Their food arrived, forcing another pause in the conversation.
Vick fumbled with his lobster cracker. Glenn dipped a piece of mangled lobster into the small dish of melted butter and dripped onto Nichole’s binder. The disregard grated on Chase. He wanted that binder. Wanted these two vetted. Even more, he wanted the evening with them concluded.
“Let’s talk about next steps.” Vick sounded as if he were placating. “Once we review the material, we’ll meet with our investors to discuss our offer and contract terms.”
Chase’s first step was easy. He leaned across the table, picked up the binder and set it out of Glenn’s grasp. His next step: he’d find someone to research Fund Infusion and determine if they were a legitimate company or not.
“This is great.” Nichole’s optimism seemed infectious. Chase wished he could get on board. “You’re serious about making an offer for In A Pinch and launching it nationwide. I’m satisfied.”
Vick lifted his glass, but his smile never quite reached his gaze. “To a successful partnership.”
“I left nothing behind.” Glenn rubbed his stomach, his voice mellowed, his eyelids halfway closed. “Now that the business is out of the way, you can tell us how you two met.”
Clearly Glenn’s full stomach hadn’t dulled his quest for a possible lucrative news story.
“We’ve known each other for quite a while,” Nichole said softly. Her head dipped and she took a quick gulp of her wine.
“Since high school.” Chase wrapped her hand in his. He held on to her, his easygoing tone and his lie. “She sat behind me and copied off my biology quizzes freshman year.”
Nichole’s nervous laughter registered with him as she tapped her shoulder into Chase. The same way she’d used to bump him during their tutoring sessions to get him to concentrate on his schoolwork, rather than memorizing offensive plays.
They both knew the real story. Chase had sat behind Nichole and attempted to copy off her biology exams freshman year. One day she’d confronted him outside the locker room on his way to practice. You can’t want to be a cheater. No one wants to be a cheater. If it hadn’t been her tests, he’d have copied off someone else in their biology class. Good luck passing biology by using anyone else’s work. Frustrated and desperate, Chase had issued a challenge: You have a better idea? With hands on her hips, she’d stared him down. Yes.
Nichole had never faltered. Certainty and confidence sang in her voice and her unwavering gaze. I’ll be your tutor. No one needs to know.
That had sealed their relationship. First, she’d been his tutor. Then his friend and confidante. But never more. He’d never considered more until he sat beside her, pretending to be her husband.
“My wife and I met in grade school.” Vick touched his wedding ring, sounding wistful. “There’s something about first loves you can’t ignore. I’m going on thirty-four years with my true love.”
“I’m currently between wives.” Glenn stared into his empty glass.
“Glenn might be taking a hiatus on love, but we can toast.” Vick lifted his glass over the center of the table. “To first loves and your new journey together.”
Nichole and Chase’s journey had nothing to do with love: true love or first love. And everything to do with favors owed to an old friend. The evening had even been enjoyable. Ironic, since he’d spent the entire night sitting in a chair, not seeking the next adrenaline rush. Chase tapped his glass against Vick’s. “To love.”
Nichole gripped her wineglass, offered a whisper-soft clink against the others with no more force than an air kiss. Her smile wobbled. “To...”
Her sentence died.
Instead, she shoved her chair away from the table. “If you’ll excuse me.”
She rose and spun around in one swift movement. Too swift. Her momentum carried her right into the waiter. The one holding a very full pitcher of ice water.
Chase reached out. The collision unfolded like a slow-motion instant replay. Fortunately, most of the ice water sloshed onto the floor. Nichole stumbled backward into Chase’s arms. Into his lap. Finally, the evening felt completely right.
Chase curved his arms tighter around Nichole’s waist and followed his gut. Lowering his head, he caught her next startled gasp with his lips. Then he kissed her until his own gasp claimed him.
Across the table, Vick’s laughter spilled through his words. “I think we’ll take the check and skip dessert.”
CHAPTER SIX
CHASE IGNORED HIS MANNERS. Swerved around common sense. Gave in to instinct and extended their kiss into something that they were no longer pretending. The type of kiss that he’d definitely share with his wife.
Too soon, Nichole broke away. She blinked slow and steady as if clearing the mist from her fog-filled senses. A deep blush seared from her chest to her face. Chase kept his arms around her, seeking his own balance. He’d replay that moment in slow detail later.
The waiter placed a bottle of champagne and two glasses with strawberries resting on the rims on the table. Added a quick whispered explanation: courtesy of the gentlemen who had just left, before he disappeared again.
Just like that, the private dining room became even more private.
Nichole scrambled off Chase’s lap, dropped into the chair beside him and latched on to her binder like it was the elephant in the room. “They forgot my business plan.”
“You can email the information.” Then kiss me again as if we really were newlyweds. Chase scrambled away from his own thoughts, wanting to call a false start penalty on himself.
Newlyweds implied a shared connection. A connection that went deeper than appearances, first names and conversations about the weather. Newlyweds promised each other a future together. Newlyweds trusted each other to fulfill that promise.
There would be no more kissing. And apparently no more protecting Nichole from the duo. Frustration over the kiss and his safeguarding had to
