She turned to see Chase staring at her, the teasing gone from his face now and replaced with worry. "It's OK, don't worry about it," she told him.
"I didn't ask you if anything was OK."
The elevator doors slid open in front of themand Emma wordlessly slipped in and pressed the button for their floor before leaning against the back wall for support. It was uncomfortably quiet as they rode up to the floor and it was only when they stepped out on their floor and started walking to their room that Chase spoke again.
"We don't have to go to dinner with your parents tonight," he said quietly. "I was just being polite when I accepted her invitation to get rid of her, so we can easily ditch them. Do whatever we want without them."
Emma could feel the weight lift from her shoulders a bit, but it was still there. "Can we just do room service?"
She stopped in front of their hotel room door while Chase stepped up behind her, his hand falling on the small of her back.
"We can stay in and do room service," he murmured close to her ear, his breath against her cheek. "Whatever you want."
Then he put the key in the lock to open the door and let her in. The room was already cleaned and the things she had bought earlier at the shops downstairs were sitting on the coffee table in the living room. She didn't really care though. Instead, she dropped her purse next to them, quickly told Chase she was going to take a nap, and left him behind to curl up by herself on the huge bed.
Theirhuge bed — but it wouldn't be for much longer.
In twenty-four hours, this would all be over with. She would be back in Los Angeles with her grandmother's challenge completed.
Chapter Nineteen
The first thing Chase did once he realized Emma had fallen asleep in their room was head out to the butler's stand for their floor with some cash in hand.
"Hey, Mr. Warwick! What can I do for you?"
"So we're supposed to be having dinner with my friend's parents tonight."
The butler gave him a big customer service smile. "Oh, of course. We can totally set something up."
"Well, actually, we don't want to go. But I told her mom to stop by the concierge stand downstairs to pick up the plans for tonight."
The butler didn't seem phased as all, as if this wasn't the first time he had to run interference for someone. "That's not a problem. We can tell them something came up and you weren't able to make it work with your schedule. Would you like me to get them a complimentary dinner at the restaurant instead? Just two, I'm assuming."
"Sure, yeah. That sounds fine. And can you charge that to my room?"
The butler gave him a perplexed look. "I can comp the dinners, Mr. Warwick."
"I know. But I would prefer if you chargedthem to our room."
"Of course, Mr. Warwick."
Chase put his hand out for the butler to shake, deftly sliding the cash into his palm, and headed back to the room.
Based on his short interaction with Emma's mom, she would probably be too thrilled by free dinner at the Bellagio to wonder if her daughter was really ditching them. And while Chase had eaten plenty of comped dinners over the years in Vegas, charging them to the room would get Emma one step closer to meeting Nana's challenge.
Chase quietly slipped back in and headed for the windows. There was nothing quite like the view of this room out on the Strip and to the wide open desert beyond it. It didn't take much to realize how surrounded this spot was by open sand when you were on a high floor looking out beyond the Strip to the vast empty land in the distance.
He wondered where Emma's parents were right now. Were they out on the street walking around or still tucked away in this hotel somewhere? Were they even staying here or somewhere else? Maybe he could ask the hotel and see if they would confirm if Emma's parents were here or not. It would at least help them be alert to avoid them again.
When it came to his parents, Chase would feel bad about ditching them and he always loved treating them when he could. His parents were thedown-to-earth Midwest types that weren't always impressed with the trappings of Chase's lifestyle, but he also knew how proud they were of him. They always showed up to his school plays and encouraged him to go out to Los Angeles to see if he could find any success. In exchange, he would share special treats with them when he could. Last year, he somehow landed an invite to one of those big Oscars parties and took his mom. She was so excited to tell everyone her son was Chase Warwick.
Chase suspected Emma's parents would never be like that. He always suspected as much from his first interaction with them as he listened to her dad on the phone when Nana's will was read. And sure, he only met her mom for a few minutes, but everything about that woman rubbed him the wrong way. She was so superficial and only really seemed to be interested in Emma when she realized her daughter was standing next to Chase. It was awkward and maybe even a little gross.
He didn't like it.
He only agreed to the dinner thing to get her to move along and maybe because Emma might have wanted to do it. He wasn't going to just close the door on the idea if Emma had wanted to go. But he had to admit it was a relief when she seemed like the idea of eating with her parents was awful.
Chase sat down on the sofa for a bit, checking his phone, trying his best not to disturb Emma from her sleep. He hated this. He hated feeling likehe was walking on eggshells because Emma's life had be thrown sideways by the encounter with her mom this afternoon.
