Page 65 of Kiss & Collide
She shot him an incredulous look.He had?
“Violet,” Chase said, “this is my mom, Nicole; my dad, Javier; and my little brother, Tyler.”
“Not so little, man,” Tyler protested.
“Always will be to me,” Chase replied, ruffling his hair. Tyler swatted his hand away and punched him in the bicep.
“Boys,” Nicole admonished gently, like they were still small, but she was smiling as she said it.
“I’m sorry Sam couldn’t make it,” Chase said. “You’d love her, Violet. Tough as nails, just like you.”
“Violet, I can’t tell you how grateful we are for all you’ve done for our son,” Javier said, shaking her hand enthusiastically. His Spanish accent reminded her of that night in Paris, when Chase had spoken Spanish to her and her whole body had nearly gone up in flames upon hearing his accent. She wasn’t even sure what he’d said to her, but remembering the look in his eyes, she’d guessed it had been dirty.
“Oh, he does all the really hard work out on the track. I just make sure everyone’s paying attention to him when he does it.”
“You’ve worked a miracle,” Nicole said. “Everybody we know has been calling us up to tell us they’ve seen his picture somewhere.”
“What do you say to doing that for me?” Tyler said with a grin she was all too familiar with already. Guess they both got that from their father.
“Hey, hands to yourself,” Chase said, shooting his brother a look that was only half teasing.
Tyler held up his hands in defense. “Wouldn’t dream of it, big brother.”
Was Chase staking some kind of claim on her? Here? In front of his whole family?
“Okay,” she said, mustering the warmest smile she could manage. “You’re all set up for dinner here at the roof lounge, but as I told Chase, if you’re too warm outside, I’m happy to get you settled in the hospitality center downstairs—”
“Oh, but you’re having dinner with us, aren’t you?” Nicole protested.
“I—”
Suddenly Chase’s hand landed on the small of her back, solid and warm. “Yes, she is.” She looked over at him and he just smiled back. “Of course she is.”
Then they were all happily talking over each other, filling each other in on news as Chase herded them to their table. There was no way for her to extricate herself without making a scene, so Violet let herself be herded along with them.
She was mostly quiet as they got settled and ordered. Nicole and Javier bickered gently when Javier declared he was ordering a steak and Nicole reminded him about his high cholesterol. Then Javier said she was being too American, and this was a special occasion. By the end of the argument, if you could even call it that, their hands were clasped on the table and they were grinning at each other, all twinkly-eyed and sweet.
She couldn’t remember ever seeing her parents interact like that. Maybe it had happened briefly, years ago, before she’d come along. But as far back as she could remember, it was all frosty silences and passive-aggressive sniping, when it didn’t descend into outright warfare.
Well, sitting here in silence wasn’t going to make them think any better of her, so she busted out her best company manners. “How did you two meet? I don’t think Chase ever said.”
“Here we go,” Tyler muttered with an eye roll.
Chase leaned into her. “All three of us kids can recite this story by heart.”
“I was a freshman at University of Chicago,” Nicole said.
“Who’d never left Minnesota,” Chase and Tyler recited in unison.
Nicole swatted at Tyler’s arm.
“It was just a few weeks into the semester, and I took the L into the Loop so I could buy my mother a birthday present at Marshall Field’s. And as I’m leaving the store, just like that, the lights go out.”
“What happened?” Violet asked.
“Blackout,” Javier said. “The whole city, for hours.”
“Here’s the thing,” Nicole continued. “I’d just started school, and I only knew how to get to campus on the L. I didn’t know the streets, so I had no idea how to walk home. Now everybody’s got maps on their phones, but we didn’t have smartphones back then. So, I’m standing there on the sidewalk trying to decide what to do, when all of a sudden this boy asks me if I’m okay.”
