Reunion Pass: An Eternity Springs novel (7 page)

For a long moment, the only sound to be heard in the room was the crackling of the fire.

“Okay, you’re right. My ‘moment’ was better than yours. That was a frightening afternoon.”

Chase dropped his head back and stared up toward the ceiling. “What happened to us, Lori? Why wasn’t love enough?”

It took a long time for her to answer. “Sometimes, that’s just the way it is, I guess.”

“That’s no answer.”

Lori stretched to set her mug down on a coaster lying on the end table beside her chair. “It’s the only one I’ve got, and frankly, I don’t know that it matters at this point. You’re getting married next month and—”

“The wedding’s off.”

Her mug rattled against the table. “Uh…”

“Not permanently,” he continued. “We’re delaying it. A work thing has come up.”

“You’re delaying your wedding because of work?”

The judgment in her tone put Chase’s back up. “You sound like my mother.”

He set his glass down hard, shoved to his feet, and began to pace, to rant, giving voice to the words that had been piling up on him throughout the evening. “I love my mom and dad, and I hate more than anything to disappoint them, but I am who I am. They taught me to be bold. They taught me to reach for what I want. They can’t complain when I do it. My mom shouldn’t cry!”

“You made your mother cry?”

Chase raked his fingers through his hair and shied away from both the question and the memory. “So I live life on the edge, but you know what? It’s damned thrilling. I love it! I love doing what I do and seeing new places and meeting new people and experiencing new things. Bad things can happen to a person in Eternity Springs, too, you know. I could get attacked by a bear walking from the garage to the house. I could have a tire blow at the wrong time and go plunging off the side of a mountain. Hell, I could slip on ice and crack my head open on the way into church on Sunday morning. I don’t have to be overseas to encounter a dangerous situation. I don’t want to look back in twenty years and regret not taking advantage of the opportunities that came my way. It’s Hidden River Gorge. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime ride. I can be bored and boring when I’m old!”

Lori held up her hand. “Wait a minute. Do I have this right? You postponed your wedding in order to go river rafting? And your bride is okay with it?”

“She’s the star of the show. Of course she’s okay with it.”

“Wow. Just wow.” She stared at him for a long moment as though he were a puzzle piece she couldn’t figure out. Or maybe a bug. A bug in her oatmeal. Her cold oatmeal. Finally, she said, “Wow. I think I’ve figured it out.”

“Figured what out?”

“The answer to your question.”

“What question?”

“About what happened to us. Why love wasn’t enough.”

He shot her a bleary, wary look and waited.

Lori unfolded her legs from the chair and rose. She picked up her mug of milk. “It’s like this, Chase. I love margaritas, but tequila gives me heartburn. I love bacon, but it clogs my arteries. I loved you, but you were no better for me than tequila and bacon.”

“The romance of that statement overwhelms me.”

“It’s the truth of the statement that’s important. When it came to the kind of life we wanted to live, we didn’t see eye to eye.”

“But we felt heart to heart,” he fired back. “That should have conquered everything.”

“They call it reality TV, but there is nothing real life about it. You aren’t the Bachelor. I’m not the Bachelorette. We are Chase and Lori who needed something from each other that we weren’t able to give and remain true to ourselves. That doesn’t make one of us right and the other wrong. It’s that we weren’t right for each other.”

She crossed the room to him and took his hand. “I’m glad we had this talk. It’s been long overdue.” She went up on her tiptoes to press a quick, bittersweet kiss against his cheek. “I wish you much happiness, my friend. The people who love you understand you were born to run—after all, your parents named you Chase, right? How apt was that? So go ride your white water. Reach for your stars. Chase your dreams.”

Dreams, hell. Bitterness churned in his gut as Chase watched her climb the stairs. Once upon a time she’d been his dream.
It’s too damned bad, Glitterbug. For a lover of animals, it’s too damned bad you didn’t appreciate the appeal of wings.

*   *   *

Back in Caitlin Timberlake’s bed, Lori heard Chase come upstairs and the door across the hall open and shut. As she drifted toward sleep, she reflected on the events of the previous half hour. The conversation with Chase had been long overdue.

Their never-official breakup had left a laceration on her heart that had never healed, but the words spoken tonight had applied a balm to the wound—a special, Eternity Springs balm. Eternity Springs–sporin.
If I could figure out how to bottle it, I’d make a billion dollars.

Maybe now she could finally let go and move on with her love life with a whole heart. Without a hole in her heart.
You’re getting loopy, Lori. You need to get back to sleep. Need to get your beauty sleep.

Smiling
,
she snuggled down into the covers. Maybe she’d have a really good dream. Dream about her Bachelor. Her prince. Maybe her Brick? Could she find room in her heart for the studly cowboy to be something more than a friend, after all?

Lori drifted off to sleep with a lightness of heart she’d not experienced in ages. She slept in and awoke mid-morning to sunshine, the aroma of fresh coffee, and roads that were open.

And the news that Chase was already gone.

Chapter Five

VALENTINE’S DAY
BELLA VITA ISLE

Chase pressed a gentle kiss against his sleeping fiancée’s naked shoulder and rolled from the bed. He pulled on his boxer shorts, opened the bedroom’s French doors, and stepped barefoot out onto the verandah overlooking the turquoise waters of the Caribbean.

Below, the surf roared and frothed and foamed as it rolled onto the sandy beach. On the horizon, the setting sun painted cotton-candy clouds against a cerulean sky. Ordinarily such sights and sounds on the heels of sun, sand, and afternoon sex soothed his soul. Today, he found no peace within himself. He wasn’t exactly sure why.

Maybe because today was supposed to have been his wedding day? Because the woman even now asleep in his bed had made absolutely no acknowledgment of the fact, much less expressed any regret at what had turned out to be an unnecessary postponement?

He grasped the balcony as resentment slithered through him. Immediately, he regretted the emotion. It wasn’t Lana’s fault that the team had experienced one delay after another for the past month. Preparing for a shoot like this one was a tremendous amount of work, and both he and Lana were doing the jobs of three people. Logistics were a nightmare. Personnel, a headache. Throw in the departure of two producers and it’s no wonder they did more arguing these days than making love.

Chase was glad he’d insisted they take the weekend getaway. They’d needed the break from contract negotiations and phone calls and complaints. They’d needed some couple time. Badly. Things had been rocky between them ever since he’d returned from his visit to Eternity Springs.

He wasn’t exactly sure why. He’d left Colorado tired and hungover, at odds with his parents and haunted by the late-night exchange with Lori. He’d arrived in New York with a chip on his shoulder and acid in his gut, needing reassurance about the choices he had made. Over a month later, the doubts continued to plague him. Why?

Because postponing the wedding shouldn’t have been such an easy call? Because she canceled hair and nail appointments with more regret?

Because the memory of forest-green eyes wouldn’t die?

Don’t go there. You’re with Lana now. You love Lana. You’re going to marry Lana.

“Someday,” he murmured.

“What a gorgeous view,” observed the feminine voice behind him.

Chase glanced over his shoulder to see Lana sitting up in bed, the sheet pooled at her waist. “It’s a pretty sunset.”

“I’m not talking about the sky, darling.”

He turned around, turning his back on both the Caribbean and his malaise. “The view’s not bad from here, either.”

She did take a man’s breath away. Her devotion to her exercise routine combined with the physical rigors of the Thrillseekers, Inc., work kept her body toned and taut and looking a good ten years younger than her actual age.

Chase appreciated beauty as much as the next guy, but what had hooked him was her spirit. Always ready for a dare. Always game for adventure. She didn’t just keep up with him. She ordinarily stayed ahead of him.

She rolled out of bed, scooped up his shirt from the floor, and slipped into it. “That was a glorious nap. Did you sleep?”

“A little.”

“Good.” She joined him on the verandah and gave him a quick hug. “This was a good idea, Chase. I’m glad you talked me into this trip.”

“I do have good ideas from time to time. Which reminds me. Flynn Brogan told me about a shipwreck about an hour offshore that makes a great half-day dive. I thought I might set something up for tomorrow morning. Sound good?”

“It sounds fabulous.”

“Excellent.”

She gave him a slow once-over, then her lips spread with a salacious smile. “Yes, you are. You absolutely are.” She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her perfect breasts against his back. “So excellent, in fact, that I think we should postpone our dinner reservations.”

You’re all about postponing.
The bitter thought flashed before he could stop it. Annoyed with himself, he smoothly turned and swooped her up into his arms and carried her toward the bed. “Have you ever known me to turn down sex?”

“Never,” she said on a sigh as he laid her upon the mattress. “That’s one of the many things I love about you.”

He knelt, straddling her hips, and trailed his finger down the valley between her breasts, making her shiver. He knew just what to do to make her body hum. Knew exactly what it took to make her scream. He bent himself to task, but before he’d coaxed so much as a whimper from her lips, her cell phone rang. “Ignore it,” he demanded when she reached toward the bedside table where it lay.

“I can’t.” She checked the number. “It’s Amanda.”

Her agent. Chase bit back a curse and rolled off her. As she launched into a conversation with obviously the most important person in her life, he pulled on his shorts, grabbed his running shoes, and quit the room. If Lana even noticed that he’d left, he couldn’t tell.

Chase went for a long run on the beach, and when his legs began to give out, dove into the surf and swam until physical exertion finally drained his anger and frustration. He emerged from the water to find her waiting for him. She handed him a towel. “I’m sorry, Chase. That was poorly done of me. I should have let the call go to voice mail.”

He wiped his face and torso with the towel, nodded an acceptance of her apology, and tried to let go of his resentment. He only partially succeeded. His emotions were in turmoil. “What did Amanda want that couldn’t wait until next week?”

Lana hesitated before speaking with obvious reluctance. “She wanted to know where we’re having dinner. There’s a rumor that a royal yacht might pull into port here, so photographers are on the island.”

That bit of news didn’t improve his mood one bit. Being stalked by the paparazzi and, in instances like this, courting them, was one of the things he hated most about being with Lana. “This is supposed to be a private trip.”

“I know and I didn’t tell her where we’ll be tonight. However, since we will be out of the public eye for months while we are filming, it would be foolish to pass up this opportunity completely. I told her to set up a photo op in the market tomorrow afternoon.”

Chase shot her a hard look.

“Just stop it,” Lana snapped. “It’s good for the show.”

“Heaven forbid we do anything in life that isn’t connected with the show.” He slung the towel over his shoulder. “Is that why you said you’d marry me? Thought a little romance would boost the ratings?”

She sucked in her breath. “That’s a horrible thing to say. I love you, Chase.”

“Do you? Do you really?” He grabbed hold of her hand and asked the question that had been churning in his gut all day. “Then why didn’t we get married today?”

Confusion clouded her eyes and she pulled away from him. “You wanted to get married on Bella Vita Isle?”

“I wanted to get married in Eternity Springs!”

“I know.” A confused smile fluttered on her lips. “I wanted to do that, too.”

“Did you? Did you really? Do you know what today is, Lana?”

“We already exchanged Valentine’s Day gifts.”

“We were supposed to exchange vows!”

“Come on, Chase. Be fair. When we canceled the wedding neither one of us thought that we’d still be Stateside on Valentine’s Day. Is that what’s been eating at you for the past month? You’re upset that we canceled the wedding?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know.”

Damn, he was so confused. He felt like an idiot or a petulant child or both, and that embarrassed him. “It bothers me that it was such an easy decision for us. What does that say about our commitment to the marriage?”

Lana touched his arm. “Chase, I committed to you when we moved in together. I’ve told you all along that I don’t need a piece of paper and a ceremony to be committed.”

He resisted the urge to shake off her touch. “I do.”

“I know you do. And that’s why we decided to get married in Eternity Springs in front of your friends and family. You know, for a man who thrives on adventure, you can be very traditional.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “And what’s the matter with that?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all. But two failed marriages taught me that I’m not a traditional person, and trying to pretend otherwise is a colossal mistake. You’ve known that about me from the first. I’ve always been up-front with you about what I want out of life. I haven’t changed, Chase. My goals and dreams and desires haven’t changed.” She paused and drew a deep breath. “I think maybe yours have.”