Forrest chuckled.
“Flattery will get you nowhere with me, Daniel.”
“What? It’s the truth. I’d love to have the energy you have. How you do it, I have no idea.”
“I do go running every day.” Forrest gestured at his buddy. “You just sit around eating donuts all day.”
“Hey! I don’t eat donuts all day!”
“Your stomach says otherwise.”
Daniel shrugged.
“I just need to keep away from Dairy Queen. That’s my vice.” He patted his belly. “By the way, did you hear back from Jared? I thought you were going to ask him if he wanted to come out.”
“I did ask.”
“And the answer was a no, I take it.”
Forrest nodded. Yet again, Jared had turned down an offer to go out. He barely left the house now. The accident that took his wife and youngest daughter had practically broken him. Forrest had been to see him many times, but he couldn’t remember the last time Jared stepped off the property. Chrissie had mentioned before that she was worried about him, but even she couldn’t get through to him.
Which Forrest found bewildering, seeing as Chrissie got through to him every time they were in the same room.
“Jesus, when is he going to stop this?” Daniel frowned. “I get that losing your family like that has to be gut-wrenching, but to become a recluse out of it?”
“I think it’s the closure, more than anything else,” Forrest pointed out. “After all, they never did catch the guy who collided with them. It’s still an open hit-and-run case.”
“I get that. I would be crushed if that happened to my family.” Daniel sipped his beer. “I just feel bad that there doesn’t seem to be much we can do about it. Jared probably won’t venture out until we find the driver and, somehow, the bastard is elusive.”
Forrest had a feeling that Daniel was right. Closure was something their friend needed. He was a shadow of his former self, and Chrissie has said his over-protectiveness had ramped up tenfold since. She was surprised that she was able to leave the house as well. Jared was trying to keep his oldest daughter safe, but at the same time, he was having her pull away.
It was painful to watch, seeing as Chrissie did love her dad, but she was so frustrated with how much he wanted to know about her life. Almost like he thought she was going to vanish and die as well.
If she had been in the crash as well, I’d have felt the same way as Jared.
Rein it in, big guy. That’s not a good idea to dwell on those emotions.
But that was easier said than done. Chrissie Frost was a junior in the physio staff, but she was damn good. She was friendly, personable, and most of the players were drooling over her. The problem was, Forrest was doing the same thing. The raven-haired beauty had stirred something in him since she came to work for the team as a favor to her dad, a friend of Forrest’s from college.
That just made it all wrong. Chrissie was off-limits. Forrest wasn’t about to disrespect his friend by making a move on his daughter, no matter how gorgeous she was and how much he wanted to put his hands on those curves. She was simply amazing, and Forrest found himself reluctant to leave whenever she was around.
He had to pull it back and tell himself that it was not happening. Which was the hardest thing he had done in his life.
Almost as if he had conjured her up, Forrest heard her voice. He would recognize that laugh of hers anywhere. Feeling his head turning as if she were drawing him in, he saw her walking in with a group of other women her age. For a moment, all of the blood rushed to his cock. That red dress seemed to hug every part of her body, stopping at her knees. The straps were practically razor-thine, the cleavage modest but not hiding the fact she had big, full breasts that Forrest was itching to get his hands on. And those knee-high boots made her shapely legs go on forever.
Damn, that simple uniform when she was working had given him plenty of erotic thoughts, but that dress…
“Damn, is that Chrissie Frost?”
Daniel was staring at her with his mouth open. Forrest had to fight back a growl. He didn’t want anyone looking at Chrissie.
“Yes, that’s her.”
“Fuck. Jared’s kid is certainly growing up.” Daniel arched an eyebrow at him. “I’m surprised he let her go out like that.”
“Chrissie’s a good kid. Jared trusts her enough to go out.”
Although he would be going through the twenty questions when Chrissie got back, Forrest was sure of it. While Chrissie could stand up for herself, she would be barraged with an interrogation afterwards.