The Replacement Girlfriend

Chapter 24

24. Always Drive Safely

Nevermind that they were supposed to be in Santa Monica within an hour – it was almost noon and yet Chase and Krislynn hadn’t made one lame attempt to get out of bed that morning. The Californian sun was high above the horizon and its warm sunshine spilled through the windows, but Chase’s room was still chilly from the thunderstorm last night – all except beneath the duvet.

“Don’t we have to meet Michelle in an hour?” Krislynn asked, turning her head to face Chase as she spared him a watchful glance. They were both lying on their stomachs with their heads buried in their pillows – Krislynn like a stick, and Chase, spread out like a gigantic starfish so that his arm draped across her back and his leg made a diagonal cut over her legs. “She’ll be mad if we’ll late. We should get up.”

“Why do we have to go?” His voice came out muffled against the pillow and he promptly rolled onto his side to face her before propping his body up on his elbow and continuing. “Michelle’s such a dictator. I don’t even want to go to the beach. Why do we have to go?”

“Because it’ll be fun. I mean, what are we going to do if we don’t go?” Yawning, Krislynn stretched her arms and legs and felt a shiver run down her spine as a hand pushed up the back of her T-shirt and pressed against her bare skin. “Touchy-feely today, aren’t we?”

Chase only smirked at her as his fingers did a little tap dance above the base of her spine. “We could just stay here,” he said as he began drawing on her skin with one pivoting finger, “in bed.” He gave her a suggestive eyebrow wiggle which only earned him a playful slap on his head.

“Seriously Chase?” She laughed. “You want to stay in bed all day and do nothing? You really don’t strike me as that type of person. Is that a heart you’re drawing on my back?”

His eyebrows creased in amusement. “It’s an apple,” he declared. His palm briefly swept across her skin as if erasing his previous creation before his finger starting painting again. “We could eat in bed, watch a movie in here – it’s not much, but it’s not nothing. Why? What kind of person do I strike you as?”

Krislynn closed her eyes in concentration as she felt his finger moving across her spine. A big circle. Long lines coming out of the circle. Her lips broke into a smile. “The sun,” she cried. “And I don’t know. You’ve got a big reputation for being a player, right? You just seem like the type to always be out and about. You know, beaches, parties, clubs, premieres?”

In the position he was in, Chase can only manage an asymmetrical shrug. “It depends on the person. There aren’t many people that can keep me interested by doing next to nothing.” He frowned. “How the hell did you get the sun, Piglet? It’s obviously a goddamn spider.”

Krislynn pressed both her elbows into her pillow and rested her head in the palms of her hands. “So then I interest you,” she said, not exactly asking him a question, but instead, fishing for compliments.

He beamed at her, a boyish smile that extended from ear to ear before nodding his head. “Yeah.” Krislynn blushed and lowered her eyes so that it focused on the whites of the pillow below. There it was again. Her stupid heart and that idiotic ba-dump ba-dump sound that it’s been making all morning. “Sort of like a kid at a circus. You’re a freak of nature. I find you very entertaining.”