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“Is he?”
“How can you forgive me and not Jensen?”
“It isn’t that I don’t want to forgive him; I’m trying. He was my best friend and he should have told me what was going on with you, not used the situation to steal you from me.”
“There’s plenty of blame to go around, I guess,” I murmured. “Jensen is hurting, too. You care about him or you wouldn’t have asked about him, and he cares about you or he wouldn’t be here. Think about it.”
“I guess.”
It was a pretty big admission and one I hoped would help heal the rift between the two men.
“God, I’m so damn thirsty,” Chase murmured, looking longingly at the bottle of water I was holding.
I flushed and shoved it guiltily in my purse. “I’m sorry. Are you hungry?”
“Yes, but it’s tolerable. Not being able to drink anything is much worse than skipping a meal.”
I smiled. “Remi has gone through it twice for the port. She never complained this much.” I nudged him with my shoulder, and smiled, trying to lighten the mood.
He huffed out a laugh. “I guess I’m one big pussy.”
Looking at him, I realized how he was putting his whole life on hold to be here. “Chase,” I said seriously, leaning into him again and maintaining the contact between us because I couldn’t help it. “Thank you.”
He was leaning forward in his chair with his elbows on his knees, and he pushed back against me to nudge me back. “You don’t have to thank me, Teagan. She’s mine, too.”
“I know, but I’m still grateful.”
He was casually handsome in dark jeans, a light blue striped button down and white sneakers. Chase turned toward me. “Me, too.” Those two softly spoken words lifted a huge weight from my soul. I didn’t know what to say. What could I say that would be enough?
We hadn’t had a chance to talk about his trip to Greenville or his parent’s reaction and that was something I needed to know in advance. I had considered that they might already be in town. “Is your family coming to be here for you?”
“Just Mom and Dad. Any minute now, probably.”
“Thanks for the warning,” I said wryly. Inside I was panicking; scared of the inevitable confrontation. “How did they take the news?”
“Mostly good. I can see you’re stressing. They won’t bring up the past, Teagan. I made it clear that was between us, and I didn’t want you fretting over it.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” he nodded. His green eyes roamed over my face in a caress. “It was a shock, but they handled it better than I expected.”
“I’m glad but… I’m going to be sitting with them… for hours,” I stammered. “Alone. Surely, they’ll have questions.”
“Maybe, but I promise they won’t attack you.”
“Did you tell them about Bronwyn’s phone call? I mean, the real reason I didn’t tell you about Remi?”
“Teagan, Relax. It’s not their business.”
“Yes, but I’m worried. I mean, without the facts they’ll misunderstand my motives, just like you did. I can’t have them believing the worst of me.”
“No, I didn’t tell them about it. It’s personal, and it was too much to get into yesterday. You’re free to tell them anything you want, but mostly, they’ll want to know about Remi. You should have seen my dad light up like a firecracker when he saw her picture.”
The thought filled me with joy. No doubt, he could see himself in Remi’s little face. Chase looked so much like him, and there was no mistaking her resemblance to him. “Her eyes.”
“Yes. Oh, my God, he was beaming!”
“How’d your mom do?”
