Chasing Love (Mountain Creek Drive Book 3)

by Kayla Tirrell

  21:47

  I looked up at the clock as I crossed the finish line. A huge grin broke out on my face when I saw the time—definitely a PR. When I looked over to see an angry Victoria, my smile faltered slightly. She must have been the orange blob beside me during the last stretch. I’d barely beat her across the finish line, and she didn’t look happy about it.

  I began moving toward her, not sure if I was going to congratulate her or apologize for beating her. As soon as I took my first step in her direction, a pair of strong arms lifted me and spun me around.

  “Ahhhhh!” I’d been completely caught off guard and started spazzing out. I screamed as I kicked my legs in wild abandon. “Let me down!”

  The body attached to the arms started laughing but relented and planted my feet back on solid ground. I got my balance and looked up to find Neal shaking with laughter.

  “Nice job, Andrews,” he managed to get out between chuckles.

  I started hitting his chest. “That’s.” Smack. “Not.” Slap. “Funny!”

  I went to punch his arm, but before my fist could connect, everything was suddenly upside-down. Somehow, Neal had grabbed me, picked me up, and flipped me over his shoulder before I knew what was happening.

  I continued to scream, grabbing the attention of everyone as Neal walked over to the starting line.

  “If you promise to stop hitting me, I’ll let you down.”

  My arms stilled, and Neal spun me, so I stood on solid ground once again. I lifted my hand to start attacking again, but Neal’s raised eyebrows stopped me dead in my tracks. He would pick me up again in a heartbeat. I knew it. So, I clenched my teeth and stomped over to the starting line, leaving him behind. Amy already stood there waiting to cheer the guys JV team.

  “What was that?” she asked when I approached her side.

  I let out a small laugh. “I have no idea.”

  Amy looped her arm through mine. “Well, you’d better figure it out because his eyes haven’t left you since you walked away.”

  I looked over to see that Amy was right.

  Embarrassed, I continued to look around the crowd. My eyes stopped when they met another face watching me.

  This time it was Chase, and he was frowning. I shot him a smile, but he turned his head.

  “Looks like someone is jealous,” Amy said.

  I laughed her off, but her expression was knowing as she went to the starting line. I tried to focus on the races and cheering my best friend on. I really did, but my thoughts kept going back to what she said.

  Chase wasn’t jealous of what had happened between Neal and me.

  There was no way.

  Was there?

  Chapter Fifteen

  I was still riding the high of my first cross country meet when I walked into Blockbuster that night. I’d forgotten I was working with Chase until I saw him behind the counter. He was clocking in on the computer and looked up as I got closer.

  He wore an expression I couldn’t quite decipher.

  “Hey, Chase. Are we closing together?”

  His eyes went to the paper schedule on the counter and back to me. He nodded and started grabbing videos from the return box. He flipped open each case, making sure the correct DVD or VHS was inside, before scanning them into the system.

  “Is John in the back?” I asked, my voice hesitant. What on earth had I done to piss him off?

  Another curt nod.

  “Okay,” I said slowly. “I’m just going to check in with him and see if there’s anything I need to know for tonight’s shift.”

  I stopped, waiting for a reply, but when none came, I went to the back office. John sat at his desk, writing something in his logbook.

  “Oh, hey, Nicole. How’d your race go today?”

  Not only had he been cool with me taking Saturday mornings off for the unforeseeable future due to cross country meets, but he also genuinely cared. It would be much better to work with him that night than Mr. Cranky McGrumperson out there.

  “Really good,” I answered. “Rosemark placed second out of all the schools in the district, and I ran my fastest time.”

  John’ brows knit together. “Huh. I just assumed it must have been bad with the attitude Chase came in with. I didn’t realize he was the assistant coach for the team.” He chuckled, more to himself. “You guys must be getting tired of seeing each other so much.

  You have no idea.

  After another minute of small talk, John and I got down to business. We had a new shipment of movies for Tuesday’s new releases. He knew it would be a busy Saturday night, but asked if Chase and I could try to make some free space on the outer wall for the new movies.

  I assured him it wouldn’t be a problem. Chase was all business tonight. We should be able to get an entire week’s work of work done on our shift together.

  After counting down the afternoon’s registers, John walked out of the store, leaving Chase and me alone.

  At first, it wasn’t so bad. Customers came in a steady stream that had us both moving. We were both on a register, checking out movies to everyone and anyone within a ten-mile radius. Lots of Rosemark students, including the new guy, Josh.

  He was cute, and a football player to boot. I could totally see why all the girls at school went crazy over him. But I was currently dealing with two cute boys of my own and was so far out of my comfort zone, I had no desire to try to squeeze one more in. Not that he showed any interest in me.

  “This seems like a pretty cool job,” Josh said handing me a DVD of a new comedy that had come out earlier in the week.

  “Yeah,” I answered. “Most of the time it’s awesome.” I fought the urge to look over at Chase—the thorn in my paw.

  I finished checking out the movie and sighed as I looked at the seemingly endless line of waiting customers. It was going to be a long night.

  At some point, Amy came in for her usual romantic comedy, and I put it on my account knowing she would be good for it. She made some wiggling motions with her eyebrows, but I shook my head quickly, with a glance at Chase.

  There were recent grads coming in too. Several guys went out of their way to get Chase to check out their movies. I tried to focus on pieces of the conversations. Lots of “what’s up, man” and “not much, man,” but nothing of real substance.

  With each interaction, Chase smiled and talked with his old buddies, but even as distracted as I was with my own customers, I could tell something was bothering him.

  When things began slowing down, we went down to one register, and Chase starting shelving some of the movies we received during the mass influx. When it slowed down even more, I helped him.

  At first, I walked silently beside him as we put movies back where they belonged. But the air was thick with unspoken tension, and it wasn’t long before I couldn’t stand it anymore.

  “What’s going on with you tonight?” I snapped, just barely keeping the word man from leaving my lips.

  “Nothing.” His voice was equally irritated as he set a movie against the wall, only to have it fall with the force he used. I bit back my comment when I saw his furrowed brow as he tried two more times to get it to stay put.

  We continued putting movies on the shelves, each of us slamming them in their spots. When I put the last movie in my stack up, I turned to Chase who still refused to look at me. “Is this about the meet this morning?

  “No.”

  “Good.” I crossed my arms. “Because we did good. Even Coach said so.”

  He finally stopped, his arms still full of old VHS movies. “I’m sorry. I’m just in a bad mood. I have a lot on my plate, and I’m taking it out on you.”

  I stepped forward and put my hand against his arm. His bicep felt solid from beneath the uniform shirt.

  Focus, Nicole!

  “I shouldn’t have snapped back. I…” I closed my eyes and laughed, embarrassed about what I was about to say. “I thought maybe you were upset about the race and the way Neal picked me up. Which is ridiculo
us, right? Like you care who some high school nobody likes.”

  The words tumbled out, sounding much worse once I said them out loud. I kept my eyes squeezed tight, not wanting to see Chase’s reaction. Of course, he didn’t care about that scene with Neal. I slowly opened my eyes. Looking at him for the briefest moment, I turned to walk away, unable to stand there any longer.

  “Do you?”

  Chase’s question stopped me. I swiveled my body to face him once more. “Do I what?”

  Chase’s expression was serious as he watched me. “Do you like Neal?”

  I let out a deep sigh and shrugged. “He seems to like me. So maybe? I don’t know.”

  Why was Chase asking me this? And why was it such a difficult question to answer? I watched as Chase opened and closed his mouth several times.

  “Just be careful, okay?” he finally said.

  Be careful?

  “Sure thing, dad.” I reached up and messed up his hair. He’d obviously spent a decent amount of time making it look like he woke up like that.

  He swatted my hands away, but at least his smile was genuine this time. “Sure thing, Nic.”

  The crowds stopped coming in, earlier than usual for a Saturday night. Even with the tension between Chase and me broken, we still had too much free time on our hands.

  We got caught up on returns, and then the two of us got started on clearing out some space for the new releases. It meant finding some of the current titles on the wall that had too many copies and taking about a fourth of them down. In that way, Chase and I had cleared an entire space for the movies in the shipment.

  “Have you looked to see what’s in there yet?” Chase pointed to the large cardboard box on the ground.

  “Not yet.” I rubbed my palms together. “Wanna go through it together?”

  We started pulling out movies left and right. Most weren’t a surprise. We had a large marquis behind the registers that displayed the upcoming releases. Other movies were much more shocking.

  Like Sexy Martians in Space.

  We didn’t carry anything pornographic at Blockbuster, but some movies toed the line. This was definitely one of them. We received one VHS copy of the film. The cover had three scantily clad women, with green skin and long blond hair. Their waists were small, their chests unnaturally large.

  “Do people even rent stuff like this?” Chase held it up, a corner of his mouth lifted in a smile that had me gushing over him all over again.

  I started giggling, and couldn’t stop, thinking about all the shy guys who would try to hide movies like that in a stack of regular movies. As if we didn’t know what movie they were most excited about.

  “You really haven’t had any racy rentals yet?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. Too bad we don’t have a VHS player and TV up here.”

  My eyes widened. Did Chase like women who looked like that? Did he enjoy unrated movies? My thoughts must have been clearly written across my face because his laughter came out in a loud burst.

  “Oh, Nic, I’m kidding! You’re adorable when you’re flustered.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” a male voice said from the other side of the counter. We’d been so distracted by the bodacious babes, neither one of us noticed the customer come in.

  We both snapped around toward the source of the voice. I was taken aback to see Neal standing just a couple feet in front of me with a smile on his face.

  “What are you doing here?” My words came out as an accusation, like someone who just got caught cheating on their boyfriend. That was stupid, of course. I wasn’t dating Neal, and I wasn’t doing anything inappropriate with Chase.

  So why did it feel that way?

  “A bunch of us went down to the corn maze at Langford’s farm tonight. I called your house, but there was no answer.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been at work all night. Maybe next time.” I smiled thinking about Neal calling my house.

  Neal opened his mouth to say something, but Chase interrupted. “Why didn’t you ask her this morning?”

  The smile that had been on Neal’s face disappeared. “What?”

  “Not that it would have changed anything, but why didn’t you ask Nicole when you were swinging her around like a caveman earlier?” I didn’t dare look over to see the expression on Chase’s face. His voice was hard, and his words were accusing. Only, I didn’t know what he was implying.

  Neal’s smile was back, but this time it didn’t meet his eyes. “We decided last minute.”

  Chase snorted and mumbled something under his breath.

  “Is there a problem, man?” Neal leaned forward and placed one of his hands on the table.

  I glanced over at Chase who lifted his hands in surrender. “No problem.” He turned to face me. “I’m going to work on the new release wall.”

  The wall was already done, but I just nodded, giving him the out.

  Once he was out of earshot, Neal leaned ever farther over the counter. He wore the same cologne as most of the guys at Rosemark—strong and pungent, with a side of eye prickling. Completely unlike the subtle scent that Chase used, not that I’d memorized it or anything.

  “That dude has some major problems.” He hitched his thumb over his shoulder in the direction Chase stalked off.

  “What?” I could see the tension between the two guys but still hadn’t figured it out.

  “Have you ever seen that movie Dazed and Confused?”

  I nodded. Of course, I had. I’d been working at Blockbuster for years. I’d rented just about every movie we had.

  “So, you know that character Matthew McConaughey plays? He says something about how great high school girls are because no matter how old he gets, they stay the same age.” He paused and lifted his brows. “Chase is that guy.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Think about it, Andrews. He graduated last year, but conveniently found a job working at the school. And maybe you don’t see it, but everyone else does.”

  “See what?” I leaned against the counter.

  “That Chase can’t keep his eyes off you.”

  Amy had said something similar to me. It sounded just as silly the second time. I started to laugh, but the sound got stuck in my throat when I realized he wasn’t joking. I felt my cheeks get hot. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  Neal stood back up and lifted his arms out. “I’m just telling you what I see. Just be careful around him. I don’t trust him.”

  The words were almost exactly the same as the ones Chase had spoken to me earlier that evening. If the roughly eight-thousand teen movies I’d seen over the years taught me anything, I’d say they were locked in a pissing contest.

  Of course, movies were not real life. I was Nicole Andrews, professional wallflower. The two hottest guys were not fighting over me.

  “Anyway, I should get going,” Neal said, interrupting my thoughts.

  I looked down at his empty hands. “Without renting a movie?”

  He flashed a wide smile at me. “Nah, I came to see you.”

  I tried to ignore the strange fluttering in my stomach. Unused to compliments, I was tongue-tied. I only hoped I could make it through the rest of our conversation without becoming incoherent.

  “You have to get a movie. I’ll even let you use my account.”

  What did I just say?

  Neal was equally confused. “What?”

  I kept going, even though I should have backed out before it was too late. “I get a ton of free rentals every week. I never use them all.” Lie. “I might as well share them.”

  Neal wasted no time grabbing a movie and bringing it back up front. Some action flick I’d already seen. The dialogue was terrible, and the special effects left me underwhelmed. But it was a popular one with the meathead types.

  I rang it up, using my employee number. “Okay, so it’s due Sunday. Just make sure you have it back by then.”

  “Sure thing,” he answered, looking down at the DVD in his hands. “
Later, Andrews.”

  He left, and almost immediately Chase was back. This time his sour mood was back, and no matter what I tried, I couldn’t cheer him up.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Amy called an emergency movie night on Tuesday. She said I’d been zoning out too much during lunch, and it was breaking her heart to watch my meals go untouched. I told her I was fine, but she wasn’t buying it.

  The two of us walked around Blockbuster looking for a movie. I’d seen so many of the films that lined the walls. My favorites had been watched so many times, I should have bought them by now.

  Amy stopped and turned to face me after a full trip around the store in silence. “What sounds good?”

  I shrugged. Nothing sounded good, but I didn’t want to ruin my best friend’s intervention.

  “Okay,” she continued, her smile tight. “What haven’t you watched yet?”

  “Sexy Martians in Space,” I mumbled.

  “What?” She must have made out at least one of the words because her voice was high pitched.

  “Nothing. Inside joke.” With Chase.

  “Nicole, you’re going to have to help me out here, or we’re watching She’s All That again.” She scanned the new release wall.

  “It’s not there anymore. Shipped off to the comedy section, never to be rented again.” I did my best impression of a vampire as I said the last part and topped it off with a spooky laugh.

  “That’s the Nicole I like to see. I’m grabbing it anyway. I’d hate to think no one was watching Freddie Prinze Jr. in all his glory.”

  “I’ll meet you up front.”

  I took my time walking to the registers, taking in all the movies. For too long, my best friends had been on the silver screen. But those actors knew me even less than the students at Rosemark. They wouldn’t know me from any other adoring fan.

  I should be thankful to have a friend who was so concerned. Amy was pushing back homework assignments to make sure I was okay. And the truth was, I was so confused about what was going on with Neal and Chase, I needed her friendship more than ever.