Page 63 of The Accidental Text

“That works,” says Chase.

“Well,” Hannah says, “I guess we should get back to the party.” Apparently, Ally’s approval was enough for her.

“You’re done? Don’t you want to ask Chase his SocialSecurity number? Grill him until he gives you the PIN code to his ATM card?” I ask, my tone sarcastic.

She turns to Chase, her back straight. “Thank you for being Maggie’s wingman tonight,” she says, her tone almost robotic. “Also, I’m very sorry about your mom.”

Chase just gives her a taut smile and a head nod. He’s so much stronger than I was at this point in my grief. For at least a month, anytime anyone told me how sorry they were, I’d immediately tear up. There’s no sign of tears in Chase’s eyes right now, not anything more than the stoic dip of his chin he just gave Hannah. I’m not judging him. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my mom’s death, it’s that everyone grieves differently.

With that, Hannah turns and walks out the door.

“She likes you,” I say.

Chase exhales deeply. “She’s scary.”

“You’re not the first person to say that.”

Chapter 18

“Who was that guy you were getting cozy with at the party?”

I inwardly groan. I’d made it through the entire Drives for Dreams meeting without one word from Chelsea. She even made it to the doorway of my office before turning around to interrogate me.

I’d hoped maybe she didn’t notice, maybe for once in my life she didn’t pay attention. No such luck.

And now she has her judging face on.

“What?” I scrunch my face at her, like I have no idea what she’s asking. Even though I knowexactlywhat she’s asking.

After Hannah grilled Chase, we went back to the party. We danced, drank, ate, and had fun. Real fun. More fun than I can remember having in a long time. I smiled and laughed so much, my cheeks hurt.

“The guy … the one in the black suit. You were dancing with him. I saw him holding your hand.” Her lip curls up.

“Oh, that guy,” I say, reaching up and tugging on mykpendant.

I didn’t think she’d caught the hand-holding.Especially since it was at an emotional part of the evening when my dad got on the microphone and gave a little speech, thanking everyone for a great twenty-five years. Then he choked up as he said he wished the person who’d had his back and been rightby his side during nearly all of those twenty-five years could be there.

Chase had grabbed my hand, intertwining our fingers during that part. Tears were escaping my eyes, and I latched on to the comfort. It didn’t even feel foreign for him to do it. I’d say that our texting thing has turned into a real, bona fide friendship. Or, at least, the beginning of one.

Chelsea stands in the doorway staring at me, awaiting an answer.

“Don’t you have Drives for Dreams to work on?”

“I do, but I have a minute and this is what I’m choosing to do with my minute.”

Of course. Fortunately, I have a story all made up in my head for this exact conversation that I knew I wouldn’t be able to avoid. I got a lot of questioning stares from Chelsea that night at the party. I knew I’d get grilled later. Not for the hand-holding part, though. I should have known better.

“He’s a potential client,” I say. “Nice guy. We got to chatting after I gave him info about a wrap for his new car.”

I pray that didn’t sound as rehearsed to Chelsea as it did to me. I thought it was a great story and would also lead into everyone understanding why Chase and I would hang out in the future. For everyone but Hannah, it will look like we hit it off at the party and a friendship blossomed. That’s sort of what happened. He did get invited to the party, and a friendship did blossom. I’ll just be taking all the other stuff that led up to it to my grave. Especially where Chelsea is concerned.

She puts a hand on her hip. “Who invited him?”

“No idea,” I say with a shrug.

This was also part of my story. I could have blamed Devon for inviting Chase, but she could easily ask him. I thought aboutblaming Chad but then didn’t want Chase associated with him. So I went with having no idea. I texted all of this to Chase yesterday so he was on board. Not that I plan on parading him around my family anytime soon.

“Interesting,” Chelsea says, and I look up to see her giving me her squinty eyes.

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