by Lauren Dane
Dedication
I’m going to miss Petal. I’ve had so much fun writing these stories of this wonderful town and family. I want to thank Angie, who read and saw the potential in Giving Chase and for giving me a home with Samhain. I’m proud to say you’re my editor and someone I count as a friend as well.
Ray, thank you for believing in me.
My fabulous friends Sparkles and Piston. Crit partners, shoulders, cheerleaders and all around fabulous goddess–type creatures. You two rock.
Beta chickies—I’m fortunate in the wonderful women who give me their time and read my books. Every single book I write is better because of their advice and suggestions. Special thanks goes to Tracy - thank you so much for being there even before I had a book published, your continual friendship and support means the world to me.
And truly, I cannot possibly thank my readers enough. Thank you to those of you who come to my chats, who hang out at my messageboard, who take the time from your busy lives to write me notes that keep me going! I am humbled by your support and love, you’re all the best.
Chapter One
Tate Murphy sat in the comfy chair at her station, sipping coffee and looking out the window. It was a Saturday in the very beginning of February. Winter had been cold but spring was beginning to imagine itself. The trees carried buds, heavy with leaves and the air wasn’t quite as chilly as it’d been even a week before.
All in all, a lovely day. Soon to be even lovelier. One leg crossed over the other, foot slowly kicking back and forth, she waited for her morning visual donut. Matt Chase.
Ah, there he was. Hot damn, her body lit up when he pulled his truck into the lot adjacent to the salon. Hopping out, he hefted a duffel bag over one shoulder and loped across the street.
“Good Lord the man looks good enough to eat,” Tate murmured as she took a drink of her coffee. Faded jeans showed off long legs and a nice, trim booty. A hoodie sweatshirt fended off the cold but didn’t stop her from seeing the work-hard body beneath. He was in dire need of a haircut and she had no trouble admitting she’d love to get her fingers in it. A bit shaggy, it curled up just around his ears and touched the back of his collar. A color like burnt sugar.
Although he had on cool-looking sunglasses, she knew the eyes beneath were a light green, fringed with chocolate lashes. Mmm. Mmmm. Mmmm.
“Ah, I see his hotness has arrived.” Anne, co-owner and her next youngest sister, stood next to her, leaning into the chair.
“Kinda makes me want to set a fire,” Tate said, one corner of her mouth lifting.
“Um, I smell something burning already. Your panties perhaps?”
Blushing furiously, she spun, laughing at Anne’s outrageous comment. “I’m gonna light a candle for you. Three.”
Anne joined her in laughter. “You just about raised me, I expect I need all the help I can get.”
“Hey, divas, did I miss him?” Beth, the last owner and next youngest sister after Anne approached to refill everyone’s coffee cup.
“Yeah, he just went inside. But there’s always lunchtime.” Sated for the morning, Tate stood and began to get all her tools in order, making sure her station was stocked and ready for the day.
Four years before, Tate and Anne had decided to buy the rundown old house at the far end of Main Street and renovate it into a hair salon. They’d scrimped, saved, worked multiple jobs and got the down-payment together and then had spent months doing the renovation work themselves. Luckily, they had a large, and free, workforce. With eight Murphy kids and two spouses to help, they’d been able to paint, knock out walls, drywall, replace the plumbing, landscape, and apply for all the proper permits and licenses. Hell, they’d even put up a new roof. A few months after Anne graduated from beauty school, Tate left her old salon in Riverton and they opened the doors to Murphy’s Cuts and Curls.
Two years after that, Beth came in as part owner and ran the business end of things. The salon was a family affair. Beth had been helping out with the books when she’d offered to buy in at a smaller share. The place would wither and die without her to, well, do everything that needed doing. Not only did she handle the books and deal with ordering supplies but if someone needed a shampoo she could do that too.
Truthfully, Tate had wanted a fancier name but their youngest sister, Jill, who was getting her degree in marketing, told them that if they kept the name folksy but not too cutesy, it’d make people more comfortable.
Jill must have had something, because from the moment they’d opened, they’d done a brisk business. Women stopped leaving town to get their hair done. Tate and Anne offered everything from the giant hairspray helmet the women like Polly Chase preferred to the stylish razor cuts her daughter-in-law Liv currently sported. It made Petal seem a friendlier place to Tate, who always had felt an outsider there.
Tate made a decent living. Enough that she’d been able to help Tim and her other siblings pay tuition at the University of Georgia for their two youngest siblings. Before that, she worked to pay for her younger brother Nathan’s college and master’s in teaching. They’d all worked together to help out when the others had needed it and that’s what counted.
“Anne, your first client of the day is a color, I’ll send her over to Tate for the cut,” Beth announced as she made another pot of coffee.
Tate looked at the place she and her sisters had built from the ground up and pride swelled her heart.
Matt tossed his clothes into the hamper with his name on it and headed toward the showers. He’d been up for sixteen hours and was dead on his feet. Too bad he didn’t have the luxury of sleeping, one of the other guys at the station had been injured at the fire they’d just put out and Matt needed to fill in for him.
As he quickly cleaned up, the scent of freshly brewing coffee cut through the steam, waking his senses. When he stumbled out into the main living area on the second floor of the firehouse, he saw his older brother Shane waiting for him.
“I heard about Tony getting hurt.” Shane’s voice was gruff as he handed Matt a cup of coffee. Matt knew it was Shane’s way of making sure he was unhurt.
“He’ll be all right. Jim had some smoke inhalation so he’s at the hospital too, just to get checked out. I wasn’t in the part of the house where the beams collapsed so I’m lucky.”
“Here, Momma sent this over. She wanted to come herself, you know how she is. But Daddy intercepted her and I promised to bring it.” Shane quickly covered his grin with a pathetic attempt at hunger as he handed a series of sealed containers to Matt.
“Come on, get that hangdog look off your face. I’m sure there’s enough for five of us.” Matt put the containers on the table and pulled out plates and utensils as Shane popped the lids off and made sounds of approval.
“Smothered pork chops, mashed potatoes, dang, she even sent over cornbread. Cassie’s gonna kill me for spoiling dinner but I can’t resist.”
Matt snorted as he filled his plate. “Yeah, ‘cause Cassie’s such a fine cook and all.”
Shane couldn’t stifle a laugh but shook his head. “You’re a bad influence on me. She may not be able to cook worth a damn but she makes up for it in other areas. Speaking of hot sexy women, how’re things going with Melanie?”
Matt shrugged. “Eh. She’s…” he paused before sighing, “…vacant. Yeah, she’s pretty and has a great body. She’s good in bed and all, but she doesn’t make me laugh. We don’t talk about anything real. She doesn’t seem to care about anything. Honestly, I want to have what you guys have. But the right woman hasn’t come along yet.”
“I used to think being married was being tied down and trapped. But Cassie, being with her changed me, changed my life. Even after being married a year and knowing her two, I haven’t found myself bored yet. The woman is
a roller coaster.” Shane chuckled.
“Well, I’m a lucky man. My sisters-in-law are all firecrackers. I want that too. I’m wondering if I’ll find her. I’m thirty-two, I’ve dated a lot of women within a thirty mile radius of Petal. Maybe she’s not out there. Maybe I fucked up with Liv and I’ll never get another chance.”
“You didn’t want Liv. You still don’t. She’s meant for Marc. All I can say is your woman is out there. I know it for a fact. I think you’re looking in the wrong places. If you want a deep woman you can laugh with, stop going out with women like Melanie. Break the pattern, Matt.”
Matt sighed as he ate. “Women like Melanie are familiar territory, you know?”
“I do know. I was you, Matt. Okay, better looking, but still, look at the women I kept ending up with. Except for Maggie, and we all know that was doomed. It wasn’t until I clapped eyes on Cassie that I knew what I wanted. Her. Forever. It took Kyle a few months and Marc a few years of knowing their women. You? I think you’re more like me. You’ll see her and you’ll know and it’ll be right.”
“You know, everyone in this town thinks you’re such a hardass. If they only knew what a sensitive person you were deep inside. I’m not being snide, I mean it. Thanks. Thanks for checking in on me and for the food and for caring.”
“You’re my brother, Matt. And my best friend. Although if you told Kyle or Marc, I’d have to say I love you all equally and crap because I’m the oldest and all.”
Matt snorted and popped his brother one on the arm.
Chapter Two
“What brings you into my bookstore today, young man?” Cassie moved from behind the counter to kiss Matt’s cheek and give him a hug.
“I just had lunch at The Sands and was on my way back to work so I thought I’d stop in to say hey.” He turned at the sound of his name as his other sister-in-law came in. “I’m surrounded by Chase women. How are you feeling, darlin’?”
Liv accepted his kiss and gave one to Cassie, who rubbed Liv’s stomach.
“I’m fine. That damned brother of yours and his super sperm. Who’da thought he’d have knocked me up so fast.” Liv patted the barely perceptible swell of her belly.
“You said you wanted a husband and a family. Well, there you go. No April Fool’s for your ovaries.” Cassie winked.
“And all within four months. Marc moves fast.” Matt was thrilled for his brother and Liv. Another grandchild for his parents and another niece or nephew to join Nicholas.
“Yeah, like honeymoon fast. Cassie got a tan on her honeymoon, I got a fetus!”
Suddenly, the screech of tires and screams sounded from outside. Matt turned and saw a car accident through the windows of the store. “Call 911!” he yelled as he headed toward the door.
He saw a woman lying in the street and his heart sped as his professional side took over.
“Everyone needs to back up. An ambulance is on the way.” He knelt next to the woman, who groaned and put her hand up to her face. A trickle of blood oozed from a cut on her forehead. “Miss, how are you feeling?”
Her eyes fluttered open, bright blue eyes, and widened for a moment before she tried to sit up.
“No, stay still. I don’t want you to move until I know more.” Quickly and efficiently, he skimmed his hands over her. She’d received some abrasions on the backs of her arms where the pavement had ripped her shirtsleeves.
“I’m all right. Really. He wasn’t even going that fast.”
“What happened?” Shane jogged up as the ambulance arrived.
An elderly woman who’d apparently seen the accident came forward to explain as Matt and Shane helped the paramedics. “Charlie pulled away from the curb and Tate here got jostled. Bunch of boys from the high school on skateboards. Rushing to get back to school I’d wager. Anyway, looked to me like they rushed past and she got pushed out into traffic. He couldn’t have been going too fast.”
“Those boys need to be put in jail!” one of the gathered people called out.
“No, no, they didn’t mean to hurt me. Honestly. They’re just silly kids doing silly kid stuff. I’m just a bit scuffed up,” the woman, the witness had called her Tate, said from the gurney.
“Miss Murphy, I’ll send someone to the hospital to take your statement. Just get yourself over there and get checked. Don’t worry about anything else just now,” Shane reassured her and Matt closed the doors to the ambulance and stepped back.
“I’ve got to get back to the station. I’ll talk to you later. I didn’t see anything but if you need a statement, you know where I’m at.”
No freaking way did Matt Chase rub up all over her while she lay sprawled in the street like a drunken hobo! Tate couldn’t believe her luck. The closest she’d ever been to the man and of course she had to have a torn shirt, bleeding face and her back-of-the-drawer panties. Special. Well okay, so he didn’t see her panties or anything but she’d known they were on. And she’d noticed, as Tim had insisted on driving her home, she’d spilled something or other on her shirt.
“Tate, honey, I doubt he noticed the stain on your shirt.” Anne laughed as Tate regaled her with the story the following day.
“Well I suppose I should be glad I didn’t toot or have a giant booger or something.”
Anne snorted. “I can’t believe you got hit by a car. What’s the world coming to when teenaged boys shove a woman into the path of an oncoming car?”
“Drama much? They didn’t shove me into the street and Charlie Wilks was doing five miles an hour tops. Which is only two miles an hour slower than he drives at full speed. He’s a hundred-and-fifty years old, I’m just glad he stopped instead of thinking I was a blonde-headed speed bump.”
“I still think you should have pressed charges.”
“Their parents made them come to my house and apologize. Really, Anne, they were sorry. And Tim scowled at them extra hard. You know that face.”
“One of the only helpful things any of us got from Dad,” Anne mumbled.
“I don’t suppose either one of them bothered to call,” Jill called out from her perch in the window seat, looking up from a book.
“Good Lord, go back to school already.” Beth bustled past and put towels at everyone’s stations. “You know they didn’t and thank God for that. Mom is off with some dude in Dallas and Dad is in the bottom of a bottle. I doubt they even know Tate moved out much less got hit by a car.”
“Children, please.” Tate sighed as she shook her head. Jacob and Jill had come back to town immediately when they’d heard about the accident. Jacob was out working with Tim for the day at his plumbing business and Jill was doing some studying.
“Ahh, my ten o’clock is here.” Anne turned and smiled as Polly Chase came click-clacking into the shop. “Good morning, Mrs. Chase! How are you today?”
Polly patted her hair and smiled. “I’m good, sugar. I’ve got a bit of a dent here in the back so I need a good, solid re-do from you. My roots may be in need of a bit of TLC too.” She winked and Tate grinned. If there was a person who could resist Polly Chase, Tate hadn’t met them yet.
“Good morning, Tate, honey. I hear you had a little run-in with Charlie’s front bumper yesterday. You all right?” Polly’s cheeky mood softened into concern. Tate was nearly as short as Polly so it wasn’t hard to let herself get pulled into a hug.
“Oh I’m fine. Just a bump on the head. Both your sons were there to help though.”
Polly brightened. Tate did love that about Mrs. Chase—the way she doted on her family. What she wouldn’t have given to have a mother like her instead of what they all got in Tina.
“Shane’s the one who told me, but I haven’t seen any of my other boys.”
“Matt helped until the ambulance got there. He was very gentle.” And he smelled really good.
“He’s a good boy. They all are. I’m glad you’re all right, honey. I would have called you right away last night but Maggie said she talked with Nathan and all your siblings were on the job. If you
need anything at all don’t you hesitate to ask.” Of course, Nathan, Tate’s brother the teacher worked with Maggie and would have told her all about it. Small town gossip moved fast.
“Thank you, Mrs. Chase. I appreciate that.”
Anne helped Polly to the shampoo station. Draping her to protect her clothes, she got to work while Beth went to mix the color they’d need.
Tate had several cuts right in a row and kept busy for the rest of the day, in between her siblings dropping by the shop to check in on her.
At two-thirty she swapped out her teal-blue kitten heel slides for a pair of sneakers. “I’m going to pick Belle, Sally and Danny up from school. I’ll be back in a few.”
“Let me do it,” Jill piped up.
“Look here, missy, you have an exam you need to study for. You shouldn’t even be here. I can walk the four blocks to the grade school and pick them up and take them to William and Cindy’s. Same as I do every Wednesday.”
“You will not.” Anne came into the reception area. “William is picking the kids up. I told you that this morning. Tate, you got hit by a car. A. Car. You can cut yourself a one day break.”
“I made a commitment. They expect Aunt Tate to pick them up every Wednesday. Just as Uncle Nathan picks them up on Tuesdays and Auntie Beth on Fridays and mommies and daddies on other days. That’s what family does. We keep our promises and we don’t let each other down.”
Anne pulled Tate into a hug and said softly into her ear, “You’re not drunk or passed out in some hotel room with a stranger and they’re not starving. Tate, honey, your family never doubts for a millisecond your commitment to them. We know. Belle, Sally, Danny and Shaye know you love them but got hurt yesterday. Let us help you for a change.”
As she’d done many times in her life, she let her family make her feel better.
By the end of the day she was glad she’d listened because her muscles ached and her head hurt. The doctor had said she’d most likely have some soreness and a headache for a while on and off. She took some pain reliever and hoped for a quiet night for a change.