by Dyanne Davis
“Sure,” she answered. And just like that her decision had been made. She’d never had so much fun in her life. It was seven in the morning by the time Sam was driving her home. When they pulled up in front of her building, he smirked.
“I see Chase is waiting for you,”
“Yeah, I guess I might as well go in. Thanks, Sam, this was one of the best nights of my life. I wouldn’t have missed this for anything.” She gave him a quick hug before he attempted to kiss her.
When Rebe walked into her apartment the last thing she expected to see was Chase standing in the kitchen making breakfast. He glanced at her and turned his attention back to his cooking.
“Chase, I’m─”
“Save it, Rebe. Would you like a cup of coffee? I just made it.”
“Thank you.”
She stared at Chase before walking into the kitchen and taking a seat at the kitchen counter.
“Did you sleep with Sam?” Chase asked as he sat the coffee down in front of her.
“Of course not.” Rebe answered, insulted. “Why would you think that?”
“Take a look at the clock, Rebe. You made me a promise last night. Yet, you didn’t bother to come home, or to call. Not only didn’t you bother to contact me, I’m not a fool, you turned your phone off in order for me to not be able to reach you. Tell me, is Sam still alive?”
“Why don’t you say what you’re trying to say?”
“Rebe, if you want out of this relationship, why don’t you just say so? What do you think is going to happen? It’s not as though either of us will die. We will move on. But this time, I want you to remember that I kept my promise to you. I’ve been trying.” Chase turned from her and returned to cooking.
“Are you making enough for me?”
“Of course. I was going to make a plate for you and put it in the microwave, but now...”
“You know when we’re done eating we could take a shower together and get back into bed.”
“Back into bed?”
“You can get back into bed. Chase. I wasn’t in bed with Sam or anyone. I went to meet Sam’s family. I was having a good time with them. I’d already screwed up with you and knew you were annoyed so I gave myself permission to enjoy myself. I knew you’d be angry no matter what time I returned. So, I stayed.”
“You left a business meeting in order to meet Sam’s family. Do I have that straight?”
“Yes.”
“And that’s your only excuse?”
“Yes.”
“Did this have anything to do with the favor you promised Sam several months ago when he took you to the dance?”
“He thought it was the reason I said yes. But I really did want to meet his family. They’re leaving tomorrow. Chase, I’m not sorry I went.”
“I can see that.” Chase dished the food up into plates and handed one to her, then he began to eat. “About that shower, Rebe, I think I’ll take it at home.”
“How about tomorrow? Will you still have dinner with Kandi and Sam?”
“Of course, Rebe. I’m not that petty. I’ll meet the three of you at the restaurant.”
Rebe wasn’t getting a good feeling about any of this. She knew she’d been wrong in the way she’d treated Chase with utter disrespect. He didn’t deserve that. Neither did their client. They ate in silence and when they were done Chase took the plates to the sink kissed her on the forehead and left.
Rebe had been too afraid to call Chase the next day. She’d have to wait and see if he would really meet them for dinner. If he didn’t she wondered what kind of excuse she would make. More than likely he was still ticked and if he didn’t show it wouldn’t be a total surprise. In fact she’d forgive him for it. He did owe her one because of the way she’d treated him the night before last.
They were sitting around the table waiting for Chase when he called to say he couldn't make it. No one said too much about it just ordered drinks.
When they were on their second round of drinks, Sam’s body stiffened. He’d gone from smiling at Rebe to glaring. But it wasn't at her. Rebe followed Sam’s look and saw he was also not glaring at Kandi. Her instincts screamed for her to turn around. Shuddering she didn’t want to for she was pretty sure what she’d see. There could be only one thing that would have made Sam so angry.
Finally Rebe turned. Chase with his tongue down some woman's throat was the culprit for Sam’s rage. But that was crazy; they were supposed to be having dinner, at this very restaurant where he'd called to say he couldn't make it.
The light finally came on for Rebe. Chase was being the good guy, the hero. It might have looked like payback, it might have even been payback. But Rebe was sure Chase’s motive was to get her to make a decision.
Before Rebe could explain Sam was up and marching toward Chase, and Kandi was following. Didn't they know what was going on? Chase was making things easier for her.
“Sam, stop,” Rebe reached for him and attempted to hold his arms, but it was like holding a piece of steal. “No,” he said. “You stay out of this.” Then he turned to Chase and Rebe froze.
“Seriously, Chase, I told you what would happen if you hurt Rebe again.”
Again Rebe attempted to plead with Sam. “Sam, please don't. Stop okay. It’s okay.”
“It is not okay,” Sam roared.
“It’s not your business. I'll take care of this.” Rebe saw the anger in Sam’s eyes and almost stopped. “Sam, I'm not in need of rescuing. I don't need a hero, real or otherwise.”
Then she did something that surprised all of them. She put both of her hands on Sam’s back and shoved him. “Please just go back to the table.” Turning to face Chase she said, “Chase, we’ll talk tomorrow. Just do me a favor and go someplace else for dinner. She stood between Chase and Sam as Chase got up and escorted the woman he was with from the restaurant. Then she calmly went back to the table and perused her menu. She couldn’t help smiling at what Chase had done. Maybe he'd done it for her, himself, or for both of them.
Kandi and Sam were looking at her as though she'd lost her mind. They were both glaring at her.
“Look you two, Chase knew this was where we were going to meet. He's not stupid. He was giving me a way out.”
“You're crazy. If that was what he was after, he could have just broken it off with you.”
“And I could have broken up with him. But I didn't and neither did he. Instead I chose to stay out until seven in the morning with you, Sam. And I chose to turn my phone off after I’d told Chase I’d meet him back at my apartment. He did this for me. Don't either of you see that? He was being heroic.”
“Oh God, not that again. Please don't tell me you're even thinking of going back to him.” Sam held his fisted hands in the air. “I could joyfully strangle you, Rebe. If you fall for this…I promise you, I will─”
“Chase and I are going to talk, Sam. What happened tonight is my concern, not yours. Look, this dinner was supposed to be about the three of us renewing our friendship. Stop glaring at me and let's order. “
“This dinner was not about the three of us. It was supposed to have been for us to try and stomach your boyfriend. Now that’s totally shot to hell,” Sam shot back.
“You may as well get over what happened tonight and order, because I'm going to eat dinner.”
Neither Kandi nor Sam bothered to order dinner just another drink. They both stared at her the entire time. And she could just imagine they were both thinking she was going to like the hero aspect of what Chase had done. To be honest she did. She couldn’t help smiling. And the more Sam and Kandi glared the more she smiled.
Chapter Sixteen
Monday morning was the beginning of a new phase in Rebe’s life. She knew what it was she was finally going to do. Knocking on Chase's office door, she waited patiently until he told her she could come in. His eyes wouldn't meet hers, but she was about to put his mind at ease.
“Chase.”
“I'm sorry, Rebe.”
“I didn
’t come in here to ream you out. I came to thank you for the last three years. You've helped me to get to a place where I can open my heart and take a risk. You've prepared me to love and be loved in return.”
“You're not talking about me are you?”
She laughed. “No I'm not. I'm ready to tell Sam that I’m in love with him and have been for a very long time.”
“I was holding out hope that you were too afraid to fall in love with me because of my past behavior. I didn’t want to believe you were seriously in love with Sam. How can you be sure?”
“Because he's everything I need. He loves me, Chase. I am his main concern; my happiness is what matters to him.”
“You're just angry.”
“For once, I'm not upset with you. We have had fun together and I've enjoyed most of it. But we were never in love. We couldn't even pretend to be. The most we could do was take a stab at having a committed relationship, and we failed miserably at that.”
“You mean I failed.”
“We both failed. All the kissing I was doing with Sam was wrong, no matter what you had done. Since my brother's death I haven't wanted to feel anything. I could do that with you, Chase. I could not want all the emotions that go along with being in love. That’s not us. We do care about each other, but our thing has been fun. I want more. I’m finally growing up.”
“Your growing up means you don’t think I have but you believe Sam is mature enough to be the man you want.
Sam has been so patient. He’s waited for me to see him. I see him, Chase. I’m going to duke it out with him and I’m going to accept all the crazy things that go along with being in love. I know Sam is going to make me crazy, but I want to give it a chance.”
“Like you gave us?”
“Chase, I do think if we had tried to have a monogamous relationship before I realized I had feelings for Sam it would have gone a lot smoother. I want you to know that you played an important role in my life and I'm grateful. You're fun and I enjoyed our time together. I don't want it to be awkward between us. “
“But what can Sam give you? He doesn't have any money. He can't help you advance here at the firm. He has nothing.”
“That's not quite true. He has me.”
“Are you really okay with me?”
“I'm okay.”
“Were you telling me the truth when you said you hadn’t slept with Sam?”
“I would have never done that without breaking up with you first.” A smile was trying to break out on Rebe’s face and she allowed it. “You forget, I’m a romance writer. I have to follow the rules. The heroine can’t sleep with two guys. She’s required to break up with one before she begins a relationship with the other. But now that I’ve done that I plan to do everything in a bed with Sam that two people can do.”
“I guess if you’re the heroine that would make Sam the hero, and me, the villain.”
“You were never the villain.”
“I gather you haven’t told Sam yet that you’re in love with him.”
“It wouldn’t have been right. “
“I take it he’s the reason we didn’t have sex for over a month.”
“Probably, but it wasn’t anything I planned. I really wanted things to work between the two of us, Chase. I was too afraid of what being in love with Sam would mean.”
“And now?”
And now, I plan on giving him my heart. It’s a bit scary because I know what that means. I’m going to give him the power to break my heart.”
Rebe moved closer to Chase and smiled when he jerked away as though he'd thought she was going to strike him. She chuckled and threw her arms around him hugging him.
“I did want to be committed to you, Rebe.”
“I know. But I also know one day you’re going to fall in love. It’s going to happen out of the blue. As for the two of us, we both tried and love shouldn't be about trying. I’ve been looking for a hero. All along I had my hero and didn't know it. One day you're going to find your perfect woman, your heroine, Chase, and I'm going to be happy for you. I promise when it happens you’re not going to have to try to be committed to her. You just will.” Rebe pulled away and Chase brought her back and kissed her hard, then he pulled away.
“I had to try. You’re serious aren’t you?”
“I know you had to try, you didn't believe me.”
“And I owed it to Sam to kiss you. After all he kept kissing you while I was doing my best to be committed to you.”
“You're not going to blame Sam are you, Chase?”
“I'd like to, it would make me feel better about hurting you, and you turning to him as your rebound guy.”
Rebe laughed and shook her head. “Seriously, you didn't hurt me. That’s part of the problem. Your cheating should have hurt me, but it never did, not really. By the way, Sam is not my rebound guy. He's my guy.” She grinned. “I love him. I really do. By the way I know what you did last night. That’s part of the reason I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to thank you.”
“What did I do?”
“You forced me to make a decision. You were being heroic.”
“Yeah, but you were supposed to choose me.”
“I'm not sure at all if that was your plan. But you were right. For the last month I've been sitting on the fence. You've helped me to see that. Thank you.”
She wasn't sure if Chase really understood but he was pleased that she wasn't making a scene. Turning to walk away he stopped her.
“Mr. Edgar’s wants us to go to see a client in New York, this afternoon. We’re taking the company jet. That won’t be too bad. Remember that swanky art show he gave us tickets to? Well, he forgot to mention it’s also in New York. He wants us to select a piece of art for the office. I think since you've aligned yourself with a penniless artist perhaps it would be good to see how the really good artists live. We leave at four.”
“Are you serious?” Rebe was distressed. She had planned to tell Sam she was in love with him, and to conclude that with a long slow evening of love making.
“We’ve got a crazy busy day today. We have a meeting with Mr. Stone in about forty-five minutes. I arranged to have him give us another shot. I told him you had an emergency the other night when you left the restaurant. We can still win him over and this time you shouldn’t object. It’s in the office. We need to get started. We have back to back meetings. There’s also a partners’ meeting that I haven’t been invited to. It looks like something big is going down, but I don’t have any details.”
“Why not? You’re a partner.”
“I guess being a junior partner doesn’t give me access to whatever the heck is going on.” Chase shrugged. “Are we going to be able to continue working together? I hope so because we really are the best team around.”
“You still want me to work with you?”
“Of course. Rebe, I meant it when I said I didn’t chose you to work with me because we were in a relationship, but because you’re a damn good lawyer.”
Chase’s words made Rebe beam. “Thank you. Yes, I’d love nothing more than to continue working together. I think we may have to change things around a bit though. Sam goes absolutely crazy with even the thought of me bringing in clients by being sexy. I had never looked at it that way before, but I’m seeing a lot of things differently these days. I’m seeing things through Sam’s eyes.”
“Oh, God, No…” Chase laughed. “We’ve lost a good one.”
Rebe laughed also. “Stop it. It matters what Sam thinks of me. I told you that. It matters a lot. So yes, I want to continue working with you and no, to me dressing sexy and giving our male clients the idea that I might be available.”
“And our female clients?”
“I don’t think you should give them the idea that you’re available either. We’re both good lawyers.”
“Sam doesn’t think I am.”
“That doesn’t matter. You are a good lawyer. We’re both too good to use sexuality to bring in clients.”
A hard knock on the door made Rebe and Chase turn toward the sound in the same instant. Chase called out, “Come in,” and Rebe waited.
Mary Ann, the office receptionist, stuck her head in. “Rebe, Kandi has been trying to reach you. She said your cell wasn’t on and that it’s an emergency. There’s been some kind of accident. I put the call through to Chase’s office. You can take it on three.”
Barely glancing at Chase for his approval to take the call in his office, Rebe was snatching up the phone. “Kandi, what’s wrong?”
“Rebe, Sam’s been in an accident, a three car pile-up. He’s at Edward’s Hospital in Naperville. I don’t have any more details. I’m on my way there.”
Cold sweat ran over Rebe’s body and she closed her eyes. She was trembling. Chase came over to her. “Rebe, what’s wrong?” he asked. “Are your parents okay?”
“It’s Sam. He’s been in a car accident... a three car pile-up. He’s at Edward’s in Naperville. She held Case’s gaze. “I have to go.”
“Rebe, we have an important meeting with, Mr. Stone. We can’t blow it, not twice. If we don’t take the meeting, he’s not going to sign on with us.”
“You handle it. I’m going to the hospital.” She took off running toward the parking lot but before she could reach her car, Chase was there.
“You’re in no condition to drive. I’ll take you,” Chase said taking her arm and directing her to his car.
“What about the meeting?”
“I asked my secretary to try and arrange it for later in the week. She’ll call me and let me know. But I’m not going to let you go to Naperville alone. We’re a team. This is an unavoidable emergency.”
“Thanks, Chase.” Rebe remained silent for a few seconds before turning to Chase. “What if Sam doesn’t’ make it?”
“Don’t think like that. You don’t even know how bad it is.”
“But I’m worried.”