Crazy Love - Krista & Chase (23 page)

“It’s my mom’s recipe, but I made it.”

Krista didn’t want to toot her own horn, but (toot, toot!) she had mastered her mom’s recipe. After returning home after college, it had been the first meal she’d asked her mom to teach her to cook. Krista could still remember the look of—
oh boy, I know what this is about!
—that had appeared in her mom’s blue eyes at her daughter’s request.

A deep groan sounded from deep in Chase’s chest. Krista smiled to herself. When she was growing up, none of her sisters or her cousins had liked her mom’s meatloaf, and that had not changed one iota now that they were all adults. For some inexplicable reason though, Chase had always
loved
it—like really
loved
it. So much so that the dinner had even caused a fight between them once.

One night when they were in high school, they had planned to go and meet up with some friends for pizza, but when Chase had found out that meatloaf was on the Sloan family menu, he’d said that he wanted to eat at Krista’s. He’d ended up doing both, but only after Krista had pitched a fit about it. Honestly, there were times she’d actually been jealous over the brown blob of meat because when Chase ate it, it looked as if he were having a religious experience. The only other time his face had ever looked to be in that state of bliss was when he’d been buried deep inside of her.

“Do you know how much I’ve missed this?” he asked as he pulled the dish out of the insulated packaging.

She wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or the loaf, but she decided to participate in the conversation for the hell of it. “I can imagine.” Her voice had come out sounding snarkier than she’d meant it to.

Damn
. Even now as an adult, she still felt the twinges of annoyance over his love for a meal. A meal, she reminded herself, she herself had prepared for him.

This was not good. Not good at all.

* * *

Chase savored every bite of the four slices of meatloaf he’d piled on his plate. A home-cooked meal was few and far between on the road. Not that he was complaining. He knew how lucky he was to have the success he did. That did not stop him from missing Mrs. Sloan’s meatloaf.

It was ridiculous, but over the years, he’d even dreamt about it. Several times, he’d been woken up before he’d gotten to taste it in his dream, and it had been almost as frustrating as being woken up while having a sex dream before the grand finale.

As his mouth covered the fork that held the last piece of loaf, he dragged his lips along the metal, pulling the deliciousness into his mouth. He groaned as he bit into the flavorful bite, reveling in every second it was in his mouth. As he swallowed, he looked up into Krista’s beautiful blue-green eyes and saw that look of irritation there.

“Sorry,” he apologized, knowing that he’d been bad company during their dinner.

“It’s fine,” she said as she pushed her salad around on her plate.

Chase might not have known everything there was to know, but he did know that ‘it’s fine’ meant that it definitely was
not
fine.

Covering his hand over hers, he rubbed his thumb along her knuckles as he said, “Thank you so much for making that and remembering it was my favorite.”

“No problem,” she snipped, pulling her hand away and taking a sip of her wine.

Chase was torn. He did feel bad that he’d basically had conversation blinders on while he’d eaten, but in fairness to him, he’d finished off his plate in under ten minutes. Then there was the fact that seeing Krista get jealous again, even if it was just over food, had seemed like a good sign to Chase.

He knew that asking her what was wrong was not the path to go down to change her mood. She’d never been the kind of girl to lay out an emotional roadmap for him to follow. He liked that though. The fact that getting to know her wasn’t easy.

“I was skeptical when you said you had made it, but damn, that was better than your mom’s,” he said truthfully, knowing that the comment might pull her out of her pout.

That got the smile he had been hoping for. Lifting her eyes from the salad on her plate, she grinned sassily. “You should know better than to doubt me.”

The moment the words left her mouth, the energy between them shifted from lighthearted to serious. He wasn’t sure why or what significance those words had had, but her green-blue eyes had turned very serious.

Setting down her fork, she took another drink of wine and then a deep breath. “Speaking of doubting people, I have been wanting to talk to you about something.”

“Okay,” he said encouragingly. The fact that she wanted to do
anything
with him was good news in his book.

“The night you left town—”

“I’m sorry, Krista,” he quickly apologized. Chase had wanted to talk about the same thing, but he hadn’t wanted to rock the very shaky boat that they’d been floating in since he’d returned. “I shouldn’t have left. I should have talked to you and—”

Holding up her hand, she stopped him. “
You
don’t have anything to apologize for, Chase. I do. In all the years we were together, and even the times we were apart during that time, you never gave me any reason to doubt you. But I did. I was just… I just thought… I felt so…”

The tortured look in Krista’s beautiful eyes was breaking Chase’s heart. He wanted more than anything to reach out to her. To pull her on his lap. To tell her that everything was okay and kiss her until she believed it. Something stopped him though. He sensed that what she needed to say to him was important to her. So even though every fiber in his being was straining to touch her, he didn’t. He waited.

Tears filled her eyes, testing his resolve to keep his hands to himself. Instead of reaching out to her, he said, “I swear to you, I never cheated on you.”

“I know.” She nodded as she took in a shaky breath. “I found out later from Larissa Peters that she was the one who planted the panties in your truck.”

“She was?” He had actually thought that he and Larissa had been friends. She’d been in a few of his classes in school. He’d give her rides home sometimes when they’d had to work on the yearbook project. Which must have been when she’d planted the underwear that changed his life.

“Yeah, and there’s more. She told me that there was a whole group of girls that would actually have weekly meetings to come up with new rumors and plans to try and break us up.”

“Why?” Chase figured it must have been retaliation from the falling out Krista had had with her three friends freshman year.

Krista smiled through her tears as she shook her head at him. “You really don’t know.”

“What? Was it that stuff with those girls that you had drama with?”

“No,” she said as if that were the stupidest thing she’d ever heard. “It was because of you. Because they wanted a chance to be with
you
.”

“They thought if they broke us up, I would hook up with them?” Chase was trying to make sure he’d gotten this straight.

“Yes,” Krista said emphatically, looking relieved that he’d finally caught on.

“And Larissa just told you this?”

“Yep. Apparently it was part of her twelve-step program.”

“That’s crazy.” Chase was having a hard time processing what Krista was telling him. It made sense now that he knew the facts. There had always seemed to be some new rumor about him flirting or cheating. So much of the time he’d felt like it had been him and Krista against the world, and now he knew that there was a sliver of truth to that. Because in high school your “world” consisted of your friends and classmates.

“I know. But the point is I shouldn’t have doubted you. Ever. Especially that night. I am so sorry.” Tears began flowing down her smooth cheeks. She lifted her hand and wiped them from under her eyes. “When you needed me the most, I wasn’t there for you.”

“Only because there were girls actively trying to sabotage us. It wasn’t like you were just pulling shit out of thin air.”

Shaking her head, she sniffed as she said, “There’s no excuse.”

Chase sighed and leaned forward, cupping her beautiful face. She looked at him with so much sadness and guilt. There was no one in the world who Krista was harder on than herself. Chase did not want her carrying that kind of blame around.

“Not an excuse, but a reason.” His thumbs brushed the tears off the soft skin of her cheeks. “Krista, we were young, and you aren’t the only one who should have done things differently that night. You’d just found a pair of girls’ panties in my truck and I gave you an ultimatum. Declare your unwavering trust in me or we were done. That wasn’t fair. I was scared and mad. I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, but I didn’t for one second try to see how things looked from your side. I’m sorry.”

“No, you don’t have anything to be sorry—”

He was done with their apologies. He was done keeping his distance.

Closing the distance between them, he pressed his lips to hers.

K
rista’s entire body froze as Chase’s soft, full lips brushed hers. She didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. Didn’t kiss. Inside her head, she was screaming
, kiss him!
Outside, she looked like she was playing a game of kiss freeze tag.

Most likely picking up on her very convincing portrayal of a mannequin, Chase slowly pulled away, leaning back against his chair. His caramel-colored eyes searched hers. She’d have loved for him to share his findings because Krista had no freaking idea what was going on with her.

She desperately wanted to laugh off her statue-like reaction and make some witty joke about her odd behavior, but it seemed her mouth had gone on strike from both the kissing and talking without telling her brain. No matter how hard she willed it, no words were coming out of her mouth. Actually, there was a very good possibility that her brain had actually joined her mouth on the picket line because she didn’t think she could string a sentence together if her life had depended on it.

So they sat. In silence. Staring at each other.

Finally, Krista couldn’t take the heat and intensity in his gaze. She stood, grabbing their plates and bringing them to the sink. She was happy to note that her entire body had not unionized against her. Her arms and legs seemed to be working at full capacity.

Go limbs!

Setting the dishes in the stainless-steel basin beneath the faucet, Krista concentrated on calming her rapidly beating heart and slowing down her breathing, which was walking the fine line between erratic and hyperventilation. Her mind was spinning trying to make sense of what had just happened to her. It was like her body and brain had just short-circuited.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t been prepared for Chase to kiss her. Krista had known that things were more than likely going to get physical tonight. Put her and Chase alone for
any
amount of time and things heated up
pretty
quickly.

Her body wanted this. Her heart wanted this. Even her mind, which had been the sole holdout to get aboard the Chase-Choo-Choo, was so foggy with lust that it had run along the train as it had pulled away from Sanity Station and hopped on board the caboose.

So what was the problem?!

Krista heard the sounds of footsteps behind her, and the edge of the counter dug into her palm as she squeezed it tightly. She sensed more than felt when Chase stopped directly behind her. The tiny hairs on her arm stood up from the sensation of his warm breath fanning across her shoulder.

Krista watched as Chase’s large, tan hands settled on the counter edges on the outside of her own. Seeing the difference in size between them as their hands sat side by side was a powerful aphrodisiac. It made her want to see his how his talented, masculine hands looked compared to other parts of her body.

Unfortunately, no part of his body was touching any part of her body. But he was surrounding her completely. She was in the center of a Chase cocoon. At his nearness, a full-body shiver ran from her head to her toes, but she still stood with her back to Chase. Doing nothing.

His cheek brushed against the side of her head. “Are you okay?” he rasped deeply, the timbre sending an answering pulse straight to her center.