Crazy Love - Krista & Chase (5 page)

The sound of the door clicking shut stirred her out of her restful state. Had fifteen minutes already passed and Jamie was coming in to get her? Forcing her eyelids open she saw the outline of a man, not Jamie, in the doorway.

Standing to her feet, she was about to ask if she could help him when the figure took a step towards her and she could clearly make out his face. Her entire body immediately responded to what her eyes saw. Her mouth went dry. She was so dizzy it felt as if the room were spinning. Goose bumps broke out all over her skin. She tried desperately to take in air, but it was as if the wind had been knocked right out of her.

Krista’s voice was barely audible as his name fell from her lips. “Chase.”

* * *

Chase knew that he wasn’t hallucinating. Krista was really here. Standing in front of him. All night, he’d been mentally preparing himself for what it would be like when he saw her again after all these years.

Now he knew the truth—that nothing could have possibly prepared him for the jolt of awareness coursing through him as his eyes scanned down her body. Every cell in his body came to life just being in her presence. His hungry gaze greedily roamed all over her, trying to take her in all at once.

His pants grew tight in response to the curves that he knew lay beneath her loose scrubs. His hands tingled, wanting to reach out and touch her silken skin. As his eyes made their way back up and met hers, he noticed that there were dark circles beneath them.

“Are you okay?” Concern instantly flooded him as he drew closer to her. “You look tired.”

A look of irritation flashed in her blue-green eyes and her back stiffened as she responded with a clipped, “I’m fine.”

Shit.

“I didn’t mean… I was just worri… You look beautiful.” He stumbled over his words as he quickly tried to pull himself out of the hole he’d managed to dig for himself with his unfortunate choice of words. Instead of trying to explain what he knew she already knew, he just said the words he’d wanted to say to her every hour of every day since he’d left Harper’s Crossing, “God, I’ve missed you.”

Krista’s posture was defensive, her tone flatter than a pancake. The only evidence that this reunion was affecting her at all were the tight buds of her nipples that were clearly visible through the thin cotton material of her scrubs and the shallow breaths she had not been able to disguise. Her thick, dark lashes dipped as her gorgeous eyes narrowed. She crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“You can save the charm, rock star.”

“Krista…” His body moved without permission from his brain. He stepped towards her, reaching out his hand, but she took a step back just as the door opened.

Chase turned his head, looking over his shoulder to see a brunette nurse coming in through the doorway, backlit by the bright fluorescent lighting in the hallway.

“Oh, good. You’re up. I was just making sure.”

The young nurse smiled sweetly at Krista. Her eyes traveled up to his as she turned to leave, but then she didn’t just do a double take, but a triple take. Chase saw the moment that she recognized him. It was something he was used to by now. Sometimes he even counted it down in his head.
Five, four, three, two, and there it is… They know.

Luckily, this nurse did not make a big deal about it and was actually already headed back out the door when Krista stopped her by making introductions.

“Jamie, this is Abby’s son.” Then, turning to Chase, Krista said, “This is Alex’s wife Jamie.”

A smile instantly spread across Chase’s face. Alex Sloan had been the closest thing Chase had ever had to a best friend. Chase reached out his hand. “It’s so nice to meet you, Jamie. I’m Chase.”

She shook his hand as she tilted her head with a knowing expression. “Yeah, I knew that.”

Chase had only just met this girl, but he liked her. Over the years, after meeting thousands of people, Chase considered himself a fairly good judge of character. Not only was this girl beautiful, but she didn’t play games. Alex was a lucky man, and he was happy that his friend had found someone like Jamie.

Releasing her hand, Chase realized he had already been here for a few minutes but had been so sidetracked by seeing Krista, he hadn’t even asked how his mom was doing. He’d merely glanced in her direction when he’d first entered the room.

“How is she?” Chase asked quietly, turning to look at his mom.

As he took his first real look at her, he immediately noted that she looked frail, fragile. His mom had always had a slender frame. Whenever she had been under the weather or ‘not feeling well’—usually at the hand of his father—her fair skin and dark hair had always magnified her pale appearance. This time was no different.

“She is doing much better. She woke up around five thirty and was asking for pudding. Let me go check and see if I can grab a doctor to give you an update.” Jamie opened the door but then pivoted back and lifted her hand in a wave. “It was nice meeting you, Chase.”

“You too. Tell Alex I’d love to grab a beer with him while I’m in town.”

“I will.” With that, Jamie was out the door, closing it quietly behind her. Chase turned back to Krista.

When he did, she asked in complete monotone, “How long are you planning on being in town?”

It might very well have been over a decade since he’d laid eyes on Krista, but Chase knew her. He knew her tells. He knew her tricks. He knew when she was trying to hide the way she really felt, and he knew when she was being totally honest and raw.

Right now, she was trying desperately to camouflage her reaction to him. His first instinct was to call her on it. That was what they did. They called each other on their bullshit. But things were different now. They weren’t an ‘us.’ They were just Krista and Chase. Separate people leading separate lives.

“I don’t know. I haven’t really made any plans yet. After I got your messages last night, I drove straight here.”

Krista’s left eyebrow rose in challenge. “
You
drove straight here.”

Okay, so maybe they did still call each other out after all. “Chip drove the bus here,” Chase clarified, and he saw Krista’s lips tug at the corners of her mouth.

She’d always
loved
to be right. It was probably her favorite thing, next to winning.

“So you
did
get my messages? Good to know.” Krista pursed her lips as she began to move around him.

On instinct, he reached out and wrapped his fingers around her delicate wrist. The moment his skin touched hers, heat unlike he’d felt in years spread through his body. He’d had every intention of speaking before his hand had made contact with her, but now he was having a hard time remembering his name.

He froze, overwhelmed by the sensations crashing over him like waves. His breathing became choppy as his eyes lifted to meet hers. He saw it there in her green-blue eyes—she felt it too. Her eyes widened and the dark circles of her pupils grew larger.

“Damn,” he whispered reverently.

That’s how it had always been between him and Krista. Their insane chemistry had been combustible. As a teen, it had scared the crap out of Chase. He’d wanted her so bad it had felt like he would die without her. Now, as an adult, he knew that he
could
survive without her touch, without her smile, without her laugh, but it wasn’t really living.

Loud voices from the hall burst the bubble that had formed around them and Krista pulled out of his grasp. Tucking a stray strand of her golden-red hair behind her ear, she said in a raspy tone, “I have to get back to work.”

She moved with lightning-fast quickness to the door.

“Krista.” His voice was thick with raw emotion as he spoke her name.

Pausing as her hand still held the doorknob, she stood perfectly still, her back facing him.

He knew he had a matter of seconds before she was out that door. He needed to say something, anything. For years, he’d thought about what he would say to Krista when he saw her again. He’d thought of a thousand different poetic things he could tell her. Asking her if she was okay and telling her that she looked tired had not ever been in the running as possibilities.

Now that they were actually in the same room, none of the things he’d wanted to tell her were in his mind. He opened his mouth and, as it was apparently becoming a habit, spoke before he knew what he was going to say.

“It was good seeing you again.”

He saw her shoulders pull and her back straighten as her body stiffened. Without saying a word, she opened the door, and just like that, she was gone. After several moments of staring at the space she’d just occupied, Chase moved to sit in the chair beside his mom’s bed. The material squeaked as he sat.

Last night, he hadn’t slept at all on the drive to Illinois. He’d tried, but there was just too much running through his mind. A lot of the things he’d feared-slash-expected to feel coming back here, he actually wasn’t feeling. In fact, the moment he’d stepped off the bus in the hospital parking lot, he’d felt an odd sense of peace. Like this was exactly where he was supposed to be. Home.

P
ull yourself together
.

Krista’s jaw tightened as she watched her trembling hand press the clear button on the elevator panel with the number two on it. She couldn’t believe that what had just happened had really happened. Krista knew that she must have continued breathing while she’d been in the small hospital room with Chase, but she honestly could not remember taking a single breath of air while she had been in his presence in the confined space. Her chest was tight and achy. Even now, she was having a difficult time moving oxygen down into her lungs.

Over the years, whenever she’d thought about seeing Chase again, she’d imagined three distinct scenarios. She would either A. give him a piece of her mind, B. totally ignore him, or C. congratulate him on his success, wish him the best, and then casually catch up as though he hadn’t ripped her heart out and stomped on it.

Even though the past few minutes were a blur, she really did not believe that she’d managed to pull off any of her three pre-planned responses. When she’d seen him, she’d been so floored by the fact that his sex appeal had been magnified by about a thousand percent. And that was saying something because he’d
always
been sexy.

Even in elementary school, Krista had gotten butterflies whenever she’d seen him in the hallways. When he’d performed in the musical
Grease
with her sister Haley, Krista had gone to every rehearsal after school and sat in the front row. If she closed her eyes, she could still see him up on that stage with his black leather jacket. She had only been a third grader at the time, but Krista had fallen in love somewhere during those months of rehearsals.

Krista felt a buzzing on her hip. Checking her pager, she saw that her next patient was waiting for her. Okay, she had to clear her mind and focus on work. She could not allow the fact that Chase Malone was in the building to throw her off her game.

Work. That was what she needed to focus on. Not the fact that Chase was filling out the black t-shirt in all the right places. Or the fact that, when their had eyes met, it was as if the energy between them had defied space and time, feeling like no time at all had passed since they’d seen each other last. And she
definitely
did not need to be focusing on the fact that the moment Chase had touched her, her body had filled with a volcano-like eruption of sensation—tingles, desire, need—all flowing through her in a heated rush.

Chase had always had that effect on Krista. Her body had always responded to his like he was electrically charged. The heat they’d shared was more than just attraction. It couldn’t be explained by pheromones. It was different. Deeper. Krista had never been able to put it into words or explain it. It was soulful. Visceral. Primal.

When she was younger, she’d loved it. It had been hot. But what she hadn’t fully understood then was that when you played with fire, nine times out of ten, you got burned, and those scars did not heal easily. That was a lesson she’d learned only after Chase had left. After it was too late—after she’d been burned.