Page 31 of Legal

He was studying me again, and I wasn’t sure how to interpret it. “Are you following your passion, Jillian?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Your recruiting business. Is that what you love?”

I was a bit taken aback. It was a job, a career. How many people truly loved their job? Chase was one of the lucky exceptions. “I wouldn’t exactly say love, but I’m damn good at it.”

I grabbed a card and read, “Plants store energy in their roots.”

“Bunk. It’s leaves.” I tossed two more chips at him. “So, when you’re not sucked into work, what do you do for fun? Besides sleeping with passionate music teachers and avoiding said music teachers at ballparks.”

I jerked my head up, and he smiled. I narrowed my eyes at him. Not funny. “Ah…” Would it sound pathetic to say that work mainly was my fun? Sure, I saw Perry when I could and had those weekly family meals, but since the divorce—and the year prior—I’d buried myself. “I rake leaves and shovel snow.”

“That must be how you got such a beautiful body.”

I tensed. Something about the word ‘beautiful’ threw me off. Not ‘sexy’ or ‘fucking hot’ or any of the other adjectives he could have used to get the point across, butbeautiful. It was the way he said it too. The perfect marriage of lyrics and music, and my emotions spiraled into one giant clusterfuck.

“Do you want another beer?” I said.

“I’m good.”

I looked toward the window at the darkened skies. The rain held off, but the wind was still going strong. Plenty of circulation was swirling around that room. Maybe a bit too much. I inched away from Chase, hoping I didn’t make my discomfort too obvious. His scent was noticeable, and I found that odd. Unless a smell was unpleasant, I usually didn’t detect it that strongly. And it was definitely the opposite of unpleasant. It made me want to spread my body all over him and take it for my own.

“Are you wearing any cologne?”

“No, why?”

Damn. I was afraid of that. “Just wondering.” I sucked in my bottom lip. “So, do you play anything else, besides acoustic?”

“Bass. Piano. A little violin. You?”

I shook my head. “How long have you been with that little school? It seems different.” I looked up, thinking of the word. “Trusting.” Daniel had gone to public school, and I was used to buzzers and metal detectors and much more security. I’d just walked in that day like it was nothing.

Chase laughed. “Yeah, it’s like a big family. Been there a couple years. I’m fortunate to be part of a place that values the arts so highly.”

“And you do private lessons there in the summer?”

He nodded. “They’re cool with that. And it’s much better than using my apartment since I share it with two other guys. I’m already there anyway teaching summer school a few days a week. Either that or holding softball practice.”

I thought of Perry’s niece. “But Emily doesn’t go there, yet you’re her coach.”

“It’s a rec league. About half the kids are from the school and half live in the area.”

I felt like I was starting to ask way too many questions—even if I didn’t get that impression from him—but I really was interested. I liked Chase, I really did. I just didn’t want tolikehim. “Where’s my next question?” I said. “I need a chance to beat you here.”

“Lion prides have one male and multiple females.”

“Fact.”

“Bunk. They can also have multiple males.”

Argh. I guess I wasn’t up on my animal orgies. The next couple dozen questions weren’t much better. I did manage to get some right, and Chase appeared to truthfully get some wrong, but he still outnumbered me by at least two to one.

A big grin broke out on his face when he picked up my next card. Great, probably something about the mating habits of protozoa. I still remembered some things from school, just not all these little details. Unfortunately, this game did not take life experience into account.

“Stevie Nicks’s real name is Stella.”

“Ooh! Bunk. Her real name is Stephanie Lynn Nicks.”

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