Just A Little Chase (Dare Crossover #4)

Chapter One

L auren Connelly ate a bite of her breakfast cereal, her gaze fixed on the wedding invitation she’d propped up against the saltshaker on the table. It wasn’t every day that her little sister, Ashley, got married, and she should have felt excitement and joy for her sibling. Instead, she couldn’t shake the dread at the thought of attending the nuptials and having to watch her sister marry the man Lauren had once been engaged to.

The entire situation was bound to be awkward and uncomfortable, made even more so by the small town mentality of where she’d been born and raised. It had always dumbfounded Lauren that there had been no scandalous gossip revolving around her sister’s quick involvement with Greg after he’d broken up with Lauren. Rather, people looked at her with pity, because Greg had chosen the beauty pageant sister over the tomboy Lauren had been for most of her teenage years.

In Lauren’s opinion, the town’s perception was bullshit. Not many knew the real reason why their engagement had ended so abruptly, or that the two closest people to her at that time had deceived her. The truth would have blown up the gossip mill and branded Ashley as the other woman , and as much as her sister’s actions had hurt Lauren, she’d never exposed their betrayal for a few different reasons. Lauren had never been the vindictive or spiteful type and she didn’t want to fracture and divide their close family unit. And most importantly, long before she’d caught Ashley and Greg locked in a passionate kiss, she’d known that he wasn’t “the one”.

None of that excused the affair they’d had behind her back, but the painful breakup had been the impetus for Lauren to do the one thing she’d always dreamed of and leave her small Massachusetts town and move to New York City, where she now lived and worked as an event coordinator at the Meridian Hotel.

So, yes, awkward and uncomfortable was an understatement when Lauren thought about going back home for her sister’s wedding.

“You know, if you stare at that invitation any harder, you’re going to burn a hole in it,” Lauren’s roommate and good friend, Tara, commented, startling Lauren out of her pensive thoughts. “And that RSVP card is not going to send itself, by the way.”

Lauren sighed as Tara settled into the chair across from her with a plate of avocado toast and a cup of coffee. “I know, I know,” she said, setting her spoon in her cereal bowl. “I need to mail it this week. I’ve been dragging my feet because I want to take a plus-one to buffer things with my family, except I don’t have a plus-one in my life.” Because, unfortunately, the few men she’d met on dating apps had been complete duds. But maybe, possibly, she had an idea…

Tara grinned a bit mischievously and spoke before Lauren could share her thoughts. “You should shock the hell out of them and take a really bad boy to the wedding. Like a biker type. I could hook you up with someone from the shop, we could give you a few fake tattoos and body piercings—”

Lauren held up a hand to stop her friend’s wild suggestion before it got even more outlandish, even though she was laughing at the image Tara painted. “Thank you for your offer, but no.” A bad boy biker was more Tara’s type. Her friend worked at a tattoo shop as a receptionist, had a full arm sleeve of colorful tattoos and a few extra piercings, and was drawn to rebellious men who bucked societal norms.

Tara feigned a pout, emphasizing the gold ring in her lip. “You’re no fun.”

Lauren grinned. “There’s fun, and then there’s giving my conservative parents a heart attack.”

Tara rolled her eyes as she picked up her toast slathered in avocado. “Your straitlaced family could use a bit of shock and awe in their lives.”

Lauren didn’t disagree, but the last thing she wanted to do was draw unnecessary attention to herself while home for the wedding. She needed a low-key type of date, someone understated but attentive, so the gossip—and there was no doubt in her mind that there would be speculation about any man in her life—would lean toward Lauren having moved on from being dumped by her ex-fiancé for her sister, and was living a blissful life in NYC.

Lauren hated that she had to even consider such a ridiculous scenario in this day and age, but she couldn’t change the small town mentality of where she’d grown up. Her parents constantly worried about her well-being despite Lauren assuring them she was doing well in the city. Then there was her eighty-three-year-old gramps whom she adored, and he worried about her, too. Throw in the town’s old busybodies who felt sorry for her, and yeah, drastic measures were necessary.

All she wanted to do was blend in, not be the center of attention and gossip. With her ex having chosen her beauty queen sister, everyone would be watching Lauren’s reactions, and if she had someone by her side, a man who deflected all that speculation, she wouldn’t feel like the odd woman out.

Now that she’d vetoed Tara’s suggestion to take a bad boy home, Lauren eyed the brochure sitting next to her cereal bowl, the one she’d grabbed from work on her way out the door on Friday. “So, about finding a plus-one to take to the wedding… I think I might have found a solution to that problem myself.”

Interest sparkled in Tara’s brown eyes. “Yeah, and what’s that?”

“Remember me mentioning the upcoming Future Fast Track charity event I’m helping to organize at the Meridian?”

Tara nodded. “Yeah.”

Biting her lower lip, and curious to hear what her friend thought about her unconventional idea, Lauren pushed the glossy booklet across the table to Tara. “They’re having a bachelor auction at the event to raise money for the charity.”

Her eyes went wide. “You’re going to buy yourself a man?”

“I’m considering it.” Lauren leaned back in her seat and shrugged. “Whatever man I win, he’s committed to a weekend date, so it’s the perfect arrangement. I wouldn’t look dateless to my family or pathetic to the town gossips, and I’d be supporting a good cause. It’s a win-win situation.”

Tara flipped through the pages, quickly scanning the men up for auction and their profiles. “Meh,” she said, a teasing smirk on her face. “They’re all cleaned-up suits. Not a tattooed bad boy in the lot.”

Lauren laughed. “Exactly. I don’t want a man in a leather cut that grunts like a Neanderthal when spoken to,” she said, about the type of biker guy Tara had described. “I want someone ordinary and friendly and educated, who can make small talk and pretend to be smitten with me. And when we get back home, we can go our separate ways, no muss, no fuss.”

“Then yeah, buying yourself a man is the perfect solution,” Tara said encouragingly as she pushed the closed brochure back to Lauren with a grin. “But if that doesn’t work out for you, my offer to hook you up with a bad boy stands.”

“Good to know.” Decision made, Lauren reached for the RSVP card.

Grabbing a pen, she filled out the information and wrote in “2” for the number attending, then stuffed the card into its small envelope and sealed it closed so she could mail it on the way to work tomorrow morning.

One way or another, she was heading home for her sister’s wedding with a charming, amiable date on her arm. Now, she just had to figure out which man to bid on at the auction.

***

Chase Gossard closed out his emails and for the fourth time, glanced at the clock on his phone, his annoyance growing. His half-sister, Billie, was late for their monthly lunch date, and because he’d arrived early at the café, he’d been sitting at the table waiting for the past half hour.

The waitress, a pretty young blonde, came by to refill his half-empty glass of iced tea. “Are you sure you don’t want to go ahead and order?” she asked as she eyed him with appreciation, her gaze obviously taking in his tailored suit and the Hermès watch on his wrist before landing on his face. One he’d been told he could have graced fashion magazines with, not that he gave a shit.

“No,” he replied, doing his best to tamp down his impatience. “She’ll be here.”

The waitress smiled playfully. “I sure hope so, because any woman who would stand you up is a fool.”

He refrained from rolling his eyes and gave her a tight smile instead. Clearly, she was fishing to see if he was single, and he didn’t clarify that he was waiting on his sister, not an actual date.

She moved on to the next table, and he exhaled a deep breath. He wasn’t interested in striking up a flirtatious conversation, which wasn’t his forte, anyway. Having just gotten out of a situationship gone bad, he wasn’t looking to jump into another. He didn’t do committed relationships, which had been the issue with the last woman he’d been randomly hooking up with, only to discover she believed she’d be the one to change him.

Yeah, that hadn’t ended well—it never did—and he’d put his dick’s needs on hiatus. For now.

Chase picked up his phone again. He was just about to send Billie a “Where are you?” text, when she rushed out onto the restaurant patio and toward his table.

“Get that disapproving frown off of your face,” she said with an infectious grin. His sister was one of the few people who was unaffected by his typical grumpy demeanor. “I’m fifteen minutes late because I got an important work call and I couldn’t leave until I handled things. And I didn’t have the chance to text you because I was finishing up that same call while riding in the Uber to get here. It took a huge amount of brainstorming to resolve a crisis involving this weekend’s Future Fast Track charity event. It was business. You know how that is.”

He immediately softened, his irritation melting away because he did understand that work was sometimes unpredictable and demanding, and mostly because Billie was his half-sister and he had a soft spot for her. She was one of the few people who could put a pin in his bluster and make him calm the fuck down.

Crazy, considering he’d only recently found out that she existed, and she’d only been in his life for a few years. He was a man who didn’t let people in. Didn’t let them get close or scale the emotional walls he’d erected as a young kid after his mother walked out on him and his father and never looked back. Yet this vivacious, free-spirited girl had knocked past his defenses and made a place for herself in his life as if she’d always belonged there.

She settled in across from him, out of breath from rushing. Her pretty face was flushed, and her unconventional pink highlighted hair was a bit tousled. But once she was settled in her seat, she flashed him one of those gregarious smiles of hers, the one that lit up her light blue eyes behind the black framed glasses she wore.

For a girl who’d been handed off to numerous foster homes growing up, her constant bright, upbeat attitude always amazed him.

They looked over the menu, and he didn’t miss the disappointment in the server’s eyes when she saw Billie there. There was a bit of confusion, too, because given his expensive suit, she’d probably been expecting a sophisticated woman to show up, instead of a young, quirky twenty-three-year-old with an eclectic fashion style that was as funky as her colored hair.

They placed their orders, and once the waitress delivered Billie’s soda and they were alone again, he addressed the reason why she’d been so late.

“What’s the big crisis at work?” he asked, always curious to hear about her job, which she loved. Future Fast Track, a nonprofit that was dedicated to helping foster kids as they aged out of the system, was near and dear to her heart, for good reason.

“The charity event is in two days, and one of the men in the bachelor auction came down with the latest flu virus and had to pull out,” she said, unwrapping her straw and sticking it into her drink. “Finding a replacement in such a short time is more difficult than we’d expected and we have to fill his slot.”

The fact that she was currently giving him those desperate, puppy dog eyes did not bode well for Chase, and a sense of dread filled his chest. She hadn’t actually asked him to step in for the sick bachelor, but he knew, without a doubt, that’s where this conversation was heading.

“There has to be some guy out there willing to step in,” he said, quickly trying to deflect by offering some helpful advice. “A friend of a friend who’s already part of the bachelor auction, or something.”

She shook her head woefully. “My boss and I have been on the phone all morning, and no luck. It’s totally stressing Aurora out, which is not good for a woman who is seven months pregnant.” Billie loved the woman she worked for, who’d also grown up in the foster care system and understood the challenges kids experienced there.

Chase frowned at his sister. Was she really using the sympathy card? Yes, yes she was, the minx. “Do not look at me like that,” he said, his voice a low, surly growl that didn’t faze her in the least.

“Like what?” Behind her glasses, she batted her lashes much too guilelessly.

She knew exactly what she was doing, and he refused to offer up his services for something so appalling as a bachelor auction. “I have no desire to be paraded around like a show pony.”

She laughed, the sound light and amused. “Give yourself some credit, Chase. You’re definitely a stallion, not a show pony. You have the looks, you’re an eligible bachelor, and as a corporate financier, you’re a great catch. Any woman who reads your impressive bio and sees your photo will be willing to shell out big bucks to spend a weekend with you.”

A fucking weekend entertaining a woman? He shuddered at the thought. Hell, he could barely tolerate a date for a few hours before he felt smothered and annoyed by her presence. “I’m not interested, Billie.” His tone was firm.

“Interested, no…” Her voice trailed off for a few seconds as she bit her bottom lip. “But what about doing it for the sake of charity?”

He barely caught his scowl before it formed. “I’ve already donated a substantial amount to Future Fast Track over the past few years.” And he’d done so willingly, and lovingly, because he understood how important the nonprofit was to her.

“I know, and you know I’m always grateful. But it’s not the same thing because it’s very behind the scenes and impersonal when you just hand over a check,” she stressed, not relenting one iota. “No one but the charity knows that you’re endorsing Future Fast Track. Being a part of the auction would show your support in a more visible way.”

At that moment, their lunch arrived and he breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that if he didn’t say anything more on the topic, the issue would magically disappear. He started on his turkey club, and she ate a few bites of her quiche. When she remained silent, the tension tightening his shoulders eased and he began to relax and enjoy his meal, certain he’d made his point.

No such luck.

“So, can I take your quiet internalizing as a yes?” she persisted.

He nearly choked on a bite of his sandwich. “ No ,” he said once he swallowed, his voice emphatic and gruff. “And I’m not internalizing anything. I’m quiet because I’m trying to eat, for God’s sake.”

“Please?” Undeterred, she set her fork down and folded her hands together beneath her chin, her eyes imploring him. “Having you on that stage would mean the world to me, Chase.”

It was those words that made his heart constrict in his chest, because they were honest and true and without any manipulating intent. The truth was, Billie never asked him for anything, when he wanted to give her everything she’d missed out on growing up because of their mother’s shitty decisions—mainly, her choice to stay involved with Billie’s deadbeat father who’d cared more about finding his next fix instead of his daughter’s welfare.

When their mother died in a tragic car accident when Billie was eight—something Chase hadn’t known until he’d hired a PI to find the sibling his own father had told him about on his death bed—he’d discovered that Billie’s dad had surrendered her to child protective services shortly after Darlene’s death. Because he didn’t want to raise a child he’d never wanted in the first place. Asshole.

Chase had also learned from the investigative report that from the age of eight to when she’d aged out at eighteen, she’d been shuffled through a series of foster homes. Some decent, and others more problematic, the latter of which he didn’t want to think about her enduring, all alone and afraid.

But despite her crappy childhood and the adversities she’d faced, she’d become a resilient young woman and a champion for other foster kids who needed help and guidance once they no longer had the support of the system. He was so damn proud of how well rounded and independent she was, how positively she viewed the world, despite her traumatic upbringing, when his own childhood had fucked with his head and left him skeptical and jaded.

Jesus, in some ways she had her shit together better than he did. At least emotionally and mentally.

As she continued to look at him with that hopeful expression on her face, a familiar guilt wove its way through him. He hadn’t lived a charmed childhood. His father was rarely present and suffered from depression, requiring constant care, but Chase definitely had more stability and security than Billie ever experienced. He’d tried his best to make up for all of that now by spoiling her but his sister was such a simple creature when it came to what she needed and wanted from their relationship, and she’d told him many times she didn’t want the things his money could buy. She only wanted an emotional and familial connection between them. Which was why he loved her so much.

She was so selfless when it came to others, and in the scheme of things, he was being a selfish dick by denying her the one thing she’d ever asked him for. Unfortunately for him, what she desired wasn’t something his money could buy. It required him to step up and show Billie how much he supported the nonprofit she was so passionate about.

“Fine,” he grumbled, still not thrilled at the prospect of being auctioned off to some random woman for a weekend. “I’ll do it.”

Billie beamed at him, her smile as bright as the early October sunshine warming the café patio. “Thank you, Chase. I knew you’d come through for me.”

He narrowed his gaze, but softened his scowl with a hint of a smile, just for her. “Only because you were clearly determined to wear me down until I said yes.”

“Maybe,” she admitted impishly as she went back to her lunch, looking extremely pleased with herself. “Just a little.”

He shook his head and resumed eating his sandwich, trying to resign himself to his fate.

Was he happy about the situation? Absolutely not. But for Billie, he’d suck up his discomfort and be the big brother she needed him to be.