TMI (2014 Collector's Dream Winner)

TMI - Chapter 35

Meg opened her front door with a snarl. "What."

Chase all but seethed, his green eyes glinting cold in the glare of the porch light. "What the HELL, Megan?"

She flinched but did not cower. "You saw Facebook."

"Yeah. Saw you stab a friend in the back. And you used me to do it."

His voice was quietly cold — no small feat considering how furious he was. She stared at him, speechless. He waited one more beat. "You don't even deny it?"

"Um, I believe it's called fighting back."

"Really?" Derision practically dripped from the word. "It sounds a whole lot more like getting even and that's not you."

Her eyes went round and she leaned toward him. "Oh, I thought you knew me so well, Chase! That you loved everything about me. Guess you were wrong. You don't know me and you can't possibly love me so just go home and leave me alone."

She tried to slam the door but it bounced off the foot he stuck in its path. She took a step back. Chase stole the opportunity to walk in, uninvited and her face went red. He angled his head and narrowed his eyes. "You think I don't know you. You're wrong. Under all this mad, you know what I see? You're in pieces. Bailey took a cheap shot and you're hurt — I get that. But this—" He jabbed a finger upstairs toward her room, "is low."

She shook her head. "Why don't I get a shot? She came after me first and worse, she got Ryder and even you involved. I keep telling her not to trust this guy and she actually BELIEVES HIM OVER ME."

The sound of her voice bounced off the walls of the living room. Chase took another step.

"Delete it, Megan. Right now."

She folded her arms and shook her head. When he cursed, her eyebrows shot up.

"Damn it, Megan, you don't hurt people like this — not on purpose. Delete the post before it ends up with another TP'd front yard or a knife through a hand. Please."

"No, Chase. Not this time."

He met her gaze. "Fine."

If she’d expected him to walk out and leave her to suffer alone, she’d underestimated him. Instead, he picked her up by her elbows and moved her out of his path to stalk upstairs to her room. He strode into her bedroom and came to a complete and utter stop when he saw her easel. Right behind him, Meg saw his face the second he caught sight of her easel and her heart skidded to a stop. He ran his thumb over the streaks of blood that dripped from the likeness of his face. That cold fury was gone. It its place, she saw wonder, and something that looked a lot like pride.

She shoved past him, tossed the cover over the painting.

Grinning, Chase pulled it back off. “Too late. I can’t unsee it.”

Meg fought desperately for something to say, something to explain it away but she couldn’t when the truth was staring at them from a twenty by seventeen inch canvas.

“Bailey told me but I was too afraid to believe it,” he murmured.

Bailey told him? “Oh, God. Told you what?” she asked, letting her eyes slip shut.

Chase turned, the expression on his face making her knees buckle. “That you paint me all the time.”

She bit her lip. Of course she did. Bailey was all about revealing secrets lately.

He stepped closer. “She also said that you’re obsessed.”

She stepped back.

“That you feel the same way about me as I feel about you.”

He took another step.

She felt the bed behind her legs. He grinned and she cursed; he knew she had nowhere to go.

“I love you, Megan. I’ve loved you for so long, I can’t remember not loving you.”

She swallowed thickly and blurted out one word. “Why?”

He moved closer still. “Why,” he repeated. “Lots of reasons. One day, when you’re ready to hear them, I’ll give you the list.”

Her eyes softened. He had a list.

“You know what I love most of all?” he asked. “You have the most loyal heart. The way you defend and protect and love Bailey amazes me and makes me jealous because I want to be loved that way — I want to be loved your way.”

She stared at him, certain she was going to burst into flames. She wasn’t sure when it happened or why she chose that moment to stop denying it but she loved him — oh, God, she did — even though her father had warned her — and the words played on her lips but when she opened her mouth, nothing came out. She nodded, and smiled her Chase-only smile and it was answered with one of his own. He took her hand and her pulse skipped but he only moved it over her mouse.

“Okay, okay. You’re right.” She deleted the bitchy post. “Happy now?”

When she turned back to Chase, his smile thawed her heart and for the first time in her life, she told her dad’s memory to take a hike. “You have no idea.”

Her hand still under his on the computer mouse, she asked, “What now?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know, Megan. Let’s just start with tomorrow, okay? Wait for me. We’ll go to school together.”

Together.

Meg really liked the sound of that.