Ready to Love Again (Sweet Romance #2) (14 page)

It seemed I couldn’t make Lexi feel better about that night so I changed the subject.

“My best friend Justine has just come to town, is there anything we can do around here for fun?”

“Well, there’s the local cinema, the shopping centre, bowling…Not much excitement to be had, I guess. There’s a karaoke bar in town, if either of you enjoy listening to people singing out of key.”

“Hmm…I guess we could go bowling. Maybe you fancy coming along?”

“That would be good, thanks.”

A smile lit up Lexi’s face and I couldn’t help but reflect her. It’s always good to have something to smile about. Goodness knows I hadn’t had all that much in that department lately.

After coffee with Lexi, I got to work on some emails about potential acquisitions. I had read some great books recently and I hoped to get the authors to sign with Emerging Butterfly.

***

One long afternoon later and I was ready to go home and see what Justine had been up to. I could really use some girlie time. It was my own doing, the fact that we hadn’t done anything together lately. Now that she was here, I wanted to show her a good time because I didn’t know when I’d get to do it again. Living so far apart, she wouldn’t be able to come and see me very often. Of course, Gage and the boys were welcome to come with her any time she came, but that limited it to school holidays.

I got home and was greeted by a sparkling clea
n—
but still a shithole—bedsit. The aromas assaulting my nose were that of good old home-cooking. Justine had a smile on her face that could brighten anyone’s day. I grabbed her in a firm hug and kissed her on the cheek.

“A girl could get used to coming home to this!” I nodded at the set table.

There was a bottle of red wine, opened to breathe. I could only assume that we were eating red meat because that’s the only time my bestie drinks red. She’s normally a Rose girl.

“Well, don’t get too used to it, I have to go home sometime you know, the boys would miss me. I bet while I’m gone Gage is letting them get their own way with everything. You know I’m the disciplinarian of the family.”

I couldn’t help but crack up laughing. Neither she nor Gage were overly strict with their boys. Cadan and Phoenix were as good as any kids could be. Justine was in stitches beside me as she tried to pour us a glass of wine.

As we ate her delicious beef bourguignon and drank the decent wine she’d managed to find when she went shopping, she told me about her day. She’d been shopping—obviously, otherwise there’d be no food—and she had bought plenty of cleaning supplies. She had then set about putting the food on to cook while she cleaned. I couldn’t help but smile at my truly beautiful, amazing friend. She was one of the most awesome people I knew.

We relaxed with another glass or two of wine as I told her about my day. I told her about Lexi’s suggestion to go bowling and she agreed it sounded like fun.

Chapter Eighteen

The rest of the week was so much fun. We watched cheesy films and ate buttered popcorn, we gave each other mani-pedis and we drank plenty of wine. I wouldn’t normally drink so much during the week, but it was a one-off, so I didn’t worry too much over it.

I didn’t bring up the subject of Chase, never sensing the right moment to tell her. Not that there would be a right time, per se, I just couldn’t bring myself to broach the subject. Ethan’s death had been a struggle for everyone to cope with, including Justine and Gage. We had known that ALS would do some awful things to his body, but none of us had been prepared for him to take his own life.

Friday night came and though it was normally my night in with Clark, he told me to make the most of having Justine with me. They’d met each other earlier in the week and she approved of him being my friend. They had the same sort of sense of humour and it made me happy to see my two friends get along so well.

I volunteered to be the designated driver, but Justine and Lexi wouldn’t hear of it. In the end, we got a cab to the Bowl-O-Rama. We were just putting our bowling shoes on when I heard that unmistakable, if only slight, Brazilian accent. I tried to hide my face by bending over to lace up my shoes, but Lexi shouted his name and waved. Great. Now to introduce my best friend to the one man I hadn’t wanted her to ever find out about.

“Justine, this is Chase,” I said as he came over with his friends.

“Justine, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Chase proffered his hand to her and she shook it as she grinned at him. She might be married, but she wasn’t invulnerable to Chase’s dazzling smile, nobody was.

“How about we make this a boys versus girls thing?” Lexi piped up.

“Care to place a bet on it, honey?” A friend of Chase’s smiled at Lexi. You could see his eyes were bugging out of his head as he looked her over thoroughly.

“Hells yeah!” she replied too readily.

I really did not want to do this. I felt a little suffocated.

“Umm…” I struggled to swallow. “Wasn’t it supposed to be girls’ night out?”

“Yeah but this could be a giggle,” Lexi purred as she thoroughly eye-fucked the good looking guy.

“Yeah, Lys, lighten up. It doesn’t have to be the whole night, it can be just one game,” Justine chimed in.

Great. Even my bestie was agreeing. She was supposed to side with me, not Lexi and three strange guys.

I grudgingly put a plastic smile on my face and stood with the girls, ready to take on our opponents.

***

The first match went to our opponents, so the boys asked if we wanted to go for the best of three matches. Of course, Lexi agreed because she was busy flirting with Caine, the guy she had been eye-fucking since the moment he walked in.

Justine was up for it too, so I had no choice but to fall in line with my friends and agree.

The boys were quite a rowdy bunch, considering there was only three of them. They were drinking and flirting with us and the girls were lapping it up. Justine may just be mortified in the morning, but that was her lookout. She and Gage were happy, so she wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardise that, but she’s an outrageous flirt when she’s had a few drinks. Tonight, she’d had more than a few. We’d consumed a bottle of wine before we left, as well as the shots that Lexi came brandishing at us and calling us chickens if we didn’t have a few.

Chase was in top form tonight. He looked gorgeous in black jeans and a grey button down shirt that made his muscular body look truly mouth-watering. Every time he was up to bowl, my eyes couldn’t help but leisurely look him over when he bent down. God, he had a great ass! He had been chatting to me and we had gotten a few looks of bewilderment from Justine. Of course, I hadn’t told her about him before tonight and now she knew he was a work colleague, she thought that was all there was to it. If only I could tell her just how wrong she was. But I couldn’t tell her, wouldn’t tell her. There’s a reason I call her Phylis, she’s a philistine, and she wouldn’t understand that it was just a bit of harmless fun.

I wasn’t looking for anything serious with Chase. How could I? Ethan’s still the only man in my heart, I don’t have room for another. Nobody said anything about falling for each other, but if I felt even a twinge of something for him other than lust and great sex, I had promised myself I would walk away.

I looked over at Chase. He was up to bowl and I watched as he bent down with the purpose of showing me his ass. I ogled him as his lean, muscular form bent over the ball and his toned arm came back, ready to let the ball fly.

There was much yelling and high fiving from the lads as Chase bowled a strike.

I caught Chase’s eye and he winked at me. My heart fluttered a little in my chest and as I watched him take a long, slow perusal of my body as I got up to bowl, there was a warmth that ran through me. I strode with purpose to retrieve my ball and I wiggled my ass a little as I took my position. With the warmth of Chase’s stare causing goose bumps to break out on my skin, I let the ball fly and couldn’t help but feel victorious when I too bowled a strike.

Lexi got up to high five me and bumped my hip with hers.

“Well done, girl, we could still win this!” she exclaimed as she started towards the bar for another round.

Caine joined her after watching her ass as she walked by him. They talked in hushed tones as they moved further away from us. I wasn’t one hundred per cent sure what was going on between them, but they don’t call Lexi a man-eater for nothing. She always got her man. In fact, it seemed she always got just about anything she wanted. I’m sure someone would find a unicorn just for her if she asked.

I sat by Justine as the other guy of the group, Daniel, got up to take his turn. I turned my attention to my best friend and she had a look on her face that said I was in trouble. She wouldn’t say anything in front of people, because she wasn’t one for airing dirty laundry in public, but she would let me have it both barrels behind closed doors. I couldn’t figure out what I had done to deserve such a murderous stare, so I just took my drink in hand and sipped through the bendy straw, watching Daniel come up empty as he threw a gutter ball.

When the second game of the night was won by the girls, the boys didn’t look too happy. Now the final game meant it was all to play for.

***

After winning the third game, the boys were high-fiving each other and cat-calling us for losing.

“You know, we never did agree on what we were betting,” Caine piped up.

“Didn’t we?” Lexi purred, looking like she’d bet him money or anything else he wanted.

“No. We agreed a bet, but never specified what the winning team would get,” Caine smiled at her and lapped up all the attention he was getting as she ran her hand up and down his arm.

“Well, I think it’s the winner’s prerogative to now decide what exactly we won!” Chase chimed in with a mega-watt smile.

That dimple of his simply had me melting in a puddle, but I had to hold myself together with Justine watching. Something was a bit off about her now the game was over but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Sounds like a plan,” Caine replied as he huddled the lads together, I’m assuming to decide what it is they wanted.

After a hushed conversation, Chase looked over at the three of us girls and smiled a little devilishly. He was up to something, there was a naughtiness alight in his eyes.

“We want you girls to come clubbing with us,” Chase said as he looked over the small group. “But obviously, as we aren’t really dressed for that, it means going home and getting changed. We can meet you at Club Scarlett in an hour.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Lexi agreed on our behalf.

I didn’t really feel like going clubbing, but I didn’t want to spoil her night. Nor did I want to leave her alone with them. Even though I was sure the boys would take good care of her, I’m not the kind of person who allows a friend to go out alone. She needed back-up and tonight, that was me and Justine.

“Great, we’ll see you there.” Caine beamed a smile at her that could’ve split his face.

“You girls haven’t said much,” Chase said as he sidled up to me.

“We’ll be there, Chase.”

We looked in Justine’s direction—she smiled and nodded her agreement.

***

An hour and fifteen minutes later, we were outside the doors of Club Scarlett, queued up behind lots of younger women in skimpier clothing—if you could call some of it clothing, considering it looked more like something one might floss their teeth with.

We were late and freezing our asses off. I wondered where the boys were, but didn’t have to ponder that for long as I saw them in the distance, walking toward us.

Caine strolled up and put an arm round Lexi to help her stave off the cold a little. Daniel stood with his hands in his pockets, blowing out a breath you could see misting in the cold. Chase offered me his jacket and I gladly took it, mentally chastising myself for having chosen to come without one.

“May I just say, you ladies look amazing,” Chase said.

“Thank you,” Lexi replied, smiling as she snuggled closer to Caine—I suspected more out of flirting than actually being cold.

I rolled my eyes at her both because she had assumed Chase was talking to her and because she was flirting with Caine.

We watched the queue go down gradually and thankfully fifteen minutes later, we were stepping inside the club.

“Were you girls waiting long before we arrived?” Daniel asked.

“Not really. We were running a little late ourselves,” I replied as I handed the girl at the counter our fee to get in.

Caine paid the attendant too and we stepped inside as an instrumental version of “Rather Be” began to play.

“I love this song,” Lexi said as she pulled Caine straight to the dance floor.

“How about you girls, you fancy dancing?” Chase called over the music.

“Not to this, no. Maybe when something better comes on,” Justine answered as she took my hand and led me to the bar.

We had all had another glass or two of wine back at mine as we got changed, so we didn’t really need much more before we could officially say we were drunk.

“We’ll take two bottles of water please,” Justine told the bartender.

“Here, I’ll get these,” Chase offered as he leaned over to tell the bartender his order.

Another song I wasn’t too enamoured with came on and I was wondering why we’d even agreed to come here. I’d rather listen to my iPod, at least it’s all music I actually enjoy.

I could see Lexi in the distance with Caine. She seemed to be twerking. Damn, we couldn’t take this girl anywhere. Blame it on the alcohol or her complete lack of inhibitions even when she’s sober. I pointed her out to Justine, who cracked up laughing, spraying a little of the water she had just taken a sip of.

Chase and Daniel walked round with us to try and find somewhere to sit. After a few minutes, we finally found an unoccupied booth and settled ourselves in. We had a prime view of the dance floor and could see Lexi wasn’t the only woman letting her hair down.

I sat next to Chase as I sipped my water and watched the crowd dancing, completely surrendering themselves to the music. I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it, but it felt like Chase was watching me instead of looking at Daniel as they spoke in hushed tones.

All of a sudden, Daniel grabbed Justine’s hand and Chase grabbed mine. They pulled us to the dance floor. The DJ was playing “Wrapped Up” and Justine flashed me a grimace as we made our way over to small part of the dance floor that was unoccupied by sweaty bodies.

Chase took both my hands in his and twirled me around. As I spun, hands made their way to my waist and gently guided me to dance to the rhythm. The music changed and I let the rhythm take me over as I danced—maybe a little sensually for Chase’s eyes—to “Animals”. My hips swayed and I felt eyes set my exposed flesh on fire as he watched my every move.

It felt like forever before the song ended and I made my way back to our booth. Chase followed close behind me and took his seat next to me. Justine was still dancing with Daniel as another Maroon 5 tune played. She wouldn’t move from that spot while her favourite band were on. She and Daniel danced a polite distance apart, after all, she’s a married woman—very happily at that.

“You look hot as all hell in that outfit,” Chase whispered in my ear as he placed a series of soft, spine-tingling kisses down the side of my neck.

“Chase,” I whispered, “we can’t do that kind of thing here.”

His soft lips captured mine in a sweet kiss. I inhaled deeply and momentarily lost myself in the mixture of his cologne and the alcohol on his breath before I came to my senses and pulled away.

“Chase!” I pushed slightly away from him, this was way too public and way too close to Justine for my liking.