“At least he held it until you got home,” Gabe said. “The limo driver would have charged extra if he got it in the car, and Mom would have really loved that.”
Chase eyed the clothes in Alex’s hand. “Go use my room.”
“Don’t you need to change too?”
“Yeah, but I’ll wait.”
“You’ve seen me change before, Chase.”
He swept his arm up and down. “Not when you were wearing that.”
Alex crept into the house and up the stairs, hoping she wouldn’t wake up Danya and David. She figured if their son’s violent puking wasn’t enough to disturb them, she should be safe, but just in case, she didn’t shut the door all the way, knowing it sometimes jammed.
Unlike his brothers’ rooms, which were shrines to their accomplishments, bedecked with trophies, titles, and crowns, Chase’s room was a shrine to everything he loved. His awards puddled in the corner, while his walls displayed team photos, family pictures, banners from pro sports games, and tickets from concerts. Alex allowed her eyes to linger on a photo of them on his desk. His arm was slung around her, and they smiled so widely that their noses scrunched and their eyes squinted shut. Neither of them had front teeth.
She focused on the picture so intently, she didn’t notice Chase standing in the doorway until his soft voice startled her.
“I wondered what was taking you so long,” he said, glancing over his shoulder to be sure his parents weren’t approaching.
Liar, she thought while Chase stepped into the room. She’d barely been there for two minutes.
Alex flicked her chin toward the window. “What’s going on out there?”
“More like what’s going out.” He stuck out his tongue in disgust.
“Serves him right. Do you want me to go change in the bathroom?”
“Nah.” He shook his head, grabbing a pair of shorts from a basket of clean laundry. He reached down and began to unbutton his shirt.
“Chase … ” she warned him.
He laughed and finished changing. Alex waited for him to leave the room, but instead, he took a seat on his desk.
“Here.” He motioned for her to spin around.
Her stomach fluttered, but she did as she was told. She backed up against him, placing her hands gently on his knees, which were on either side of her. His breath tickled her neck and sent chills throughout her body. He touched her right shoulder and gently removed a strap, allowing his fingers to touch her skin longer than was necessary. He held up the right side of her dress and used the other hand to remove the remaining strap.
“Now what?” Alex breathed.
“Huh?”
“Well, you’re holding up my dress, but my clothes are over there on your bed.”
“You’re going to kill me,” he said in a hushed voice.
Alex inadvertently lifted her arms at the same time he did, and her dress fell to the ground in a pretty blue heap. She heard Chase draw in his breath before she spun around. When she did, she was surprised to find that with all he could be staring at, his blue eyes were focused on her lips. Her head was spinning like a roulette wheel, and she wondered if they would finally take this gamble.
He lifted one hand and brushed his fingers over her cheek. Then he lifted the other one and held her face in his hands gently. He bit his lower lip and leaned in towards her, only to press his forehead against hers and sigh in exasperation.
She didn’t have the courage to look at him. She ran her palms up his shirt until they reached his neck. Wrapping her arms around him and holding the base of his head, she raked her fingers through the threads of his hair.
When he first moved his hands down her back, his touch was so light that his fingertips barely grazed her shoulder blades, but when they ventured back up, he seemed to give in to it all. He pulled her even closer, touching the skin that electrified against him. He must have opened his eyes then, because she felt his eyelashes tickle her brow.
She didn’t know what would have happened if a loud cough hadn’t erupted from outside the window. It was followed by a stomach-churning splat, so she determined the culprit was Jonas.
“We’re going to be in trouble.” Chase hopped off his desk, walked over to his bed, and grabbed her shirt. “Put this on before you really do kill me,” he said, tossing it across the room.
Alex nodded, still in a daze.
As they walked outside, Alex dusted herself off, worried she still had Chase’s handprints all over her. Kaleb sat in his jeep, comically holding up his wrist to tap his watch. Posey was sitting shotgun, barely conscious, while Kaleb’s girlfriend Mackenzie tended to Jonas in the back seat.
“Jonas is actually coming?” Chase marveled, opening the door to Gabe’s car.
Gabe’s date reapplied her lipstick while Chase and Alex climbed into the back. Alex turned her head to the window, almost embarrassed. She felt Chase buckle her seatbelt for her, perhaps in a feeble effort to keep her on her side of the car. But in the end it was he who ventured toward her. Only a minute had passed before Chase undid his own seatbelt and slid next to her. She started to unbuckle hers, but he rested his hand over it. “No,” he whispered, “you stay safe.”
He brushed his lips over the nape of her neck, her collarbone, and her jaw but never kissed her lips. The streetlamps whizzed by every few seconds, threatening to expose them, but Gabe was babbling on, either trying to make small talk or trying to ignore what was going on in the back of the car.
When they arrived at the party, Alex guiltily ventured toward the jeep to find Jonas snoring, one arm draped over his eyes.
Mackenzie had a look of disgust on her face. “He said he was done throwing up, but I’m not so sure. Technically, you’re his date, so you should be taking care of him.”
Jonas groaned loudly, and Alex was reminded of all the horror stories on the news about kids who had passed out and choked on their vomit. “Maybe I should stay out here with him.”
Chase turned to Gabe. “Give me the keys. I’ll take him home.”
Gabe hesitated, eying his brother in silent reprimand.
“Oh, come on,” Chase said. “You’re not going to make Alex sit out here and babysit him all night, are you?”
Kaleb snickered. “You better hope Mom doesn’t wake up and look outside to see you driving.”
“She won’t.”
Gabe reached in his pocket and extracted the keys reluctantly. But when they attempted to move Jonas to the station wagon, he awoke. “I’m driving.”
“Sure bro,” Chase said with a smirk. “Except in this car the steering wheel is on the right.” He shoved Jonas into the passenger seat and rolled down the windows to give him some air.
When they turned onto the main road, Alex’s teeth began to chatter, so she curled up in the back seat.
“Are you cold?” Chase asked, reaching to turn on the heat. “You need some color back in those cheeks. You look like a corpse.”
His wording hit a little too close to home. Even he knew it. He winced like he’d stung himself.
With each passing street light, Alex took the opportunity to stare at his reflection in the rearview mirror. If only that would help to reveal his thoughts. Shivering, she covered herself in Gabe’s jacket. “I read an article the other day. This woman in New York, she died at twenty-eight. Arterial rupture.”
His eyes flashed angrily. “I told you to stop reading that crap. You could live to be older than me.”
Unlikely. They both knew that.