Page 86 of Love Everlasting

“Shan wasn’t feeling well, so Cat’s making her some tea.” She cupped a hand to his jaw, eyes tender as she brushed a kiss to his lips. “Today’s your day to sleep in, Ben, so go back to bed and I’ll fill you in later, okay?”

Turning, she started for the stairs when he hooked her arm, all but bouncing her back. “Aren’t you coming? It’s not even light outside yet.”

She stood on tiptoe to give him another quick kiss. “I don’t think so, babe. After talking to Shan, I’m wide awake, so I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to sleep.”

Slipping his arms around her waist, he drew her in close, nuzzling her neck before he swooped her up to carry her back into their room. With a kiss that muffled her squeal, he kicked the door closed with his foot, his groggy voice way huskier than usual. “Who said anything about sleep?”

Chapter Forty-Six

“I’m gonna kill him.”

“Probably not,” Chase said to Jack with a wry smile, finger calmly pressed to Sam’s fancy doorbell. “That’s why you asked me along, remember? To ensure restraint?”

Ignoring Chase’s remark, Jack pounded a fist on Sam’s front door. “Open up, Cunningham, you have some groveling to do—”

“Settle down, O’Bryen,” Chase said in the military monotone he’d always employed to diffuse volatile situations. “Losing your cool won’t help anything.”

“Wanna bet?” Jack delivered another bludgeoning blow, his lips clamped in a hard smile. “It’ll help me feel a whole lot better when I mess up his pretty face.” Cutting loose with a questionable hiss, Jack abandoned the front door to scrounge for the key Sam hid under one of his potted palms. “I don’t have time for this garbage,” he muttered, snatching up the key to rattle it in the lock.

“Sure you do.” Chase strolled in behind Jack after he hurled the door open, quietly shutting it again while Jack stormed through the foyer. “Friendship is always worth the time.”

Jack grunted, scouring Sam’s great room before tearing down the hall to the kitchen. “That remains to be seen. Cunningham?” His shout echoed in the hallway as he rampaged back to the foyer, threats ricocheting off the vaulted ceiling. “You’re going to pay for what you did to my sister, you blood-sucking lowlife.”

He tore toward the staircase, and Chase halted him with a firm hand and a sober look on the second step. “We both agreed we’d handle this like rational human beings, Jack, who also happen to be close friends with that blood-sucking lowlife.”

He shook Chase’s hand off. “You agreed, not me.” He started up the steps.

“You agreed by inviting me along, Doc,” Chase said with a firm hook of Jack’s arm, “asking me to keep you from doing something stupid, so I am.”

Jack paused on the second step, his scowl going flat. “Yeah, I know—what was I thinking?”

Chase scratched the back of his neck. “Uh, that your temper might get the best of you, maybe, with a very good friend?” His smile veered toward dry. “No matter how incredibly stupid that friend has been.”

Jack issued another grunt as he kneaded the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, well maybe his stupidity is catching because right now all I want to do is blacken his eye.”

Chase nodded. “I hear you, man, but if you do that, I’ll have to blacken yours per your request to keep you in line no matter what, which I told you I’d be happy to do.” A slow smile curled on his lips as he slapped Jack on the back on his way up the stairs. “Biblically speaking, of course, as in an eye for an eye?”

Jack winced as he followed Chase up. “That can’t be legal for a pastor,” he muttered.

“Tough love,” Chase said with a grim smile. “Better than incarceration for manslaughter, dude.”

Jack rubbed his neck. “Yeah, I guess. But you may have to remind me in a few seconds, ’cause just thinking about how Sam hurt Shan boils my blood, you know?”

“Yeah, I do,” Chase said quietly, thinking Shannon had been through enough grief in her life from what Jack had told him; she sure didn’t need more from Sam, the guy who claimed to love her. He tamped down his ire with a press of his jaw. “Somebody you trusted hurt somebody you love. And not just anybody, but one of the most kind-hearted, gentle, and gracious human beings alive,” he bit out, suddenly wanting to take a swing at Sam himself. He slowed as he reached the landing, expelling a slow, arduous breath while he shot Jack a tight-lipped smile. “It’s downright scary how quickly emotions can boil over, isn’t it?”

“Tell me about it.” Jack cuffed Chase’s shoulder as they strode down the hall to Sam’s bedroom. “Sam is my best friend along with you, Chase, so I gotta tell you, I’m more than a little shocked at how much I want to take a swing at the guy.”

“I’m not.” Chase stared straight ahead, anger licking at the edge of his restraint. “Shannon is one incredible woman.”

Jack paused outside Sam’s door to deliver a somber smile. “Thanks for caring about her like you do.”

Chase never blinked. “I love her, man, as a friend. But I gotta tell you, Jack, if this bozo screws it up, I promise you right now, I have plans to love her as way more.”

Jack smiled. “You’re a good friend, Chase.”

“You’re darn right I am.” His smile flat-lined. “Or I would have fought you tooth and nail on Lacey, and Sam on Shannon too.”

“I know. Thanks.”