The Look of Love
Page 42

She could see that flicker of frustration on his face. The same one that had him taking her up against the front door a couple of hours ago.
Why did she keep pushing him like this? Why couldn’t she just accept that he meant what he said about her?
But she knew why, knew that deep down she was afraid she was the same twenty-two-year-old girl who had fallen for her ex’s lines, his pretty words, for a warmth she’d so desperately wanted to believe was there...and ended up marrying a man who didn’t know—or like her—at all.
Chloe didn’t know what she expected Chase to say, if she’d thought he would drag her into the back of the restaurant to teach her another lesson about just how good they were together, but she definitely didn’t expect him to reach into his jacket pocket, pull out an envelope, and put it on the table.
She looked at it, then up at him just as he said, “I didn’t fall in love with you because you’re so lovely it hurts to look at you. I didn’t fall in love with you because you make love like a dream. All of that is just a bonus.”
She swallowed hard. Those three sentences had just made the top ten things any man had ever said to her.
Her hands trembled as she picked up the envelope.
She could tell there were pictures inside it. And she was afraid to look at them.
Not because she was worried about not looking pretty...but because she’d learned over the past few days that Chase saw everything.
Especially the things people were trying their hardest to hide.
Finally, she slipped a finger beneath the flap and pulled out the small stack of photos.
She was laughing in the photo on top of the stack. Her mouth was wide open, her head was thrown back as she looked at something on Amanda’s phone.
“She was showing me one of those funny auto-correct lists. A woman had texted her husband ‘I’m pregnant’ and he wrote back ‘I’m leaving you’ when what he meant to say was ‘I’m leaving now’ because he wanted to come home and celebrate with her.”
Tentatively, Chloe turned to the next photo. She was laughing again, this time in the middle of the pool, after falling in while trying to help fix Amanda’s hat at just the right angle.
A smile moved onto her lips before she realized it was coming. “I had such a great time with everyone,” she said softly before turning to the next photo.
Chase had captured her talking with Marcus that night at the party at his house. She’d been loose because of the wine and had let down her guard with Marcus after a surprisingly fun day with everyone. It was obvious just how desperate she’d been to let happiness take root within her heart again.
Thrown off by what Chase was showing her about herself, she moved on to the next picture, one where she was packing up dresses and a half-dozen beautiful fabrics were spread out across her lap.
She’d never seen herself look like that, had never see herself dreaming before.
Emotion threatened to swamp her, so she quickly moved to the next picture in the stack.
Oh.
If only she’d stopped with the fabrics, with the dreaming, with the desperate longing for happiness.
The final picture was from that first afternoon out in the vineyards, when she’d looked up at the end of the day and Chase had his lens pointed at her. She remembered the terror of knowing she hadn’t hid her feelings for him. Feelings she hadn’t even been able to understand because they were so raw, so new.
So pure.
“Ask me again how I know you’re special, Chloe.”
The pictures dropped from her fingers onto the table.
She didn’t need to ask.
Chase had shifted his seat so that he was sitting close enough to hold her hand beneath the tablecloth.
“Thank you,” she said softly, her throat clogged with emotion. “It’s been a wonderful night.” She licked her lips, squeezed his hand with hers. “A perfect night.”
Oh God, she was going to cry, could feel the tears building up, threatening to spill. All it would take was one sweet word, one heartfelt look, and she’d be a goner.
She was working so hard on holding those tears back that she didn’t notice Chase standing up until she felt him gently tugging at her hand. Blinking up at him in confusion, she rose to her feet and let him lead her across the room, his hand on the small of her back, simultaneously comforting and arousing. He pulled her into his arms and they were dancing to the song the three-piece jazz band in the corner had just begun playing.
The Look of Love.
Chloe lifted her face to his in surprise. “This song.” She flicked a gaze at the band, then back at him, shaking her head. “It’s almost like they know about—”
Her voice broke before she could finish the sentence. But she had to. Had to admit it to herself. To Chase.
Her voice so soft she didn’t know if Chase would even be able to hear her, she whispered, “It’s like they know about the way you look at me. About the way you’ve always looked at me.”
And, she now knew from seeing that picture he’d taken of her in the vineyard that first night, it was the way she’d always looked at him, too.
With love.
And with his large, strong body cradling hers, with his heart pounding against hers, Chloe pressed her face into his shoulder...and finally let her tears come.
* * *
Chase had never felt like this before, like his heart was breaking one beat at a time as Chloe softly cried while they danced.
He wanted to give her everything. He wanted to slay all her dragons. He wanted to hold her close and never let her go. He’d told her he loved her, but he knew she still believed she needed to leave him to prove that she was a strong person.
She’d told him the night was perfect, but she was crying.
His whole life, he’d always known exactly what to do. Women hadn’t been much of a challenge, but now he knew that was because he’d never really cared before.
Until he’d fallen in love with Chloe.
Chase wished there was a simple answer, wished he could convince himself it was as easy as taking her ex-husband apart for ever hurting her in the first place, and that once he dissolved the threat to Chloe’s well-being, everything would be fine.
But how many times had he and his brothers gone out to avenge a wrong against one of his sisters, only to end up the bad guy, only to have them cry, “I’m not a baby! When are you going to let me stand up for myself?”
How the hell was Chase going to let her go and do what she believed she needed to do?
And how much would she hate him if he couldn’t do it?