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He laughed with her then asked, “Is Emma home?”
“Yeah, I’m here,” Emma said, sidling up next to Harper.
Chase examined her face, and the furrow of his brows told her she hadn’t done anything to mask her raw emotions. “Can I have a minute?” he asked gently.
“Um . . . yeah, sure.” Emma glanced to Harper, whose surprised eyes told Emma this seemed strange, even to Harper. “Let me grab my shoes.” She smiled.
“Great.” Chase’s gaze then fixed on Harper. He gave her a blatantly obvious sexy grin. “Goodbye, Harper.”
“Bye.” Harper didn’t take her eyes off him as he turned and headed down the porch steps, and her long exhale as if she’d been holding her breath was obvious. When Chase reached his truck, Harper finally turned to Emma and sputtered, “Why is he here?”
“I have no idea.” Emma moved to the doorway and grabbed her running shoes. “But please do tell me, what in the hell was that? First Nash and Megan, and now you two have a thing?”
“We don’t have a thing,” Harper said softly, moving to the window next to the door, staring out at him. “Chase is my brother Brody’s best friend.”
“Oh,” Emma said.
“Yeah, oh.” Harper smirked.
Emma dropped onto the floor and slipped into one shoe, tying the laces. “But you like him?”
“I can’t talk about that.”
Emma finished the bow then frowned. “Why?”
“Because if I talk about it, then it becomes real, and falling for my brother’s best friend is a seriously bad idea.”
Emma finished tying the next shoe. “Wouldn’t your brother be happy if you were happy?”
“Hahaha. That’s funny,” Harper quipped, then said seriously, “Chase would be dead before my brother had a chance to see if I was happy or not.”
“You’re joking, right?” Emma jumped to her feet again.
“Nope, Brody would kill him.” She shrugged. “Besides, it doesn’t matter anyway. To Chase, I’m the little girl with pigtails that would annoy the hell out of him. So, again . . . that’s a thing that should never be mentioned, okay?”
River Rock seemed to have a lot of complications, and Emma had now become part of them. Great! She nodded. “My lips are sealed.”
Harper smiled. “Thanks. Now go see what he wants.” She practically shoved Emma out the door, shutting the screen door behind her.
Emma found that Chase had moved to the porch steps, sitting on the last one. She took a seat next to him. “Is everything okay?” she asked.
Chase took his cowboy hat off, running a hand through his messy hair. “There’s something special about you.” He paused, then turned to her, expression soft, eyes examining her like he was trying to figure out what that special thing was. “Something that I know has Shep all caught up. I’m here to tell you that he won’t hurt you. The way I see it, he wants to protect you.”
Emma’s mouth parted then shut.
Chase chuckled softly. “Listen, I know we don’t know each other yet, and this is probably not my place, but you make Shep happy. It’s good seeing him this way, not so . . . serious.” Chase hesitated, eyebrows drawn, and after a long sigh, he added, “That’s why I came by today, because I wanted to explain that thing with Vicki last night.”
Emma noted the tightness of his eyes, the shame almost.
“Vicki is mad,” he said.
“Mad?”
“Yeah, furious, really.” Chase nodded, unable to meet Emma’s gaze. “She’s pissed at me.”
“Okay, why?”
“Because . . .” He paused, then finally heaved another long sigh, straightening his shoulders. “I slept with her a good five months ago, and perhaps I didn’t reciprocate the feelings for her that she had for me, and maybe I didn’t handle the whole situation in the best of ways.”
