31. Chase
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHASE
K ayla looks so damn delectable in this olive-green dress I have half a mind to call off dinner myself and throw her on the bed behind us. But everyone has put a lot of time and energy into planning tonight. They would kill me if we didn’t show up.
“You look great, baby,” I say to her frowning face in the mirror, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her against me. I drop a kiss on her neck.
She shakes her head, pulling at her clothes before adjusting her hair. Shrugging away from me, she takes another dive into her closet.
“You’ve met all of them before…” I say, trying to appeal to her logic.
“But that was as your not-yet-but-almost girlfriend. This is different. Now I’m their long-lost daughter, new sister. What if they hate me?—?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I grab her hands, pulling her away from the closet of doom to keep her attention. “No one’s hating anyone. Especially you. You’re too amazing for that to happen.” I move her over to the bed, nudging her to sit while I kneel in front of her. Trying to think of a good way to help ease her worry, I look into her eyes and ask, “Would it help you to know they’re just as nervous as you are? Well, not Artie… She’s pure excitement, but Hunter and Kendall.”
“What do they have to be nervous about?”
“Hunter wants to make sure you’re as comfortable as possible. He’s been hounding me all week about your favorite foods and flowers, music taste, hobbies… I’m sure he’s been driving Ashlie nuts too.” That gets a little smile out of her, so I continue. “Kendall’s worried about pushing you too fast too soon. He’s ready to welcome you into the family with open arms, but doesn’t want to scare you off. And me…”
“You? You’re nervous?” She tilts her head, a confused line settling between her eyes.
“Yeah… I’m worried I won’t be able to keep my hands to myself all night.” I wiggle my eyebrows, leaning in for a kiss. She lets out a round of giggles, shaking her head at the cheesiness of it all. Her lips are soft against mine, and as I lean her back on the bedspread, she kisses me slowly, weaving her hands in my hair before pulling away.
“Baby, we can’t…”
“ Baby ? Did you just call me baby ?” Kayla hasn’t used a pet name with me before, and hearing her say baby , knowing it’s just for me, gets my stomach fluttering.
“Is that okay?” She lifts her eyebrow.
“Why don’t you say it again and we can find out together…?”
She bites her lip and looks at me through her lashes. Leaning up, she grazes her nose against mine, whispering, “Chase, baby,” and the shiver that runs through my body short circuits my brain. Her nails graze against my scalp as she lays her head back down to look at me, smiling like she already knows she’s left me speechless.
She pulls me down into featherlight kisses, and slowly, my brain comes back online.
I love you.
Those are the only words I can think of right now. It’s too soon to say anything, and I’ll need to keep this to myself for a while. I told her I was falling for her last night, but I’ve already fallen, splattered on the ground at her feet. I’m done for. But she’s about to have a life-altering dinner with her dad and new brother and sister, and I don’t want to add to the overwhelm.
To keep the words from spilling out, I bury my head in her neck and pepper kisses at her pulse. She moans as I maneuver down to her shoulder, and I cross her clavicle before she stops me again.
“We really do need to stop. I already have to fix my hair…and makeup.”
“You’re welcome,” I say with a wink and a smile. She rolls her eyes but gives me one more peck before getting up.
Moving back to the large mirror on her dresser, she smooths out the lines in her dress and swirls the front of her hair into a twisted knot. I could watch her get ready for an eternity and be just as mesmerized as I am now. The way she sweeps the bottom half of her hair across her shoulder, the swipe of her finger under her lip after reapplying lip gloss, the vanilla perfume… I’m completely spellbound.
I love you.
It hangs off my tongue, and I bite down on my back teeth just to move past the urge to say it.
We walk through the door of Kendall’s rental, and Artemis charges toward us. Kayla gasps as Artemis wraps her arms around her waist, giving her the tightest hug a ten-year-old can muster. “You came!” She holds on tight, and Hunter moves toward us, flowers in hand. My parents stand together in the kitchen, while Kendall settles in front of the dining room table.
“Artie, we said, ‘Be cool.’ In what world is this keeping it cool?”
“Shut up, Hunter. I’ve always wanted a sister, and now I finally have one!”
“Well, give her a little bit of space. Personal bubble.” He breathes heavily, trying to pry Artie off. Stepping in between them, he hands Kayla the bouquet of pink lilies with a handwritten card hanging from the top that says Welcome to the Family.
“Hey.” He gives a sheepish grin. “We got all of your favorites.” He steps from the entryway to showcase the food spread out in the kitchen right as my sisters emerge from the loft upstairs.
“I…wow. This is…wow.” Kayla’s mouth gapes as she takes in the assortment of food.
“Ashlie and Chase told us which places you liked, and Christine made it look all fancy,” Hunter continues. “But Dad and I were the ones who put everything together.”
“We wanted a glimpse into your life here and thought there was no better way to start than for us to experience some of your favorite things for ourselves.” Kendall’s wide grin shows his excitement, but he stays in the kitchen. Kayla turns toward me, mouth still open, her feet never having left the entryway. I squeeze her hand and nudge her forward.
Mom comes from the kitchen and gives her a side hug before setting the bouquet on the counter. “Welcome to the family. Now where should we start?”
“Um…definitely the crab cakes from Nando’s.” Kayla smiles, taking a breath and grabbing a plate. We load up and move to the table.
I drop a peck on her shoulder as I slide into my chair, and she gives a small grin. Wanting to feel close, I place my hand on her knee under the table. When I look up, I catch both my mom and Hunter watching us. Hunter sits with his tongue pushing the inside of his lip, trying to hide a smart-ass smirk, and Mom’s eyes twinkle as she nods an I-told-you-so at me.
“So, Kayla, I know you’re at Salima State, but I don’t think I know what you’re studying,” Kendall says from across the table .
“Oh, my degree will be in event management. I’m hoping to land an internship at the end of summer to give me some experience in the catering world.”
“Ooh, event management sounds right up my alley!” Mom chimes in cheerfully. “Is your focus more on the management or the planning side?”
“Planning, I think. I kind of do a little of everything right now, but I really like watching the details come together.”
“When does your internship start?” Hunter asks between bites.
“If I get through the interview, it will start in October and run through May, with another full year after graduation.”
“What does a catering internship interview look like?” Dad asks, fully invested in the conversation.
I feel Kayla tense next to me. “Maybe we could take a break with all the questions…” I say.
She smiles, putting her hand over the one I have on her knee. “It’s okay. My interview will be the EdTechU event coming up in San Francisco, actually. I have to submit plans for place setting ideas, color schemes, the menu, and staff uniforms.”
“What a small world,” Kendall says. “But I think Chase was right about the questions. Do you have anything you want to know about us?”
“Everything really. I just don’t know where to start.”
“That’s alright.” Kendall flashes a bright smile. “There’s no rush. We’re just glad you’re here.”
After going back for seconds and dessert, everyone has migrated to the living room. Funny stories about the Jackson family get passed around, while Kayla laughs easily as she learns about them. Artemis hasn’t left her side all night. It sounds like they’re becoming fast friends.
“Can I show you some pictures?” Artie asks Kayla during a lull in the conversation.
“Yeah, I would really like that.”
She bounds up the stairs to her bedroom, coming back down shortly with a large burgundy photo album. “This is our family,” she says, opening to a picture I’ve seen a thousand times. It used to hang in the Jackson’s foyer. A young Hunter and baby Artemis sit in front of their parents, everyone smiling in the posed shot. “That’s my mom, before the divorce.” She turns pages and points out young Kendall, his parents—Wilson and Audra, and finally stops on a face that looks eerily similar to Kayla’s.
“Wow,” I say, looking between the picture and my girlfriend. “You look just like her.”
“That’s our great-grandmother, Betsie. I noticed you looked like her on the first day you came over, but everyone tells me to mind my business. So I did,” Artie says with a satisfied edge to her voice.
“Hey, kid. Let me steal you for a minute.” Dad claps me on the shoulder and motions for me to follow him outside. I squeeze Kayla’s hand before walking out behind him. The cool evening breezes around us as the sun falls below the skyline. “How do you think it’s going in there?” He juts his thumb toward the house.
“Pretty good, I think. The funny stories definitely helped.”
“Good, good. I had to discourage Kendall from a few grand gestures, so I’m glad they kept this casual.” Dad taps his fingers on the banister, and I can almost feel the nervous energy radiating from him. “…How has your summer been? You been able to relax at all?”
He’s stalling and not doing a very good job at it. “What’s up, Dad?”
With a long sigh, he explains, “Well, we met with William earlier today, and the board has decided they want the sales team up and running in San Francisco before the shareholders’ event in August. Since you’ll be one of the managers on the new team, you’ll need to get there about a week beforehand for training and gathering the projected sales numbers for the region.”
I prop my arms against the banister, scrubbing my face in my hands. “And why am I just hearing about this now? ”
“Sorry, kid. With everyone on vacation, it’s been a task trying to get the board together for a meeting.”
Dread steamrolls through me as I mentally calculate what that means and how many days I have left with Kayla in Fort Bender . I’m supposed to have another four weeks. Now I only have one? I already wasn’t looking forward to the one-hour distance we’ll have after summer, but now I have to tell her I’m leaving next week. And it’s three hours away? I need more time to prepare for this. We need more time.
“The good news is that after the event, you’ll have another two weeks before your contract begins. Should be enough time for you to wrap up any loose ends.” He pats me on the shoulder and heads back into the jovial noises coming from the beach house, leaving me alone to stew over the newest hitch in my schedule.
I should go in, too, but my frustration needs a little time to simmer. My need to figure out a sensible plan reverberates, and I don’t know if a week is enough time to do that. I need time to figure out how to break the news to Kayla, to assure her we can make this shortened timeline work. Time to tell her I love her. I just need more time.