The Billionaire Player (In Too Deep)

CHAPTER49

TANNER

Although I’d been planning on calling Larisa early this morning, it just hadn’t happened that way. The guys and I had stayed up late, and I was only now recovering. I was getting too old to drink like that, but it had been a fun night. It had reminded me of the old days, before we’d all had jobs and responsibilities.

We hadn’t even woken up before noon. Then we’d slowly packed our stuff, drank gallons of water and coffee, polished off the leftovers, and eventually had felt human enough to make the drive back to the city. At first, I’d thought I would stay at the house but my need to sort things out with Larisa had changed my mind.

If she was willing to see me at all, I wanted to be close enough that she wouldn’t have to wait for hours for me to get to her. That was if she wanted to see me, and it was a big if.

Since I’d already decided that I was going to at least try to speak to her, I’d come home anyway and I was damn well going to do it. If it came down to it, I’d beg her to hear me out for one minute. I even had a few ideas of how to get the message through to her if she didn’t want to speak.

A boombox under her window wouldn’t work, considering that she lived in an apartment building, but there were ways around that. One of which was hiring a crane, but we weren’t quite there yet.

The phone was ringing in my ear, but Larisa didn’t pick up. Eventually, it rang through to voicemail and I hit the button to end the call. There were things that were acceptable to leave as a voice message, but this wasn’t one of them.

I could imagine how that would go, and it wasn’t pretty. Oh, hey, Larisa. It’s Tanner. I know we haven’t talked recently, but I just wanted to let you know that I really like you and that I’m hurt that you don’t want me in your life the way I want to be in it. Also, I love the house but I hate the touches that make it feel like a bachelor pad because I took them as a sign that you don’t want to be with me. Catch you later.

I snorted softly. Yeah. No. That doesn’t work.

Checking the time on my screen, I saw that it was only nine o’clock. So sure, it was later than I’d wanted to call but it was still early enough. I knew she liked going to bed early, but nine on a Saturday night was a stretch, even for her.

If she’s still awake, why isn’t she answering my call?There was the obvious answer—that she just didn’t want to talk to me—but before I moved on to one of the more drastic plans to make her listen to what I had to say, I decided to try calling again.

Finally, someone answered but the voice wasn’t Larisa’s. There was music pounding in the background, and the girl had to practically shout in order for me to hear her.

“Hey, Tanner?” the girl, who I was pretty sure was Larisa’s friend Brit, said. “Is that you? I can’t hear you. Speak up.”

“It’s me.” I felt like an idiot for yelling into the receiver when it was so quiet in my apartment, but at least someone had taken my call on her behalf. “Can I speak to Larisa?”

“I, uh, I’m not sure where she is right now. She left her purse with us. I think she went to the restroom. Do you want me to ask her to call you back?”

“Where are you?” I asked as the song that had been blaring in the background changed. It was so loud, I felt the bass line pumping through my veins and I wasn’t even there. “It sounds like you’re at a club.”

“We are.” She laughed. “Trevor, that’s my husband, got invited and I dragged Larisa out with us. She needed to forget about—Oh, you know what, it’s nothing. What do you want me to tell her? The line at the restroom was a bitch the last time I went, so you probably don’t want to hold until she gets back, but I can ask her to call you.”

“No, that’s okay. I’ll try her again tomorrow. Just…” I sighed, squeezing my eyelids together to stop myself from saying what I really wanted to. Just don’t let her hook up with someone else. “Just have fun.”

Already pulling the phone away from my ear, I was surprised when I heard her yelling my name to stop me from hanging up. “Tanner? Don’t you dare hang up on me right now. Tanner! You asshole! Are you there?”

“I’m here.” I put her on speaker, needing the noise to be farther away from my still slightly sensitive head. “Why am I an asshole?”

“Because you broke—Again, it’s nothing.” She paused for a beat. “Why are you calling her, Tanner? Last I heard, she hadn’t spoken to you since the grand reveal. What do you want?”

While the questions were harsh, her tone wasn’t. She seemed more curious and protective than anything else. “I just want to talk to her. You’re right. We haven’t spoken since the grand reveal, but I’m still not really sure why.”

She scoffed. “You’re not sure why?”

“No, are you?” I asked. “Look, I’ll be honest with you. I don’t really know what happened, but I can’t just let her go.”

“What?”

“I meant that I can’t just let it go. I never had her, so I guess letting her go shouldn’t really be an issue.”

“Waiiiiiit,” she dragged the word out. “Are you telling me you have feelings for her?”

“No.” I denied it instinctively, but then I remembered that I’d promised myself I’d do whatever I had to do to get through to her. If that meant getting past Brit as the self-appointed gatekeeper, then that was what I had to do. “By no, I meant yes.”

“Give me an idea of these feelings,” she said. “Are they real? Do you actually feel something for her? Or does a certain part of you simply want to get into a certain part of her again?”