Stealing Harper
Page 25

“You’re not supposed to tell someone not to freak out—those words alone cause them to freak out.”
“Okay, well then don’t hit me or use your pressure-point training on me again.” I took a deep breath and held the sketchpad in front of her and watched as her cheeks went bright red, and her mouth popped open. “Shit”—I took it away and wondered how I could have thought it would be a good idea to show her that—“I knew it was creepy.”
“Chase, that wasn’t creepy. Can I see it again?”
Um. Hell. No.
Her wide eyes held mine and pleaded with me. “Please.”
Okay, now that look definitely wasn’t fair. I would give her anything she asked for if she looked at me like that. I gave her the paper and tried to smile, but I was still freaking out over being a freakin’ creep and drawing her while she slept. “I’m sorry, but you looked too perfect. I couldn’t let that opportunity pass.”
Her cheeks went red again, but I forced myself not to take it away as she spent minutes that felt like hours going over the drawing. “Chase, it”—she cleared her throat and shook her head slightly—“it’s incredible.”
“Yeah?” I wasn’t sure if she was saying that to make me feel better, but the way she looked up at me and smiled the sweetest smile I’ve ever seen come from her pushed the last of the worries aside.
“Yeah.”
Her eyes bounced back and forth between mine, and like she suddenly realized how close we were, they went down to my mouth, and I heard her next intake of breath. When she looked back up into my eyes, I could see the indecision in hers and wanted to beg her to choose me. I don’t know who started leaning toward the other first, but just then a string of explosions sounded from the TV, and we both jerked away from each other. I looked back up at the TV, then over to my parents and Bree; I’d completely forgotten where we were and who we were with. My mom was smiling widely and trying to keep her eyes off us, and I exhaled loudly as I looked back over at my princess.
“I um, I have to . . . I’m gonna go get some water.”
I shook my head and pushed her back onto the couch. “I’ll get it, Princess, just stay there.” By the time I got back into the living room, she was on the large chair with Bree, and I wondered if I’d just hurt any chance with her again. “I gotta go in to work; see you guys later.” Handing the glass to Harper, I squeezed Bree’s shoulder, then went to kiss Mom on the cheek.
“Chase, don’t leave; everything will be okay,” she whispered softly.
“I can’t be around her right now, Mom. See you later.”
I drove home to waste time before going in to the shop and regretted it as soon as I walked in. All the guys were sitting around the couches eating and watching the game; Drew was the first to speak up.
“Holy shit. I think I’m starting to forget what you look like.”
“Funny. Who’s winning?”
“Oh man, Chase!” Zach said, and held a fist up while he tried to swallow whatever he was eating. “You missed a hilarious party on Friday. You know that Carter kid? Princess’s friend?”
I already didn’t want to hear this story. I hated that clown.
“Get this. Homeboy takes Princess outside and kisses her right in front of all of us, starts declaring his love for her and goes to kiss her again when Brandon and Derek stepped in and took care of it. He freaked when Brandon wouldn’t fight him and got all loud and pissy; Brad ended the entire party because of it.”
“Good.” I huffed and glanced at Brandon like he was insane. “He kissed her, and you didn’t do anything?”
He started to speak, but Derek interrupted. “He handled it how he should have, and apparently it worked for Princess, too. I heard her moaning the next morning.”
My body went rigid, and Brandon tensed as he glared at Derek. “Shut the hell up; you know not to talk about her like that.”
Derek held his hands up and smiled. “Just sayin’, she sounded more than happy with whatever you two were doing.”
“Shut up, man; you can talk about your girl all you want, but leave mine and what we do out of it.”
My hands curled into fists, and Brad stepped right in front of me and started pushing me out of the living room, talking quietly, “Don’t, Chase. We’re not going through this shit again. Just leave it alone. They’re dating, so it shouldn’t be shocking to you. You’ve got to start being okay with this.”
She was a f**king virgin, and he took that from her. I didn’t have to be okay with anything! I wanted to go back in there and beat the shit out of him more than anything, but with all of them standing around, I wouldn’t have even gotten one hit in. I thought about the time I’d just spent with her, and everything I’d just found out. Clown’s kissing her Friday, she’s screwing my best friend on Saturday, and leaning in to kiss me today? She’s gonna make me feel like shit for the few girls she’d seen me with and tell me she’d just be another girl for me? Look in a f**king mirror, Princess. Because, obviously, I’m just one of many guys for you.
“CHASE!”
I groaned and hated the fact that despite all I’d found out about her, all I wanted was to take her in my arms.
“What, you’re just not going to talk to me now?”
I kept walking down the hall and only stopped after she planted herself right in front of me, hands on her hips.