Page 46 of Tormented Bastard
“I’m sorry,” I said, wiping at my lip. “I’m not in love with Chase.” When she raised a brow, I bobbed my head side to side. “Okay, yes. Once upon a time in a land far, far away”— though not that far now that I thought about it—“I was in love with Chase. Desperately. But that was years ago, and I was just a young girl in college.”
She tilted her head. “So, you have a history. And unless I miss my guess, you rekindled that history again since you’ve been here.”
“Yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “How could you tell? I’m sure it wasn’t my outfit that gave it away.” My face heated. “Sorry about the eyeful I gave your husband.”
Aubrey laughed and waved her hand. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure he enjoyed it.”
“I wish I had your confidence when it comes to men.”
“It isn’t confidence with men so much as being secure in the knowledge that Chance loves me. He shows me every day. Never lets me forget it. Because of that, I don’t worry when he gets an eyeful of a beautiful woman’s body. Especially one that doesn’t notice any other man in the room but a certain ex-baseball player.” She nudged my arm. “And my husband wasn’t the only one looking.”
I set my cup down on the counter and dropped my forehead to my hand. “I can’t get involved with him, Aubrey. I have a career to think of, a business. And it’s in New York. A city Chase swears he’ll never step foot back into after what happened with his late wife.”
“Look, I don’t know the whole story on…well, any of it. You, him, the late wife. I know what I read in the papers, but I also know that what the papers write can be a lot of bullshit. So I don’t put a lot of stock in that.” She set her cup down and leaned on the counter. “But what I do put stock in is Chase. Maybe he just needs the right incentive to go back to New York and help you.”
God, this was so complicated. But what wasn’t complicated was the fact that I still had an event to manage and I was on the verge of losing not just the gig, but my reputation and my business.
I shook my head. “Be that as it may, I’ve got a business to save. And I need his help, but after what he’s been through, I can’t ask him to do it. Which leaves me in a huge bind. I don’t have the energy to try and figure out love.”
“What are you two beautiful ladies chatting about in here?” Chance waltzed in the room, a big grin on his face, looking straight at his wife. The man monopolizing my brain followed behind him—now wearing a T-shirt—hands shoved into the front pockets of his jeans, his gaze locking with mine.
Aubrey smiled at her husband. “Just girl talk. What about you guys?”
“Well, Hollywood is going to help Stewie out. I was going to go out with him.”
“Oh, good,” Aubrey said, but then frowned. “Can you drop me off at the house? I don’t want to leave CJ and Bree with Maureen for too much longer. She’s already been stuck with them in the house for the last few days.” Aubrey looked at me. “I’m afraid our nanny is going to run like zombies are after her as soon as the weather clears out.” She looked back at Chance. “We’re going to have to give her a raise, you know.”
I held up a hand. “Hold up. Who is Stewie and why does he need help?”
Chase leaned back against the counter, running a hand through his hair. “He’s the town reporter. And he’s always getting himself into stupid situations where he needs someone to bail him out.”
“Like getting his little box car stuck in the sand,” Chance said.
I looked back and forth between the three of them. “Box car?”
“Yeah, you know,” Chance said, “one of those little smart cars. Anyway, he got it stuck in the sand, and before the Gulf comes and carries it away, I told him I’d see if Hollywood could help him out.”
Chase narrowed his eyes at his friend. “Thanks for that, buddy.”
“I’ll go.”
Wait, who said that? Had I said that?
All eyes turned to me. Shit, I had said that out loud.
“No.” Chase’s tone brooked no argument.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do you mean, ‘no’? Last I checked you weren’t my keeper.”
Chase crossed his arms over his chest, and we had a staredown.
“Um, we’re going to get going. Right, babe?” Aubrey elbowed him in the ribs.
“But princess, there’s going to be fireworks here.”
Aubrey sighed. “We’re going to have more than fireworks if you don’t get your ass in gear. Come on.” She waved and pulled her husband behind her. “We’ll just let ourselves out.”
Neither of us said a word, the front door closing the only sound in the house.
