Excerpt
Apparently
she was doing this whole flirting thing wrong.
Had to be.
It was the
only reasonable explanation for why Chase hadn’t picked up on the fact that she
was interested in him.
Maybe she
was trying too hard?
For the
past four days she had made little comments with hidden innuendos and had done
her best to make it obvious she was checking him out. And then there was the
somewhat revealing clothing she chose to wear around him; another effort to
help catch his eye and let him know what she was thinking.
But none of
that was working with Chase.
Of course,
there was always just telling him that she’d changed her mind and wanted
something more between them. But for some reason she just couldn’t muster up
the guts to tell him that. Maybe she was just too much of a chicken to admit
that she’d been wrong this whole time.
“Lookin’
good,” she heard Chase say, his voice drifting up to her from where he stood on
the ground.
Okay, so
maybe she wasn’t doing something wrong after all. She stopped her brushstrokes
against the house and held onto the ladder as she looked down to him.
“Liking
what you see, O’Donnell?” she asked him, adding a generous amount of
flirtatiousness to her voice.
“Yes,
ma’am,” Chase answered her with a grin from beneath the brim of his baseball
cap. “You weren’t kidding when you said you were good at painting.”
Oh.
She tried
to hide her disappointment as she looked back to the house and continued with
her task.
“I’m all
done down here,” Chase said. “Let me know when you’re done and ready to come
down. I’ll hold the ladder for you.”
“Okay,”
Norah answered him, not bothering to look his way.
Brushing
the last few strokes of the sunny yellow paint against the house, Norah tossed
her paintbrush into the container of paint and began making her way down the
ladder.
At least,
that’s what she’d meant to do.
With her
mind still focused on Chase and his inability to pick up on her come-ons, Norah
tossed the brush against the rim of the paint container instead of inside of
it. It flopped off of the top and spiraled down to the ground. Norah
instinctively reached out to grab it, causing the ladder to unbalance.
“Oh no!”
she shouted.
The brush
would’ve landed in the grass if Chase hadn’t scurried over to the ladder to
steady it, but instead it slapped right on top of his navy ball cap and slid
down the brim before falling to the ground.
Norah
sucked in a shocked breath of air. “Oh my God.”
She hurried
and made her way down the ladder, careful to hold onto the paint container in
her hand so she didn’t have any more accidents. With a few last steps
remaining, Norah jumped from the ladder and set the container on the ground
before looking to Chase.
His
expression was blank, almost dumbstruck.
“Chase?”
Norah asked cautiously.
“What. The.
Hell?” Chase asked, speaking the words slowly and quietly.
“I am so
sorry,” Norah said. “I didn’t mean—”
“I told you
to let me know when you were ready to come down,” Chase said. “What were you
thinking?”
“I—”
He cut her
off. “You could’ve fallen and seriously hurt yourself.”
“But I
didn’t,” she told him, trying to smooth out the situation.
“Thankfully,”
Chase said, let out a relieved sigh as he took his hat off and ran a hand
through his hair. “You’re gonna kill me, woman.” He then looked at his hat and
his eyes widened at the bright yellow paint streaked across it. “Ah, damn it.
This is my favorite hat.”
Norah bit
her lip to keep from laughing but couldn’t contain it. She let out a short
burst of laughter and quickly covered her mouth with her hand. “I’m sorry,
I’m—”
Chase narrowed
his eyes as he looked at her. “You think this is funny?”
“No,” Norah
quickly said but then changed it to, “Well, yes, it is kind of funny when you
think about it.” She laughed again.
“Oh, okay,”
Chase said with a nod as he placed his hat back on his head and quickly reached
to the ground for the paintbrush.
He popped
back up before she had a chance to dodge out of the way and slapped the brush
against the front of her shirt; her favorite dark gray Rolling Stones t-shirt.
Her mouth fell open as he drug the yellow paint between her breasts down to the
knot she had tied at the hem of her shirt.
“You jerk,”
she gasped.
He gave her
a smart-ass smirk as he dropped the paintbrush. “How’s that for funny?”
“You ruined
my shirt,” she told him, her voice still full of disbelief as she tugged on the
fabric to look at the damage done.
“And you
ruined my hat,” Chase said. “So now we’re even. What do you know about the
Rolling Stones anyway?” He gave her a half smile and knelt on the grass as he
collected the paintbrushes.
She dropped
the soft fabric and planted a hand on her hip. “Is that supposed to be a dig at
me? ‘Oh that country girl don’t know nothin’ about good music’,” she said,
deepening her voice for that last part.
Chase
chuckled and looked at her. “Was that supposed to be me?”
She smiled
bashfully. “Maybe.”
Chase
grabbed all of the brushes and dropped them in an empty bucket before walking
back over to her. “Look, I’m sorry if I offended you,” he said and shrugged his
shoulders. “I’m just surprised. I thought you only liked country music.”
“Well I
don’t,” Norah told him. “That’s like me assuming you only like rock or rap or
something.”
“Well,
which is it?” Chase asked her, the corner of his mouth turning up slightly.
“Give it a guess. Let’s see just how well you think you know me?”
She gave
him a playful smirk. “Okay.” Crossing her arms over her chest, Norah brought
one of her hands up to her face and tapped her finger against her chin as she
thought about her answer. “I’m thinking you’re more into upbeat tunes rather
than the slow stuff. Right so far?”
“That’s a
good start,” Chase said.
“And even
though you like today’s music you really prefer the older stuff.”
“Right
again.”
Norah
pursed her lips as she continued to tap her chin with her finger. “I’m thinking
you’re a seventies kind of man.”
Chase
applauded her. “Nicely done, Miss McKade.”
“Why thank
you, Mr. O’Donnell,” Norah said and uncrossed her arms. “But I’ll do you one
better. I bet you I can go as far to guess who your favorite artist from that
time is.”
“Okay,”
Chase told her, clearly amused. “Let’s hear it.”
“Hmm?”
Norah said as she pursed her lips again and moved her eyes to look at the sky.
“Let’s see there’s Foghat, Aerosmith, The Who—” She stopped short and snapped
her fingers as she looked directly at him. “I got it! ABBA.”
“ABBA?”
Chase said with a raised eyebrow and gave her a befuddled expression.
“Mmm-hmm,”
Norah replied with a teasing smile. “You know you rock ‘Dancing Queen’ when
nobody’s looking. Don’t deny it.”
Chase shook
his head with a small laugh. “I think you are sorely mistaken. But good try
though.” He walked away from her and back to the mess of supplies scattered
about the ground.
“Aw, did I
hurt your feelings?” Norah asked, sporting a pouty face as she followed him.
“A little,”
Chase joked, sniffing as he wiped away a fake tear with the back of his hand.
“Aw. Cheer
up, Chase,” Norah said in a fun and almost girlish voice as she gently grabbed
at his side. “Come on. Come on.” She continued her efforts to tickle a smile
out of him but it just wasn’t working out for her.
“What are
you doing, woman?” Chase asked, lifting his arm to watch her.
“Trying to
make you laugh,” she answered.
“I’m not
ticklish,” Chase told her and blocked her hand from grabbing at his side.
“I bet you
are,” Norah said. “You’re just really good at hiding it.”
She laughed
softly as she grabbed for his side again, but was a bit caught off guard when
Chase took hold of her wrist. Simultaneously, and before she even had time to
move out of the way, Chase reached out with his other hand and grabbed at her
side just as she had previously done to him. Norah shrieked and scrunched her
body before quickly jumping away from Chase.
“Oh, are
you serious?” Chase asked with a wide grin. “Look who is ticklish.”
“Chase,
don’t you dare,” Norah warned, giving him a stern look and pointing her finger
at him.
He stalked
towards her.
“I’m
warning you,” Norah said, walking backwards to keep an eye on Chase. The back
of her leg hit one of the paint buckets and she instinctively looked down for
the briefest moment before returning her eyes to Chase. He was standing no more
than a few feet away from her, staring at her with a hungry look in his eyes.
She took a
slight step to the side.
He
followed.
She took
another step in the opposite direction.
He followed
once more.
Her fun
little game of let’s-get-a-laugh-out-Of-Chase had quickly turned into a game of
cat and mouse with Norah being the prey and Chase being the hunter.
Keeping her
eyes on Chase, Norah slowly began to take another step but quickly faked it and
bolted in the opposite direction. Her efforts to escape him were fruitless.
Chase quickly caught up to her and swung both of his arms around her waist,
picking her feet off of the ground as he pulled her to him.
“Chase!”
Norah squealed as he tickled her. She laughed uncontrollably as she attempted
to free herself from his hold.
He was
laughing too. The deep sound of his voice was right against her ear, sending what
felt like a current of electricity down her neck and spine.
Norah had
no objection to being pressed against Chase the way she was. All she needed,
though, was for him to stop tickling her long enough for her to take advantage
of it. She swatted at his hands and attempted to wiggle free but only caused
herself to lose balance. She fell to the ground and took Chase with her.
“Oh my
God!” Norah shouted between laughs. “Stop! I can’t breathe!”
Chase
laughed breathlessly and removed his hands from her waist, resting them against
the ground on either side of her body.
She focused
on taking slow, deep breaths as she stared into Chase’s green eyes. How she had
been able to say no to that face time after time was a wonder to her. But even
though the man was extremely attractive, that wasn’t the only reason she wanted
to be with him. She honestly and truly liked him for who he was and she was
going to tell him exactly how she felt right now. Either that, or kiss the hell
out of him.
