Ashley is only partially paying attention to me because the chocolate has all of her attention at the moment.
She moans loudly. “I’m having a chocolate orgasm over here, everybody look away.” She’s enjoying the attention too much and is probably trying to get back at Chase for the earlier crack about ransacking the suite, although that’s exactly what she’s doing.
All of a sudden, there’s way too much going on in the room for me to keep track of.
Chase shoots me a look like I’m supposed to do something about his sister. Then he attempts to get the whole thing back on track. “Is that a problem? I mean, I know that the engagement is kind of sudden, but sometimes these things just happen.”
“No way,” one of the board members says, his tone rising. I’m guessing that must be Mark, the ringleader and turncoat. “You got caught, Chase. The game’s over.”
Chase frowns. “What game? Despite how it looks, Kaylee and I are in love.”
“What are those documents on the coffee table?” Liam asks as he leans forward.
Chase hits his forehead in a corny display. He’s really hamming it up now. I’d be drunkenly shouting give him the Oscar under different circumstances. “I’m sorry, Liam, would you like some champagne? Kaylee and I are celebrating.”
Liam shakes his head. “No, thank you. But might I inquire as to what exactly you two are celebrating?”
“We put an offer on a property. You’re right, Kaylee lives here. She’s a business owner who also contributes to local charities, you see. And so, we’re buying property here. Since she has strong ties to the community.”
There’s a long pause. Then a sputtering. I privately wonder if that’s Mark spitting out whatever beverage he happens to be drinking.
For his part, Liam is more than intrigued. His whole face lights up. The excitement for real estate must run in the family. “Property, you say? I do love real estate.”
I smile, scoop up the papers from the coffee table, and bring them to Liam. “Would you like to see? It’s a lovely little beachfront cottage,” I say.
“Oh yes, please.” Liam dives into the pictures, remarking on leeway and egress and structure as he holds up the pictures and documents toward the screen for the board of directors to see. Before long, he and Chase are in a friendly, animated conversation. And they’re not alone, members of the board are chiming in with requests to zoom in on certain papers. They’re like nerds at a comic con.
Now that the situation with the board looks like it’s under control, it feels like something’s missing. Oh yeah, Ashley. Where is she, anyway?
She’s not in the kitchen anymore. I look down the hallway and across the main living area and don’t see her anywhere. Then I get suspicious. I excuse myself and ninja walk over to where Chase’s suite door is partially open. That’s bad because I’m sure I closed that door before those two came over.
I very slowly crack the door more open so I can slip in unnoticed, and then I catch her going through Chase’s nightstand. “What are you doing?” I ask with the smug satisfaction of having caught her red handed.
She looks up at me and smiles, expressing exactly zero remorse. “Snooping. Obviously. Duh.”
I just stare at this woman unashamedly going through Chase’s things. Of course, I had done the same thing like, yesterday, but that was different. I’m fake engaged to him. And I would have been horrified to have been caught at it. “Well then, are you done?”
She shrugs at me. “Not by a long shot. It beats hanging around out there listening to them talk corporate bullshit. Ugh. So boring.”
She has me there. But I can’t just let her get away with it. “So you amuse yourself by snooping on your brother?”
“Yes, we already established that.” She raises an eyebrow at me. “Care to join me? I mean it’s out there now that your relationship is pretty new, let’s snoop together while I try to think of embarrassing stories to tell about Chase. We’re practically sisters now, right?”
On one hand all of this feels weird, like I’ve entered an alternate dimension and I don’t exactly know what’s going on. On the other hand, snooping is really fun and it’s definitely a bonding experience. Besides, it’ll probably be a while before the guys are done with whatever the hell they’re doing.
“Cute cottage, by the way,” she says with a weird knowing smirk, giving me a slight side-eye. “That’s when I knew.”
That’s when she knew what? I panic slightly, take a breath, and then narrow my eyes at her. “Knew what, exactly?”
“That you and Chase are for real.” She closes the drawer she’s ransacking, which happens to be the top dresser. Then she opens the bottom one to continue rifling through his stuff.
“For real?” I ask.
“If you were an upward climbing socialite, a gold digger, or just generally greedy person, you could have chosen a property worth two or three times what that little cottage cost. And would have also insisted on one of the more exclusive neighborhoods.”
She shuts that drawer in frustration and moves on to my nightstand. “Boring, doesn’t Chase ever do anything fun?”
“Hey, that one’s mine,” I object.
“Good to know.” It doesn’t slow her down. “Now, if I had gone searching for real estate, I would also have gone for smaller and unassuming. We have similar tastes, you and I.”
I seriously doubt that. Now that I’m paying attention to her up close, I notice her ridiculously over the top designer clothes and four-inch heels. In fact, I’m quite certain that the outfit she’s wearing right now costs more than my car.
Her long dark hair has gorgeous ringlets on the ends, and her makeup is perfect, even in the low light here in the bedroom with the curtains closed.
How the hell is that possible? It’s clear that she’s
