Chapter 5 #2
“Excuse me.” Chase needed some fresh air and a moment to cool down. He pushed up from his seat, ignoring the sympathetic looks from CJ and Chase. His father kept eating as if this was an everyday occurrence. It had been growing up, which was why his father tuned it out by this point.
He walked out to the back porch and sat down on the top step. The hot air only seemed to fuel his anger, but at least it was quiet, and he could calm his stormy thoughts. That was until he heard the back door open. The old hinges screeched in protest at being opened.
“Chase,” a soft feminine voice called out like both a torture and a balm to his soul.
“I’m fine, go back inside, CJ.” He couldn’t face her right now. He was too angry to talk to anyone at the moment.
CJ ignored him. “No, you’re not. You are anything but fine,” she said, coming to sit down next to him. Her jasmine scent caught the breeze and teased his nose, making him recall that night. No, now wasn’t the time for those thoughts.
“I just need a moment to cool down. I’ll be inside in a moment,” he responded, not daring to look at her right now. In his fragile state, he might do something he’d regret, like kiss her.
“What happened in there? You were being rude to your mom. You should apologize to her.”
“Me? She started it.” His mom should apologize to him for a change.
CJ snorted. “What are you, twelve? Why are you so upset?”
“I hate when she talks to me like that.” Belittling him like that. It didn’t matter all that he had accomplished, all she cared about was him settling down and getting married as if that was the answer to everything. It had worked for her, but there was more to life than marriage.
“She does it because she cares.”
“No, she’s meddling,” he corrected; there was a difference. “I’m proud of everything I’ve done.”
“As you should be,” CJ agreed. “No one is questioning that. We’re all proud of you.”
She had a funny way of showing it. There was nothing about tonight that sounded like a compliment.
“She just doesn’t want you to spend your life alone. Believe me, she does that to all of us. My own mother is the same way. You should see when they all get together. Chase and I don’t hear the end of it. You’re only getting a small taste.”
CJ was right. His mother wasn’t saying anything he hadn’t heard before a million times over the years.
He was just being overly sensitive right now.
It was probably because he was thinking about CJ more than he should be, and his thoughts were all jumbled with no way to sort through them.
“I’m sorry if tonight was awkward with my mother.
” His mother was not being subtle about him settling down, and with someone he had already met. She had been laying it on pretty thick.
The corner of CJ’s lip pulled into a semblance of a smile. “I survived. I knew her efforts were in vain. I know you don’t think of me that way. That what happened between us was a fleeting moment and didn’t mean anything to you.”
“CJ,” he said in a warning tone. They couldn’t be talking about this right now. What had happened was in the past and needed to stay there. It was a moment, one best forgotten. Though it seemed the more he tried to forget it, the more it stayed in the forefront of his mind.
“Am I wrong?” she challenged, her eyes darting back and forth between his.
“CJ,” he whispered her name as he leaned toward her, feeling the pull like a moth to a flame.
“Chase,” she whispered back as she leaned toward him.
He’d never know who started it, but one minute they had been leaning toward each other and the next they were kissing.
It was soft and gentle like they had all the time in the world.
Chase groaned as he felt the emotions from before surface like a blazing inferno.
He reluctantly pulled away before they got too far.
All he needed was for someone to come out and see them.
“Tell me you don’t think about that night,” CJ urged, looking at him earnestly.
“CJ. We can’t do this. We’ve been through this.”
“Yet it didn’t stop you from kissing me just now.”
It hadn’t. He had been drawn to her since he came to town, and she never seemed to be far from his thoughts, but that didn’t make it right.
If anything, everything about them was wrong.
There was no hope for a future for them.
His life was his career right now, and she was Bobby’s sister.
He couldn’t betray his best friend like that.
CJ deserved someone so much better than him.
Someone without his scars and baggage. “A moment of weakness that won’t happen again. ”
“Chase…” CJ reached out for him, but he stood quickly and kept distance between them. If she touched him, he knew his resolve would crumble, and in this he had to remain firm.
“Enough, CJ,” he snapped, hating he had to be so firm with her, but she wouldn’t seem to listen that they couldn’t be.
It was better to break her heart now before they became too involved.
“This cannot and will not happen between us.” He turned and started to walk away, then paused knowing he had to put the nail in the coffin.
“I don’t think about that night, and you would do well to forget it as well.
Good night.” He walked back into the house, not surprised she didn’t come back in.
He’d finally gotten his point across. He and CJ were done for good.