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She joined him on the mattress, sitting cross-legged, and laughed. “No kidding. If Brody ever found a guy in here, I’d be an accessory to murder.”
Chase barked a laugh, taking the glass of water she offered, then sat up a little to down half of the glass. Once he placed the glass on the bedside table, he rested his head on his hand, flexing his bicep. “Tell me more about that.” He winked. “Minus the murder.”
“About Brody being protective, you mean?” she asked, placing her glass of water on the table.
“Yeah.”
“He’s worse than the most religious parent out there. If he could have put a chastity belt on me, he would have.”
Chase’s mouth twitched. “I do not doubt that in the least.”
“So, then, I guess you can imagine how fun that made my dating life. It’s why going away to culinary school in Denver was so exciting. I could date freely and not have Brody breathing down every guy’s neck.”
“Did you have a serious boyfriend there?”
She nodded. “His name was Matt. He’s a chef too. I think he moved to New York City the last I heard.”
“What went wrong with him?”
“Besides that I already knew things were on a downward slope since we were fighting a lot, Brody went wrong and simply sped up my decision to break things off.” Feeling parched, she reached for her glass and took another sip of water before addressing Chase again. “He came to surprise me for my birthday, intimated the hell of Matt, obviously to get me to see what kind of man he was, and that was that.”
Chase smiled. “Brody can be intimidating when he wants to be.”
“Not to you.”
“No, not to me.” Chase paused and studied her with inquisitive eyes. “Is that why you didn’t date much when you lived here in River Rock?”
“Pretty much. His protectiveness made dating hard. Who wants to date the girl they know will eventually lead to them getting punched out if they do anything wrong?”
“Did any of the guys deserve a punch, though?”
“Maybe some of them could be giant douchebags, at times,” she admitted. “But back then, I didn’t see it that way.”
“What about now?”
She smiled. “Now I know Brody was just looking out for me because he wants me to be happy, in a warped way, of course.” She placed her glass back onto the table, resting her hands in her lap. “Though, to be honest, I can’t imagine Brody being happy with anyone I’m dating. I don’t think he’ll ever approve.”
“That’s not true.”
She gave him a look. “Oh, yeah, name one.”
“Me.” He chuckled at whatever crossed her expression. “Come on, Harper, you know me. Do you honestly think I would allow anything to happen between us if I hadn’t talked it over with Brody first?”
She blinked. “You asked his permission to sleep with me this week?”
Chase snorted. “That’s very unlikely. We talked about a month after it became very obvious that something was building between you and me.”
She paused and frowned. “If you had talked about us with Brody, why didn’t you say anything to me?”
“Because your dreams are not here in River Rock.” He tucked her hair behind her ear then stroked his knuckles across her cheek. Something she was beginning to learn was his signature move. “I would be nothing but an obstacle to you leaving for Vegas. That’s not something I would ever do to you.”
She absorbed what he said. “Okay, wait. I’m having a really hard time believing that Brody said he’d be okay with you dating me.”
He lowered his hand to the sheets. “Sure, at first, my interest in you was a hard pill for Brody to swallow.”
“Did he knock your teeth out?” she asked seriously.
His mouth twitched. “I’m sure he wanted to, but in the end, Brody saw my interest was reciprocated. He wants you to be happy. Have you ever considered that maybe he was being protective because he thought you deserved better than the dipshits you were dating?”
