Forrest couldn’t blame her. Not after that. Rita nodded and reached into one of the purses, bringing out keys and putting them in Chrissie’s hand.
“You get back to my place and make yourself at home.” She handed Chrissie her purse before looking at Forrest. “Coach Brown, would you mind making sure she gets back? I’m not exactly the best companion in my state.”
“Not a problem.”
The words were out of his mouth before Forrest could stop them. This was not a good idea, being alone with Chrissie. Especially after he was sure she knew how aroused he was for her. But he couldn’t let her walk back to Rita’s place on her own, not at this time of night. If Drake was forced out of the bar, he would end up following her. That was not safe.
“Great.” Rita beamed at him. Then she turned to Chrissie and hugged her. “Be safe. And I’m sorry about this, Chrissie.”
“I’ll be fine.” Chrissie managed a smile as she drew back. “You go and enjoy yourself. I’ll text you when I get back.”
With another grin in Forrest’s direction, Rita walked away. Forrest had a feeling that she was plotting something. Chrissie’s friend was very sneaky when she wanted to be. He cleared his throat.
“Let’s go. If we leave now while Drake is still arguing, we can have a moment of respite.”
Chrissie didn’t respond. She just grabbed onto his arm and held on, pressing her cheek against his shoulder. She looked so vulnerable that Forrest found himself wanting to hold her again and not let go.
God, he had it bad. And that was not good at all.
Giving Drake and the bouncers a wide berth, they headed out into the street and started walking. It was dark, and there were loads of people stumbling around, going about their Friday night. Nobody seemed to notice them, or even care.
“I’m really sorry, Forrest.”
Forrest looked down at Chrissie, who was now looking up at him with a miserable expression.
“What are you sorry about?”
“You and Daniel…you were having your own evening, and you had to come and deal with my mess.” Chrissie bit her lip. “I didn’t mean to mess things up.”
Forrest slowly pulled his arm away from her, putting it around his shoulders.
“You didn’t mess anything up. That was Drake being a dick, as always. He just doesn’t take no for an answer.”
“What am I going to do about him? I’ve already told Coach Jackson, but Drake doesn’t seem to have listened.”
“We’ll have a meeting about it. Harassment like this could end up with a suspension before the season’s even started. He’ll get a proper punishment for tonight.”
Forrest could only hope for that. For some reason, in spite of his attitude towards women and the way he pestered Chrissie, no repercussions seemed to happen beyond making him do extra at training. It was like he was plated in gold, and nobody wanted to punish him properly.
He didn’t understand it, but he was certainly going to push it further after what he saw.
“Can I ask you something, Forrest?” Chrissie asked.
“Sure.”
“Don’t tell my dad about this.”
Forrest frowned.
“He deserves to know what happened.”
Chrissie shook her head.
“He can’t. If he finds out about this, he’ll have me locked in the house and refuse to let me leave.”
“He won’t do that.”
“He’s not far off from doing it. I don’t want to take the chance.” Chrissie pressed a hand to his chest. “Please, Forrest. I’m a big girl. I can handle this.”