Men Love Curves: BBW Romance

by Ruby Madden

  “I’m sorry, Drew. I didn’t want to hurt you.” Day’s voice wobbled. No matter what, she still cared for him. He’d been there for her for two years.

  “Yeah well, you did. I gotta go. Goodbye, Daylen.” Drew said before hanging up the phone on her.

  “Bye,” she said softly to the dead line.

  “You okay?” Chase asked from across the room, leaning against the wall.

  “Yeah, I guess.” Day looked down at the blanket. “It was easier than I thought, but hurt more than I expected.”

  Breaking up with Drew was the same as their relationship. Gentle and quiet. And zero passion. But Day had loved him in her own gentle and quiet way.

  Chase blew out a harsh breath and pushed off the wall, coming towards her. He crawled onto the bed and kissed her forehead gently.

  “I’m sorry, Pretty Day. I came back into your life, and brought with me a shitstorm of drama.” Chase apologized.

  He brushed her hair back from her face, tucking it behind her ear. Chase caressed her jawline to her chin and pressed up, forcing her to look at him. Day’s stomach flip-flopped at the look of love in his amber eyes.

  “It’s okay. I’ve felt more alive in the past two days than I have in the last two years. And that’s because of you. So I guess I’ll take the drama.” Daylen breathed.

  “That’s a good thing because more drama is coming. It’s time to head home to see dear old dad.” Chase said grimly as he reached for the hotel phone. “I need to call Coach to let him know what’s going on. Then we can pack up and head to the airport.”

  ~~~

  Day’s mom pulled up to the curb at the arrivals terminal at the airport. She got out of the car and immediately came around to wrap Chase in a sympathetic hug. Chase felt the knot he’d been trying to ignore all day, get larger as Pat Daniels embraced him warmly. She had been like a second mom to him, maybe even more, since he spent more time at the Daniels’ house than his own.

  “How are you holding up, sweetie?” Pat asked.

  “I’m okay.” Chase’s voice came out huskier than he’d intended.

  She gave him a soothing rub on the back and then let him be, not wanting to push him. Chase put their bags in the car and they all got in before Pat headed towards home. He hadn’t been there in three years and wasn’t looking forward to it now.

  Pat tried to keep the conversation upbeat. She asked them about the Heisman ceremony. Day took over most of the conversation for him, as Chase sat in the backseat lost in thought about his mother. He was so angry. At his father, at his mother, and at himself. And anger was an easier emotion to handle than grief, so he held onto it like a life-preserver.

  They arrived at his old neighborhood and they got out of the car. Pat went inside and Day stood with Chase on the sidewalk. He just stood for a while looking at his childhood home. The place he’d hated all his life. Then he looked over at her house and the treehouse in between, and smiled grimly.

  “How is it possible to hate one place and love the other right next to it? In one house, the memories are awful and painful. And just a few yards over, in the house next door, the memories are warm and of love. It’s crazy.” Chase shook his head.

  “It’s the people inside that make a house a home. That make the memories special. Though your mom really did try her best for you. She was dealt a shitty hand.” Day soothed.

  “Yeah, she was dealt my worthless father,” Chase grumbled.

  “Do you want to go talk to him now? Or do you wanna wait a while?” Day asked.

  “I don’t want to go in there, but I need to get it over with. He probably hasn’t even started making the funeral arrangements. If I know my father, he’s probably drunk.” Chase muttered.

  “Do you want me to go in with you? As a buffer?” Day offered.

  “Absolutely not! I don’t want my father anywhere near you. He fucks up everything and hurts everyone.” Chase said adamantly. He grasped Day’s shoulders and pulled her in for a kiss. “I’ll be fine. You go in and I’ll be over in a little while.”

  “Alright. But just so you know. I’ll have my dialing finger ready to call 9-1-1 if I hear anything suspicious.” Day warned him.

  Chase grinned reluctantly and pulled her in for a hug. “I love you so much,” he whispered in her ear.

  “I love you too, Chase.”

  Daylen slipped out of his embrace and headed inside her house. Chase walked through the dirty snow in the yard and went up the steps of the front porch. He stood at the door for a few seconds, took a deep breath, and then rose his fist to knock. He no longer had his house key. When he’d left to go back to school three years ago, after that horrible Christmas, Chase had symbolically tossed the key out his car window. He hadn’t planned on coming back until he could come armed with a pro-ball salary to take his mother away from here. The thought of how close he’d come to be able to do that for her squeezed his heart painfully.

  The door being wrenched open pulled Chase out of his reverie. Ben McCoy stood before him. His father looked haggard. Large dark circles surrounded his eyes. A shaggy, unkempt beard hid half of his face. His hair looked greasy and in need of a haircut. And his clothes were disheveled and stained. Behind him, the house was torn apart. As if his father had gone into a blind rage, throwing things.

  Chase realized that the fear he’d once had of this sad, pathetic man, was now gone. He stood several inches taller than Ben, and his broad muscular frame eclipsed the other man. Ben’s once strong frame, now was withered from inactivity and booze. The largest thing on him was his beer gut. Chase’s feeling for Ben now leaned towards pity and hatred.

  “So you finally decided to show up?” Ben said snidely.

  “I’m here for my mother,” Chase replied between tight lips.

  “Well, she’s dead. So fuck off!” Ben bellowed.

  Chase’s reflexes were quick. He smacked the side of Ben’s face with a stinging open palm and snatched him up by the front of his shirt with the other.

  “She’s only dead because you drove her to kill herself,” Chase growled as he got in his father’s face. Practically nose to nose. “She was a good, sweet woman. And you beat her down daily with your verbal and physical abuse. I regret not killing you three years ago. She’d still be here if I did.” Chase finished and shoved Ben away from him in disgust.

  “You two were always against me,” Ben grumbled as he straightened his dirty shirt.

  “That’s because you couldn’t stop drinking long enough to be a decent husband or father. So don’t blame your shitty life on us.” Chase said incredulously. “Have you even begun setting up the funeral arrangements?”

  “Of course I have!” Ben frowned, offended. “But I don’t have any money and the insurance won’t pay because it was suicide. So I’m having her cremated and bringing her home. Unless you want her.” Ben said with a callous shrug.

  It took all Chase had not to beat the living shit out of his father. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists at his side.

  “Did you at least call the newspaper to say a few words for her obituary?” Chase asked tightly.

  “What the hell was I gonna say? ‘Stephanie McCoy ODed on some pills because she hated her husband and her son didn’t care enough about her to come visit?’ If you wanna put that shit out there, be my guest.” Ben muttered.

  Chase’s rage continued to build, the longer he spoke to his father. He had no idea how Ben McCoy had become such an awful, uncaring excuse for a human being. But if he didn’t get away from him soon, Daylen would for sure have to call 911.

  “I’ll take care of everything. So you don’t have to raise a finger to do anything other than to bring a beer can to your mouth. And after this, I’m done. The next time I see you will be when I put you in a pine box. And maybe not even then, I’ll have to see if I’m free.” Chase sneered at him. “I’ll be next door for a couple of days. So you don’t have to worry about me staying here.

  “
What? Next door with that bitch and her fat daughter?” Ben asked.

  Before Chase knew what he was doing, he had his hands wrapped around his father’s throat. Ben struggled and clawed at his hands.

  “So help me God, I will kill you right now.” Chase hissed in his face. “They are the only reason I made it this far. I’d be dead or in jail if it weren't for them. If I ever hear you speak badly about them again, I’ll put you in that pine box sooner than later.”

  Chase released his neck and his father collapsed in the doorway as he gasped for breath.

  “Fuck you!” Ben wheezed.

  Chase didn’t hear him. He’d already turned and walked away for good.

  ~~~

  Day went with Chase to the crematory to see his mom before they cremated her. He was given whatever she’d had on her when she’d been taken away in the ambulance the day before. Day watched Chase swallow convulsively as he looked down at the bracelet he’d made his mother three years ago. As well as a necklace she’d always worn that was given to her by her mother before she’d died of cancer. It was a gold locket that had a picture of Stephanie and her mother on one side and a picture of Chase as a little boy on the other.

  Chase clutched the items in his left hand and squeezed Daylen’s hand with his right. She knew he was ready to lose it, but like before, he held it all inside. Day sighed internally, praying that he’d get it out when he was alone. She knew it couldn’t be healthy to bottle all the hurt and grief on the inside, but she didn’t want to push him either.

  They were told to come back in a couple of days to pick up Stephanie McCoy’s ashes. Day drove back to her house as Chase stared quietly out the window. She reached for his hand and he looked over at her with a sad smile.

  ~~~

  They stood at the bank of Fox River, next to one of the pretty arched bridges. Chase clutched the container with his mother’s ashes in his arms. His mom had told him on a few occasions when she was in the mood to talk, that this spot was her favorite place to go as a kid, to think and dream. Chase knew that spreading ashes was illegal. But he couldn’t think of a better place to spread her ashes, than the last place where she had felt it was still acceptable to dream of a better life.

  Since Stephanie had no close living relatives and no friends due to her controlling husband, who was too drunk to function. The need to have a formal funeral was null and void. It was just Chase and his two-person network of support. Daylen and her mother.

  Chase cleared his throat, in an attempt to dislodge the lump that wouldn’t seem to go away. Day rubbed his back in soothing circles.

  “Mom, you told me before that this was your favorite place to dream as a young girl. I’m so sorry that they didn’t come true.” Chase choked back tears. “Maybe they will now…wherever you are. I just wanted you to know that I love you and I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to save you.”

  Chase quickly wiped away a few tears that slipped down his cheeks with his shoulders. He lifted the lid off of the plain urn he could afford and tipped it over. The three of them watched solemnly as the ashes caught the wind and blew down the river. When the urn was empty, Chase’s shoulders hung heavily and Day wrapped him up in a tight hug. Pat rubbed his back consolingly.

  “I didn’t get to talk to Stephanie much, but Chase…she did realize one of her dreams. She got to see her son grow up and make something of himself. That’s all she wanted for you. You were her dream.” Pat confessed.

  Chase blinked rapidly. His chest ached so badly, it felt like it would never stop. The lump in his throat swelled to the point of choking him. Even though he knew he could show emotion in front of these two women, Chase refused to cry again.

  “Thanks, Mrs. D.” Chase successfully got out, without breaking down. “Let’s get outta here.”

  They all walked back to Pat’s car and got inside. Pat started the car and cranked up the heat. The silence in the car was deafening as she pulled onto the road. Of course, Pat didn’t miss much and she let them know as a way to quiet the silence.

  “So…it looks like you two are back together,” she said it as a statement of fact, not a question.

  “Yeah, I think so. Day?” Chase replied and then looked to Daylen in the front passenger seat for confirmation.

  “Yes.” Day grinned and looked over at her mother.

  “Good. I liked Drew. He was a sweet boy, but this is how it should be.” Pat admitted.

  Chase and Day both looked at Pat with mouths hanging open in astonishment.

  “What?” She looked over at Daylen and then in the rearview mirror at Chase. “I’ve always rooted for you two.”

  “Even after all of the stink-eyes you’ve given us?” Day asked incredulously.

  “Just because I want you both to go about it the right way and not ruin your futures, doesn’t mean that I don’t want to see you both together.” Pat ended with a nod of self-righteousness.

  “We stand corrected.” Day looked back at Chase and grinned.

  Chase sat back and smiled softly. The ache of the loss of his mother burned in the pit of his stomach. But the love he felt from the two women in the front of the car, helped to soothe his hurt. He hoped that he’d be able to do right by them, when everything he touched seemed to turn to shit.

  Tough Love

  Chapter 21

  January 2004

  Day’s alarm went off Monday morning. Her hand shot out from underneath the covers and gave the snooze button a hard smack. It was the first day of her last semester in college. She should’ve been jumping out of bed and dancing a jig. That was not the case.

  She and Chase had officially been together over a year now. Their first full year together as a couple should’ve been heaven. The honeymoon stage at best, though with his mom’s suicide hanging over his head, it was anything but.

  Everything would’ve been perfect if it wasn’t for that weight pressing down on him. Last spring, Chase was first pick in the draft and it was Chicago that scooped him up. No fuss, no worries about needing to be separated. He graduated from U of I with a bachelor's in sports therapy. Before spring training began for the coming football season, Chase bought a beautiful condo for them downtown. Daylen moved in since it was a short walk to school and Amy had moved in with Jake. It should’ve been perfect.

  Day hadn’t realized how badly Chase had internalized his grief since he was away at his last semester of school. It became evident very quickly, soon after they’d moved in together. He’d become angry and bitter, and drank entirely too much. Day tried to get him to talk about it, but he’d only get angrier and shut down. She prayed that his behavior wouldn’t get him kicked off the team at the end of the season. They knew he’d taken his mother’s death hard, but that didn’t mean they needed or wanted to put up with diva behavior from the second-string rookie quarterback.

  Daylen never thought that Chase would be the kind of pro-ball player that would get dollar signs in his eyes either. But his lack of money and not having nice things growing up, caused him to spend foolishly. He filled the house with expensive toys and gadgets and bought the prerequisite fancy sports car that many of them seemed to drive. Day was at a complete loss as to what to do to wake him up to his issues.

  Day pulled the covers back and groaned as she stared up at the ceiling. She looked over at Chase’s side of the bed, which was empty and still in perfect condition. He hadn’t come home. She’d chirped him on her Nextel phone last night, but he’d never responded. She swallowed down the tears that always threatened when she thought about how much he’d changed in the last year. She roughly scrubbed at her face as she got up to head to the bathroom. It was cold, granite and glass, which Chase had instantly fallen in love with. She hated it.

  Day looked at herself in the mirror and sighed. She’d gained a few pounds from the stress of the last year. Cookies were her best friend when she was feeling down, so she’d been eating them more than usual. She tried to hide it behind her hair that s
he’d grown out to her shoulders and bangs that laid below her eyebrows. As well as, cozy sweaters and sweatshirts over her boyfriend jeans.

  Day knew that she was just as bad as Chase. She bottled up her feelings and then ate them. She knew she needed to talk to him, but she knew it would be a huge fight when she did. She shook her head, turned away from the mirror, and undressed to get in the shower. Her naked reflection, not a welcome sight.

  By the time she was done getting ready, her cello slung over her shoulder and heading for the door. Chase walked in looking haggard. He had dark circles around his now desolate light brown eyes. The flecks of green murky, instead of sparkling. It didn’t help that he came in smelling like a distillery.

  Daylen didn’t say a word. She just looked at him in quiet disappointment.

  “Look Day, I was just out with Max and passed out over at his place,” Chase explained, mentioning his friend and neighborhood enabler. Max was a running back on the team, who enjoyed getting trashed while hanging out with trashy women.

  “And that’s supposed to make it okay?” Daylen looked at him with zero expression on her face.

  “I didn’t do anything. Just had some drinks.” Chase defended.

  “Hang out with any ladies?” Day asked, cocking her head to the side.

  “You know I would never do that to you again,” Chase said sincerely.

  “Yeah, but how would you even know, when you’re in a drunken stupor?” Day argued.

  “I’m just having a good time, Day. Jesus!” Chase grumbled as he ran a hand over his newly buzzed hair.

  The super short cut made his chiseled jawline and defined chin stand out in sharp relief. He was still gorgeous. Sad and beautiful.

  “I didn’t move in with you to be alone more often than not. You practice. You play. You party. You stay away. Doing all that isn’t going to make the pain go away.” Day said wisely.