The Three-Week Arrangement (Chase Brothers) (9 page)

Definitely close enough to notice the direction of his gaze drifted to her lips.

She was pretty sure she stopped breathing.

“Some forms of torture are better than others,” she said,
trying so hard to make her voice sound normal that the words came out in some sort of strangled chicken tone that was anything but casual. She tried and failed to swallow the clog in her throat.

He released her hand, only to thread his fingers through hers, and stared at her across that whopping two inches of bed. She wanted to ask where they were going with this, but she knew the inevitable
end, and it wouldn’t be pretty. Not if she fell for him, and especially not if he fell for her. Because he’d just friend-zoned her, making it clear where he stood. And even if he made some crazed leap back to the land of the living, he wasn’t the kind of man a woman left behind, and she had no intention of giving up her dream just because a hot guy showed up in her life.

Not even for those
electric green eyes and a body that would make a nun sob for sweet relief.

“Don’t tempt me,” he said softly.

“Don’t ask to be tempted,” she shot back.
Beg for it.

He grinned, all slow and sexy and—

Crash
.

They jerked apart.

“Ah, hell,” he mumbled. “I have a dog now, don’t I?” He rolled to his feet and sprinted out of the room, Rue right behind him.

One
of the barstools parked at the end of the counter was lying over, with Shaggy sitting pitifully at its feet. Above her, the boxes of takeout Ethan had ordered sat in a neat row far back from the edge, still safe for now. “I guess we’re not the only ones who like Chinese,” Rue said.

“Abbie said no people food, so Shaggy can forget it.” He pointed to her food and water dishes, neither of which
was empty. “I’m starving, though, and I can’t touch that cake until we eat, so I say we remove temptation.”

She grinned. “Is it that easy?”

He leaned close—reaching for the food, she realized a beat too late—but he paused before he left her airspace. And he set fire to her libido when he whispered, “Not even close.”

Her breath thoroughly stolen, she just stood, numb, while he
gathered plates and utensils. It must have finally dawned on him that she hadn’t moved because he stopped and gave her a curious look.

His brow furrowed. “What’s wrong?”

“You suck at friendship.” Not what she’d meant to say, but it did suffice.

“Because I stole your dog?” His grin suggested he was toying with her again. Maybe he did have a flaw. He was either teasing or dead-wife
serious. No real middle ground.

But middle ground could be dangerous.

“No.” She sighed. “Well, yes. That was really sweet. You really know how to muddle the waters of a temporary acquaintance.”

He half shrugged. “Honestly? I really didn’t adopt her for you. That was for me.”

She’d known as much—he didn’t seem to be the type to take on a pet because he liked a girl—but nevertheless,
the admission saddened her. And she hated herself for that because Shaggy deserved a loving home and Rue had no doubt she found that with Ethan. She
wanted
that sincerity behind what he’d done. “But you wanted me to know.”

“I thought you might worry if she wasn’t there next time you showed up,” he said dryly.

“You could have texted me.”

“I did.”

Rue threw up her hands.
“You’re being difficult. On purpose.”

“It comes naturally.” He offered an easy grin and leaned back against the counter. Like he was proud of it. Like he knew how irresistibly cute he was and that wasn’t supposed to drive her crazy.

“That doesn’t help,” she shot back.
Not helpful in more ways than one.

He crossed his arms and kicked one foot in front of the other. “Well, then.
Since you’re already irritated, can I ask you something?”

“That segue is worrisome.” Especially since he’d taken the classic defensive arm-crossing position. She leaned to scratch Shaggy, who had wandered over to her, and braced herself.

“Can you explain your hair?”

She laughed. “No.”

He shook his head like he’d given up. “And somehow that does. Explain it, I mean.”

“It’s different,” she said. She lowered her voice and mumbled, “And so I won’t look like a Barbie.”

He nearly dropped the chicken he was pilfering from the takeout box. He caught her staring and asked, “General Tso’s?” When she nodded, he scooped some onto both plates. After a moment, she realized his shoulders were shaking. He was
laughing
.

She glared. “What’s so funny?”

He piled three eggrolls on her plate and handed it to her. “You made a conscious decision not to look like a Barbie. This is amusing.”

She cringed at the memory. Why was she telling him this stuff? “My mom paraded me through pageants until I was thirteen, when I first got a version of this haircut. I did it myself, backstage, right before they announced the winners. That was probably the
only time my mom was utterly mortified that I was crowned princess snot or whatever it was.”

He snort laughed. It was adorable.

“Anyway, she took me to her salon to have it cleaned up. The only person there who would touch it was a new girl, and instead of putting on extensions or whatever my mom expected when she said
fix this
, she styled it. I loved it, and I’ve stuck with variations
of it ever since.”

Laughter danced in his eyes, but there was more there. Maybe respect. Probably fear. Her heart flip-flopped anyway. “You really are a rebel at heart, aren’t you?”

“I rebel against her pretentious insanity. I’m not sure that counts.”

“It counts,” he said. “And your friendship counts. I guess I did need to get back out there, just not in the way everyone wanted.”
His gaze drifted to a spot on the wall that hosted nothing but an empty, freshly painted hook—probably one that had recently held a photo of his wife. When he blinked back to Rue, he said, “Having you here with zero chance of complications and entanglements has been really nice.” He opened the fridge and snagged a beer, then handed her an iced coffee.

She accepted it, stunned. Not just because
he had her favorite drink, but because there was a whole row of them in there.

Who the hell
did
that?

She was still thinking about it two hours later when he insisted on walking her downstairs and paying for a cab. He’d stocked his apartment with her favorite drink.

And he’d adopted her favorite dog.

And then he’d friend-zoned her.

If this was how he did friendship,
she was screwed.

Chapter Eight

The next morning when Ethan walked into work, he wasn’t alone. Shaggy trotted at his heels, a lot less concerned about wearing a harness than Ethan expected. He’d met with Abbie and a vet as part of the whirlwind adoption process, and the vet had confirmed most of the leathery skin was actually scar tissue, probably from some kind of burn, and she wasn’t likely to get
any of the missing hair back. The damage was extensive, but it was old. Shaggy was otherwise in good health and from the looks of things, lucky to be alive.

Sawyer was the first to see the dog. “What the ever-loving fuck is
that
?”

“She’s a dog, you asshole.”

“Boys!”

“Sorry.” Ethan hadn’t seen their mom behind her computer. If he had, he would have watched his language,
but the way he figured, Sawyer deserved it. Besides, it sure as hell wasn’t anything she hadn’t heard before.

“It looks like a skinny hippopotamus.”

Ethan suppressed a laugh. She kind of did look like a skinny hippopotamus, but he wouldn’t give Sawyer the satisfaction of telling him
that
. Fortunately, their mom came over to see the object of their attention. He hadn’t wanted to take
Shaggy away from the staffed shelter to leave her on her own during the day, so before he went back to talk to Abbie about adopting her, he’d run the idea past his mom, who said she’d love to have her in the office while he went out on jobs.

“What do you think?” Sawyer asked her. “A face only a mother could love?”

“This isn’t about you,” Ethan shot back.

Sawyer glared.

“Is she sick?” his mother asked. Ethan had warned her Shaggy had an unconventional look, but even he had to admit that was an understatement.

“No,” he said. “She’s a rescue. Probably burned at some point, but she’s okay now. The vet said she’s healthy.”

His mother knelt to greet the dog, and Shaggy ate it up, leaning into the attention. “Poor baby.”

“Her name is Shaggy.”

Sawyer spit out the coffee he had the misfortune of having lifted to his mouth. “You’re shitting me.”

“Sawyer Chase, I have some dish soap in the back if you can’t watch your language.” She spoke in a quiet, sweet voice—obviously for the dog’s benefit—but left no question about her intent.

“Did you hear him say the dog’s name was
Shaggy
?” Sawyer sputtered.

Ethan rolled his eyes.
“Like she’s the only one to ever exaggerate certain physical attributes.”

“I really don’t need to hear this.” Their mother stood and made an abrupt turn and headed to the back, calling behind her, “I’ll be back here when you’re ready to bring her to me.”

Ethan laughed.

“Seriously,” Sawyer said. “That is one ugly dog. It couldn’t have been love at first sight.”

Ethan helped
himself to a cup of coffee and thought about Rue and her iced coffee addiction. After stocking his fridge back home with her favorite drink, he’d stared long and hard at the bottles. Buying them had been automatic, and he hadn’t realized the implication of doing so until they were lined up neatly in the space next to his beer. Now he thought of her every time he opened his refrigerator. And apparently
when he drank coffee
. Nice going, dummy.
Of Shaggy, he said, “She came from a shelter. No one else was going to adopt her.”

Sawyer’s face twisted as if he smelled something bad. “And you just meandered into a shelter?”

“Not exactly. I volunteered for an evening.” A great evening. One he hadn’t stopped thinking about. He’d like to think he’d have adopted Shaggy no matter what, but the
truth was every time he saw the dog, he remembered laughing like he hadn’t laughed in ages and he needed that as much as Shaggy needed a home.

“
You
volunteered? Doing what?”

Ethan took slight offense to the idea that he wouldn’t do anything, ever. He’d gone out plenty. He just didn’t
date
. “Photographer’s assistant.”

Sawyer’s eyes narrowed. “Isn’t your…girlfriend a photographer?”

“You know she is. A shark-punching, volcano-climbing, sky-diving photographer.” To Ethan’s own ears, the short resume sounded absurd, but when he thought of the way Rue’s eyes shone when she talked about her adventures, he wanted to smile, too. And the best thing about her was she was just as excited about helping the abandoned animals at the local shelter as she was the ones occupying the
far-flung corners of the world. She just found life in everything, which made her an odd match for a man who’d been waylaid by death. Or maybe she wasn’t an odd match…maybe she was the best kind.

As a
friend
.

But either way, it wouldn’t matter for much longer.

“So this is legit?” Sawyer asked. Ethan automatically bristled, but for once Sawyer didn’t sound like he was headed for
a punch line. With him, there was always one around the corner. “I mean, you actually have a girlfriend?”

Ethan sighed. He really didn’t want to go rounds with his brother. Again. He’d been doing it for a long time, ever since Amy’s diagnosis. People had been asking if he was okay for years now, none of them ever believing him if he said he was. Frustrated, he said, “Call it what you want.”

“I thought you were bullshitting us.”

“You
met
her,” Ethan replied, exasperated. And he wasn’t sure why. He’d had his own doubts about pulling off the charade with Rue, but after years of telling him he needed to move on, why couldn’t his family just accept he had and be happy about it?

Because it’s a lie.

Only it wasn’t. Not because his friends-only relationship with Rue
wouldn’t go anywhere, but because in so many ways, it already had. She’d dragged him out of his comfort zone, and while he still had a long way to go, at least now he thought he might get there someday. At least maybe if he found a woman who knew how to sit still.

Sawyer watched him with open curiosity. “That doesn’t mean you didn’t hire her to play a part,” he said.

The accusation
hit a little too close to home, but it pissed off Ethan anyway. “Look, not everyone jumps into bed with someone within hours of meeting them. We’re friends, we’re hanging out, and neither of us is seeing anyone else. I don’t know how you’re looking to define this relationship—
my
relationship, I might point out—but what’s there is real.”

In a deeply uncharacteristic move, Sawyer kept his
mouth shut, at least for a minute. He glanced at Shaggy, then back at Ethan, then shook his head. “You know I’m not the type to give a fuck.”

“I’ve noticed,” Ethan said dryly. “Also, the eloquence of your language.” He eased into the nearest chair, and Shaggy immediately rested her chin on his thigh. He scratched her head, and her tail thumped. When Ethan looked up, he found Sawyer watching
intently. “Want to pet her?”

Sawyer shook his head. “Not really. But seriously, man, I’m happy for you.”

Guilt smacked into Ethan with unrelenting force. Sawyer didn’t know the truth—that he had no reason to be happy for him. No one did. Ethan couldn’t completely undo what he’d started, but he could at least keep it in check. “She’s leaving,” he said quietly.

Sawyer froze in
the middle of pouring himself a refill of coffee, nearly overflowing his cup. He leaned down to take a sip off the top. When he straightened, Shaggy was right in front of him, sniffing his knees. “Is this thing going to eat me?” Sawyer asked.

“No, she probably smells your dog.” Sawyer’s fiancée had a Chihuahua, and much to the amusement of everyone but Sawyer, he was the only person in the
world the dog didn’t like.

“That little rat is not my dog.” As he spoke, he tentatively patted Shaggy on the head. After a couple of seconds, he withdrew and stared at his fingertips. Presumably finding them intact, he knelt and scratched Shaggy behind the ears.

The dog leaned into him. Sawyer took a step back.

“Maybe if you learned Kelsie’s dog’s name,” Ethan said, hiding a
smile, “he wouldn’t gnaw on your ankles.”

“Don’t change the subject. What do you mean, Rue is leaving?”

Ethan shrugged. “She’s up for an internship that starts in a couple of weeks. They’d be crazy not to accept her.”

“And just like that, she’ll be gone?”

Ethan nodded. “Just like that. Hell, you heard her. She doesn’t need an internship to go off grid. She does it because
she loves it.”

“Well, fuck.”

Ethan agreed. And that was dangerous. Even if he thought he could fall in love again, it would never be with someone who took Rue’s kind of risks. There were too many good-byes in that. Too much worrying if one might be tragically final. “It’s not like I’ll never see her again, but…just don’t let Mom get any ideas about things getting serious.”

Sawyer
picked up his coffee. “If it’s not serious—and by the way, knowing you, it almost has to be—then how do you know you’re going to see her again?”

Ethan glanced down at Shaggy and shook his head. “Because I have her goddamned dog.”

…

The day after Rue had dinner at Ethan’s, most of her happy haze was obliterated. She clutched her phone so hard, she thought she’d break it. The grip
was to keep her from throwing it, but she had a feeling throwing it would be a lot more satisfying than having it crack in her hand. “This is not up for discussion,” she told her mother. “I’m not going with Boyd. I don’t care how rich he is or where his connections lead. It’s
his
grandmother’s charity. He doesn’t need me to network.”

“But honey, your father and I do. One of your father’s
business associates—”

“I don’t want to hear it. The associate in question can’t be much of a businessman if he bases his decisions on who I attend the gala with.” And could the stupid thing just be over with already? It was a perfectly gorgeous Saturday afternoon, and she was stuck listening to this same crap, only now instead of dreading it, she was just
mad
.

“Sweetheart, this is
important to your father.”

“Boyd is an arrogant asshole who tried to railroad me into going to that stupid gala.”

“Stupid?” Horror raised her mother’s tone an octave. “They’ll receive millions in donations.”

“And the board will pat themselves on the back and pass around nice big bonuses that won’t ever get around to actually helping the animals.” Rue practically spat the words,
knowing she was being unfair. In reality, according to an independent watchdog, over eighty-five percent of the Von Adler funds went directly to the cause, but that wouldn’t exactly translate into a reason not to listen to her mother. “Boyd has absolutely no respect for me. He doesn’t hear me. Is that what you want? For me to be miserable so dad can bank another million?” These people, her own
family, were unbelievable. No wonder she wanted to get away from them. Far away.

“I think you’re over-reacting.”

Rue looked to the sky. It was hard to believe the blanket of blue that held the smog over the city was the same one the Rocky Mountains touched. That was a quick flight. She could breathe there, then come back in time for the gala. Only there was no Ethan anywhere else,
and for once, the pull to be in New York was greater than the push to get away from her mother.

“I think,” Rue said evenly, “that your precious business deal has a much better shot of going through if I don’t punch the golden boy in his face in front of your posse of benefactors. Have you even asked Dad if his future depends on whether I go out with a man whose refusal to take no for an
answer borders on harassment? I’m betting he’ll say no. Besides, I. Have. A. Date.”

“Oh, honey. Ethan Chase doesn’t date.” There it was, loud and clear. The pity Ethan loathed. And this time she loathed it, too.

“He does now. I’m hanging up. Have a great day.” Rue ended the call over her mother’s protests. Stupid charity. Not that she had anything against the cause, but she hated the
politics that happened behind the scenes. She’d bet half the money they raised was a direct result of the high-brows trying to out jostle one other for the title of most generous. The causes were helped in the end, but the process felt more like middle school than a bunch of grownups with a genuine interest in doing the right thing.

Except Ethan’s family
. And probably quite a few others.
And dammit, she wanted to be one of the ones making a real difference.

She thought of Ethan holding a puppy, and her suggestion that he do a beefcake calendar came back to her with force. She pulled up his name on her phone and swooned. She’d already attached the photo of him and Shaggy to his contact page, and she spent more time looking at it than she should. No reason to deprive the world
of such a sight.

I’m going to pitch Mimi Von Adler about doing a calendar for the Von Adler charity
, she texted.
Want to be my Mr. July?

Shortly after she hit send, his response arrived.

No.

Undeterred, she tried again.

Which month do you want?

No month. Not happening.

Dammit. She
so
wanted him in a calendar, but if she couldn’t have him, she’d make do
with Plan B. Ethan might not know what hit him, but that would probably be the best part about Plan B.

How’s Shaggy?

Lying on her back in a patch of sun.

Huh.

You’re not at work?

Granted, it was Saturday afternoon, but the Chase family would work seven days a week if they were needed.

No,
he replied.
I’m at the park, terrifying small children with the sight
of this dog
.

Rue laughed out loud.

Want to join us? I’ll buy you an iced coffee.

She hesitated long enough for another message to come through.

Two iced coffees?

It was just cruel that this man wasn’t available. Because if someone had asked her to sketch the perfect guy, he’d have an awful lot in common with Ethan Chase.

That’s an offer I can’t refuse
, she replied.
Darn coffee addiction.

He responded with the name of the park within easy walking distance. Closer to her place than his. She wondered why that was, then remembered he and his wife had lived on her street. It was probably somewhere they’d gone together. The thought made her wistful. She was glad she’d met Ethan. Between the anniversary of his wife’s death and Mrs. Angelo’s assault with the
water hose, the circumstances had been a bit lacking, but she and he had connected. That felt good, even if he had her wanting all the wrong things. And he had her wanting them with him, which made them doubly out of reach.