I looked at him, waiting for him to add more. Nothing came. “What happened?”
“Nope. Not going back there. Just know, it was enough to make me completely comfortable jumping on the table like a little girl.”
We sat there in dejected silence before Chase reached behind him, grabbing a handful of checkers pieces that hadn’t flown off the table in all the crazy. He threw a black circle toward the front door. It clattered to the floor with an unimpressive force.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’ll feel better once I know where he’s at. I found a sack full of traps in the laundry room earlier that we can set, if we know where he is.”
I picked up a checkers piece and threw one towards the kitchen. We waited, our ears perked for signs of life, before Chase threw another, this time toward the living room. A few long moments passed between us, as we sat in companionable silence, you know, trying to coax a mouse out of it’s hiding place.
“So, what kind of books do you write?”
I made a face, though he didn’t see it. Looks like we were going to play the question game after all. I threw another checkers piece. “I write books for women.”
“For women, huh? The kind that are down that one aisle in the grocery store with the half-naked men on the cover?”
“What grocery store are you shopping at?” I threw a chip at his face. He laughed and swatted it away with quick, athletic prowess.
“Violent reaction alert. I think I got one right.” He laughed, as my cheeks grew ruddy.
“No. I don’t write those books. My books are women’s fiction. And yes, they do have a bit of romance in them, but they are nothing like those books. Nobody is ever naked.” Okay, the last part was true, but the ‘bit’ of romance part is stretching it a tad. The romance is definitely the main plot. I can’t help it, I was born a hopeless romantic.
He laughed. “So is this week just feeding a flame for you, us all cozied up together in a mountain cabin?” His eyes grew wide as he asked, “will I be in your next book?”
I opened my mouth only to close it again, thrown off balance for a moment. Did he somehow get a hold of my computer while I was showering or something? Denial. Denial. Denial.
“Ha. No way. I still can’t believe that out of everyone in the world, I got trapped in this cabin with Chase Riley.” I smirked at him. “It’s a cruel world.”
He just kept grinning at me as if he knew. My eyes narrowed—if he broke into my computer and saw my latest plot outline, I was going to kill him. After I hid in my room for the rest of the week. I mean, assuming I get off this table, of course.
“Why don’t you have a girlfriend?” Perhaps, that wasn’t the most tactful transition, but I felt desperate to change the subject. Talking to close friends about what I write was hard enough, talking to Chase Riley was impossible. “I mean, I understand perfectly why you wouldn’t, but looks can be deceiving for some.”
Crap. I heard it. It was out of my mouth before I could stop it.
His eyes lit up as a lazy smile emerged across his face. “What are you saying?”
I wiped my sweaty palms on my sweatpants.Hissweatpants. Ugh. Things were starting to feel confusing. My heart started to pound, even while I tried to play it cool. “You know what I meant.”
“I do now.”
“Just answer the question.”
His smile finally faded, and he threw another checker’s piece. “I’ve had girlfriends in the past, but nobody ever stuck. Simple as that.”
“Was there a shortage of blonde cheerleaders?” My mind drifted to several cheerleaders, all of them blonde, that he had dated throughout high school. Not that I was keeping track, but Eugene was a small town.
“If I still wanted a blonde cheerleader, I’d be with one now.”
I folded my arms, leaning forward on the table. “So many women throwing themselves at you, is that it?”
“Nah. But there is one playing hard to get.”
I stopped breathing. The tension once again found its way into the room between us—crackling. I stared straight ahead, refusing to look at him, even as I could feel his stare burning a hole into the side of my head. The head that was currently spinning. What world did we land in? Was Chase Riley making a pass at me? At me? Of course not. I was the only thing for miles around, with female parts, trapped in a cabin with him. That’s all it was.
She looks like my dog but not as hot.Yeah, and I’d do well to remember that.
I took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to move the air between us. “What do you want in a woman then? Enlighten me.”