeling the tension grab at my chest. “I said I didn’t think love was on my horizon, not that I couldn’t find it. Can’t you write something inSports Magazine, Harper? Something to say I’m not interested.”
“Putting aside the fact we’re not a gossip magazine…” She shrugs. “It wouldn’t work. It’s an obsession now.”