16. Chase
16
CHASE
“ H ow’s Bee?” Steve asked as he dropped into his chair at the desk across from mine.
I didn’t even try to hide the smirk tugging at the corner of my mouth.
Steve raised an eyebrow.
I should have known better than to do anything other than immediately tell him everything. The man was better at sniffing out a lead than a bloodhound.
He tipped his chin up. “You fuck her yet?”
My smile dropped to the floor, and I clenched my fists.
Steve smirked. “Don’t get your panties in a twist. I’m just screwing with you. You know I wouldn’t talk about Bee that way.”
“Damn right you wouldn’t talk about my girl like that,” I muttered as I flipped him the bird.
“But I’ll take your reaction as a sign that things are moving in the right direction.”
I glanced at the clock and was pleased to see that my day was almost over. I had been working a lead for one of my cases and didn’t make it to the bar for lunch. I settled for an I love you text to Bridget instead.
She hadn’t said it back. If I was being honest, I knew I wasn’t anywhere close to hearing her say it, either. That didn’t matter. I was prepared to love her until she was able to love herself. And then I’d just keep on loving her until the end of time.
The kiss we shared this morning after waking up together was the jolt I needed. If that was all I got from her for now, it would be enough to keep me going.
“Yeah. She’s, uh… We’re good.”
Steve’s eyes left his computer screen. “Y’all are good?”
I nodded. “We’re good.”
“Any of the guys on duty ever find anything with all the drive-bys last night?” I asked, lobbing a softball question to deter him.
Steve shook his head. “No sign of Kingsley.” He let a frustrated sigh slip. “Do you think Bee actually saw something? Or do you think she…”
“Hallucinated?”
He dropped his shoulders, rested his elbows on the desk, and clasped his hands together. “I pulled security cam footage from every street around your house. I didn’t see anything. I had Solomon go through it, too. He didn’t see anything.”
The look on Bridget’s face when I opened the door would haunt me for the rest of my life. It was almost as bad as seeing her being wheeled into the hospital. A person couldn’t fake that kind of sheer terror.
“I—” I sighed. “I don’t know, man. Part of me thinks she actually saw him. The other part of me thinks he’s just in her head.”
Bridget never said anything about it, but I had a hunch that she’d been having panic attacks. I didn’t know how to bring it up without embarrassing her or making her shut me out again.
“Can’t do a damn thing if I can’t find him,” Steve reminded me .
“I know,” I grumbled as I closed out my computer tabs and dropped the paper coffee cup from Queen’s in my trashcan. “And thanks for the reminder that I’m not allowed to touch her case.”
He looked up from beneath thick eyebrows. “You do your part in this. Let me do mine.”
I withheld the obvious argument that another set of hands and another pair of eyes couldn’t hurt. I knew it wouldn’t get me very far. Not when Steve had made up his mind.
“Say hi to Bee for me,” he called after me as I walked out of the precinct.
I swung by the house and grabbed Luna for the ride to Jokers. She bounded into the front seat without a moment of hesitation, excited to see her favorite human.
Jokers was fairly empty, but I recognized a few of the vehicles. Jason’s old truck with all its chipped blue paint was at the front of the lot. Maddie’s white Jeep was parked beside Hannah Jane’s little black car.
The front end of my truck poked out beside the dumpsters. Bridget had parked as close to the back door as possible. Probably so she could leap into the truck as soon as she locked up.
I clipped Luna’s leash onto her collar and pulled a few treats from the console to keep in my pocket. She took off like a rocket—probably banking on Bridget sneaking her something from the kitchen.
The door wobbled precariously from one hinge as I swung it open. I had been meaning to throw a drill and some screws in the trunk to fix it, but had been a little preoccupied with a bombshell bartender.
She was so fucking sexy.
I was hard the second I set foot inside.
Bridget was leaning over the bar, wiping down the old oak. Her breasts nearly spilled out of the front of her Jokers tank top. Warm blonde hair was falling out of the messy braid tossed over her shoulder.
I tugged on Luna’s leash, making her stop so I could steal a second to just look at her. To appreciate her beauty without any expectation of reciprocity.
“Chase!” Maddie squealed from her seat at the bar. A heart attack on a plate was piled up in front of her. Her color was better, and the morning sickness must have passed given the dump truck’s worth of mozzarella sticks and chicken fingers she was devouring.
I lifted my hand in a wave and nodded, letting them know I’d swing by in a minute.
Bridget looked up, green eyes boring into me. Her lips parted, and her eyes ping-ponged between me and the spot on the bar where Jason, Hannah Jane, and Maddie were huddled.
I gave Luna a little more leash and let her trot over to Bee.
“Hey, darlin’,” I said as I met her at the gap between the bar and the wall.
Bridget’s gaze bounced down to our friends again. “You just swinging by for some water?” she asked quietly.
I hooked my fingers in her belt loops and drew her hips to mine. “You know how many times I’ve stopped in here for a glass of water?”
“A lot,” she said with a wry smile.
“You wanna know how many times I was actually thirsty?”
She looked up at me with a doe-eyed look intended to cripple. “How many times?”
“Never,” I said, leaning in for a kiss.
Bridget turned her head, offering me her cheek instead. Fuck. I dropped a peck and backed off.
“Oh, don’t be chaste on our account,” Hannah Jane hollered. She dabbed her mouth with a napkin, careful not to smear her lipstick. “I just so happened to look out my window this morning and saw you sneaking back to the cottage wearing Chase’s shirt.”
Hannah Jane’s comment was all in good fun, but Bridget turned an unnatural shade of red. “I need to… grab something… from the…” She looked around like she needed an escape. “I’ll be back.” She turned away from me and disappeared into the stock room.
Jase was out of his seat, about to go after his sister, when I stuffed Luna’s leash into his hand. “Let me talk to her first.”
He eyed me warily.
“I’ll just be a minute.”
Reluctantly, Jase returned to his seat with Luna.
“Darlin’, where you at?” I called as I dipped into the storeroom. I followed the faint sniffles until I found Bridget seated on a liquor bottle box.
“I’m fine,” she said, waving me off.
“Bullshit.”
She used the hem of her shirt to dab at her eyes. “Please, just… Can we not do this right now?”
“That’s fine,” I said as I wrapped my arm around her back. “We don’t have to talk.”
Bridget winced.
“Shit—I’m sorry,” I said as I jerked my arm away.
She shook her head. “It wasn’t you. I’m just…” She sighed. “Tired. Sore. Everything hurts.”
“Did you take a pain pill this morning?”
“No. I don’t like the way they make me feel.”
“If you’re in pain, you need to be taking them.”
“If I take one, I can’t drive. If I can’t drive, I can’t work.”
“Then you should be resting and recovering in bed.”
She rested her elbows on her knees and hunched over, exhausted. “Until my bank account says otherwise, this is the way it has to be.”
Let me take care of you, I wanted to plead. But I knew better than to say it out loud.
Kyle Kingsley had lured her in with shiny promises of safety and security. She wouldn’t trust me if I offered more than the bed inside the cottage.
“Why’d you run off like that?”
“They think we had sex,” she said softly. Ashamed.
I fucking hated that. It made me want to storm out there, flip tables, and raise hell until someone gave her a damn apology.
“All we did was have our first kiss…” She was frustrated and embarrassed.
A memory slammed into me like a freight train. “Darlin’, that wasn’t our first kiss.”
She cocked her head and looked up at me. “What are you talking about? Of course, it was.”
A smile pulled at the corner of my mouth, and I forced it back down. “You don’t remember?”
Bridget shook her head.
“Seventh grade,” I said like it wasn’t over twenty years ago. “You were head over heels for Carter Bennett, and you were real nervous because you had never kissed anyone before.”
Her fingers moved to her lips as she began to remember. “And I told you I was nervous that I’d be bad at it.” She looked up, green eyes meeting mine. “And you told me that you had kissed girls before. Then you told me that you would kiss me so I could get it over with, and that way, I wouldn’t be so nervous with Carter.”
I tucked a lock of hair that had escaped her braid behind her ear and cupped her cheek. “So, we met under that stairwell behind the middle school building after school. ”
Bridget’s eyes crinkled at the corners, her mouth curling into a soft smile. “And you kissed me.”
I rested my forehead on hers. “Yeah, I did.”
“And afterward, you promised me that we’d always be best friends, and if Carter said I was bad at it, you’d punch him in the nose and then kiss me in front of him.”
I chuckled. “I wasn’t as smooth back then as I am now.”
“You make me brave.” She reached out and laced her fingers with mine. “Always have.”
I shook my head. “You’ve always been brave.” I lifted her hand to my lips and kissed the back of it. “But I have a confession.”
Her eyebrows knitted together.
“I lied to you.”
She tensed. “About what?”
“Back then,” I began. “I told you I’d kissed girls before so you could practice with me.”
“Yeah?”
“I hadn’t kissed anyone before, Bee.” Slowly, I moved in, confident in the privacy of the storeroom.
She tipped her chin up and her velvet lips met mine. “You mean… We were each other’s first kiss?”
I nodded. “Yeah, darlin’. We were.”
Her lips split into a smile, but we didn’t separate. “That day you kissed me under the stairs was the first time I remember you calling me darlin ’.”
I closed my eyes and let a confession slip as if the dusty concrete floor beneath us was holy ground. “All these years, I’ve been calling you darlin’ when I really wanted to be calling you mine .”
She moved first, dropping my hand and dragging her fingers over the sides of my hair. I fisted the front of her tank top, pulling her closer. “I love you so much, Bridget,” I rasped and closed the gap between us.
Her lips were made for mine. Warm, soft, and absolutely tantalizing. I could get drunk on her.
All too soon, she pulled back. “I should get back out there,” she whispered.
I wanted to argue, but she was on the clock. I didn’t know if Wanda was around, but the last thing I wanted was for that old bird to come back here and rip me a new one.
“How late are you working tonight?”
“I’m closing. It’ll be late—two, maybe three in the morning, depending on how long it takes me to move my ass and get the place closed up.” Before I could tell her I’d stick around and help, she said, “I’ll just sleep in the cottage tonight.”
I shook my head. “Sleep with me. I’ll leave the light on.”
“I don’t want to wake you.”
“I won’t be able to sleep, Bee,” I admitted. “Haven’t been able to sleep for months.” I cupped her cheek. “I knew something was wrong that night outside Maddie and Luca’s. The night I asked why you were marrying him.” I kissed her gently, my eyes welling up with tears. “Last night was the first night in a very long time that I’ve gotten sleep.”
I was prepared for her to shut me down, but—to my surprise—she said, “Okay.”
“Okay,” I echoed back, and couldn’t help but smile. I helped her up and loaded my arms with a few things she needed to grab, and walked her back out to the bar. Bridget slipped behind the two-and-a-half-feet of weathered oak that had separated us for so many years.
But not anymore.
Hannah, Jason, and Maddie had migrated from the bar to one of the booths lining the wall. Probably to discuss Bee without her hearing. Luna was curled up beneath the table.
I made my way over and took a seat.
“I’m sorry,” Hannah Jane blurted.
I shrugged. “It’s fine.”
Maddie washed down a mozzarella stick with a swig of ginger ale. “How is Bee?” She cut her eyes to the bar. Bridget’s back was turned as she wiped beneath a row of liquor bottles. “She barely talked to any of us when we came in. Even Jase.”
Jase stared at his beer.
“Probably doesn’t want prying eyes,” I said as I stole the runt of the chicken strips off Maddie’s plate.
“But she’s been talking to you?” Hannah Jane asked hopefully.
I nodded. “Here and there.”
“So…” Hannah Jane lowered her voice. “Did I see what I think I saw this morning?”
“You did.”
Her perfectly shaped eyebrows nearly darted off her face. “Y’all are finally a thing?”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
I wasn’t convinced that Bridget and I agreed on our relationship status. She looked like she’d rather clean the nasty ass bathroom with a toothpick than kiss me in front of our friends.
“Something spooked her at the cottage, so she slept over in the house. Ran through the rain and got soaked. I gave her one of my shirts to sleep in.”
Maddie let out a blubbery, “Awww!” She cleaned her greasy fingers on a napkin and dabbed her eyes.
I wrinkled my nose. “Are you… Are you crying?”
“It’s all the hormones,” she sniffed. “Last week I cried while I was making a wedding cake because it was just so beautiful. ”
Jason laughed under his breath while Hannah Jane mouthed, “Hormonal.”
I almost laughed, but Maddie’s death glare had me thinking better of it.
Hannah Jane glanced at her watch and sighed. “I gotta head to the inn. I have two grooms who have me at my wit’s end. So help me, if they don’t choose a damn caterer today, I’m gonna lose my shit.”
With parting salutes and good luck sentiments, Hannah Jane strutted out the door.
Maddie and Jason struck up a conversation about the airstrip he had taken over.
I watched Bridget lumber back and forth behind the bar. Her gait was awkward, and she stopped to rub her lower back every few minutes. It physically pained me to see her pushing herself the way she was, but I knew arguing with her was a losing game.
I’d love her instead.