Crazy Love(26)

With each step she took up the stairwell, she felt like she was swimming upstream. Going up from the first floor to the fourth to check on Abby, Krista had made it only halfway up the first flight of stairs before seriously regretting her misguided choice to not take the elevator.

This poor decision stemmed from her new get-in-better-shape plan. She hadn’t made it to the track this morning for her run. Sadly, it wasn’t because she had been sleeping, cozily tucked in her bed. Nope. She’d been wide awake, staring at the red illuminated numbers on her bedside clock that mocked her each time they changed, all the while listening to the melodic sounds of Bear sawing logs.

After returning home with the beloved Teddy, Bear had hopped up on her bed—Teddy hanging from his mouth—circled three times, and plopped down, and he hadn’t moved until Krista had forced him to go out to the bathroom before she’d left for work. She’d barely been able to get the door open and then closed again, which she attributed to her lack of sleep.

Her unexpected reunion   with Chase last night had stricken her wide a-freakin’-wake. Krista wasn’t sure if it was due to the adrenaline or lust that had been racing through her system after she left Abby’s house. It was most likely both.

For hours, she’d tossed and turned in her bed, trying to convince herself that she hadn’t really been all that affected by Chase’s return. She’d applied all of her persuasive efforts into trying to plead the case that she hadn’t almost spontaneously combusted at the sight of Chase shirtless in his low-slung sweats that hung in just the right spot on his hips to accentuate the sexy, defined lines of his abs. Or that when he’d had her trapped against the front door she hadn’t crossed her fingers and toes hoping, wishing, silently pleading for him to lean down and press his full lips to hers, pick her up, and take her against the wall.

She’d tried everything in her power to deny, deny, deny. But it was no use. Which was frustrating beyond belief. Krista had always prided herself on being a mind-over-matter girl. Then, on the rare occasions that failed her, she usually moved on to the fake-it-‘til-you-make-it mindset. Unfortunately, neither of those mental tricks had worked while lying in her bed, tossing and turning with visions of Chase, memories of Chase, fantasies of Chase.

Krista was a practical girl. Although she’d spent the greater part of last night floating down the River of Denial, she knew the cold, hard truth. She was affected by Chase’s return. Her heart, soul, and hormones were firmly in the “Team Chase” camp. They were rooting for her to spend time with him; catch up with him in and out of bed. Her body had been reminding her of how good things had been with Chase, even their first time—which had happened to be both of their first times.

After having seen his physical reaction to her, Krista knew Chase would be more than willing to take a little stroll down sexual memory lane. She wasn’t just going off of the all-systems-go, how-you-doin’ sweat tent he had been rocking last night either. All she’d had to do was look in his eyes and she’d seen how much he wanted her. Even in the hospital room yesterday, without the visual exhibit A in his pants, she’d felt the chemistry sizzling between them like bacon in a frying pan. There had been so much heat exploding between them it was like Pop Rocks if you drank them with Coke.

But her mind was the one that was in charge. It was the sole member of the “Team Krista” camp. It knew better than to listen to her heart, soul, and definitely her hormones. Luckily, as she had just reminded herself last night, her mind was running things. Always had been. Always would be.

Reconnecting with Chase, physically or emotionally, was not a good idea. Nothing good could come from it. Actually, that’s not true. She could come from it, and God, she knew it would be more than good.

But what then? What happened when he left again? What happened when he continued his life? What happened when the front pages of every magazine was splashed with pictures of him hooking up with groupies, models, actresses? What happened when her heart—which was still broken from the first time he left—broke into a million more pieces?

Exhaustion swept through her. Pausing for a moment, she looked at the final flight of stairs she needed to climb to reach her destination. She felt like Sylvester Stallone in Rocky. The soundtrack played in her head as she took each step. Dun-dun-da-dun-dun-da.

Finally, she made it to the top of the staircase. She was slightly out of breath. Krista was hoping that was due to the fatigue brought on by sleep deprivation and not a true barometer of how out of shape she was. Either way, her mind was made up. Sleep or no sleep, tomorrow was her day off and she was going to start it with a run on the track.