“Hey,” she said as she stepped in, wearing sneakers, shorts, and a pastel sleeveless blouse.
“Claudia, is that you?” his dad called out in a voice filled with affection.
“Yeah, Dad, it is. Who are you?” she asked and didn’t move any farther in.
His dad slipped into the kitchen and slid his arm around the girl’s shoulders. “Honey, I want you to meet your brothers. That one is Chase, and that’s Aaron there. Come on in and meet Luc in the living room. I told you about them.”
So this was their sister. “Claudia, pleasure to meet you,” Chase said.
It was awkward, and he had tons of questions as she was introduced to Aaron and then Luc. The girl was quiet. Correction, their sister was quiet. It took him a second to get his head around the fact that his mom was here, they had a sister who wasn’t adopted, and his dad appeared far happier than he’d ever seen him.
“There’s just one more thing we wanted to share,” his dad said as he rested his hands on his hips with a sense of pride that had Chase looking a little closer. “Your mom and I remarried yesterday.”
Chapter 30
Rose had given up on trying to get Billy Jo into the swimming pool, which was Olympic sized and not overly busy. Instead, after changing into a cute tankini with ruffles over the midriff, its turquoise color really bringing out her eyes, Billy Jo had climbed into the hot tub and then taken a lounge chair in the sun beside Rose.
The waiter had come by, and Rose had ordered a soda for both of them. Billy Jo still seemed tense, looking around at everyone, taking in everything, and it didn’t take Rose long to figure out that she was waiting for the other shoe to drop, maybe for someone to come along and tell her she didn’t belong.
“I stayed in places like this all the time when I was married,” Rose said. “You start to take all this luxury for granted, or at least I did at the time. How many hotels have you stayed in?”
Billy Jo who was sucking the last of the pop from the glass through a straw, making an awful racket. “Never once. Holidays were never wasted on me or any foster kids in the places I’ve stayed. We had a room, got fed, and nothing extra. This is nice.” She had her sunglasses on and rested her glass on the side table. “Can I have another?”
“Of course, when the waiter comes back.” She could see Chase at the other end of the pool, walking, looking for them. Then he spotted her and started moving her way. He appeared tense. “Chase is here,” she said.
“You two have fun?” Chase stepped in front of the loungers, looking down at them.
“Yeah, we did. Was about to talk Billy Jo into coming in the pool with me.”
Rose didn’t have to look over to know Billy Jo was shaking her head. “No,” she said.
“Why not?” Chase asked in that way he had with Billy Jo, getting right to the point.
She shrugged, staring at her empty glass. Rose could tell the wheels were turning in the girl’s head.
“Why would you waste a great pool like this?” Chase said. “I was about to go buy a swimsuit and join you guys before dinner.” He was staring down at Billy Jo, and when she finally looked up, she shrugged again. Her lips firmed as if she wasn’t about to share what she was thinking. The girl was so tough on the outside, but there was something below the surface that even Rose was able to see now. She was hiding so much, scared.
Rose shared an inquiring look with Chase.
“Billy Jo, I’m waiting,” he said. “When you don’t answer, I know I’ve touched on something you’re having issues with, so come on. Spill it. Do you not like swimming? You’re bored? What?” He wasn’t going to let it go, and even Rose at this point wanted him to drop it. Sometimes it was just a matter of teenage attitude.
“I can’t swim, okay?” Billy Jo said, so quietly Rose wasn’t sure she’d heard right. Chase said nothing, his arms crossed, staring down at her as if this were just any other thing and not a big deal.
“So I guess we’ll add in swimming lessons,” he said. Billy Jo said nothing else, but it was there in her expression: She was still getting used to Chase and his ways, used to being promised she would have everything and then some. So was Rose.
Chase looked at his watch.
“How did it go with your dad?” Rose said.
He didn’t have his shades on, and he squinted in the bright sun as he glanced over to her. He thought a lot about everything and held it all close to his chest. “My mom was there. Met my sister, Claudia. She’s about your age.” He gestured to Billy Jo. “We’re all having dinner tonight, together, here. Aaron booked a table in the dining room, I think for eight.” He looked at his watch again. “We have a couple hours. I think I’ll skip the pool and head up to take a shower. Don’t be long, you two,” he said, and there it was again. Something was weighing on him. He started to walk away.
“Billy Jo, I’ll be right back,” Rose said as she slipped off the lounger. She was wearing the orange one piece she’d picked up at the shop, simple but classy, and she followed him in her bare feet. “Chase?”
He stopped, looking down at her. She touched his arm and didn’t miss the appreciation for her body in his eyes.
“Are you all right? You didn’t say much about your meeting, and I can tell you’re distracted.”
His hand slid down her side. She couldn’t get enough of this man, of being close to him. Her body had a mind of its own any time she was around him. “It’ll be fine. Was just kind of a shock. Haven’t seen my mom in…” He was looking off as if thinking some heavy thoughts. “And the kid, she looks just like my mom. Had to really look, but I could see some of my dad, too. It was a little unsettling. They got married yesterday.”
“Oh.” What could she say? She didn’t understand this family dynamic, but Chase, although complex in so many ways, had some very simple qualities. “Were you always the one to hold the family together?” She sensed that each of the boys had a role in the family dynamic, or maybe she was reading too much into it.
“We’re a family with a lot of flaws. I guess that’s just one of mine. You look nice, by the way.” He had a great smile, and it made her feel so wanted, the way he watched her. He leaned down and kissed her. It was light and quick, and it zinged through her right to her toes. His hand rested on her lower back as she rose on her tiptoes. She ran her hand over his cheek, feeling the whiskers, loving the roughness.
“And I haven’t forgotten about your divorce, Rose,” he said. “The papers are ready. You need to stop stalling, stop avoiding, and know it will be okay.”
She lowered herself, her palms sliding down his chest as she went to step back.
“Yeah, see, there it is,” Chase said. “Warm to cold all of a sudden as soon as I change the topic to the divorce. What are you scared of?”
Was he kidding? “Do you not remember what I told you he did to me? He has reach. Yes, I’m scared. I know I have to do it, and I will, but Jesus, Chase, as soon as he’s served, this man will react. He’s unpredictable.”
“And I told you I won’t let anything happen. I have connections too, and pull, and he’d be a fool to try anything. This really comes down to you believing me, trusting me. He’s not going to get near you. He’ll give you your divorce. He’ll go away, and he won’t hurt you. He’s no different than any other politician. He won’t risk his future, I can promise you that.”
She knew he made sense. He really did, and she believed him, but the problem was that her rational mind wasn’t getting through to the nightmare of the memories she’d run away from. She reached up to touch her face, and he was touching her again, his hands on her arms, rubbing. “Do you trust me, Rose?”
She dropped her hands, standing in his space, feeling every part of him as he took her in and then looked over her head to where Billy Jo had to be sitting. Everyone was his responsibility. It tilted her further over the edge of falling hard for this man. She’d never expected to feel this kind of care. It was humbling.
“I do, but it’s not that simple, Cha
se. I’m trying to work through some of my fear, and you’re not letting me get my bearings, to get comfortable with it, with any of it. I’ve had to hide to survive a monster, and—”
“And you don’t anymore, thus the reason for the divorce. Let’s finish it. I’ll have a chat with him, and you’ll have no more connection to him. He’ll know you’re with me. Him knowing that will make all the difference because of who I am or was in the political circle, or is that the reason?”
Maybe he was right. There was something unsettling about Chase being able to fix the problem, about needing to be protected from one man by another. In theory, it was degrading. “Maybe,” she said. “Why is it that he has to know about you to make a difference?” She already knew the answer, though. It was still so much a man’s world.
“Because, Rose, unfortunately it still matters who you know, and he is who he is, an abuser of power and an abuser of women. For him, it’s about power and control. Guys like him don’t go down easy, and it takes someone who can pose enough of a threat to his public image, something that’s more important to him than you are, to make him go away. I need to get him to stop and think. Hey, I wish it wasn’t this way, but I learned a while ago that fairness doesn’t always happen the way we’d like. It’s just your pride there, Rose. What does it matter if this gets him to go away and releases you from the fear of him hanging over your head?”
She didn’t say anything for a moment, and she felt him pull away. She reached for his hand and held on. “I know what you’re saying, and it’s reasonable. I guess what I’m saying is that I wish it wasn’t that way. He can push me around and bully me, but you, as you say, are enough to make him walk away?”
He lifted his other hand and touched her cheek, and his expression made it seem as if it were just the two of them in that moment. Then he glanced over her head, the spell broken. “You all done?” he said as Billy Jo joined them, pulling a towel around herself.
“You two were talking forever. Figured I’d hit the shower.” She walked right past, key card in her hand.
“Don’t use all the hot water,” Chase called out teasingly, touching Rose, and it was just a moment between them as she linked her fingers with his and he caressed her side.
“I’ll get my things,” she said and pulled away. She reached for her towel on the lounger, slipped her feet into her flip flops.
“About what I said,” Chase started. “I didn’t mean to come across…”
“I know.” She did understand what he was saying. “It’s just that even though we’ve come so far, I understand this really comes down to the fact that I never figured out how to stand up to him. I get it.” She took a breath. “File it,” she said and took in his surprise.
“You sure?” he asked.
“You know you’re ready for something when the anxiety of what you have to do isn’t choking you. I can breathe. I may puke at the thought of letting him scare me the way he has, but I want this done, gone, the threat of what he can do. I want to make my own choices and not have to hide. You were right about that.”
He didn’t say anything else as she simply held his hand, and he walked her into the hotel. Being with him, with Chase and Billy Jo and this unknown future they had, all of this was what she really wanted.
Chapter 31
She had kissed and touched him everywhere in the shower they shared, and he was completely sated now. Billy Jo had been in the living room, the TV on, engrossed in a sitcom, when Chase had pulled Rose into the bathroom with him and stripped her down, but she had turned the tables on him. It had been humbling. He’d lost the ability to reason when she went down on her knees, the spray hitting her head, and took him. He had bitten his lip, keeping quiet, and as soon as he could move and before Rose could slip out of the shower, he had kissed her and slid inside her, loving her and taking her against the shower wall, pounding into her as he kissed her deeply to quiet her.
Chase now leaned against the back wall of the elevator in his dark blue suit, far more relaxed than he’d been in a long time. Beside him, Rose wore a cute red slip of a dress, tasteful, with silver strappy heels. Her hair was straight down her back, and she wore two simple diamonds in her ears. She was breathtaking. Billy Jo, on the other hand, wore a floral top that flowed past her thighs, with black tights underneath and sandals on her feet. He’d never seen her looking so dressy, neat and tidy, and Rose had even applied light shadow to her eyes. She was a beautiful girl who carried a ton of baggage.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Billy Jo said. She didn’t look his way, but Rose, who was leaning against him, did look up at him, her expression questioning.
“Just taking in my two beautiful girls,” he said as the elevator slowed and stopped.
The doors opened, and Billy Jo stepped out first, giving him an odd look.
“Don’t make too much out of it,” Chase said. “I can see you’re overthinking, so stop it. You should be happy with the way you look, happy with…”
She was walking away before he could finish. He sensed her anxiety and embarrassment as she walked over to Aaron, who was in the lobby at a rack of brochures.
“Yeah, guess she wasn’t ready to hear that,” Chase said, “but she’d really have freaked if I said what I wanted to.”
Rose slid her hand into the crook of his arm, leaning against him. “And what is that?” She sounded relaxed, and that had him smiling as he looked down on her. Yeah, she was open for anything.
“Shower sex looks good on you,” he said, and a hint of pink touched her cheeks.
“Chase!” she whispered, looking around.
“No one can hear. You look so relaxed. Anyway, what I wanted to say was that I look at Billy Jo and you, and I see how she’s picking things up from watching you. She has no idea how beautiful she is. She’s hidden it with tacky second-hand clothes, but now she’s dressing nicely with the clothes you bought. She sees your style, and it’s rubbing off on her. Even her hair, I noticed the way she’s trying to style it like yours. She wants to feel good, look good…but she’s so troubled that she could fall for some sweet-talking asshole who could ruin her.”
Rose had a look of alarm. Her eyes widened, and her grip tightened on him. She glanced over to Billy Jo, to Aaron, and then to Luc, who lifted his hand to Chase.
“She’s connected with my brother,” Chase said. “That’s a good thing, considering Aaron understands what she’s been through more than any of us. I’ve got to get her into school, to get her an education with other kids in a place that won’t mess her up more. She’s like a magnet for trouble right now. I want to adopt her.” He took in Rose’s expression as he said it. Her jaw slackened, and she glanced over to Billy Jo, but she didn’t move from where she was linked to Chase.
“You said before that you were all in and you wouldn’t walk away,” she said. “I believed you then. I guess I didn’t realize you really meant a permanent forever family, not just fostering. That’s…”
He wasn’t sure what he was seeing in Rose’s expression. “I hope this isn’t a problem,” he said, thinking of the newness of everything, him and Rose and Billy Jo. He still hadn’t closed up his place and made plans for the future. Maybe this was coming out of left field.
“No, that’s not what I’m saying. It’s like, holy crap, Chase, you move fast. It’s scary, and…” She let out a sigh and looked around him again. “You shouldn’t tell her yet.”
“Not that I was going to, but why would you say that?” Maybe this was where Rose wanted out. She was fostering, but adoption? That was the end game. He’d do it, and he couldn’t imagine life without her.
“Look, there’s dinner with your parents and a family we haven’t really met. Their entire situation is complicated. You’re filing my divorce and basically fixing that as well, which isn’t even finished, and now you want to move right on ahead and tackle one more thing, as if you don’t have enough on your plate already…”
“Chase.”
He hadn’t
even heard him. It was the deep voice of Vic, his older brother, who was staring down at Rose, who was still holding on to him. She curled her fingers tighter. Vic had that effect on women, on everyone. It was in his look, the dark hair and eyes. There was a darkness about him that seemed to scream power, shrewdness, and danger, and it often hid who he really was. He was dressed neatly in pants and a white shirt, with no tie. This was not expected.
“I didn’t know you were coming,” Chase said. He was rattled. “Pretty sure you said you weren’t when I was at your place.” He took in the hint of humor on Vic’s face as he took in Rose.
“Had to after I found out you never arrived in Henderson after you left my place. I figured you were just being you, and this was another way of yours to pull the family together, so I called Aaron, and he filled me in. Imagine my surprise at hearing that in a few short days and one pit stop, you managed to do something I never expected even from you. Fostering a kid and moving in with a beautiful woman?” Vic actually laughed, which in itself was unusual.
Okay, Vic saying it made it sound as if Chase had lost his mind. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t have to look down to Rose to see she was uncomfortable and speechless.
Vic slapped his arm. “Lighten up. I never realized how much you seem to find things to fix. It’s who you are, who you always have been. So are you going to introduce me?”
“Vic, this is Rose. Rose, this is Vic, the eldest. I was visiting Vic when I—when we…you know, the robbery.”
She held out her hand. “Pleasure,” she said, all manners.
Vic took her hand and looked to Chase as if trying to figure him out. “So is that the kid over there?” He gestured with his thumb, and Chase took in the crowd, seeing Fiona and John waiting with Aaron and Luc. Then he spotted his mom and dad and Claudia walk in. Billy Jo had slipped back into the shadows while everyone talked. “She seems uncomfortable,” Vic said.
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