Page 8 of After You

“You write gory, psychotic murder mysteries. Since when are you so into nostalgia and heartbreak and moving on?” she asked him crossly.

“Because this is the kind of thing that drives people into psychotic rages that result in gory murders.”

She didn’t believe that he actually believed that. She started up the steps to the porch. “Yeah, come to think of it, the longer we talk, the more murderous Ifeel.”

“See what Imean?”

She let them in with the key they’d been given when they’d “checked in”—which had consisted of pulling the envelope that said “HANNAH” off the door where it had been taped, and opening it to find the key to the front door, a key to their room, their room number, and a note that said “Welcome”.

There was a small lamp shining warmly from the table just inside the door and a light glowing from the kitchen at the end of the main hall, but the rest of the house was dark and quiet as they stepped through the frontdoor.

She and Kade quietly ascended the staircase, trying not to wake their neighbors. There was a squeaky seventh step, but otherwise they made it upstairs without a sound. Until she stepped from the top step to the second floor. And ran directly into a chest. A naked, wet chest.

The only bathroom on the second floor was the first door on the left, and a tall, lanky male form in only a towel had stepped out of the bathroom just as Hannah turned the corner.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she exclaimed, jerkingback.

“Hey,” the man said with a slow smile. “I didn’t know we had girls stayinghere.”

Kade stepped off the top step just then. The man’s gaze flickered to him, and then back to Hannah. “Oh. You’re not alone.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at his obvious disappointment. “Nope.”

“Right. Got it. I’m Chase. I’m in town doing some time at the dirt bike track.”

“Racer?” Hannah asked. The dirt bike track was a new addition to town since she’d lived here, and she was excited to see it. She, like a lot of the girls in town, were fans of the sport. And that had a lot to do with the men whorode.

“Yep,” Chase said. “You follow the sport?”

“Not as much as I used to,” she admitted. “Butyeah.”

“Well, come out and watch me some time,” Chase said, with a confident charm that said he didn’t really care that the man she was with was standing right behind her. “You’ll be able to say you watched me before I was famous.”

“I’ll have to dothat.”

“I’d give you an autograph, but I don’t have a pen on me,” he said, running a big hand over his damp chest and down over a six-pack of hardabs.

Hannah laughed again at his less-than-subtle style. “Well, we’ll be here for a while. I’ll catch you sometime.”

He gave her a wink. “You do that.” Then he lifted his gaze to Kade. Who looked completely bored. “You a fan too?” Chase asked.

“Of?” Kade asked.

“Racing.”

“Not even slightly.”

Hannah elbowed him. This was the kind of shit Kade was going to do all over town if she didn’t break him ofit.

But Chase simply laughed. “Well, I’ll give you an autograph anyway. Maybe it’ll be worth money someday.”

“Maybe,” Kade said dryly.

Okay, so it was funny that an amateur dirt bike racer was pressing an autograph on a man who’d signed his name four hundred times at his last book signing. Hannah hid her smile.

“When do you race next?” she asked. She’d never been to a race here, of course, but she’d been to many in the past. And demo derbies. She loved those.

“Two weeks,” Chase said. “But then I’ll be back. I’ll leave a note on your door with the date andtime.”

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