Page 84 of Mine Forever
Folding her arms over her chest, she smiles smugly. “Fifty bucks says you two realize how much you still love each other and you’re living here inside a year.”
I make the error of sipping my coffee just as she speaks.
I slap a hand over my mouth to keep from spitting coffee into her beautiful, but obviously crazy, face.
“I’m sorry,” I say, wiping at my lip. “I’m not in love with Chase.”
When she raises a brow, I bob my head side to side. “Okay, yes. Once upon a time in a land far, far away”— though not that far now that I think about it—“I was in love with Chase. Desperately. But that was years ago, and we were just kids in college.”
She narrows her eyes. “Unless I miss my guess, you’ve rekindled those feelings since you’ve been here.”
“How could you tell? I’m sure it wasn’t my outfit that gave it away.” My face heats. “Sorry about the eyeful.”
Charley laughs and waves her hand. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure the guys enjoyed it.”
“I wish I had your confidence when it comes to men.”
“Nate’s married but he isn’t dead or blind. And Lucas is Lucas. Biggest playboy in the league.”
I sigh. “I know, but still…”
“Here’s the thing. It isn’t confidence with men. It’s being secure in the knowledge that Nate 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.” She nudges my arm. “And my husband wasn’t the only one looking.”
I set my cup down on the counter and drop my forehead to my hand. “I can’t think, and this is what happens to me when I get around Chase and I don’t know what he’s thinking.”
“So you’re saying you become a twit when he’s around and forget all about who you really are?”
I sigh and cover my face. “Something like that.”
She pulls my hands away from my face. “Eden, you canhandle this. You love that man in there and he loves you. I know because when he sees you, he can’t take his eyes off you. And you’re the same way.”
“But, I can’t get involved with him, Charley. 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 in after what happened with his late wife.”
“Listen, 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 leans on the counter. “But what I do put stock in is what I see. And I see two people who deserve another chance with each other.”
“I don’t know. I just don’t think that’s the case here. For either of us.”
She glances up but lowers her voice. “Incoming. If you want to talk some more, I’ll give you my number.”
We’re trading numbers when Nate and the man monopolizing my brain walk into the room—Chase now wearing a T-shirt—his gaze locking with mine.
“What are you two ladies chatting about in here?”
Charley smiles. “Just girl talk. What about you guys?”
“Well, I convinced Chase to help Stewie get his box car out of the sand,” Nate says.
I look back and forth between them. “Box car?”
“Yeah, you know,” Lucas says, “one of those little smart cars. Anyway, he got it stuck in the sand, and before the Atlantic comes and carries it away, I told him I’d see if Chase could use his truck to help him out.”
Chase narrows his eyes at his friend. “Thanks for that, buddy.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Wait, who said that? Had I said that?
