Page 15 of Legal

I smiled. “Me too.”

We came to our spot, the smell of sizzling burgers and brats making my stomach growl. I hadn’t eaten a thing yet. Stephen was tossing around the bean bag with one of his work buddies, but he stopped to wave and yell out, “Beer, soda, water in the cooler. Food will be done soon.”

“Thanks.” I grabbed myself a beer, and Perry and I sat back in the open hatch. Not a cloud in sight. It really was the perfect day.

A few moments later, Stephen jogged over. “You remember Alex and Chris?” He pointed to a couple guys parked to the side of us.

“Yes, nice to see you again.” I’d become familiar with many of his friends. Stephen was always getting perks through his company: Game tickets, zoo fundraisers, art museums, and so on, and whenever he could, he’d extend the invitations. I’d taken Daniel to a lot of things over the years, compliments of baby brother.

We took a load off for a while, just kicking back and enjoying the sunshine before Perry dragged me to the front of the car. “I gotta tell you what happened last night.”

I eyed her suspiciously. “Wait, do I even want to hear this?” If she was planning on updating me on some freaky new position they’d discovered, I so did not want to hear it.

“I—” Her lids popped wide.

“What?” I looked over my shoulder to see what made her speechless. I had no clue what it was. I waved my hand in front of her face. “What’s going on?”

“Oh. My. God. Is that him?”

“Is that who?”

Oh, shit. I finally spotted the source of her bugged-out gaze. I righted forward, tugging my cap farther down my face. “Okay, let’s just go back. Slowly. Donotmake a big deal of this.”

Perry kept staring. “This is making me cracked. I just cannot figure it out. He looks even more familiar in the daylight.”

“Dammit, Perry. Stop it. I’m going back.” He was only two cars down. Way too close for my comfort.

She caught my arm. “No, wait. He’s not going to recognize you anyway with all those clothes on. I just need some more time to trigger my memory.” She tapped her fingertips on her lips. “Holy fuck, do you think he’s stalking you? How romantic.”

“No, I don’t think that, and no, that wouldn’t be romantic. It’d be disturbing.” I clasped her wrist. “Now, come on. He might not recognize me, but he’ll notice you, especially with the way you’re gawking at him.” I did not need this right now. I’d never even considered that I’d run into him again.

“Uh, Jills?”

“Come on,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Hello. Chase, right?”

Fuck. Fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

I gave Perry what I hoped was a pissed-off dirty look before turning around. “Hi.”

I wanted to die. Bury myself alive. With the sun shining brightly on his face, he appeared….

Goddammit.

“Oh, look.” Perry pointed at the bottle in his hand. “Spotted Cow. Isn’t that something?”

“Not really,” I said. I was going to kill her.

Chase tilted his head at her but didn’t comment. Then he zeroed back on me. His face was too damned smooth. “I had to come over and check if it was really you. Glad to see you’re not dead after all.” He grinned, convincing me that my first, and definitely last, one-night stand was with a lunatic.

I squinted at him. His eyes looked more gold than green in the sun. Were lunatics always so beautiful? I suppose that’d be an added advantage; they could lure more people in that way.

“Imagine my surprise,” he said, “when I called that number you gave me, and it turned out to be Andersen’s Funeral Home.”

My cheeks blazed. “Ah, sorry about that.” Good thing the mortification distracted me from remembering his hands all over my body. For the most part.

His lips curved, and I was really hoping to see some lines, but I was shit out of luck. “Don’t worry about it.” There was no trace of scorn in his voice, and that made me feel worse. Chase lifted his beer, nodded, and walked away.

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