“I wish you luck.”
She smiled at the sincerity in his voice. “Email me the location and time you want to meet and I’ll be there.”
“That’s a promise?” he asked.
“It’s a promise,” she vowed.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” There was a sexy huskiness to his words that made her anticipate the time with him as much as she anticipated a short time of freedom.
Their conversation stayed with her as she ended the call. It stayed with her as she searched her contacts for the real estate agent’s number. She wouldn’t be able to forget about Chase easily today...or their plans for tomorrow.
* * *
South by Southwest, a music and media conference in Austin, was a huge event. Lucie had read up on it last night and she understood it was full of aspiring songwriters, from almost-making-it stars who sang their hearts out to musicians who just wanted to play music. A singer might play four live sets in twenty-four hours to get noticed, to engage an audience, to elicit applause. Refreshments were plentiful, from jalapeño margaritas to the best barbecue sandwiches. There were indoor and outside stages, private parties and plenty of public brouhaha. It was one big party, and Lucie found herself grinning from ear to ear as she met Chase.
He seemed to know all the ins and outs and exactly where he wanted to go. He had a printout and a backpack, water bottles and hats emblazoned with a South X Southwest emblem for both of them.
“It seems like I’m going to be taking a trek into the wild,” she joked, feeling at home in her wig and her gauzy blouse and skirt...at home with him.
“It can get pretty wild.”
“Do you come every year?”
“I try to.”
Lucie found herself letting go of anxiety and worry they’d be discovered when Chase hooked his arm into hers. They stood at showcases, listening to everything from indie rock to hip-hop. Most of the time they couldn’t talk because the music was loud and the crowds were thick. They walked around Sixth Street and hopped in and out of restaurants as well as a few bars to hear alternative and traditional music.
“I’m glad you took my advice and wore flat shoes,” he said, studying her espadrilles.
“I always take good advice.”
Chase laughed.
After having to use earplugs at one venue—Chase had thought of those, too—they stopped at a shop for iced coffee and then walked some more.
Music, food, people of all shapes and sizes in all types of attire abounded.
Country music poured from a restaurant they passed and Chase snagged Lucie’s arm and pulled her inside. There, they found a high table for two.
After they ordered ribs and cheese fries, Chase said, “We could go somewhere with more refined fare, but I thought you’d want to stay in the center of the action.”
There was a small dance floor filled with people. Chase nodded to them. “Have you ever danced the two-step?”
“I’ve never learned that one,” Lucie admitted, eyeing the couples warily.
“It’ll be a while before our food gets here. Come on.” He stood and grabbed her hand.
“Chase, I don’t know. I don’t want to make a fool of myself. I know how to waltz and fox-trot, but—”
He eyed her and interrupted her protest. “Don’t you ever try anything you’re not sure you’re good at?”
“Not usually,” she confessed.
He laughed out loud. “Well, today’s a first. Come on.”
Standing, he held his hand out to her. Finally after a few seconds, she took it and let him lead her to the dance floor. When Chase’s arm went around Lucie, she felt electrified. They weren’t even that close. He took her right hand in his; his right arm came about her, his hand resting on her shoulder blade.
“I’ll lead. You follow,” he said with a smile.
He kept a few inches between them, and that seemed to be even more enticing than being smack against each other. His hold was light but firm, and she didn’t think she’d ever enjoyed a day as much as today. She caught on quickly to the four steps—two quick, and then two slow. It was easy to follow Chase, just as it had been ten years ago.
She found they were in line with the other couples moving around the perimeter of the dance floor. The whole thing felt so natural she couldn’t believe it. She jumped into the spirit of it, truly enjoying herself. They were dancing so fast at one point that when Chase executed a spin with her, her wig slipped. Chase righted it for her and they both laughed as they gazed into each other’s eyes as she felt stirrings she’d never felt with another man.
When the number ended, Chase directed her back to their table. They sat around the corner from each other and Chase reached out, straightening a few wayward strands of her wig. Now they were close as his hand lingered on the side of her face. Everything they’d done together from the past until today seemed to surround them.
Chase leaned forward and she moved toward him. His kiss was soft, sweet, with a touch of his tongue. Then he backed away.
Just in time, too, because their waitress brought their meals. She winked at them. “You’re a cute couple. Enjoying your time here in Austin?”
So, many of the festival-goers weren’t local. Lucie answered, “Very much.”
But when she and Chase locked eyes again, the realization hit that they weren’t a couple.
Picking up one of her cheese fries, Lucie looked away from Chase and outside the plate glass window. But the person she saw out there made her cringe. She grabbed Chase’s arm.
“Chase, I think that’s Wilcox out there. Do you think he could have followed us?”
“I don’t see how that would be possible.”
The window was the type that seemed to be darkened glass. The patrons inside could see out, but anyone standing outside couldn’t see in.
“If he comes in here, I’m going to have to hide in the ladies’ room.”
“Hold on,” Chase said, keeping his hand on her forearm, keeping her in her seat. “We’re not going to let him spoil dinner if we don’t have to.”
“But Chase, if he sees us together—”
“I don’t see how he could recognize us,” Chase twirled the end of his mustache and slipped his sunglasses back on.
As they waited, Lucie held her breath. Wilcox pulled open the door and Lucie was all set to run. But Chase kept her still. There were so many people, so much noise, such loud music. After a glance around, Wilcox stepped back outside and headed away from the restaurant.
Lucie breathed a sigh of relief, yet she knew it was possible they were still in jeopardy.
Chase gestured to her ribs. “I know you’re worrying that he’s lying in wait. Let’s eat our dinner, and then I’ll find a back way out. He can’t be two places at once.”
“I don’t like this, Chase. Do you think it was a coincidence?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll evade him. You should come back to the ranch with me. If he is trying to follow you, he’ll end up at your apartment again. Besides, I’m not ready for this day to end, are you?”
No, she wasn’t.
If she went with Chase to the ranch, she’d be digging herself deeper into love. But she didn’t know how to stop. She hadn’t experienced a day quite like today since... Scotland. She liked...no, loved being with Chase. What could it hurt to indulge herself for a few more hours?
Chapter Eight
Chase and Lucie stood by the paddock fence, watching Gypsy. Dusk was starting to fall as the shadows in the pasture began melting together. The sun was tipping over the horizon.
“You don’t think Wilcox saw us run out the back door, do you?” She must have asked Chase that about ten times, but she needed reassurance. She’d left her wig and baseball cap in the car after they arrived at the Bar P, but she
almost felt as if she should be wearing her disguise even here.
“I’m sure he didn’t. There’s no way he could have recognized you in that crowded bar, let alone suspected we’d run out the back. There were so many people everywhere, Lucie. There was no way he could have seen you or kept track of you.”
“It couldn’t have been sheer coincidence he was there, and you know it.”
“Maybe, maybe not. It could have been bad luck we ended up in the same place as he was. He was probably all over Austin looking for stories at the festivals.”
She sighed. “I hope you’re right. I’d hate to think he was tracking me.”
He rested his hand on her shoulder. “You’re safe here. We both took such a circuitous route, I’m sure no one followed us.”
She could feel the heat of his hand through the fabric of her blouse. She looked up at him, feeling that thrill she always felt when she was with him. “Your mom seemed interested in the festivals. Doesn’t she go?”
“Too much walking, too many people. At least that’s what she tells me. But I don’t think she wants to go alone.”
“She doesn’t have friends she could go with?”
“She did before my dad’s stroke. But since then, she’s devoted herself to him, all her time and all her energy. When she did that, friends dropped away. She still has contacts on charity boards and at church, but those aren’t the kinds of friends you want to run around South by Southwest with.”
“No, I imagine you want a close friend for that, one who appreciates all of it as much as you do.”
Today she’d felt close to Chase. She’d felt as if they were on an adventure again together as they had been in Scotland. They’d communicated, bonded and laughed together.
He must have been thinking about that, too. “You’re even more beautiful now than you were ten years ago,” he murmured.
“And you’re...” she started. “You’re as sexy and as hard to resist now as you were back then. Even without your fake mustache.”
His lips twitched up in a smile, right before he bent his head and wrapped his arms around her. She was surrounded by sensations that almost made her tipsy. There was the scent of Chase, the evening muskiness of damp earth and pine. A light breeze stirred her hair as Chase laced one hand in it. She savored the idea of his kiss as much as she wanted it. The anticipation was a heady aphrodisiac.
He must have thought so, too, because he wasn’t rushing anything. He rubbed his cheek against hers and she could feel his evening beard stubble. She breathed him in again, waiting for the inevitable. He began with a nibble at the corner of her lip that left her hungry for him. When his lips finally took hers, she’d ringed her arms around his neck and held on tight.
Chase’s tongue dashed against hers, then returned for a lighter stroke.
She responded, giving the same as he had given her. She curved her fingers into his taut shoulder muscles and remembered how he’d looked shirtless. Everything about Chase turned her on.
Their kiss became their world.
Lucie was so involved in a passion she’d almost forgotten that she barely heard the rustle of grass, the crunch of boot heel on stone, Gypsy’s quiet neigh.
“What in the blazes, Chase, do you think you’re doing?” Warren Parker suddenly yelled. “Your mother told me you were out here with...her. We could have handled this without you getting in touch with her. There was no need for you to see her, and now to find you like this—”
They’d broken apart at the first sound of his father’s voice. However, they stood shoulder to shoulder now, facing him as Warren sputtered and fumed.
Lucie was all but fuming herself. The man had been rude ten years ago, and apparently his temper hadn’t improved.
“Hello, Mr. Parker,” she said evenly, hoping in the dimming light he couldn’t see she looked well and thoroughly kissed.
“I hear you’re a Fortune now,” he said, but not as if he respected the idea. “I read about your mother being united with her long-lost sister—Jeanne Marie Fortune Jones—but I didn’t know if it was true. Florence tells me that it is. Apparently you have family on top of family in Horseback Hollow now. Such a quaint two-horse town.”
“Yes, it is true my mother and her sister, as well as their brother, were reunited,” Lucie responded quietly. “And I have family in Horseback Hollow now.”
“Well, bully for you. None of that means anything to us.”
“Dad,” Chase said sharply.
“Well, it doesn’t, Chase. Your marriage is going to be dissolved. Why would you want to consort with an airhead royal who cares about pomp and ceremony and getting her photo all over the news?”
Her temper well past the boiling point, Lucie didn’t know which misconception to address first.
But she didn’t have to address any of it because Chase stepped in. “You’re wrong about everything,” he insisted before she could. “First of all, Lucie’s anything but an airhead. She’s highly intelligent, and she’s finding office space for the Fortune Foundation in Austin so they can expand their programs here. Point two—when she’s building orphanages in developing countries, the last thing she cares about is pomp and ceremony. She cares about the children she’s helping. Point three—as far as getting her photo in the news goes, do you think she wants her life laid out like that?”
But Mr. Parker didn’t seem to have heard anything his son had said. He was jabbing his finger at Chase. “You need to be single-minded about your career at Parker Oil as I have been all these years. An up-and-coming CEO needs to have a woman by his side who’s an asset, not a disadvantage because of scandal and innuendo being printed about her at every turn of the tabloid page.”
Apparently Chase had had enough. He stepped forward, boot to boot with his father. “I didn’t want to do it this way, but you’re leaving me no choice. I told Mom, and I was waiting until the time was right to tell you.”
“Tell me what?” his father snapped.
“I’m leaving Parker Oil to establish a nonprofit horse rescue ranch. I didn’t want to merely buy property with my loan for some distant future. I intend to do something worthwhile with it right now. I put down earnest money on the old Schultz land.”
“You did what? That place is falling down!”
“Not entirely. It needs work, but it’ll be worth it, and I’m going to do it.”
Warren Parker had been a burly man who’d lost weight since Lucie saw him last. He wasn’t so burly now. He looked older, much older. His Western-cut suit was of superb quality, but the jacket was wrinkled, and so was his shirt. That didn’t stop him puffing out his chest and blustering.
“I didn’t put an end to this romance before to have it rise from the ashes again.”
“You didn’t put an end to the romance. The annulment did that,” Chase concluded. Yet something in his father’s expression must have alerted Chase that Warren might have schemed further. “That is what you mean, isn’t it?” Chase asked.
“You mean the annulment that didn’t happen? Sending her back to where she belonged?” Warren scoffed. “That wouldn’t have been enough. I saw the way you two looked at each other. I intercepted your letters, and they never went out to her. I got hold of her incoming ones, so you never saw them. That was putting an end to a dalliance that never should have happened.”
Lucie saw Chase’s jaw stiffen, his mouth press into a straight line. But more than that, she saw his eyes widen, and the look in them hurt her, too. He was stunned by what his father had done, and she imagined he was feeling totally betrayed.
Her suspicion was confirmed when he took her hand and pulled her toward the barn. “Let’s go,” he said.
His father called, “Chase, you come back here. We’re not done.”
Chase threw over his shoulder, “We’re more than done. I was going to stay
on part-time and then consult at Parker Oil. You can forget about that.”
And then he was almost running with her. Outside the barn, he took keys from his pocket and headed to a red pickup truck that was close by. There was a ferocious look on his face and she realized he was just as angry as he was betrayed.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“For a drive. Get in.”
“But this isn’t your truck...”
“It’s a ranch truck Tomás usually uses. He won’t care.”
She didn’t argue. She’d never seen Chase look like this before, and it scared her a little. Yet she wasn’t going to let him drive off alone. They were in this together.
As soon as she slid onto the bench seat inside the older truck, she fastened her seat belt. Chase took off. She didn’t ask again where they were going, because she suspected he didn’t know. He just wanted to drive out of frustration and hurt. He was a controlled man in many ways, or at least he’d learned to be. That control was worn thin tonight, and she suspected he wanted to yell a few things, too, but wasn’t doing it because she was with him.
“Say whatever you need to say, Chase.”
“Your ears couldn’t handle it.”
“My ears have handled a whole lot more than you think they have.”
He cut her a quick glance, put on his high beams and roared down the back road of the ranch, straight into the forest.
“I guess you know where this leads.” No matter where or how fast he drove, she oddly trusted him.
“It leads into another back road and then another one after that. This property is large enough to need its own map.”
“Is this helping?” she asked as he zoomed down the road and bumped over a pothole.
“Not much.”
They had to be at least a mile from the house now, maybe two. She could feel the vibrations still pulsing around Chase like a ferocious aura that couldn’t be quieted. His hands had a death grip on the steering wheel.
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