Loving the Chase (Heart of the Storm #1)

by Sharla Lovelace

  “Be careful on that drive,” he said, walking up the far end of the porch.

  She turned, and he had to physically push his feet forward. The look on her face when she saw him, heard his voice, just about drove him to his knees. She lifted her chin and blinked to cover it, but he’d seen it.

  It didn’t matter. She had to go.

  “It’s only an hour and a half,” she said, a small smile masking her need to blink away.

  “And you can hit a pothole and rip out your transmission a block from here,” he said, aware that he’d just channeled his mother. “Just be careful.”

  She chuckled. “Yes, sir.”

  “Got everything?” he asked, stopping a couple of feet away. He shoved his hands into his pockets before they could reach for her.

  “I’ll be back to reset things in a week or two,” she said. “Hopefully. So if I’ve missed anything—”

  “But you’re not staying then,” Zach interjected.

  She stopped and inhaled slowly. “No,” she said. “It’ll go quicker the second time around. They can pretty much do it without me, and I’ll—um—have my car.”

  She was babbling and prolonging the moment of leaving and he didn’t care. He’d listen to her babble forever.

  “Sounds like a plan,” he said, just to say something.

  “How’s your back?”

  “It’s all good,” he said with a grin.

  “You’re lying,” she said.

  “Nah, good drugs,” he said. “Just have to take it easy for a bit.”

  “Yeah, that’s the part I’m talking about,” she said. “I’ve never known you to take anything easy.”

  He shrugged. “Call it a growth experience.”

  Her eyes were searching his. Needing more. Damn it, he needed to shut down his heart before she found what she was looking for.

  “Zach.”

  He shook his head slowly before his name was all the way out of her mouth.

  “Don’t.”

  She bit down on her bottom lip and shook her head, as if that action alone would stem the flood of words that wanted to be said.

  “We are who we are, Maddi,” he managed. “Nothing wrong with either side. They just don’t go together.”

  She looked down, holding her stomach as if he’d punched her there. He could hear her breathing, pulling wobbly breaths in to steady herself so that her voice wouldn’t give her away. He knew her tells again. He knew too much again.

  “Okay, so maybe I’ll see you in a couple of weeks,” she said, not looking up.

  “See you then.”

  He could have waved her off and watched her drive away, but he didn’t have it in him. He turned and walked through the front door before she’d even shut hers. Resting his forehead against the solid wood of the door, he listened to the engine start and fade away.

  It had to be the painkillers making him weak. Yeah. That was it.

  “Zachariah,” said a voice behind him he wasn’t expecting.

  “Gran,” he said, turning. “I didn’t know you were here. Simon here, too?”

  She shook her head minutely, her white curls in stark contrast to the bright-red scarf and jogging suit she was wearing. “I had my driver drop me by.”

  “For?” Zach asked.

  “For dinner of course,” she said. “It’s Thursday, I’m just early. Thought maybe I could help.”

  It was already Thursday again. “Um, there’s no room to have it in,” Zach said. “Kind of a mess in there.”

  Gran shrugged. “Then I’ll order in something catered. With tables.”

  Zach chuckled to himself. Leave it to Gran.

  “So Maddi Hayes has left again, has she?” Gran asked, moving her chair closer.

  Zach took a moment to breathe through the resonance of those words and paste on a polite smile.

  “The crew has left, yes,” he said. “There’s nothing to film right now. They’ll be back when it starts back. If it starts back.”

  “Meaning Eli?”

  “Meaning His Highness, yes,” he said, leaning against the door and running a hand over his face.

  “I thought the deal was that you all had to opt out in order to void it, not just Eli,” she said.

  “It is,” Zach said, letting a tired smile come. “But honestly, Gran, if he really stands his ground on this, we’ll have to go along with it.”

  “Because?”

  “Because he’s family,” Zach said.

  Gran sat back and regarded him for a moment. “I’m proud of you for that.”

  “Well, I’m going for my favorite-grandson badge, so . . .”

  She waved a hand at him dismissively. “Don’t be cute. I’m serious. It takes a lot for Eli to tolerate all of this.”

  “I know.”

  “Picking family over business tells me I made the right choice,” she said, crossing her thin arms over her chest.

  Zach frowned. “What choice?” Bells dinged in the recesses of his mind. “Oh, hell, don’t tell me.”

  “Just listen.”

  “This was your idea?”

  “No!” she said. “I’m not that creative, I’m afraid. I just happened to be at a fundraiser after you told me about it, and I was talking to Richard Woodbriar.”

  Zach fought the urge to growl and pace, then gave in to the pacing. “And so you said, Hey, my grandkids want this toy, how much to make sure they get it?”

  “No, smart-ass,” Gran said. “I asked him if he’d heard about the proposal. He hadn’t yet, so I filled him in. And you’re welcome, by the way.”

  Zach ignored that comment and raised an eyebrow. “And?”

  Gran sighed. “And he owed me a favor from a prior deal, so I—kind of called in that favor.”

  He closed his eyes. Everything he didn’t want was happening anyway. “Jesus, Gran.”

  “So I donated a fat little check to the cause to sweeten the pot so he’d be happy about it,” she said.

  “Well, this explains the firing squad,” Zach muttered from behind his hands.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.” Zach dropped his hands and forced a smile. “Anything else, Gran? Any other big secrets? Mafia connections? Elvis back from the dead and throwing in a few bucks?”

  “I was only trying to get you what you wanted,” she said. “You were so excited about it when they called to pitch the idea.”

  “Yes, I was,” he said. “I was excited to do something on our own.”

  She hit a button and moved closer. “Zach, honey, you will do this on your own. You will make this succeed because you are a Chase. You’re a winner. You and Simon and Eli and Hannah will be the ones to make this work, not me. All I did was press ‘Start.’”

  Zach laughed in spite of it all. “Press ‘Start,’ huh?”

  She held up her hands in a show of innocence. “Totally done with love.”

  He took a deep breath and let it go. “You know your love gets heavy, right?”

  “Better than too light,” she responded.

  His mom walked down the hall, pushing aside the plastic that separated them from what was once the living room. “What are y’all doing talking in the foyer?” she asked.

  “Oh, we’re just chatting about Elvis,” Gran said, turning her chair back toward the kitchen.

  “Yeah, you know, you never answered that question,” Zach said, pushing her chair manually.

  “Never will, honey,” she said, reaching up to pat his hand.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  The buzz of the office felt foreign to Maddi. Which was crazy. She’d been gone all of one week, and suddenly the structure and fluorescent-lit chaos was making her itchy. It was like she’d brought Hannah to work with her.

  She sat at her desk and toyed with her coffee cu
p, looking at the two photos that adorned her desk. One of her and Monroe on a ski trip to New Mexico two years earlier. And one of her neighbor’s dog doing something so adorable that she just had to snap a shot and frame it.

  “Knock-knock.”

  Maddi looked up with a start. “Monroe!” she exclaimed, jumping up and running around her desk to maul her brother. “How’d you get in here alone?”

  He shrugged and gave a little smile. “Receptionist said I could.”

  Maddi grimaced. “Avoid her.”

  Monroe laughed. “Yeah, I kind of caught that vibe.”

  “So what brings you here?”

  “I knew you were back today, and was nearby, and since you didn’t call me—” he said, widening his eyes as he sank into the guest chair.

  “I just got back,” she said. “I haven’t had time yet.”

  He gestured to the photo on her desk. “You got a dog?”

  Maddi perched on the corner of the desk and gave him a look. “You were nearby?”

  He tilted his head. “Okay, so I made a point of being nearby.”

  “Because?”

  “Because I wanted to check on you,” he said, his eyes serious.

  “I’m good, Monroe.”

  “Dog?” he asked again, pointing.

  “Neighbor’s.” He sat back and studied her. “Quit that!”

  “What?”

  “Analyzing me!”

  He laughed and looked away, rubbing at his eyes. “Sorry, old habits. It comes out when I know someone’s lying to me.”

  “Oh, my God, just kill me now,” she said, getting up and walking back to her chair.

  “So is the show cut?” he asked.

  “Don’t know yet,” she said. “Haven’t heard the final word.”

  “And you and Chase?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “That’s what you drove over to ask me?”

  “And the answer would be?”

  Maddi sighed and rested her elbows on her desk. “We aren’t anything, I suppose.” God, it hurt to say that.

  “Not anything,” he echoed.

  “What I said.”

  “Didn’t look that way the other—”

  “Can you just take my word for it?” she said. “There are things, obstacles we can’t breach. Things he won’t—or can’t—change.”

  Maddi relayed the whole storm scene from days earlier. More than she’d told him over the phone. She even played the raw cell phone video she had from the van, and when she looked up at him with misty eyes, his eyes were dark.

  “What the hell were you thinking?” he said.

  Maddi nodded. “I was trying to keep my job,” she said. “Stupidly. Trying to step outside my safe little box and grab ratings, grab myself some respect around here. And nearly got us all killed in the process. But we scraped through.”

  Monroe glared at her. “Because he threw his job and his family under the bus to save your idiot self.”

  “Glad you’re on my side,” she said, taken aback. Then she slumped and closed her eyes. “But pretty much.”

  Monroe leaned forward on his knees. “And you think there are obstacles?”

  Maddi blinked. “You don’t know everything.”

  “I’m sure I don’t,” he said. “But I know never to let your team down, and he did. For you.”

  “I thought you weren’t a Zach fan,” she said, feeling her throat close.

  “I’m not, but I can’t deny what he did,” he said. “He was at work, essentially, and you rode in like a fool with guns blazing, forcing him to make a choice. And you think he’s the one with the problem?”

  Maddi rubbed at her face. “Hey Monroe, how’ve you been? Talked to Dad?”

  He chuckled. “I’m sorry if this is harsh, but damn, Maddi. You expect a lot for someone who is so afraid of life she has to put pictures of her neighbor’s dog on her desk. My neighbor has twin girls, want me to send you pics of them, too?”

  Anger, quick and hot, filled her eyes with hot tears. “That’s a low blow.”

  Monroe leaned forward again, closing his eyes for a second as if he were counting. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be mean.”

  “Hmm.”

  “But you need to stop avoiding every building for fear it’ll fall on you, baby girl,” he said, his voice soft. “Take a chance—the kind that doesn’t put other people’s lives in danger, preferably.”

  Maddi swiped under her eyes. “Yeah,” she whispered.

  “You want the job, push for it,” Monroe said. “You want the man? I’m guessing all you have to do is say so.”

  “So—Jane returns from the wild, huh?” Nicole said from her doorway. “Oh, sorry. Hello.”

  Maddi patted her face quickly and smiled as Monroe turned to greet Nicole. “This is my brother, Monroe,” she managed.

  “Nicole Brian,” Nicole said, extending a hand and looking like saying her name might be all she could come up with.

  “Nice to meet you,” Monroe said, standing and taking her hand.

  “You as well,” Nicole said finally, looking flushed, which was entertaining. “You taking Maddi to lunch?” she asked.

  “No, I have to go, I’m afraid,” he said, and Maddi got up to hug him again. “But another time.”

  Maddi wrapped her arms around his neck. “You suck,” she whispered. “And thank you.”

  She felt the shake of his laugh. “You’re welcome.”

  He left, and Nicole widened her eyes at Maddi. “My God, is there anyone in your life that isn’t hot?”

  “Brothers don’t count,” Maddi said.

  “He’s not my brother,” Nicole said, flopping into the chair he’d vacated. “And as much as I hate unplanned production breaks,” she added, “I have to say, I missed having you around last week.”

  “You called me nearly every day,” Maddi said, still trying to clear her head from Monroe’s words.

  “I know, but you didn’t get to see my new boots,” Nicole said, holding up a leg.

  “Nice,” Maddi said, nodding. Nicole was in an up phase, wanting to be girlfriends. Always good to know what category the day was.

  “So?” Nicole prompted. “How bad was the damage to the family room, really? Still usable at all?”

  “There’s no roof,” Maddi said.

  “The table?”

  “Still intact,” Maddi said, feeling a rush of pride that she had no business feeling. “Has a big scratch across it, but it’s still there.”

  “That’ll just give it a good story,” Nicole said. “And I say still do some portables in the family room. Show the damage, show them affected directly. That’s priceless footage.”

  “That’s their real life,” Maddi said. “You realize that, right?”

  Nicole leaned forward. “Everybody has a real life, Maddi. Every reality show you watch has a grain of someone’s real life in it. That’s what people want to see.”

  Maddi blinked away the disgust of that sentence. “What did Brown say?”

  “He said to use whatever we have to,” Nicole said. “Woodbriar said this show goes on.”

  Maddi narrowed her gaze. “I’m surprised. The way Woodbriar laid into Zach beforehand, it was like he didn’t want any part of it. Now it’s the show goes on even after a tornado literally rips all the cameras out?”

  Nicole winked. “I heard a little bird.”

  “What little bird?”

  “A friend of mine on the board,” Nicole said. “Let’s just say he overheard a little convo at a fundraiser about the grande dame herself forking out a shitload of money.”

  “The grande—Gran? About Granabelle?”

  “You know, that name would be so cute on just about any other old lady,” Nicole said.

  “She’s funding it
?” Maddi asked. “But I thought—”

  “Evidently it’s supposed to be very hush-hush,” Nicole said. “Woodbriar owes her some favor or something.”

  Maddi rubbed her temples. “Jesus, that woman just can’t let go.”

  “Well, it’s not like this is some evil thing she’s doing,” Nicole said. “I mean, seriously, she’s setting her family up to possibly do well.”

  “Zach wouldn’t like it,” she said, the words falling out of her mouth before she could chomp down on them.

  “Oh, Zach wouldn’t like it, huh?” Nicole said. “How is that going, by the way?”

  “There is no that,” Maddi said, looking down into her coffee cup.

  “Not what I saw,” Nicole said.

  “So, do you want to go over the footage?” Maddi said, needing to change the subject. “We have the vehicle cam uploads as well as—” Maddi held up her phone. “A little raw amateur hour maybe, but it could be effective.”

  “What is it?”

  Maddi stared at the phone, swallowing back what was possibly a large bite of crow.

  “Something scary,” she said softly.

  Windows were overrated.

  Zach had his duct-taped with plastic, and he was beginning to think that was good enough. Who needed to see out or in? And it was much less mess than all the glass he was still digging out of every possible square inch.

  Sitting carefully back into the soft leather of his couch, his fingers landed on yet another rip he hadn’t seen. Damn it. He was running out of patches. Fucking tree.

  Fucking storm.

  Fucking life.

  A light knock on his door brought his inner scowl out. It was eight thirty at night. No one ever came over after dark.

  “Which makes me a fucking old man,” Zach muttered, getting up with a grimace.

  “Hey, sunshine,” his mother said when he opened the door.

  “Hey,” he said, frowning. “What’s the matter?”

  “Nothing,” she said. “Gonna invite me in, or just let all the bugs in instead?”

  Zach stepped aside, thrown off kilter. “Sorry. You just don’t normally come down here for no reason.”

  “Well, maybe I need to remedy that,” she said. “Maybe you and I need to start having coffee on the porch or something.”