Blitz (Blast Brothers #3) - Sabrina Stark Page 0,74
to change beforehand. And when I'd informed him – with no small degree of embarrassment – that there was no way on Earth I'd be explaining such a thing to my parents, he'd suggested swinging by his place to see what might be in his closet.
Turns out, there'd been quite a bit.
In what appeared to be a guest room, I'd found at least a dozen dresses, along with a small selection of casual clothes like running pants and little cropped T-shirts. I'd even found a decent collection of undergarments, most of them with the tags still attached.
When I'd asked Chase who the clothes belonged to, he'd claimed they belonged to him and said they were mine for the taking if I wanted them.
The clothes – even the casual ones – had looked very expensive, and I'd picked the plainest dress of the bunch, a little black number with a flared skirt and long, lacy sleeves. Since my shoes were black, it had seemed the safest bet, even if my basic low-heeled pumps were a whole lot plainer than the dress itself.
As far as the dress, was I embarrassed to be wearing it?
Maybe a little.
But it wasn't enough to stop me.
In spite of his offer, I fully planned to return it when dinner was done. And, as far as the new underpants, well, I guess they were mine now.
To my infinite surprise, Chase had said nothing about the conversation we'd overheard in the barn. I wasn't sure why he'd been so silent on the matter, but I'd been incredibly relieved at the lack of interrogation.
My relief lasted all the way through dinner as we spent most of the time talking about perfectly safe topics, mostly related to the upcoming campaign.
By the time our dinner dishes were cleared away, I couldn’t help but wonder if we were back to business as usual, even in spite of the fact that I'd just had sex with him, shopped in his closet, and showered in his guest room – alone, by the way.
So what was this? A dinner meeting?
I didn't think so. But I couldn’t say for sure either way.
By the time we declined dessert and ordered another bottle of wine, the sun had already set, and our server had lit the candle on our table, leaving us bathed in soft, soothing light.
It was then, after Chase refilled my wine glass for the third time, that he leaned across the table and said in a low voice, "So, are you gonna tell me?"
"Tell you what?"
"The deal with Bryce."
The question caught me off guard. "Sorry, what?"
With a shameless grin, he said, "What, you thought I wasn't gonna ask?"
"Um, yeah. Actually, I thought if you hadn't asked by now…" With a shrug, I let the sentence trail off as if that were the end of it.
Apparently not.
He asked, "So, when'd it happen?"
I grimaced at the memory. "A really long time ago."
"It couldn’t have been too long," he said. "You're blushing."
I tried to laugh. "Yeah, because it's embarrassing."
"Why?" Chase said. "He's the dumb-ass, not you."
It was such a sweet thing to say, and not for the first time, I couldn’t help but marvel at how different this Chance was compared to the guy I'd met on the sidewalk all those weeks ago.
As far as Bryce, I had to be honest. "Actually, he's not that dumb. He was in pre-med, so he's probably almost a doctor by now."
Chase scoffed, "What, like doctors can't be dumb, too?"
With a shaky laugh, I replied, "Yeah, I guess."
His gaze met mine as he asked in a surprisingly gentle tone, "So, you wanna talk about it?"
I did. And I didn't. The funny thing was, even though I'd been dreading him asking, part of me was touched that he cared enough to want to know.
With this in mind, I laid out the basics. "There's not much to tell. We dated maybe ten months, and if I'm being totally honest, things were already going downhill when it happened."
"It," he said. "Meaning him getting with the girl in the red dress?"
"Yup." I blew out a long, shaky breath. "Good ol' Emory. Get this. He comes home for spring break, supposedly so we can figure things out. And you wanna know where he ends up?"
His eyebrows lifted. "Is that a trick question?"
Of course, I knew what he meant. "Okay, yes, he ended up in her 'pants.' But that's not all. He also ended up in Florida. With her."