Marcus's smile faded. "Oh no. What did you do?"
Well, there was story time at the library and the martinis at the bar and the one bed and—
"I kissed Emma."
Marcus gasped. Literally gasped. "You did what now?"
"Please don't make me repeat it," Chase lamented.
"Oh, yeah, this is not good."
"Actually, it was really good. That's my problem."
His assistant grabbed the take-out bag of sushi and tossed it in the fridge before walking over to the sliding glass doors to check out the guest house on the other side of his pool.
"Well, it looks like the lights are on," Marcus murmured before turning to his boss. "You need to talk to her."
Chase's head fell back, hitting the back of the couch. "And say what?"
"I have no idea, but you have two weeks to fix this and get back on track so the woman that we've both become smitten with can get her grandmother's inheritance."
Chase's head snapped up. "Both?"
"My smitten and your smitten are not the same thing, asshole," Marcus said with a scathing look. "Sorry, I didn't mean to call you that."
Chase just wordlessly hand waved the comment away. He deserved it. He was being an asshole. What kind of person kisses someone and then tries to pretend like it never happened? Just ignores kissing a beautiful woman who was wrapped around him in bed?
"You need to talk to her," Marcus said seriously.
"I know."
Chase stood up and walked over to whereMarcus was standing at the sliding door so they could look out at the guest house on the other side of the yard together.
"You'll be here when I get back?"
"Hell no. Some of us have actual plans with people that don't involve women they just kissed." Marcus dramatically paused. "Or maybe some of us do."
Chase rolled his eyes and turned to see Marcus with a big grin on his face. He wasn't sure if this was about Emma or another woman Marcus knew, and he frankly didn't have the bandwidth to deal with more than one woman at a time. So if Marcus had a mystery woman, she would just have to stay a mystery for now. Chase had other issues.
"Remember that sushi is in the fridge," Marcus said. "Take it over and talk to her."
"Fine."
Marcus clapped him on the back and gave him a small smile before walking out, the little ding of the door letting Chase know that he was alone again.
The light was still on in the guest house, the sushi was in the fridge, his assistant was gone, and Chase knew he had no excuses left.
Chapter Fourteen
The first thing Emma did when she got back to the guest house was drop her bag without unpacking it, turn on the fireplace, and throw herself down on her bed to try and process everything swirling in her brain.
She had kissed Chase. She was supposed to hate him and be bitter about spending money from her inheritance on a cocky millionaire action star — and then she kissed him.
Emma wondered what her grandmother would've thought of that. She made this challenge for Emma to spend money and have some fun apparently, and Emma had done just that with a gorgeous dress and a gold-leafed cheeseburger.
But was her grandmother trying to play matchmaker from the grave? Was there a reason she roped Chase into this? And why would she do that when she was planning her will?
Emma thought back to those nights at the hospital when Nana was struggling with the flu. It was so silly and stupid and probably just a little bug she picked up at church or the grocery store or something. But Nana was older and it was taking its toll on her. They expected her stay at the hospital to be temporary. She would have to missone of her favorite conventions with Chase and Emma remembered Nana sending a text to him about rescheduling and she would see him in Palm Springs.
