The Bachelor, the Baby and the Beauty. Victoria Pade
him away,” she went on. “You backed him up against the wall and got in his face and told him if he ever came near me again he’d have you to answer to …”
And her eyes were filling with tears? She’d thought she was so far past that. Where had tears come from?
She blinked them away and took a breath so she could finish, still unable to look up.
“I owe you for all that,” she said in a voice that was softer than it had been.
“It was nothing,” Chase said almost as softly and with a note in his voice that made her think he understood how hard things had been for her. Some, anyway.
She swallowed back the old emotions and finally managed to pull her head up, to meet his eyes again. “Well, this will be nothing, too,” she claimed. “And then we’ll be even—nothing for nothing.”
He smiled at that, a tender smile as those blue eyes searched her face. He continued to study her for a moment, shaking his head at her.
Her hair had fallen forward and when she’d raised her head again, one strand hadn’t gone back into place. Chase used a single index finger to smooth that strand away from the corner of her eye and the bare brush of his finger against her skin renewed those goose bumps from earlier.
But more than that, as she stood there, looking up into the face she’d filled so many lonely hours picturing in her mind, she flashed to another of her frequent fantasies from when she was a girl—the fantasy of Chase standing with her in a doorway like this, saying good-night. The fantasy of him kissing her …
Which was not going to happen.
Which she didn’t want to happen.
And yet when it ran through her mind her gaze fastened on his mouth and she couldn’t help wondering what it might actually be like if he did …
But in the same way that to Hadley the very idea of dancing with him had been momentous while to him it had been commonplace—Hadley knew it wasn’t kissing that was on Chase’s mind. And that was confirmed when he said, “I’ll still beat the hell out of Hatcher if he comes anywhere near you.”
Hadley knew he was joking to ease the tension and she appreciated it.
She dragged her focus from his lips to his eyes once more.
“Thanks,” she said blithely to help in that attempt to lighten things.
“And on that note, I’ll let you go and get some practice taking care of Tia so you’ll be warmed up for the real test tomorrow,” Chase said, turning to face the steps rather than her.
But before he went any farther, he glanced over his shoulder at her once more and said, “It’s good to see you again, Had. I’m glad to have you onboard all the way around.”
“Thanks,” she whispered as he went down the stairs.
And that was when she had to admit to herself that no matter what she told Logan, no matter what she told herself, she did have a soft spot for Chase Mackey. That she probably always had. That she probably always would.
She just wasn’t going to do anything about it.
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