Page 86 of Keep Me Never
“I asked if you’d be coming, pretty much already knowing the answer beforehand, and you said, ‘Of course.’”
My lips curve up, and I nod again, waiting for him to get to the part that’s making him act adorably nervous.
“You said yes, and I didn’t think about the context until, well, the guys started talking about it.” Another pause, those hazel eyes on mine. “Paige, you always stay in Lolli and Nate’s guest room when we go to Oceanside.” Mason and Ari’s cousin, Nate, and his fiancée, Lolli, are part of the group but they have their own place, and I think I finally understand where he’s going with this. “But I want you to stay in the beach house this trip. With me. Inmyroom. My bed.”
I bite at my inner lip so my smile doesn’t break free. Shifting in my seat, I lift my legs and fold them over his, so they’re across his lap. His hands fall to my outer thighs instantly, fingers twitching a bit as he waits for my response.
“Well…” I trail off, looking down, because I know what will happen when I do, and Chase doesn’t disappoint.
His strong knuckle comes under my chin, and when he lifts my face, drawing my eyes to his, he sees it, the coy grin in place.
“Are you being a brat, Angel?”
A low giggle fights up my throat. “Maybe it was presumptuous of me, but I kind of thought that was already the plan,” I admit. “Of course, if I got it wrong, I can always sleep at?—”
He cuts off my playfulness with a swift press of his lips to mine.
I laugh against his mouth, my hand sliding into his hair and tugging him closer as I fall back in the seat, my head hitting the door on my way down, and that only makes me laugh harder, and he’s right there with me—smiling like I’ve never seen him smile, a lively freeness to him I can’t get enough of.
There’s something lighter about him these days, and I like to think I’m a part of that.
No, scratch that.
I know that I am; he makes sure that I do.
“Hey, you two!” Cameron shouts through the open window before sliding in. “If you’re fucking, hop in the back. I don’t want to get a peek of Chase’s perky ass if I look in the mirror.”
I drop my chin to my chest to hide the blush, but Chase doesn’t hide from his friends.
He smirks, tugging me up with him, and as we get back on the road with his right arm around me, his other takes my hand.
And not once for the rest of the drive does he let me go.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Chase
Brady drops down into the open chair between me and Noah, Mason on my left, the four of us smiling out at the girls as they run toward the ocean, hand in hand, with little D in the middle, not one of them letting the slight chill in the air stop them from getting into the water—perks of the Southern California coast, I guess. The beaches are never truly empty.
“You guys are seeing the full picture here, right?” Brady asks.
Noah, Mase, and I squint his way, waiting for him to fill us in on his Brady logic.
“Our group is tying off in one full fucking circle.” He grins. “We’re literally all gonna get married and have babies and coach some studs, and by the end of it all, one of our kids is gonna be someone’s son-in-law ’cause you knowthatwill be inevitable. And, oh shit.” He elbows Noah before turning back to me. “How weird would it be if Chase’s kid married yours and Ari’s?”
“Bro!” Both Mase and I shout it at the same time.
I can feel my damn cheeks heating, which is ridiculous, but goddamn. That is…not right, to say that shit in front of Noah. He’s probably?—
“I think that would come as no surprise to anyone.”
That has my whole-ass body yanking in his direction, unsure of what to expect in his expression, but he’s not even looking at me. His eyes are still pointed toward his fiancée, who is now swinging her nephew in her arms.
As if sensing my gaze, his shifts my way, but only for long enough to offer a small smile, moving right back to the most important person in his life.
I want to ask him why he’d say that. Ari and I were never more than a moment of… Shit, I hate to sayregret. I love and respect her more than that word calls for, but sadly,disgustingly, that is what it has turned into for me. The biggest mistake I ever made that led to the reveal of what a weak boy I was, walking around thinking I was a man because high school was over and college was coming.
I wasn’t even half a man, nothing but an eighteen-year-old kid with no idea about love and loss and the pain those confusing feelings could cause others.
