Page 27 of Stealing Chances

“Scarlet, I don’t remember.”

“Not yet,” I said softly. “But your subconscious gave you something that was so completelyusbecause—oh, because you know how to frustrate the hell out of me, Chase Grayson.” A smile curled at the edges of my mouth in response to his. “And you think food’s the way to make everything better.”

“Does it ever work?”

“Somehow,” I admitted, my eyes rolling when a breath of a laugh left him. “But it’s more the way we connect over food when we’re alone. You’re always right there with me. Talking to me and giving me all of you. Chinese food is just my favorite, so it’s an added bonus.”

He looked at me then, his brow furrowed as he studied me. “You still want to cook, or should we order?”

I shrugged, pulling my phone out of my pocket as I did.

Another hushed laugh left him when I opened the app for our favorite restaurant. “Got it,” he muttered as he headed for the cabinet that held the cups.

I tried to contain the excitement and nervousness that crashed through me. The feeling close to those addicting, dizzying highs when first falling for someone.

Ridiculous, I knew because IknewChase. I wasengagedto him.

But this was all new territory with him. Unsteady, worrying territory.

And the stranger who held my heart had smiled. He’d laughed. He’d offered an olive branch across that void separating us.

I’d take them all and cherish each piece of the Chase I’d known that only served to fuel that dangerous hope.

* * *

“You need to stretch,” I said a little over an hour later. When Chase gave me a curious look, I gestured to him with my container of food before setting it on the end table. “I know you don’t want to admit it, but you’re uncomfortable. You keep making a face whenever you start relaxing into the chair, and you’re not sitting the way you normally do.”

“I’m fine.”

“You aren’t,” I said firmly. “You need to stretch to make breathing and moving easier and to alleviate the strain you’re putting on your neck and the rest of your injured arm.”

His eyebrows rose, but he just continued watching me for a moment before he resumed chewing the bite he’d taken.

We hadn’t said much other than what was necessary before the food had arrived. But once we’d settled in the living room, I’d struggled to not fall into our normal routine of teasing banter and going over our days. Of talking abouteverythingbecause it was our time.

But then he’d asked,“Did I do the lilies on your hip?”and I’d been brought right back to our painful reality.

Ever since, the conversation had been strained and full of lulls, but he’d continued asking questions. He’d continued laughing.

So I was taking it.

“The doctor tell you that?” he asked as he dropped his fork into his container and set it aside.

“No.”

“Brandon said something this morning,” he began, voice a low murmur as he studied me. “Said I needed to listen to you because you know more and can help better than most.” Lifting his head in question, he asked, “What’d he mean by that?”

“He could’ve meant a lot by that.” I spun my engagement ring before hiding it with my right hand again. “I obviously know about our relationship. I know what you’ve been up to the past two years more than anyone else.”

“Think he was referring to you telling me to put the sling on.”

My head moved in slow nods. “That was probably because I double-majored in sports medicine and kinesiology,” I replied, the words coming out soft and uneven. “I was a physical therapist when I met you. Hadn’t been for long and didn’t stay in the field much longer though,” I added quickly and tried to ignore the chill that swept down my spine at the memory of it.

“Didn’t like it?”

A hushed, frantic laugh escaped me. “Something like that.”

It was odd telling Chase pieces of my life when he already knew me inside and out. Because I wasn’t simplyremindinghim, and my mind kept shouting that he knew all this.

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