A small smile tilted her full lips but her eyes remained closed, “I love you.”
Helping Krista up he stood and grabbed a towel that was hanging on the side of her table and quickly cleaned them both off. Looking down he noticed that the t-shirt she’d pulled from the drawer looked familiar. It was the one that she’d “borrowed” from him when they were in middle school. When she first grabbed it, Chase hadn’t recognized it because he’d been too concentrated on the fact that she was walking around in a bra, panties, and “fuck me” heels.
“I can’t believe you still have this. Do you still wear it?” he asked as he lifted it up the tattered and faded shirt.
Her eyes followed his hands and she nodded happily as her lips parted in a huge yawn.
Chase smiled at just how unbelievably adorable Krista managed to be while being smokin’ sexy hot. Knowing that she needed sleep, and if he didn’t cover up her insanely tempting body he couldn’t trust himself to let her get that sleep, Chase placed the shirt over Krista’s head and she pushed her arms through it.
Lifting her into his arms, Krista’s body melted into his as he carried her to her bed. After he laid her down, he removed both of her heels and made a mental note to ask her to wear them again (soon!). Then he crawled in beside her, wrapped his arms around her and pulled her as close to him as humanly possible.
Chase was finally home.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chase stepped out into the darkness and pulled the front door to Krista’s house shut as quietly as he could. As he walked down the driveway, the song “Walking on Sunshine” was playing in his head. For the first time in his life, everything was going well. His career was better than he could ever have dreamed it to be. He finally felt like he had some closure with his past. He and his mom were closer than they’d ever been, and she was doing better than he could have hoped for.
And none of those came close to comparing to Krista. Things between them were good. Really good. Last night, instead of sleeping, he’d held her in his arms and they’d talked for hours. About life. About the past. About the future. About everything.
He’d almost asked her to marry him there in her room while she’d been lying in his arms. He’d had the ring with him. He’d bought it when he was in Austin. The only thing that had stopped him from proposing was that Krista deserved more. When he proposed to her, he wanted it to be at the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower. Not her bedroom the night before he was leaving for a six-month tour.
Not that they would be apart that entire time. They had worked out a rough schedule, and it looked like they would be able to see each other every two weeks. Sure, it wasn’t ideal, but it was doable. Anything was doable as long as he had Krista. He felt not only like he had a new lease on life, but also more inspired than ever before. He was ready to take on the world.
Opening the door, he hopped into the SUV. “Morning, boys.”
“Mornin’,” Chip said out of the corner of his mouth as he held his unlit cigar between his lips.
After shutting the door, Chase looked over to see Tully pouring over the iPad he held in front of him as the SUV rocked, pulling away from the curb. Tully’s shaggy hair had fallen in a curtain around his face so Chase couldn’t read his expression, but his body language seemed tense.
“Everything okay?” Chase asked, getting a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. When Tully did not answer immediately, the sinking feeling grew to the size of the Grand Canyon.
After several moments, Tully glanced up at Chase with a grave expression on his face. “We have a situation.”
“What?” Chase really didn’t need the lead-in. He was beginning to understand why Krista had gotten so frustrated at his declarations that he’d needed to talk to her.
Tully turned the iPad so that the screen was facing Chase’s direction. “They’re running the story later today. But it’s already leaked to several online publications.”
Illuminated on the screen were side-by-side photos. One was of him kissing Serena, the model he’d dated from Los Angeles, as she left his hotel room in Austin. It had to have been taken when she’d come out to visit a couple of months ago. Beside it was a photo of him kissing Krista down by the river. She was in his arms, his hands gripping her backside, her legs wrapped tightly around him. It was taken the day of the parade.
The headline read: Hometown Sweetheart or Hollywood Sexpot…Who Will Chase Choose?
The caption read: Chase Malone has been a busy boy. A source close to the superstar tells Scoop exclusively that over the past few weeks Chase has been splitting his time and affection between Serena James, the Victoria’s Secret model who will be making her acting debut in the much-anticipated summer blockbuster Steep Cliffs, and Krista Sloan, who, sources tell us, was the inspiration for “Saving Me,” Midnight Rush’s biggest hit to date. Click below to cast your vote on who will win the race to Chase’s heart in this sexy love triangle.
Chase’s eyes flew down and saw that over ten thousand people had already voted and the poll showed Serena winning with sixty percent of the votes. There were over three thousand comments and the story hadn’t even officially gone live.
“Turn the car around,” Chase instructed Chip.
“Chase, you’ll miss your flight,” Tully said, trying to reason with him.
“I don’t care. She’s not going to wake up to this when I’m hundreds of miles away.”
Chip flipped a U-turn and Chase typed his name in Google to try and get an idea of just how viral this story had gotten. When the screen loaded, he saw that the first three results were versions of the ‘love triangle’ story. One of them was a reputable news source. Clicking on the links, he skimmed each article. They all had variations on the ‘who will win Chase’s heart’ theme.
The SUV began slowing down in front of Krista’s house and Chase had the door open with one foot out before it came to a complete stop.
“You have five minutes!” Tully shouted after him.
Chase was trying to tell himself that Krista wasn’t the same girl she’d been in high school. She’d taken the news of his album completion and tour so much better than he’d ever expected. He just needed to give her a heads-up and prepare her for the media attention that was sure to follow. But this wouldn’t change anything between them.
At least that’s what he kept telling himself as took the stairs up to Krista’s room two at a time. When he’d left less than ten minutes ago, he’d tried to be quiet as a church mouse as he’d crept down the stairs. Now he was like a bull in a china shop.
As he pushed her bedroom door open, Krista lifted up on her elbow and scooted up to a sitting position in her bed. Smiling through sleepy eyes, she asked, “Did you forget something?”
“No. I need to show you something,” he said, sitting on the bed, causing it to dip.
Before she looked down at the screen, her eyes narrowed. “Is this about your schedule?”
“No,” Chase sighed as he handed her the device. He watched as she slowly lowered her eyes from his to the screen she was now holding. “This story broke early this morning. The picture of Serena and me was taken a couple of months ago, before I came back here. I have not seen her since, in over two months.”
Chase wasn’t sure what else to say to Krista, so he waited while she read the article. His instinct was to say he was sorry, but he hadn’t done anything wrong. Not that he had an issue with apologizing if she was upset or hurt by this. He would say he was sorry every hour on the hour if that’s what it took. But he needed to see what her reaction was before he knew how to handle it.
“How do they know my name?” she asked, looking up at him, her eyes wide with panic. “What source are they talking about? Who would tell them this?”
“I think it’s Marcus. He knows I wrote the song about you. Everyone in the band knew. I’m sure he’s the one who’s feeding this to them.”
“People I work with could see this. My dad is going to see this!” she sa
id, the panic rising in her voice. “Can your lawyer get them to take it down?”
“I wish it were that simple, but legally, there isn’t a lot he would be able to do. The story’s out there now and has been picked up by several news outlets.”
“Several?! This isn’t the only one?”
He shook his head and brought up the Google search, which, instead of the first three results, the story now populated the first eight.
Putting her hands over her stomach, she shook her head as she began to breathe erratically. Huge tears appeared at the brim of her bottom lid.
“Krista, I know that this is a huge invasion of your privacy and I’m so sorry. I wish I could make it stop. But it will blow over. I promise. In the meantime, though, I’m going to call Seth and have him put a detail on you.”
“On me? Why me?”
Oh boy. She really wasn’t getting the magnitude of the media’s reach or the fact that this story was like blood and they were sharks. It was only a matter of time until they would be circling her.
“They have your name. Soon they’ll know where you work. Where you live. I don’t want you out unprotected.” Krista was going to have security whether she liked it or not.
“No. I don’t want security. I don’t want any of this!” she exclaimed, waving her hand over the screen. As she did, something caught her eye. “Oh my God. There’s a poll? And she’s winning?!”
Chase knew that this was probably not the right time to do this. But he could feel Krista slipping away from him and he was desperate. Reaching down, he patted his pocket to make sure the ring he’d bought for her was inside of it.
“I know one way to shut the story down,” he said, staring straight in her eyes.
“Good! Okay, what?” she asked eagerly.
His palms began sweating as he moved off the bed and lowered to one knee. Her eyes grew as big as saucers.
“I’ve dreamed of this moment since middle school. I never thought it would go down like this. I thought we’d be at the Eiffel Tower or the Empire State Building.” Looking around her room, he continued shaking his head, “But that’s just geography. The only thing that really matters is that I love you, Krista Sloan. You are the only girl I have ever loved and will ever love. I know you deserve the Eiffel Tower, but”—pulling the ring out of his pocket, he held it at the tip of her ring finger—“Krista Sloan, will you marry me?”
Her eyes darted between him, the ring, and the iPad and then back to him. “Did you have this whole thing planned?”
“What? No.”
“You just carry that ring around in your pocket?!”
What the hell is happening?
Why is everything getting all turned around?
“I got it when I was in Austin. I knew I wanted to ask you to marry me. I just didn’t know when,” he explained, still on bended knee.
“That’s your solution to killing the story? Our getting married!” She stood, brushing past him, and began pacing around her room as her hands waved around animatedly. “You don’t think that will just add fuel to the fire? Even if it worked, that’s not really a great reason to get married, Chase. Seriously!”
Feeling like an idiot, he stood. “That’s not the reason we would be getting married.”
Her eyes were wild as her hands flew up. “You just said, ‘I know one way to shut the story down’ and then you asked me to marry you!”
“Krista—” He moved towards her as he heard a knock on her door.
They both looked over to see Tully standing in the doorway. “Sorry, but, Chase, we have to go. The mayor of Atlanta is giving you a key to the city at ten and then you have to meet with—”
“Okay!” Chase raised his voice as he lifted his hand to stop Tully’s list of his responsibilities for the day. “I’ll be right there.”
Tully took a step towards him. “Chase—”
“I said I’ll be right there.” Chase’s tone did not leave any room for argument.
Putting his hands up in surrender, Tully turned and left the room.
Both Chase and Krista stood staring at each other for several moments. There was so much that needed to be said and not enough time to say it.
“Just go,” Krista said, motioning to the door, a look of defeat on her beautiful face.
“Shit.” Raking his hands through his hair, he felt so frustrated he wanted to scream. Stepping towards her, he wrapped his arms around her waist and lowered his head, pressing his lips to her, pouring all the love, desire, and need he felt for her in his all-too-brief kiss. Then, resting his forehead against hers, he assured her, “This conversation isn’t over. I love you, I know you love me. We’ll figure the rest out.”
Her emerald eyes shone up at him and she nodded in agreement. It wasn’t a huge declaration of love, but he would take it. For now.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Four weeks and three days. That’s how long it had been since Chase had left her room that Sunday before the crack of dawn. Four weeks and three days since the media storm had blown into town and brought havoc on her life. Four weeks and three days since the man she loved had asked her to marry him. Four weeks and three days since she’d let him walk out of her room without giving him an answer.
They’d talked on the phone every day. Texted. FaceTimed. But things had been strained. They weren’t them. Something was definitely off. On the weekend they’d planned for her to fly out and see him, she’d come down with food poisoning so she hadn’t been able to travel. Then he’d planned on coming out this past weekend, but all the flights out of North Carolina had been grounded due to tropical storms.
Between the media, Mother Nature, and rotten food, it seemed like the entire world was conspiring to keep them apart. It was just like high school but on a global scale.
As she wiped down the traction bed for Mr. Yates, who was due here any minute, she was at least thankful that some of the media frenzy had settled down. There weren’t photographers posted outside on her yard or waiting for her in the hospital parking lot anymore. That first week had been a madhouse. Never would she have dreamed that she’d need to have security, but dang, she’d been glad that they were there.
“Well, hello there, young lady,” Mr. Yates greeted her as he took off his hat and placed it on a hook hanging on the wall. “How are you this fine morning?”
“I’m hanging in there. How are you?” She tried to keep her tone and countenance upbeat. She hated when people allowed their personal life drama to bleed into their work.
“I read all about your story in the magazine,” he said as he wagged his bushy brows. “You’re famous.”
She guessed that it had taken a while for the news to hit the older crowd. That story was a month old, and this was the first time Mr. Yates had said anything about it.
“No, I’m not,” she corrected. “And the story wasn’t even true.”
Even though it shouldn’t make a lick of difference to Krista what people did or did not believe, somehow it did. Especially Mr. Yates. He knew Chase, and she didn’t want him to think that Chase would treat her the way the tabloid stories portrayed their relationship.
Mr. Yates looked at her and cocked his head. “Not true?” Reaching behind his back, he pulled out a folded-up magazine he must have had tucked in his waistband before handing it to Krista. “Well, will you sign my copy anyways?”
As she took the folded magazine from him, she saw that it was Hits magazine. She remembered it as the interview and photo shoot Chase had done the night he’d performed at the benefit. The night she’d gotten a private show backstage in the green room, where he told her that his warm-up ritual had always included playing ‘their’ song.
On the cover was a black-and-white picture of Chase on the riverbank with his guitar as he was looking out over the water. It was artistic, breathtaking, and—of course, because it had Chase—s-e-x-y. He was sitting in the same spot he’d set up the picnic for them and had played “Crazy Love” to Krista for the first time.
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The article was titled “Raw and Revealed: Chase Malone Sets the Record Straight.” Krista’s hands were shaking as she opened the cover and scanned frantically for the page number of the article. Seventy-two. She flipped through the pages as fast as she could, but her fingers felt as thick as sausages. Finally she found it.
The first two paragraphs detailed Chase’s rise to fame, his time with his band Midnight Rush, and his decision to go solo. Then the questions started.
As she read the answers Chase had given about his inspiration for his songs, his childhood, and how he dealt with fame, she quickly realized that this was not a patented Chase Malone interview. He was getting personal. Really personal. In all of the interviews she’d seen him do and read, he’d never come out and said that he’d written the song “Saving Me” about Krista. She’d known he had. But he’d never confirmed it with the press. He’d never talked about having an abusive childhood or that he’d left home at seventeen. He had never talked about his and Krista’s longtime relationship or that she was the love of his life.
Well that wasn’t the case now. Each answer he had given was like a window into his soul. He was really putting himself out there and, in doing so, really putting her out there.
She waited to feel upset, mad, panicked, overwhelmed. But none of those emotions welled up inside of her. The last question was the interviewer pointing out that this was a whole new side of Chase and asking if opening up had anything to do with the fact that he was going solo.
Now she was mad. The way the question had been posed, it inferred that Chase had done this as some kind of publicity stunt. Which was ridiculous. His first three releases of his solo album were currently sitting in spots one through three on the iTunes and Billboard charts, his entire tour had sold out the day ticket sales had come online, and he’d just been asked to do an interview with Oprah. He didn’t need publicity stunts.
As she tried to reel in her anger, she read his response. He’d answered eloquently about how he understood why some people might question his timing and that his decision to pull back the curtain now came from the same place he’d gotten the inspiration for all of his songs. It came from love. He’d gone on to say that the love he had in his life was real love and it made him braver and stronger than he could ever be on his own. It gave him the courage to let people see the side of himself that he’d kept private for so long.
Crazy Love - Krista & Chase Page 24