I wake up to Chase sliding into my bed and wrapping his arms around me. I roll toward him and snuggle up, my face on his shoulder, my nose against his neck.
I breathe in his familiar smell, a scent that has always been crisp and sweet, like an apple, but has changed slightly over the years. Now, his neck reminds me of a warm fall day spent at the orchard, where you pick an apple fresh from a tree, cut it into slices, and then dip it in warm cinnamon caramel.
“Do you want to go fishing this morning?” he asks.
“I’d rather stay here and sleep,” I murmur.
“You’ll miss the sunrise, and it’s supposed to be breathtaking. Grandpa Mac seemed pretty excited about it.”
“How do you even know he’s going fishing this morning?” I grumble. I’m not much of a morning person.
“He put it on the schedule board.”
“I thought this vacation was supposed to be all about no schedules.”
“It is. Weren’t you listening when my mom showed us the bulletin board in the laundry room?”
He moves his hand up to gently stroke my hair. I just sigh in response.
“Mom said if we want to sit up in our rooms all day by ourselves and read, we can. But if we’re open to someone joining in on an activity, then we put it on the board. The board is already filled with fun stuff. Like Mom has a spa afternoon planned, so if you want to go, you sign up on the board, and she’ll make your appointments. Jennifer and Haley have a shopping day listed. Your dad put horseshoes on there for every night before dinner. That kind of thing.”
“I just want to go back with a killer tan.”
“That isn’t all you want,” he says, his voice deep and sounding much older than his almost sixteen years. It causes me to consider all the possible things I could want when it comes to Chase Mackenzie.
“What else do I want?” I finally ask since I have no idea what he’s referring to.
“You want me to take the fish you catch off the hook and let them go, and you want me to make you chocolate chip pancakes when we get back.”
“What time is it anyway?” I ask, trying not to wake fully.
I know I’m going to get up and go with him if that’s what he wants. Sometimes, I think I’d follow him to the ends of the earth. Other times, I feel the need to get far away from him.
And sometimes, I curse the fates that we weren’t born at different times. That he wasn’t best friends with my little brother. That he was older than me, so I could date him.
Of course, I’d probably screw that up and ruin our friendship. And honestly, I don’t know what I’d ever do without him in my life. He’s like a pillar of strength that I cling to while at the same time knowing I need to forge my own path to become a strong, independent woman.
My mom says a man’s role in your life is not to take care of you. That you should never depend on one because it takes away your choices in life. That you should be with someone, marry someone, only when it suits you. Only when they add value to your life. I used to think by value, she meant money, but after her divorce from my dad and her independent wealth, I think she meant companionship—and mostly, sex. Personally, I don’t find Richard attractive. He’s a nice enough guy, and he seems very into my mom. And I think that’s all she wants—to be worshipped. And if he ever stops, she’ll be out of the relationship in an instant.
Chase must think I fell back asleep because he slowly untangles himself from me, trying to get out of bed.
“I’ll go,” I say, popping my head up.
He glances at his watch. “We have seven minutes to meet them.”
I jump out of bed, grab a bikini, and run into the bathroom, where I brush my teeth, wash my face, pee, and get dressed.
Chase is sprawled across my bed when I come back out.
“New swimsuit?” he asks, his eyes gliding down my body and making me feel naked.
“Yeah,” I say, searching for a cover-up. Why do I feel like this? Usually, I strut around in a bikini. I work hard on my body and know I look good in one.
Chase leans off the side of the bed, picks up a shirt, and tosses it at me. “I brought you a proper fishing shirt. It will protect you from the sun. I know you want a tan, but you don’t want to get fried on your first morning out.”
I pull it over my head. The sleeves are too long and need to be pushed up. The shoulder seams fall over my arms, and it’s long enough to hit me mid-thigh.
“Is this your dad’s shirt? It’s huge on me.”
Chase gets up off the bed, and just like when he got out of the car the other day, I notice again how much he’s grown over the past year. His chest is broader, his body taller, his muscles visible under what I now realize is a shirt just exactly like the one I have on, just a different color.
“No, silly,” he says. “It’s mine.”
He grabs my sunglasses from the nightstand and hands them to me as I slide my feet into a pair of flip-flops.
It’s still dark when we get outside and walk down the hill, and I’m surprised to discover we’re not the only ones up. Besides Papa and Grandpa Mac, there’s Ryder, Madden, and even Jennifer.
We grab our life jackets, help the younger kids put theirs on, choose fishing poles, and get in the boat.
By the time we motor out to the lake, dawn is upon us, those little rays of light brightening the sky and peeking over the hills even though the sun isn’t yet visible.
“This is the spot where the fish are supposed to be biting,” Grandpa Mac says, idling the boat and then letting it glide to a halt before throwing out the anchor.
Everyone starts to prepare their lines, going through Papa’s enormous tackle box for the perfect lure to catch the biggest fish.
I stay in the back of the boat with Jennifer.
“It’s so peaceful,” she says. “I’ve always loved the sunrise.”
“That surprises me,” I tell her. Jennifer seems more like a sunset girl.
“Years of early morning call times on set, I suppose.”
“Do you miss it?” I ask her, wondering if it was worth leaving LA and moving to Kansas City for my dad.
“Not as much as I thought I would,” she says sincerely. “I enjoy the slower pace of life here.” She breaks out in laughter, only to get shushed by Ryder, who tells her she will scare off the fish.
“I lied. I don’t know if the pace in Kansas City is slower. You kids are constantly on the move, and my schedule is still busy when we’re filming. Throw a baby into the mix, and it’s a little crazy. But I’m happy. And in love. So, it feels amazing.”
“Do you fish?” I ask her.
“I did with my dad when I was a kid. I grew up in a small town, and there was a lake within walking distance. It was a place I often escaped to.”
Then, she says, “Oh, look,” pointing toward the sky just as the brilliant golden sun peeks over the horizon and brings with it a barrage of fiery colors.
Chase sits down next to me, handing me a pole, all ready to go. “Worth getting up for?” he asks.
To which Jennifer and I respond with a happy, “Absolutely.”
We fish for a few hours with me not getting a single bite, so I decide to go up on the front of the boat and lay out.
I am surprised when Chase joins me.
“You giving up?” I tease even though he’s already caught three fish big enough to eat.
“Yeah, well, I have to leave some fish for everyone else,” he quips.
He pulls up the hem of his shirt.
He does it without thought, and normally, I wouldn’t think twice about it either. And maybe it’s because of the sunrise, but today, I’m noticing details. Like the first sliver of his flat stomach, followed by a teeny trail of hair leading to his shorts, which are slung so low on his hips that they are practically indecent. The shirt slips across a stack of ab muscles, up to a broad chest. His biceps flex as the shirt moves over his head.
Once the shirt is stripped free of his body, he rolls it into a ball, puts it under his head to use as a pillow, and lies back on it.
“Doesn’t the warm sun feel good on your skin?” he asks me.
“Yeah,” I say, knowing it’s not the sun that has me feeling heated.
I sigh and think about Hunter. I’m nervous that regardless of all the promises he made me, this trip could cause us to be over before we ever really started.
And then I wonder why I even care.
Chase is right. Hunter is kind of an ass. But he’s a hot ass. And I’ve crushed on him for a long time, and then the crush, even though I had moved on, was suddenly there in front of me. I feel almost honored, like my seventh-grade self has finally won the boy.
I turn my head and glance at Chase, only to find him staring at me.
“I don’t have any pennies with me,” he says, and I can’t help but smile.
When we were kids, we heard the saying, A penny for your thoughts, and took it literally—Chase always giving me pennies from his pocket when he wanted me to tell him how I really felt about something.
Everything about him is familiar, and I can’t decide if that’s good or bad. If it makes it more exciting because he knows me so well or less exciting because, well, he knows me so well. Too well sometimes.
“I was thinking about Hunter,” I say, skipping over the thoughts I was having about Chase.
“Miss him already?”
“Actually, I was thinking being gone for so long and not getting to text him will be the end of us.”
“I heard he’s only talking to you now.”
“Yeah, and it’s hard to ignore all the gossip.”
“You think he’s just trying to make Taylor jealous?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, either way, you deserve a guy who is willing to wait for you.”
He moves his fingers slightly, so they brush gently against mine, and I can’t help but wonder if he’s talking about himself.
Even though he probably has his pick of girls, he says he doesn’t have time for a girlfriend.
But he seems to have plenty of time for goofing off and playing video games with my brother.
And he always has time for me. Even if it’s in the middle of the night.
“I know,” I reply with a sigh.
He doesn’t say anything else.
We just lie side by side on the boat with our fingers barely touching, half-asleep until the boat starts for our ride back to the house.
When we get back, Chase does as planned and makes pancakes.
It seems everyone ends up in the kitchen. Chase does make good pancakes.
Jennifer loves when my dad cooks for us. She says there’s something sexy about it. And I will admit, I get it. Maybe because cooking has traditionally been a woman’s role.
My dad joins us with Weston on his hip, causing Jennifer to get a huge grin on her face—one reserved for the people who make her the happiest.
And I hope to someday look at someone like that.
Once the pancakes are all served to everyone else, Chase and I finally get to eat ours, which we take out onto the deck after his mother offers to clean up since he cooked.
“Got any big plans for today after this?” I ask him.
“Not really. We should go check the board and see what everyone else is doing. And we should make some plans of our own, don’t you think?”
“Yeah,” I reply, taking a bite of pancake and letting the gooey chocolate melt in my mouth. “These are so good.”
Chase gives me a smile, and then we eat in a comfortable silence. Well, sort of silence. I can hear Weston wailing from inside the house, and Madden and Ryder are running off the dock and then screaming in delight before they hit the water, causing our dads to laugh.
I watch as my dad says something to Phillip, and then they move to the back of the dock. Then, they both take off running and cannonball into the lake, splashing the boys.
“They’re crazy,” Chase says.
“But fun. Do you want to go join them?”
He rubs his flat stomach. “You know, they say you shouldn’t swim for an hour after you eat.”
He’s inhaled a stack of pancakes, a bowl of fruit, numerous pieces of bacon, and now, he is sipping on a protein-filled smoothie. I’ve been finished eating for a while.
“Tell that to them,” I say, pointing at our dads, who are climbing up the dock ladder to do it again.
“I have a better idea,” Chase says, standing up.
He takes my hand and leads me to a side door off the deck and into the laundry room.
“See?” he says, pointing out the wall-sized bulletin board.
It’s got string running down it, making vertical strips. The top of each row has a day of the week marked.
“There are already all sorts of things pinned on it. Dinner plans, movie and game nights. Look, tonight, at five, our dads want to play horseshoes. The drink of the night is an old-fashioned.”
I laugh out loud at the little note next to the drink name that says, Get it?
“That is kind of funny—that they are kicking off tonight’s old-fashioned family vacation with old-fashioneds. Oh, look,” I gush. “Tonight’s dinner will be prepared by your grandparents. They’re making grilled chicken and veggies, oven-roasted potatoes, and Grandma Mac’s delicious triple-layer chocolate cake.”
My brother strolls in. He still has bedhead, but his eyes are bright.
“Dude,” he says to Chase, “while you were out fishing, I was busy checking out the hotties over at the resort. I say we go over there. Like, now. Auntie Jay gave me this club card.” He pulls a piece of green plastic out of his swim trunks pocket and holds it up. “This is the key to the kingdom, bro. Anything we eat over there, they charge to some account. We want to rent a paddleboard and show off? Done. Lunch? Done. Wanna golf? Done. And I’m pretty sure, combined with the fake IDs I got us, we could get some fruity drinks by the pool while we check out the babes. This might shape up to be an okay vacay.”
Chase turns to me. “What do you think? It would be fun to check out the resort.”
I notice he doesn’t say check out the girls. I study his face, which looks sincere, like he does want me to join them.
“Uh, thanks, but I need to use the house phone to call Hunter. See what’s up at home.”
Chase glances down before looking me in the eyes and nodding in understanding, but I can see that he’s disappointed. “Cool,” he finally says. “Guess we’ll see ya later.”
When I walk back into the kitchen, I find it cleaned up and empty. I look outside and see everyone but my brother and Chase in the backyard.
Between Jadyn and Mimi, baby Emersyn is toddling across the lawn in an adorable watermelon swimsuit.
My dad and Jennifer are in the pool with Weston, possibly trying to teach her how to swim—or at least to enjoy the water. Right now, it looks like they are not succeeding. Although I can’t hear her through the heavy glass, I can tell by her face that she’s wailing.
The grandpas are messing around with their fishing gear, and Phillip is taking turns in throwing Ryder and Madden off the dock and into the lake. The boys look like they are having the time of their lives.
Haley is lying on a towel on the dock, getting her tan on. And Grandma Mac is sitting under an umbrella, reading.
I smile. Even though I didn’t really want to come, I will admit that it’s a beautiful place.
I pick up the phone, excited to dial Hunter’s cell. We agreed this would be a good time to call him each day. He’s done with his football workout and home to relax before hanging out with his friends later. And even if he isn’t home, he is about as attached to his cell as Haley is. Sometimes, I wonder if it’s because he’s waiting for his ex to call. Regardless, I was able to text him the house number as soon as we got here, so he would know it was me and not some random spam call.
But he doesn’t answer.
I leave a message and check the time again.
Then I sit by the phone and wait for him to call me back.
After twiddling my thumbs for about half an hour, I give up. I shouldn’t be sitting around, waiting for him to call, when I could be out there, getting tan.
I take a clean towel from the laundry room and make my way down to the dock.
“Hey, will you grab me a beer out of the boathouse?” Phillip says to me.
“Oh, make that two,” my dad yells from the pool.
“Three!” Jadyn calls out.
I roll my eyes, toss my towel down on the dock, and go get some beers.
I take one up to my dad. I look at Jennifer but don’t offer her one. I know she isn’t drinking much since she’s still nursing. She shakes her head, but then she looks at my dad holding Weston, who is slapping the water with her hands and then laughing in delight, and smiles broadly.
And I know what she’s thinking.
That skipping a few beers is totally worth it. She’s been a great mom to Weston, she seems to adore my father, and she doesn’t try to act like my mother—which is a really good thing because my relationship with my mother can only be described as dramatic.
Papa has put his fishing gear away and appears to be napping in a hammock, but when I go by, he raises his hand, so I toss him a beer. Grandma Mac is walking up toward the house, presumably to either change a diaper or put Emersyn down for a nap, while Jadyn is on the dock with Phillip.
The boys are now wrestling on the big inner tube tied to the dock. Phillip has his hands wrapped around his wife. I have always loved how in love they are. My mom and dad never really had that kind of sweet relationship, although Dad is making up for lost time with Jennifer. They can’t seem to keep their hands off each other. And it always makes me think about Chase. About what we’re supposed to be. If we’ll get married, like his parents. They have been best friends since birth, but they didn’t actually get together until after college. The minute they did though, everything went fast. From first kiss to being married in a few short months with Chase on the way not long after. But I guess when you know, you know.
I hand them each a beer, spread my towel out next to Haley, and crack open the beer left in my hand, hoping no one says anything. My mother, who drinks bottle-sized glasses of wine at home, always tells me not to drink. She’s super strict about some things and super lax about others. Of course, if this were champagne and not canned beer, she’d probably be cool with it.
My dad and Jennifer, minus Weston, who is now rocking in Mimi’s arms, come down to the dock. They’ve barely stepped on it when Dad picks Jennifer up, twirls her around, and then tosses her out into the water, screaming. Then, my dad gives Phillip a little nudge, and together, they grab Jadyn—one taking her arms, the other taking her legs—and literally swing her back and forth before throwing her out to the water. Jadyn is grinning like a maniac during her protests, and I’m assuming this isn’t the first time they’ve done this to her.
And I wonder if that’s how Chase and I will end up.
Best friends for life, like Jadyn and my dad.
I think their long friendship is amazing, but my mother—who I recently learned was having affairs during her and my dad’s fifteen-year marriage—thinks it’s stifling. She thinks I should hang out with more people, see the world, which I get. On Sundays, we sort of do the same thing—all the friends come over—and sometimes, I don’t want to be a part of it, but when I’m at my mom’s, I feel like I missed out. I’m torn about what I want out of life.
I watch as Jadyn, Jennifer, Ryder, and Madden swim simultaneously toward the dock, looking like they are on a mission.
Haley finally acknowledges my presence by saying, “They’re going after our dads. We should help.”
She grabs the beer from my hand, takes a sip, makes a face, mutters about it being dreadful, and then sets it on the dock.
Phillip and my dad are holding their hands up in the air, like they didn’t do anything wrong, but they are grinning from ear to ear as the crew gets out of the water and moves toward them.
Limbs are grabbed, and the dads are being pushed toward the edge, but it’s not until Haley and I rush them from behind that they both go into the lake.
Jennifer and Jadyn jump up and down and cheer. Haley leaps in the water with them, and the boys follow.
“How come you didn’t go over to the resort with Chase and Damon?” Jennifer asks, sitting down next to me.
“I needed to call Hunter.”
“Oh, that’s right,” she says with a smile. “How did that go?”
I sigh. “He didn’t answer or call me back.”
“I’m sure he’s just busy.”
“Hopefully not with his ex.”
“I know that you have been hanging out and that you like him, but I thought it wasn’t serious. That he was dating other girls, too.”
“It wasn’t. His breakup is still new. It’s only reasonable he’d want to date around a bit. I used to crush on him when we were kids. But last week, he told me that he was only talking to me.”
“Talking to you? What does that mean?”
“Talking is when you are texting someone. Lots of guys talk to a lot of different girls. That’s normal. But when you like a girl and you don’t want her to be talking to anyone else, then you decide to only talk to each other.”
“So, you’re going out?”
“It’s more like the first step. You talk, then you talk exclusively, and then if that goes well, you become boyfriend and girlfriend.”
“Ah, I got it. Same old story, new terminology. Is Hunter friends with Chase and your brother?”
“No. Chase isn’t a fan. Which means my brother isn’t either, if I cared to ask for his opinion.”
“Well, he certainly seems, um, different from Matt.”
“Matt was an idiot,” I say, taking another sip of beer. And in that moment, on a hot day, sitting on a dock, I realize it actually tastes really good.
“Why did you date him for so long then?”
“Because I didn’t know he was an idiot until—” I stop talking, realizing I almost spilled the beans.
“Until what?”
“Until, you know, I realized it. Fully. For myself,” I word-vomit.
She nods in understanding, and I think she thinks she knows what happened, but I’m not going to get into that. Not here. And probably not ever. We’re over. I’m over thinking about him.
“Well, I was going to say, the reason your brother and Chase are at the resort is because, apparently, there are cute girls there.”
“Yes, I heard.”
“And I was just thinking …”
“That there might be some cute boys, too?”
“Exactly, although I guess you can enjoy the view but not talk to them?”
“I can speak to them. I can be nice. I can probably even flirt a little. I just can’t text them or give them my number.”
“Ah,” she says, just as one of the cutest boys I’ve ever met steps onto the dock, shirtless.
Jennifer cocks an eyebrow at me and nods in Chase’s direction. “I swear, he grew while he was gone. Hard to believe he’s only fifteen.”
She lets out a sigh, and I’m pretty sure she might have a little crush on him. She is the one who first told Jadyn that Chase belonged on an Abercrombie bag, and it was through her contacts that he got an agent and started modeling. He’s already been in a national preppy brand’s ad. A photo of him sporting patriotic shorts, a white polo, and a navy sweater wrapped around his neck hangs in department stores around the country. Mixed in between his football camps the last three weeks, he also did a couple more photo shoots.
Chase seems completely unaffected by it. Even when girls at school were bringing in pictures of him from a magazine ad and asking him to sign it. He just shrugs about modeling, says he’s only doing it because he wants to be able to handle himself in front of a camera, whether that’s doing interviews with the press or the endorsement deals he hopes to someday get. My brother, who used to talk about modeling, has deemed it too boring for him.
“Any luck?” I ask Chase, trying not to let the sarcasm I feel show in my voice. But from the way Jennifer looks at me, her eyes narrowed, and then looks at Chase before smiling like she knows something I don’t, I realize I didn’t succeed.
“Heck yeah,” my brother replies.
He strips off his tank top, tosses it on the dock, grabs the beer from my hand, and chugs it. Then, he runs off the end, screaming, and cannonballs into the water, splashing Dad and Phillip.
Jennifer gets up and joins the group in the water, but instead of jumping, she goes down the ladder and swims over to them. Chase sits down next to me.
“Your brother is a horndog,” he says with a laugh.
“Lots of girls over there?”
“A few but no one interesting.”
“I don’t think Damon is looking for interesting.”
“That is true. He’d prefer she let her lips do the talking.”
I slap his leg. “Chase!”
“What? He would.”
“And what about you?”
He doesn’t answer my question. Instead, he says, “How’s good old Hunter doing today?”
“Bored without me,” I say even though I know nothing of the sort.
“Well, Grandpa Mac asked if I would take the boat over to the marina and fuel it up. I heard they have ice cream.”
“Let’s go, but I get to drive.”
Chase, Haley, and I get gas and ice cream. We cruise the lake for a bit, and then we’re back in time for horseshoes and appetizers. Even though Haley and I could have stayed out on the boat forever, Chase kept checking the time because his grandmother’s homemade potato chips and French onion dip were on the menu.
We snack and play games, and I try my dad’s old-fashioned—of which I am not a fan of. We have a scrumptious dinner up on the screened porch.
We sit at the table and talk until the sun is ready to go down.
I can’t remember the last time I sat at a dinner for nearly three hours.
Or if I ever have.
Even the babies were happy.
The sunset is as pretty as the sunrise was, and even though we had dessert not long ago, everyone is ready for s’mores around the fire. My dad fires up the pit, and I can smell the burned sugar already.
“You want to do anything tonight?” Chase asks me.
I stifle a yawn. “I’m actually tired. You got me up early this morning. I’ll probably go lie down and maybe read for a bit.”
“You want company?”
“Nah. I won’t last long. But you can come tuck me in.”
He comes up to my room, waiting until I brush my teeth and am in my robe before tucking my covers in and kissing me on the head.
“Sweet dreams,” he says as he heads toward the door.
“What are you going to do?” I ask, noticing he doesn’t look all that tired.
He shrugs. “I might make a quick call on the house phone.”
“Who to?”
He stops short of rolling his eyes at me. “Kelsey. She asked me to.”
“Cool,” I say even though I’m feeling anything but.
He softly closes the door behind him.
I get up and throw on a pair of my slinkiest pajamas—a pink silk set consisting of a cropped cami and teeny matching shorts.
I wait a few minutes, and then I sneak out of my room, go down to the hall outside the kitchen, and eavesdrop on his conversation.
And something about it sounds familiar even though I can’t really hear the words he’s saying.
Suddenly, it hits me.
Chase’s deep voice is soft, smooth as the silk I’m wearing.
He’s using the same voice with Kelsey that he uses with me.
I feel betrayed.
Insanely jealous.
And also, I realize, worried about Chase’s well-being.
I mean, what’s a senior girl doing, talking to a sophomore boy, like she’s some predatory cougar? What if she takes advantage of him?
I move a little closer, trying to hear anything.
“Well,” Chase says, “I suppose, when I get back, we could do something like that. If that’s what you want.”
And I realize that she’s talking dirty to him.
What the hell?
I cough on my own spit, and knowing I can’t hide my presence anymore, I make an entrance, pretending not to know that he’s on the phone and that I’m just coming to the kitchen for …
Shit, why am I here?
Oh, yes. Cake. I want some chocolate cake.
Chase chokes when he sees me.
I mean, I am wearing lingerie.
Take that, Kelsey.
“Hey, I gotta go,” he says to her. “Yeah, sounds good.”
When he hangs up, I say, “Sorry. I totally forgot you were on the phone.”
“You going to call Hunter?” he says, reminding me that I’m supposed to have a guy in my life. And that if I can talk to Hunter exclusively, then he can talk to whoever he wants.
But I also notice that his eyes are glued to the silk and how it barely covers my body. I sashay to the cake stand on the island and take off the domed lid.
I don’t answer his question, knowing it was a rhetorical one. “You want a piece?” I ask instead.
Chase swallows hard, his eyes growing large and connecting with mine.
And I realize how that sounded.
Like I was offering him a piece of me.
“Cake,” I say with a forced smile, pretending to be offended even though I’m not.
Because the way Chase Mackenzie just looked at me felt very grown-up.
“Can we eat it together in your bed?”
I expect to find a boyish smirk on his face, but when I glance at him, I find something else.
Desire.
He’s flirting with me.
No, actually, he’s kinda, maybe, sorta hitting on me.
Holy shit.
Is that what I want?
Is that why I came down here, all lingeried up?
When I don’t respond, he stands up, all six feet two and three-quarter inches of him, and struts toward me. For a moment, I envision him picking me up, setting me on the kitchen island, and having his way with me.
And I like the vision.
I’m breathing deeply when he places his hand on mine, removing the knife from my hand and cutting one large slice.
For both of us.
And I realize he’s serious.
Which shouldn’t be that big of a deal. We eat in his bed together all the time but not mine.
Not mine.
He puts the cake on a plate, pours us a glass of milk, and nods his head toward the stairs.
Um … when did it get so hot in here?
I run my hand through my hair, trying to think.
“Your hair has always reminded me of sunshine,” he tells me, making his way to the stairs while I stay rooted in my spot.
Finally, he stops and looks back at me. And I get it. I am talking to Hunter. He’s talking to Kelsey. But he still wants things to be normal between us.
My feet start moving. They follow him up the steps and into my room. I close the door behind us, sneakily locking it, just in case.
Just in case of what, Dani?
In case someone opens the door and gets the wrong impression.
Nothing to see here, people. Nothing to see.
I consider telling him we should take the cake out to the balcony. But then he sits on my bed, forks a piece of cake, and holds it out to me. I immediately join him on the bed, pulling my legs into a pretzel shape and sitting across from him, and open my mouth.
Him sliding the cake across my lips feels almost sensual. And I have no idea why.
Actually, that is wrong. It didn’t feel as sensual as what he does next.
He leans toward me, his eyes locked on my lips, and uses the pad of his thumb to gently wipe some frosting away. Then, he puts his thumb up to his mouth and licks it off with his tongue.
And I might have just passed out.
Who is this boy? And what has he done with my best friend?
I let out an involuntary moan.
“Grandma makes really good cake, doesn’t she?” he says, feeding me another bite.
A piece of the cake drops onto the bed, and Chase looks down, ready to pick it up, but then he stops, freezes.
“Uh,” he says, quickly pulling his hand back, diverting his eyes, and waving a finger in my direction. “I uh, your, uh, short things, uh, they don’t exactly—they don’t cover much.”
Oh shit!
I look down and am surprised to see everything is fully covered. “You can’t see anything,” I tell him, starting to almost breathe normally again even though my heart is racing.
“I know, but it was just a little too close for comfort.”
I pick up the cake then grab a pillow and set it on top of my lap. “I’m sorry.”
He gives me that little-boy smirk. He totally stole all the cookies with one look. “Yeah, you don’t need to be.”
“Chase!”
“What? It’s not my fault. Why are you even wearing something like that around the house? You could have given Papa a heart attack.”
“Because it’s sexy?”
“Because it’s very sexy,” he admits, sliding his hand across the fabric covering my stomach. “And soft.” He tilts his head at me. “Two questions for you, Dani.” I’m wondering if one of them is going to have something to do with taking the silk off when he says, “One, were you trying to distract me from my call with Kelsey with lingerie? And two, did you hear any of what was said?”
I let out a huff. God, I hate when he does that. When he knows exactly what I am doing, even when I’m trying to be tricky about it.
“Well, that answers the first question,” he teases. “What about the second?”
“Yes, Chase, I heard a little.”
“And what do you think we were talking about?”
“She was talking dirty to you! I know she was. And you had that deep, dreamy tone to your voice that you usually only use when you’re talking to me,” I blurt out.
Chase smiles. “What did you hear exactly?”
“You were all sly and were like, ‘Well, I suppose, when I get back, we could do something like that. If that’s what you want.’ ”
“And you think she was referring to sex?”
“Well, wasn’t she?”
“Actually, she wasn’t, Dani. She wants me to help her wash her car.” He sets the cake on the pillow, gets off the bed, and says, “But I appreciate the show. Good night again.”
He walks out.
And I let out a silent scream.
