Worth the Chase (8 page)

“We’re doing nothing wrong, Dad. I’m an adult. He’s an adult.” I reminded him, my eyes narrowing in extreme anger. I was humiliated in the worst way. I would never live this down.

The grip he had on his gun told me he thought otherwise and that he was about to show us all exactly what he thought.

“Get out,” he growled at Chase, pointing the gun at him. Inside I was screaming. Begging for an answer to fall into my lap.

“No need to point that thing this way. I’m going,” Chase responded and I shot him a look that I hoped expressed how sorry I was as I watched him leave the room, closing the bedroom door behind him, leaving me with a seething father and a mother who seemed slightly amused by this entire shit storm.

“I don’t see you for months, Gia. Months! Then I travel out here with your mother to find you rolling around the sack with some pretty boy!! Is this what you’ve been doing? Do you need to come back home and get a reality check?” His rage was so evident you could see the flames coming off of him from miles away. Yet, I didn’t care. I was old enough to make my own choices, to do what I wanted, whether that be with Chase or someone else. So instead of stepping away as not to get burned, I moved in closer to the heat, prepared to stand my ground.

“You don’t even know him, yet you’re judging him. You’re judging me and I’m your daughter! You fail to realize we both wanted what happened.” I paused slightly, taking in a shuddering breath. “I’m not a little girl anymore. You have to let me grow up, even if I disappoint you.” The words leave my mouth with ease, making me feel braver than I actually feel. Before I could blink my father crossed the room, his free hand gripping my chin tightly in his hand.

“You will always and I do mean always, be my little girl. Age isn’t a factor to me, Gianna. You’re my daughter, and that’s all that matters.” I can feel tears forming in my eyes. My emotions all over the place, and the fact that I haven’t seen my dad in months did nothing to help the situation.

Dad released me with a sigh of frustration and I hung my head in shame, knowing just how fucked up all of this has just gotten. His hand scrubbed down his face as if he were trying to wipe away all he had just seen, before taking a step closer to me, pressing his lips against my forehead.

“You could never disappoint me, you’re just like her,” he says so quietly I almost miss it.

“Maybe we should give her a few minutes to get herself together.” My mother finally chimes in, giving me a shy smile as she reaches for my father’s arm. There’s a moment of complete silence before my father mutters okay, pulls away from me and leaves with my mother closing the door behind them.

My body is still covered in a sheen of sweat and the smell of sex lingers in the air, causing my insides to burn. Even if my father had ruined what was taking place before it had finished, I still had the memories and the feeling between my legs telling me that it was all real.

I shove from the bed, the sheet still wrapped around me in case my father decided he wanted to come barging in again.

Pushing a stray strand of hair behind my ear, I pick up my clothes from the floor dropping the sheet so I can slip my panties and shorts on.

I find my bag that has my personal items in it and head into the bathroom. I use the toilet, wiping myself with a feminine wipe before washing my hands, applying a new layer of deodorant, spraying myself with my vanilla bean body spray, and patting my dysfunctional hair down.

My thoughts were a jumbled mess, I didn’t want to lie to my father, but I didn’t want him to think that I’m sleeping around with just anyone either.

I open the door, my heart beating out of my chest as I scan the open space of the basement. Laughter and voices come from upstairs and filter through.

I walk out with my head held high, knowing that whatever I’m about to say could set in stone the path we are already on.
Nervously, I tiptoe up the steps and stop just as I make it to the top.

“Gia.” I can hear the sternness of my father’s voice in the way he says my name, and somehow it still has the same effect on me as it did when I was a preteen.

I tuck my tail between my legs and exit the basement, revealing myself.

“I’m an FBI agent. You can’t tip-toe around me.” He smirks, and I roll my eyes as I walk past him and into the kitchen, leaving him to follow me.

Being a part of the FBI has somehow managed to boost his ego, even though my mother tells me he’s always been this way. His mood seems lighter, and as I gaze around the room looking for Chase I notice he’s still missing, but Taylor is sitting at the island next to my mom and Chance across from them. I wipe my hands on my shorts, feeling as if everyone in the room knows my secret as my dad goes to stand behind my mother’s chair.

“Well,” before I can finish my thought Chase comes up behind me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. The feeling is nice, his body is rigid against my own, but the gesture is stiff, telling me he’s not yet comfortable with the display of affection he is showing me in front of my parents.

“I’m sorry that we met under such crazy circumstances, but I’m Chase Winchester.” He greets my parents the proper way they should be greeted, all while pulling me in tighter to his side. I can feel my chest filling with anxiety as I try to figure out my parent’s straight faces.  

“Gia never told us she had a boyfriend.” My father narrows his eyes at Chase. I can tell he doesn’t believe either of us and that in order to pull this off, we had to give him more than that.

“Gia and I have known one another a long time. Our friendship finally grew into something more. It’s a whole new ballpark for the two of us now.” He grins down at me and then to my parents. My stomach feels like it’s on a swaying boat that’s never going to meet the shore.

Silence settles into the room and I wonder if anyone believes the pathetic story we’re telling. Suddenly, my father is moving across the room and not stopping until he’s less than a foot away from Chase’s face. I gauge everyone’s expressions of shock and dismay but see no fear in Chase’s eyes.

My father leans into Chase, and I wonder what’s being said because I can’t hear one single word. His grip on my arm goes slack, his eyes grow large, and a smile forms on his face. This time it’s a real smile, and not one of the fake ones he usually gives.

“Understood?’’ My father questions as he pulls away.

“Got it, sir,” Chase responds, not pissing his pants from the threat I’m sure my dad just gave him.

“I can’t wait to spend more time with all of you, but unfortunately I was only able to get enough time off for the evening, and I wanted to see if Gia wanted to come out to dinner with her mother and I.” He addresses everyone the same way he would his team. I pull away from Chase knowing that things between us have already gone too far. I can’t stand to be this close to him and know that he’s angry because this is nothing more than a show we are putting on.

“I’m ready whenever you are.” I perk up, grabbing my purse from the counter. I catch the look on Taylor’s face, which tells me we are going to have a girl’s night tonight and it won’t be an easy one with all the secrets I have to spill.

My parents say their goodbyes and my dad even gives Chase a hug.

Maybe, just maybe lying wasn’t the right thing to do. Before I fuck things up anymore, I head for the door saying my own goodbyes and closing it.

Just like I should’ve done before.

Fool me once,
shame on you.

Fool me twice,
shame on me.

The shit storm I had decided to stir with Gia King was all my own. Did I have to agree with her, did I have to pretend to be something that I actually wanted to be? You know what was worse? The fact that she didn’t even care that I wasn’t okay with it, or at least she didn’t show it. I didn’t want anything with her to be fake. Which lead me to where I was right this second, with a bottle of whiskey in my hand as I sat in the backyard by the pool. I couldn’t handle being around her, it caused my blood to boil. I wanted to fuck her against the wall and shake her to death at the same time.

“Thank you, for everything…”
 I can still remember her soft voice from that day her parents caught us when she returned from dinner. It had been a month since I had agreed to pretend to be her boyfriend, it had also been the same amount of time since I actually talked to her. If I didn’t have to speak to her, I didn’t, and that alone caused an ache to form in my chest and anger to radiate throughout me.

Alan Jackson’s
Itty Bitty
was blaring through the speakers of the outside surround system when Chance threw himself into one of the patio chairs next to me. He had worry wrinkles on his forehead and was covered in a sheen of sweat.

“When did you turn into a drunken country boy?” he asked, smiling as he grabbed the bottle of whiskey from me, taking his own chug from the bottle.

“I’m not a drunken country boy, I’m a drunken playboy,” I sneered, grabbing the bottle back from him. I wasn’t wasted every night because I still had classes to take during the week, but definitely wouldn’t consider myself sober. I had to drink. It was the only thing that kept me away from her.

“Please, don’t tell me this is all still over Gia.” He didn’t so much ask but assumed which pissed me off.

“Why the fuck would you think that?” I countered back as he shrugged his shoulders as if the answer was right in front of me.

“You haven’t drank this hard since your freshman year, on top of that you’re never home and when you are I’ve found you out here or sleeping on the balcony. If it has to do with her, just tell me, bro. I’ll help you out.” His voice was pleading, telling me that even though he had warned me away from her and this was no one’s fault but my own− he still cared how I felt. Something about that made me understand his concern. We were twins after all, and when it came down to it, we channeled one another’s emotions.

Placing the bottle to my lips, I took another swig letting the whiskey burn a path down to my stomach.

“Chance…” my voice trailed off as my mind spaced out while that day hit me full force.

“I know it wasn’t the most ideal situation, but I wanted to say thanks for having my back with my dad.” She stood at the entrance of my room, looking as if she was afraid to approach me. My heart had taken a beating the second I heard her tell her parents I was her boyfriend.

Lies. We would never be anything more than a lie to them when they did find out the truth, and that pissed me off the most. Add in the fact I had been threatened by her very real FBI agent father and I wasn’t looking forward to when the truth did come out.

“I saved your ass.” The words fell from my lips without hesitation. There were a million other things I wanted to tell her, but what I was feeling right now was not the perfect time to say them.

She smiled at me and my breath stilled, she was beautiful. Like a sunset against the ocean.

“I know, and I wanted you to know that it means a lot to me that you went along with it. I just…” She stopped midsentence looking at me with uncertainty. “I don’t want what happened today to happen again. We need to distance ourselves, we need to be…” I couldn’t say I wasn’t angry because I was, but I couldn’t say that I didn’t expect it. We both had vowed to one time, one chance. One moment. That had already turned into two, and if we didn’t distance ourselves now it would turn into three. I wasn’t good at loving someone. I could care for them, take them in and treat them right, but love… love meant something completely different. It meant being blind to another person. To allowing them into all the small parts that make you who you are. It meant secrets being told, feelings being revealed.

“Just friends?” I finished her sentence for her, already knowing what it was that she was going to say. I could see the sadness in her dark eyes and the hesitation that she felt to step away from the pull we had towards one another.

“Yeah, just friends.” Darkness surrounded me in the most surreal way as I watched her look down at the ground and walk away.

“Chase!!!” Chance’s voice brought me back from the memory, and the anxiety on his face told me that I had seriously scared him.

“You know me, just daydreaming.” I lifted my hand to take another drink but realized it must’ve slipped from my hand in my incoherent state.