Chapter 2 #3
I was pretty freaking proud of myself for getting that much out.
He had a towel slung around his neck and lifted it to dry off his dripping hair, revealing even more flesh.
His pectoral muscles were carved and perfect.
And—oh, my God…is that… Holy shit. It is.
His nipples were cold and erect, and one of them was… .was…pierced.
“Good to see you, Reese. We don’t see each other for ten years, and now we’ve run into each other twice in a month’s time.”
It took me a minute to realize he was referring to our fake middle school years. His wit snapped me out of my haze.
“Yes. Aren’t I lucky?”
“I know you,” Bryant said.
I’d completely forgotten he was standing next to me. Hell, I’d forgotten anyone else on Earth existed for a minute. I furrowed my brow. Did the two of them actually know each other?
“You’re Reese’s cousin. The model.”
Shit! Shit! Shit! I wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
However, Chase (being Chase) went right along with it. He looked at me curiously as he spoke to Bryant. “That’s right. I’m cousin Chase. Aunt Bea’s youngest nephew. And you are?”
Bryant extended his hand, and Chase clasped it. “Bryant Chesney.” Then he turned to me. “I thought your mom’s name was Rosemarie? Same as my mom’s.”
Chase cut in smoothly. “It is. But some of us call her Bea. Nickname. She’s allergic to bees. Got stung at a family barbecue once. Her face swelled up, and the kids all called her Bea after that.”
Seriously, the man has to be a professional liar. He was so damn good at it, and he seemed to be turning me into one, too.
Bryant nodded like it all made sense. “Well, nice to meet you. I’ll let you two catch up while I get in a few laps.”
Just as Bryant began to walk away, Chase stopped him. “How did you know I was Chase? Aunt Bea showing off my pictures again?”
“Nah. Haven’t met any of Reese’s family yet. Saw your picture on her laptop.”
“My picture?”
“It’s Reese’s background on her MacBook.”
Forget the hole I wanted to crawl in to hide a minute ago.
Now I closed my eyes and prayed for the Earth to swallow me up and never spit me back out.
Or for the superpower of turning the Earth backward so time could rewind.
I stood completely still and counted to thirty with my eyes tightly shut.
When my time was up, I opened one eye, peeking to see if Chase had disappeared.
“Still here.” He smirked.
I covered my face with my hands. “I’m so embarrassed.”
“Don’t be. We’re not blood cousins, so it’s not too weird for you to be dreaming about me at night.”
“I was not dreaming about you at night!”
“So it’s only during the day while you stare at my picture on your laptop, then?”
“It was an accident. I didn’t mean to set it as my background.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “Okay. I’ll buy that.”
“Good, because it’s true.”
“But how, exactly, did the picture get on your laptop in the first place? I don’t remember you snapping a pic during our double date.”
I snorted. “Double date?”
“Speaking of which, what happened to Oedipus? Kicked to the curb so soon? I gotta admit, even though you went about trying to get out of your date all wrong, you weren’t wrong about that guy. Boring as shit.”
“He was.”
“So who’s this new dope you’re with?”
“Dope? You don’t even know him.”
“Left me standing here with his girl. Dope.”
“He thinks we’re cousins!”
“I told you, we’re not blood-related.”
“Yes, but—” I laughed. “You’re bizarre, you know that?”
“Not any more bizarre than a woman who somehow took a photo of a perfect stranger and has it on her MacBook for her boyfriend to see.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.” I had no idea why I said that. It was sort of true, but sort of not. “Well, we’ve gone out twice.”
“Ah…so you haven’t slept with him yet.”
I hadn’t, but how would he know that? “What makes you say that?”
“Because you’re not the type of girl who sleeps with guys on the first or second date.”
“How would you know?”
“I just do.”
“What exactly is the type of girl who sleeps with a guy on a first date?”
“She sends signals—dresses a certain way, makes body contact. You know the type. I know you do.”
“Like Bridget?” That woman had been pawing him by the end of the night.
He said nothing.
I thought it was oddly gentlemanly that he didn’t agree about Bridget or confirm what I suspected happened after their date.
“So how did you get a picture of me anyway?” he asked instead.
I told the truth. Well, mostly. “I searched for you on Facebook after that night in the restaurant. I wanted to say thank you for saving me and making the evening fun.”
“You sent me a message?”
“No. I never did. It sort of…felt creepy that I’d stalked you, so I changed my mind.”
“And you liked my picture so much that you kept it?”
“I went to bookmark the page in case I changed my mind about sending you that note, and instead I saved the picture.” I felt the blush creeping up my face. I’d always been a terrible liar. My mom used to say I was easier to read than a book.
Surprisingly, Chase nodded. I hadn’t expected him to let me off the hook that easily. “Is this your regular gym? I haven’t seen you here before.”
“No. It’s Bryant’s gym. He invited me. I had a bad day and planned to wine away my stresses. But he suggested I come work them off at the gym instead.”
“Told ya. Dope. Definitely not what I would have suggested to alleviate stress if I was Brandon.”
“Bryant.”
“Whatever.”
“So what would you have suggested?”
“Nothing.” He changed subjects. “So why was your day so bad, anyway?”
“Two job interviews. The first one I blew before I even walked into the office, and the second one blew me off just as I pulled up to their building.”
“You’re out of work?”
“Not yet. But I will be as of next Friday. Probably wasn’t the smartest move to give notice in this economy before I found another job.”
“What do you do?”
“Marketing. I was the director of marketing for Fresh Look Cosmetics.”
“Small world. I’m friendly with Scott Eikman, the president of Fresh Look. We play golf together sometimes.”
“Eight and a half million people in our little city, and my fake middle school boyfriend slash non-blood-related cousin golfs with the head of my company? That is bizarre.”
Chase laughed. “Scott’s retiring next year, right?”
“Yep. Moving to Florida and all. He has two sons who will probably take over.” Ugh. Derek. I wished he was moving to Florida. Or Siberia.
Chase and I had been standing just in front of the pool door since we bumped into each other. A guy knocked on the glass and flashed a Dr. Pepper, dangling it in the air.
Chase held up two fingers in response, then explained. “We made a bet. I kicked his ass in lap times. That’s my prize.”
I arched a brow. “A Dr. Pepper?”
“It’s good stuff. Don’t knock it or I won’t bring it to the next family barbecue.”
After another minute, his friend banged again. This time, he waved his hand to Chase as if to say, what the hell is taking you so long?
Chase nodded. “I gotta run. We have a dinner meeting in a half hour, and I need to shower.”
I tried to hide my disappointment. “Well, it was nice running into you, cuz.”
Our eyes locked for a minute. Just like the end of the night at the restaurant, Chase looked like he wanted to say something.
But instead, he glanced back over his shoulder to where Bryant was swimming, and then pulled me in for a hug, wrapping my ponytail around his fist and tugging my head back to look up at him.
His eyes lingered on my lips before he kissed my forehead. “Later, cuz.”
He took a few steps toward the locker room door before stopping and turning back. “I have a friend who’s a bulldog recruiter. Why don’t I put you in touch with her? Maybe she can help find you something?”
“Sure, I’d love that. I’m not having much luck by myself. Thank you.”
I handed him my cell, and he programmed in his number then sent a text to his own phone so we’d have each other’s contact information.
Then he was gone. Immediately, I felt longing.
The odds of running into him a second time in this tremendous city were probably as long as being struck by lightning.
It would be less than a week before I found out sometimes lightning strikes twice.