Page 70 of Kiss & Collide
“But Madison is supposed to be my girlfriend.”
“She’snot, though,” Tyler said, raising his eyebrows. “Speaking of, if she’s not actually your girlfriend—”
“Don’t even think about it, Tyler,” he warned. Tyler might be young, but where women were concerned, he was …precocious. Chase had done his fair share of sleeping around, but Tyler was steadily decimating his record.
Tyler laughed. “Look, just quit looking like your dog died and go find your girl.”
“She’s not my girl.”
“Seemed that way to me,” Tyler said.
“Mom and Dad are here. I can’t ditch them.”
“I can handle riding herd on the parents, Chase.”
Tyler was an adult now, he reminded himself. He might always seem like a kid to Chase, but when he’d been Tyler’s age, he’d already been living in Spain for four years and was traveling solo constantly to race. And Madison had to leave soon anyway; she had to be on set tomorrow.
“Okay, tell them I’ll see them at the hotel later.”
“Go, get out of here.”
Chase didn’t waste any more time debating. He got out of there.
29
An hour later, he was knocking on Violet’s hotel room door. He hadn’t bothered to text her that he was on the way. She would have just told him not to come. She cracked the door and peered over the safety lock.
“What are you doing here?”
“Can I come in?”
She unlatched the door. She’d changed into that black silky robe he liked so much, and she was barefoot, leaving her several inches shorter than him.
“Where’s your family? And Madison?”
“Madison’s on the way back to LA. Tyler’s with my parents so I could come talk to you.”
She lifted one eyebrow, her fingers tracing the silky belt of her robe. “Talk?”
“We do that sometimes, you know.”
She rolled her eyes, which he knew she employed to convince the world how unconcerned she was, but frankly, he found it kind of adorable, like a hissing kitten. But he’d never, ever tell her that.
“What do you want to talk about?”
“Dinner last night. Why you ran away.”
“I didn’t run away.”
“Violet, you left skid marks.”
Letting out a frustrated huff, she turned and crossed to the other side of the room. She swiped a glass filled with ice and vodka off the table and took a swig.
“My family freaked you out. Why?”
“They didn’t. Your family is fine.”
He moved up behind her. “So then what was it?”
