Page 54 of Just One Summer with the Grumpy

TWENTY-FOUR

Chase proved difficult to find.I spent at least twenty minutes looking for him and asked several workers, none of whom knew anything of his whereabouts. He didn’t answer his texts or the radio either. Odd.

I finally found him down by the beach, talking to a woman with a slight build and brassy blonde hair. I was at least fifty feet away when he and the woman started laughing. She lifted a hand to his arm and gripped it in a very friendly way, and he didn’t move it.

I slowed.

Her hand sat there for several seconds. The smile he wore at that moment, easy and free, was the one I’d thought reserved only for me.

Now I stood there, frozen like a fool, for several seconds before diving behind yet another cluster of tropical bushes.

Through the branches, I saw her hand slide even further up his arm and around his back, pulling against him in an embrace. His arms wrapped around her tightly and they stood there for a long moment, the wind whipping her hair against his neck.

I turned around and found a bench to sit on, unable to look any longer. The hard, heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach felt too soft now, like it wanted to crawl back up my esophagus and escape for good.

Tourists walked by on the sidewalk, giving me curious glances, but I didn’t dare stand until Chase and that woman had finished their little moment. I imagined myself stalking up to him with fire in my eyes, accusing him of cheating on me. But you had to be together for there to be accusations of cheating, and I couldn’t even say what we were. Did he have other women on this island, all of whom he shared makeout sessions with but didn’t commit to beyond that?

At that moment, Chase and the woman appeared on the walkway, headed in the direction of the hotel. His face brightened when he saw me sitting there. “Daphne. There you are. I have another introduction to make.”

The woman grinned as she looked me over, and I realized that she was more mature than she’d appeared from a distance. Wrinkles pulled at her eyes, which were a luminescent blue. She had to be at least thirty years older than either of us.

“Aunt Carolle,” Chase said too formally, “meet Daphne. We’re thrilled you made it a day early.”

We.As if he and I were both hosting her. I felt like a complete fool. “How nice to meet you, Carolle.”

The woman wrapped me in a hug, just like she had with Chase. “I’ve only been here five minutes and Chase has already told me all about you. Seems you’ve captured my nephew’s heart, so you must be a special one.”

“I’m not sure about that, but thank you.” I smiled graciously at the compliment and turned back to Chase. “I didn’t realize you had an aunt.”

“Carolle is my uncle’s youngest sister,” Chase explained. “She lives in Kansas.”

“I wasn’t in a position to take in poor Chase back then, or heaven knows I would have. He deserved far better than my brother ever gave him.” She leaned in conspiratorially. “And if you make a joke about me not being in Kansas anymore, I just might throw sand at you.”

I liked her already. “Heard that joke a few times?”

“It’s only funny the first five hundred times. After that, you want to strangle people. There’s more to Kansas than a movie with red slippers and yellow sidewalks. We also have some pretty incredible gas stations.” She winked.

I belted a laugh before I could help it. “Those don’t receive nearly enough credit. Especially the ones with clean bathrooms.”

“She speaks truth,” Carolle told Chase. “I approve.”

“So do I.” Chase watched me with a proud smile.

In a moment, everything came rushing back. The inheritance. His family’s accusations.

“There’s just one problem here,” Carolle said. “You haven’t greeted your girl properly, Chase. Give her a kiss or two, and then you can show me to my room. Left my baggage in the lobby with a bewildered worker wielding a mop, and it’s nap time anyway.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Chase turned me around to face him. Seconds later, his mouth found mine. As much as I wanted to let it linger, I shortened the kiss and kept it nice and chaste with his aunt watching.

We just fit so well together. How could something feel so right and yet be so wrong?

I turned back to Carolle. “I should, um, get back to work. It was nice to meet you.”

The woman beamed. “Very pleased to meet you too, Daphne.”

I gave Chase one last look, noting the tightness of his eyes as he watched me. He must have felt my hesitation in that kiss. Then I strode quickly away.

My questions would have to wait for another time.

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