“She did it for Chase.” Mallory shook her head at him. “I can’t believe you asked Nichole to do that for you.”
Chase rubbed the back of his neck, catching his flinch. Nichole and he had run in different circles at school. It’d been easy to avoid each other. His family had believed he’d wanted to protect his reputation as a popular football player. But he hadn’t wanted to invite questions. Kids would’ve asked how Nichole and he knew each other. That would’ve led to even more questions that he never wanted to answer. He’d never wanted anyone to know about his dyslexia. Not his teammates or his friends. Nichole knew about his faults and his weaknesses. At school, seeing her reminded him he wasn’t flawless. Was far from perfect. He was less than, like his own dad had believed.
Except with Nichole at his house after school, she’d made Chase feel like he could conquer anything and reach his dreams. He squeezed his neck. Had he made her believe she could reach her dreams too? Not likely. He’d been too consumed with his own. He had to help Nichole now. Give her something good. He owed her that much and more.
“Nichole was always so smart.” Ivy punched his shoulder, her humor stepping back to the forefront. “Yet she married Chase.”
His stomach collapsed as if punched too. He wasn’t good enough for Nichole. He should’ve never started this. “It’s not...”
“I’d like to see the woman Nichole has become,” his grandmother interrupted. She lowered herself onto the couch and picked up her plate. “When do I get to see this new wife of yours?”
That simple question launched a full-scale debate among the women. Days, times and places were thrown out, discarded and revisited. Chase tried twice to intervene. His sisters and mother ignored him. He sat on the couch beside his grandmother and checked his phone again.
“Something more important on your phone than your family?” Nonna dabbed a napkin against her cheek.
“I’m waiting to hear from Nichole.” Chase flipped his phone over in his hands. Had Nichole changed her mind about car pool pickup? About their deal? “This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go.”
Nonna placed her hand on his arm, drawing his gaze to her wisdom-aged whiskey-brown eyes. “We can plan all we want, but love has its own mind and its own agenda.”
Love. This wasn’t about love. This was about contracts and reputation repair. Chase rose and stuffed his phone in his back pocket. “I have to go. It’s car pool day today, and I don’t want to mess that up on my first day.” His mind raced to cover any other loose ends. “This weekend won’t work for a family gathering.”
Conversation stopped. His mother and sisters stood shoulder to shoulder and eyed him. They’d been forming their impenetrable wall since he’d started kindergarten to make Chase squirm. To make him confess to putting hot sauce on Mallory’s pasta instead of spaghetti sauce. To make him admit he purposely scared Ivy and her friends during their sleepover. To force him to concede he ate the entire family-sized bag of potato chips in one sitting. Now they wanted another confession.
“Nichole and I are going on a ski-moon.” Chase slammed his lips together. What?
“Where are you going?” Mallory’s arms crossed again, her eyes narrowed, her foot tapped against the hardwood floor.
He didn’t envy his future nieces and nephews. Mallory would make a formidable mom one day.
“I’ve never heard of that.” Ivy scowled and considered him as if searching for a weakness. “What is it?”
Chase wanted to know the very same thing too. He ran his hand through his hair. His family watched him, silent and judging. “You know.” He rushed on. “It’s like a honeymoon. But it’s in Tahoe and we’ll be skiing. Get it?”
Ivy caved first and laughed. “It can’t be a real honeymoon if Nichole’s son is joining you guys.”
“He is going, isn’t he?” his mother asked. Suspicion wove through her words.
“Of course,” Chase managed. He hadn’t met Wesley yet, but what kid didn’t like the snow. “We’re family now.” Family. The idea pinned him in place like an ambush.
His mother’s nod remained stiff and small as if she held back her full approval.
“I really have to go.” Chase backed toward the door, searching for the handle and some semblance of balance. He’d built a career on his agility and sure-footed skill. What had happened to his poise? Finally, his fingers curled around the brass door handle. But his balance remained off-kilter.
His grandmother’s voice stopped his escape. “Honeymoon or ski-moon or whatever, you’ll bring Nichole here to see me tomorrow at her convenience.”
That wasn’t a request. Or an invitation. It was a direct order. Chase agreed and fled the small apartment. And hopefully, the faint whisper of love’s arrow.
CHAPTER TEN
THIRTY MINUTES BEFORE the end of the school day and the start of her car pool duties, Nichole pulled into Chase’s driveway. She stared at the three-story Mediterranean-style villa hidden behind a pair of lush olive trees. Chase lived in one of the most sought-after districts in the city within easy walking distance of the best the city offered, including bay views. Nichole rented an unremarkable two-bedroom in a dull duplex tucked away in a modest part of town. Nichole and Wesley relied on their bus passes to travel around the city most days.
But today wasn’t typical. She turned off her sedan. The four-door car outdated Wesley by a decade, tallied more than one hundred and fifty thousand miles and boasted several completed cross-country road trips. Not the luxury town car Chase was most likely accustomed to. Her rattleship as Wesley called it wouldn’t become the image booster for Chase. Neither would Nichole.
Why had she agreed to their pseudo marriage? Opposites do not attract. No scientific evidence existed to support the theory. Nichole and Chase were about as opposite as possible. Now she had to come up with a suitable explanation for Wesley. I’m helping out an old
