Page 78 of Hard To Love

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The soundof Chase’s ringing cell phone woke us from a sound sleep. His hand was wrapped tightly around my waist and his legs were entwined with mine making it impossible for him to reach the nightstand. By the time his hands had reached the phone, the call had already rolled to voicemail. I peeked over his shoulder noting the number of missed calls.

“Aren’t you going to call them back?”

He unfolded his body from mine then stood up and reached for his boxers that were sitting on the floor. “Later.” He grumbled while he pulled up his boxers then climbed back into bed. “This is our last day here so I want to make sure we enjoy every minute of it.”

“What do you have in mind?”

My stomach did a flip when I realized that we only had one day left. I closed my eyes and tried to memorize the utterly content feeling that rested inside of me since we stepped off the plane three days ago, and forced myself to not think about the clock ticking on the wall.

When he looked down at me, the expression on his face told me he was thinking the same thing. “As much as I would love to spend the day with you in this bed, I thought we could take the boat out for a spin, maybe pack a lunch?”

“Sounds wonderful.”

His thumb brushed over my bottom lip before he tugged on it gently. “Perfect,” he murmured, then feathered a kiss over my mouth. I felt the bed dip as he tore his body away from mine to get dressed. He threw a white t-shirt over his head and pulled on a pair of gym shorts.

“I’m going to go for a quick run, there’s a basket of fruit and bagels downstairs. I’ll be back in a half hour.” He called over his shoulder, and shut the door behind him.

I flung my head back on the pillow and stared at the ceiling. Dread filled my body at the thought of having to go back to New York. I knew logically, I couldn’t stay in Florida forever, but that didn’t stop me from hoping that maybe someday, we wouldn’t have to go back.

Chase hovered over the grill while I prepped a salad to go along with our steaks. After eating a late lunch on the boat with sandwiches, snacks and desserts, I wasn’t all that hungry. My face lit up when my thoughts trailed back to the perfect afternoon we had as we cruised up and down the intercostal waterway. What he considered a ‘boat’ I considered a ‘yacht’. Either way, the day couldn’t have been more perfect, especially the skinny-dipping and the love-making in the cabin.

I sipped on my wine while I rested comfortably between his legs on the chaise longue so I could see the ocean. The sun started to set in the west and the sky started to turn a fiery orange with a splash of purple over the horizon.

Chase’s cell buzzed on the table next us. It had been going off all day.

“Everything okay?” I asked watching the muscles in his jaw tense as he stared at the screen.

“That was Nick. He needs to speak to me, said it was urgent.”

I could tell he was conflicted by his earlier promise to make this trip about us and leave everything else back in New York. Leaning up in his lap I set my glass of wine on the table and turned to face him.

“Why don’t you call him back? I’ll be right here waiting for you.”

The relief in his eyes when he realized I wasn’t going to give him a hard time was apparent. He exhaled then slid out of the chair. “I’m sorry. This shouldn’t take long. The cell signal is stronger in the house, I’ll see if I can reach him now.”

The cool breeze brought a chill over my body. I convinced myself that it was just from loss of contact from his warm flesh.

Reaching for his hand I gave it a tight squeeze. “I understand. He wouldn’t call if it weren’t important. Go take the call and hurry up and get back out here, I’m starting to miss you already.” I didn’t know why, but I started to sense that there was more to this call than I had originally anticipated. I started to think that the chill in the air could very well be a storm blowing into our lives.

“I’ll be quick.” He whispered over my mouth as he gave me a kiss then walked off to make the call. I detected an edge to his voice that told me I wasn’t imagining things. A small dark pit started to develop in my stomach.

In an attempt to settle my nerves, I scrolled through old text messages trying to bridge the time until Chase returned from the house. It had only been a few minutes but this call seemed to be taking forever. I returned a few emails and played a couple games of Candy Crush to pass the time. My patience was wearing thin as I paced back and forth along the edge of the pool. Just as I started to pour myself another glass of wine, Chase finally appeared in the doorway of the patio. His body looked tense, and all the color had drained from his face. Whatever hope I hung on to that the call was work-related, drained from my system the second our eyes met.

“We need to talk.” His voice was layered with uncertainty and something else I couldn’t quite describe. My pulse started to race the second he pulled me into his arms. Something was off because his expression was a mixture of fear and anger.

My eyebrows shot up in alarm. “What’s going on? What did Nick want?”

He stared at me but his gaze was distant and I could feel him pulling away. The happy carefree man that I had spent the last couple days with was gone and I didn’t like the man that had replaced him.

He took my hand and led me down to the beach. A sense of fear was lodged in the back of my throat as I braced for whatever it was that had caused the shift in his mood. Appropriately, the wind on the beach blew my hair in my face as I struggled to keep the strands out of my mouth.

“Listen, I don’t want you to freak out okay?” My body stilled because that was exactly the thing one says right before you started to freak out.

He looked away from me as if there was tug of war going on in his mind. I stood there patiently trying to ignore the way my heart was twisting and turning around in my chest, before he finally spoke.

“Nick was calling me to let me know that the cops barged into my office with a search warrant and found a large stash of cocaine in my locked safe. They brought Colin in for questioning and are threatening to press charges for felony drug possession.”

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