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A cold wave blows through my stomach. My hand freezes with the beer halfway to my mouth. He’s right. I went in there angry, and if she wanted to, Noris could make up some shit. I’d be in real trouble. I could lose Ayla.

“I was watching the whole time. You didn’t move far from the door.” Chase’s voice is soft. His eyes are anything but.

“How did you know I would be there?”

“Adri told Lauren. We talked about it and decided to divide and conquer. I headed here…”

And Lauren went to his sister.

He nods like he can read my thoughts. “They’re probably trashing you real good right now.”

His lips twitch at the end, and I snort.

“Probably.” I clear my throat. “Thank you, Chase. I don’t think Noris or her mother would ever go that far, but I appreciate you having my back.”

He bobs his head up and down. “Let’s eat something.”

“I should go home.”

He pushes a menu my way. “You should eat and then drink something. Let Ayla spend the night with Bron. Take this time to sort your head out.”

I open my mouth to tell him I can do that at home, but the waiter comes to take our order. We order and settle into silence after he leaves, with Noris’s words swimming around in my head.

As it turns out, Ayla does want me. She wants a relationship with me.

My stomach is burning all over again. It’s been almost thirteen years without a smoke signal from that woman. Now that we were headed in the right direction…

“Why did she have to come back now?”

Chase regards me over his beer. “That’s the way shit works. When things are going really well, there’s always that demon from your past that shows up.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. He speaks from experience. I can tell. “Who was your demon?”

“The man that raised me mostly. Then, my mother. Last time, my bad decisions after I became impatient and listened to the past that always pushed me to self-destruct one way or another.”

“Damn, that’s deep.”

“It is. Almost got me killed. I could’ve lost everything that was already in the plans for me. You know what I mean?”

I nod, remembering the bad accident he was in over a year ago, how it shook Lauren and his family, and how hard he worked in rehab to get back to normal.

“It’s been a hard road for you,” I say.

“Yeah. For you too, Coach. You’re raising one of the greatest kids I’ve ever met. You’ve done such an amazing job by yourself. I don’t want you to throw it all away because of a moment.”

He’s right. I have everything to lose if I don’t handle this right.

“The one thing I’ve never been able to do is make it so Ayla doesn’t miss having a mother. Noris has been looming in our background like a tidal wave that could flood us at any moment. I’ve always known that, and she still caught me with my pants down. She still flooded my life and destroyed what I treasure the most, how I see my Ayla, my relationship with Lu?—”

I clamp my teeth together because that’s the thing neither of us wants to talk about.

Chase leans back in the booth. “Noris can only destroy what you let her. It’s your choice how you’ll handle things with Lux. But I’ll just say that you’ll never find someone as loving or loyal. Trust me, she did not give up on me no matter how much I tried.”

The burn in my chest intensifies, and I can’t find a response in me.

He continues, “But when it comes to Ayla, your ex shouldn’t have the power to change anything. The two of you are a unit, and Ay is an amazing kid because of you. Don’t let Noris take that away from you. She doesn’t have that power unless you give it to her.”

“How do I deal with it? How do I overlook what happened?”