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CHAPTER TEN – RAELYNN
He was up to something.
I wasn’t sure of many things all the time, but I was sure of this.
Chase Aarons was up to something.
I was a little scared of that. Our conversations until this point had been mostly us fighting. Even when we weren’t, we kinda were.
Bickering, really. Not fighting. Aside from the first couple where I’d shouted at him, but that was all his fault for pissing me off. Ever since he’d helped me with the steamer, I hadn’t had much of a choice but to be nice to him.
He was clearly passing me an olive branch, and if I wasn’t ready to forgive him for the store, I could be civil, right?
Except I didn’t know if it was possible.
The plastic on the seat of my new bar stools crackled as I adjusted my position, keeping my right foot up on another. The pie he’d brought was good, and I wasn’t ashamed to say that I was on my second slice after the bagel, and I was still eyeing up the donuts. Apparently, pain made me hungry.
Was it possible to be civil to Chase? He was the first person I’d ever loved, and man, I’d loved him. Was it even remotely possible to be friends with him after that?
I knew the answer was no. Certainly not as long as I reacted the way I did when he touched me. Most definitely not as long as my heart skipped a beat when his eyes met mine.
That had happened earlier. His gesture of lunch and pastries had been so kind, so sweet—so the Chase I’d fallen in love with. Because he was right. I had a sweet tooth, and it was the fast-track route to my heart.
The honesty in his eyes when he’d told me he was sorry about my toe and took responsibility for it had taken me back. I never expected him to do that, especially since we’d been arguing over it since it’d happened, but he had.
He’d said it, and he’d meant it. How could you be angry with someone over something they genuinely felt bad about?
That’s right. You couldn’t. That would be unfair.
I sighed and slumped on the counter the best I could. My toe hurt, and now I felt bad for being mean to Chase.
Not for biting my lip, though. I hadn’t forgotten how that had always turned him on, and even though I was just messing with him in the hope he would buy me some painkillers, the heat that had flashed through his eyes when I’d done it was literally haunting me.
Nobody had ever looked at me the way he had. Not before him, not after him. Let’s face it—I hadn’t really seen anyone since him. I’d dated, but never more than one date. I wasn’t going to settle for anything less than mind-blowing, but it seemed like that was a pipe dream as long as the memory of Chase Aarons lived within me.
And now I had a new memory of the look in his eye as he’d cupped my chin and told me he knew I was messing with him.
That’d been our relationship in a nutshell. Messing with each other, teasing each other constantly. That was how we’d always done it until we’d ended up in endless laughing fits that almost always ended up with us kissing and falling into bed together.
Laughter was sexy. There was nothing more attractive than someone who could make you laugh until your eyes leaked and your stomach hurt.
Chase could make me laugh with a snap of his fingers. He didn’t even need to try, and screwing around with him earlier had reminded me of those times.
How many times had I fought laughter since he’d walked through that door and offered to teach me how to use the steamer?
Too many times to count, even if I didn’t want to admit it. My cheek actually hurt from biting it so many times to keep laughter inside.
Even when he pissed me off, I wanted to laugh at him.
And that just pissed me off.
The bell over the door rang, and I looked up to see Chase walking in with a brown pill bottle in his hand. “That place,” he said, shutting the door behind him, “is the most overpriced building I’ve ever been in.”
“Okay, so you should never go to Vegas.” I smiled. “Thank you,” I said when he handed me the bottle. “Who knew something so small could hurt so much?”
“Okay, so you never got bullied in school.” He winked at me and grabbed his coffee. He took one swig before he choked on it and disgust wrinkled his face. “Shit. That’s gross.”
I bit my lip to hide my smile then covered it with my hand. “My machine is still hooked up. Do you want me to make you one?”
