Crazy Love(13)

Loud voices from the hall burst the bubble that had formed around them and Krista pulled out of his grasp. Tucking a stray strand of her golden-red hair behind her ear, she said in a raspy tone, “I have to get back to work.”

She moved with lightning-fast quickness to the door.

“Krista.” His voice was thick with raw emotion as he spoke her name.

Pausing as her hand still held the doorknob, she stood perfectly still, her back facing him.

He knew he had a matter of seconds before she was out that door. He needed to say something, anything. For years, he’d thought about what he would say to Krista when he saw her again. He’d thought of a thousand different poetic things he could tell her. Asking her if she was okay and telling her that she looked tired had not ever been in the running as possibilities.

Now that they were actually in the same room, none of the things he’d wanted to tell her were in his mind. He opened his mouth and, as it was apparently becoming a habit, spoke before he knew what he was going to say.

“It was good seeing you again.”

He saw her shoulders pull and her back straighten as her body stiffened. Without saying a word, she opened the door, and just like that, she was gone. After several moments of staring at the space she’d just occupied, Chase moved to sit in the chair beside his mom’s bed. The material squeaked as he sat.

Last night, he hadn’t slept at all on the drive to Illinois. He’d tried, but there was just too much running through his mind. A lot of the things he’d feared-slash-expected to feel coming back here, he actually wasn’t feeling. In fact, the moment he’d stepped off the bus in the hospital parking lot, he’d felt an odd sense of peace. Like this was exactly where he was supposed to be. Home.





Chapter Four





Pull yourself together.

Krista’s jaw tightened as she watched her trembling hand press the clear button on the elevator panel with the number two on it. She couldn’t believe that what had just happened had really happened. Krista knew that she must have continued breathing while she’d been in the small hospital room with Chase, but she honestly could not remember taking a single breath of air while she had been in his presence in the confined space. Her chest was tight and achy. Even now, she was having a difficult time moving oxygen down into her lungs.

Over the years, whenever she’d thought about seeing Chase again, she’d imagined three distinct scenarios. She would either A. give him a piece of her mind, B. totally ignore him, or C. congratulate him on his success, wish him the best, and then casually catch up as though he hadn’t ripped her heart out and stomped on it.

Even though the past few minutes were a blur, she really did not believe that she’d managed to pull off any of her three pre-planned responses. When she’d seen him, she’d been so floored by the fact that his sex appeal had been magnified by about a thousand percent. And that was saying something because he’d always been sexy.

Even in elementary school, Krista had gotten butterflies whenever she’d seen him in the hallways. When he’d performed in the musical Grease with her sister Haley, Krista had gone to every rehearsal after school and sat in the front row. If she closed her eyes, she could still see him up on that stage with his black leather jacket. She had only been a third grader at the time, but Krista had fallen in love somewhere during those months of rehearsals.

Krista felt a buzzing on her hip. Checking her pager, she saw that her next patient was waiting for her. Okay, she had to clear her mind and focus on work. She could not allow the fact that Chase Malone was in the building to throw her off her game.

Work. That was what she needed to focus on. Not the fact that Chase was filling out the black t-shirt in all the right places. Or the fact that, when their had eyes met, it was as if the energy between them had defied space and time, feeling like no time at all had passed since they’d seen each other last. And she definitely did not need to be focusing on the fact that the moment Chase had touched her, her body had filled with a volcano-like eruption of sensation—tingles, desire, need—all flowing through her in a heated rush.

Chase had always had that effect on Krista. Her body had always responded to his like he was electrically charged. The heat they’d shared was more than just attraction. It couldn’t be explained by pheromones. It was different. Deeper. Krista had never been able to put it into words or explain it. It was soulful. Visceral. Primal.

When she was younger, she’d loved it. It had been hot. But what she hadn’t fully understood then was that when you played with fire, nine times out of ten, you got burned, and those scars did not heal easily. That was a lesson she’d learned only after Chase had left. After it was too late—after she’d been burned.