Page 2 of Just A Little Chase

Chase Gossard closed out his emails and for the fourth time, glanced at the clock on his phone, his annoyance growing. His half-sister, Billie, was late for their monthly lunch date, and because he’d arrived early at the café, he’d been sitting at the table waiting for the past half hour.

The waitress, a pretty young blonde, came by to refill his half-empty glass of iced tea. “Are you sure you don’t want to go ahead and order?” she asked as she eyed him with appreciation, her gaze obviously taking in his tailored suit and the Hermès watch on his wrist before landing on his face. One he’d been told he could have graced fashion magazines with, not that he gave a shit.

“No,” he replied, doing his best to tamp down his impatience. “She’ll be here.”

The waitress smiled playfully. “I sure hope so, because any woman who would stand you up is a fool.”

He refrained from rolling his eyes and gave her a tight smile instead. Clearly, she was fishing to see if he was single, and he didn’t clarify that he was waiting on his sister, not an actual date.

She moved on to the next table, and he exhaled a deep breath. He wasn’t interested in striking up a flirtatious conversation, which wasn’t his forte, anyway. Having just gotten out of a situationship gone bad, he wasn’t looking to jump into another. He didn’t do committed relationships, which had been the issue with the last woman he’d been randomly hooking up with, only to discover she believed she’d be the one to change him.

Yeah, that hadn’t ended well—it never did—and he’d put his dick’s needs on hiatus. For now.

Chase picked up his phone again. He was just about to send Billie a “Where are you?” text, when she rushed out onto the restaurant patio and toward his table.

“Get that disapproving frown off of your face,” she said with an infectious grin. His sister was one of the few people who was unaffected by his typical grumpy demeanor. “I’m fifteen minutes late because I got an important work call and I couldn’t leave until I handled things. And I didn’t have the chance to text you because I was finishing up that same call while riding in the Uber to get here. It took a huge amount of brainstorming to resolve a crisis involving this weekend’s Future Fast Track charity event. It was business. You know how that is.”

He immediately softened, his irritation melting away because he did understand that work was sometimes unpredictable and demanding, and mostly because Billie was his half-sister and he had a soft spot for her. She was one of the few people who could put a pin in his bluster and make him calm the fuck down.

Crazy, considering he’d only recently found out that she existed, and she’d only been in his life for a few years. He was a man who didn’t let people in. Didn’t let them get close or scale the emotional walls he’d erected as a young kid after his mother walked out on him and his father and never looked back. Yet this vivacious, free-spirited girl had knocked past his defenses and made a place for herself in his life as if she’d always belonged there.

She settled in across from him, out of breath from rushing. Her pretty face was flushed, and her unconventional pink highlighted hair was a bit tousled. But once she was settled in her seat, she flashed him one of those gregarious smiles of hers, the one that lit up her light blue eyes behind the black framed glasses she wore.

For a girl who’d been handed off to numerous foster homes growing up, her constant bright, upbeat attitude always amazed him.

They looked over the menu, and he didn’t miss the disappointment in the server’s eyes when she saw Billie there. There was a bit of confusion, too, because given his expensive suit, she’d probably been expecting a sophisticated woman to show up, instead of a young, quirky twenty-three-year-old with an eclectic fashion style that was as funky as her colored hair.

They placed their orders, and once the waitress delivered Billie’s soda and they were alone again, he addressed the reason why she’d been so late.

“What’s the big crisis at work?” he asked, always curious to hear about her job, which she loved. Future Fast Track, a nonprofit that was dedicated to helping foster kids as they aged out of the system, was near and dear to her heart, for good reason.

“The charity event is in two days, and one of the men in the bachelor auction came down with the latest flu virus and had to pull out,” she said, unwrapping her straw and sticking it into her drink. “Finding a replacement in such a short time is more difficult than we’d expected and we have to fill his slot.”

The fact that she was currently giving him those desperate, puppy dog eyes did not bode well for Chase, and a sense of dread filled his chest. She hadn’t actually asked him to step in for the sick bachelor, but he knew, without a doubt, that’s where this conversation was heading.

“There has to be some guy out there willing to step in,” he said, quickly trying to deflect by offering some helpful advice. “A friend of a friend who’s already part of the bachelor auction, or something.”

She shook her head woefully. “My boss and I have been on the phone all morning, and no luck. It’s totally stressing Aurora out, which is not good for a woman who is seven months pregnant.” Billie loved the woman she worked for, who’d also grown up in the foster care system and understood the challenges kids experienced there.

Chase frowned at his sister. Was she really using the sympathy card? Yes, yes she was, the minx. “Do not look at me like that,” he said, his voice a low, surly growl that didn’t faze her in the least.

“Like what?” Behind her glasses, she batted her lashes much too guilelessly.

She knew exactly what she was doing, and he refused to offer up his services for something so appalling as a bachelor auction. “I have no desire to be paraded around like a show pony.”

She laughed, the sound light and amused. “Give yourself some credit, Chase. You’re definitely a stallion, not a show pony. You have the looks, you’re an eligible bachelor, and as a corporate financier, you’re a great catch. Any woman who reads your impressive bio and sees your photo will be willing to shell out big bucks to spend a weekend with you.”

A fucking weekend entertaining a woman? He shuddered at the thought. Hell, he could barely tolerate a date for a few hours before he felt smothered and annoyed by her presence. “I’m not interested, Billie.” His tone was firm.

“Interested, no…” Her voice trailed off for a few seconds as she bit her bottom lip. “But what about doing it for the sake of charity?”

He barely caught his scowl before it formed. “I’ve already donated a substantial amount to Future Fast Track over the past few years.” And he’d done so willingly, and lovingly, because he understood how important the nonprofit was to her.

“I know, and you know I’m always grateful. But it’s not the same thing because it’s very behind the scenes and impersonal when you just hand over a check,” she stressed, not relenting one iota. “No one but the charity knows that you’re endorsing Future Fast Track. Being a part of the auction would show your support in a more visible way.”

At that moment, their lunch arrived and he breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that if he didn’t say anything more on the topic, the issue would magically disappear. He started on his turkey club, and she ate a few bites of her quiche. When she remained silent, the tension tightening his shoulders eased and he began to relax and enjoy his meal, certain he’d made his point.

No such luck.

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