He’d reached across her, opened the passenger’s side door, and said with an eerie calmness, “Get out.”
She had just sat there for a moment, staring at him in shock and disbelief. Looking back, he knew she’d probably expected him to talk to her, to work things out like they always had. Instead, he’d turned the key in his ignition, put his hands on the steering wheel, and, looking straight ahead through the windshield, said coldly, “Get the fuck out of my truck.”
Now, as he rounded the turn to the home side of the field, he saw her move onto the track about fifty yards in front of him. He picked up his speed to close the distance by about half. He could easily have caught up to her, but the closer he got, the more he decided that behind her was exactly where he wanted to be.
She would have the satisfaction of running ahead of him, which he knew her mind would equate to winning. And he got a chance to enjoy a view that rivaled the seven wonders—all of which he’d seen—which was the wondrous sight of Miss Krista Sloan’s backside bouncing as she ran.
In his book, it was a win-win.
Chapter Eleven
“So what’s he like now?” Becca asked as she sat beside Krista in a beige pleather salon chair while they received pedicures.
The bubbling water and massaging chair had been doing a mighty fine job in the relaxing area until the subject had inevitably turned to Chase. Krista did not open her eyes in hopes that her little sister would get the hint and drop it.
“I don’t know. The same, I guess.”
“It’s so weird. So many girls, and guys for that matter, have posters of him at my dorm. I always hear his songs as ringtones around the campus. Every time someone brings him up because they love his music or just think he’s so hot, I want to be like, ‘Yeah, he taught me how to ride a bike’. It’s just so…bizarre.”
Becca kept talking about different memories she had of Chase growing up, but Krista tuned her out. She didn’t want to think about how amazing he’d been with her sisters or how well he’d gotten along with her very overprotective cousins. Or the fact that her dad had always said that he’d thought of him like a son. None of those things were going to help her campaign to keep Chase at arm’s length.
Krista scooted up in the chair as the massager hit a rather tender area on the back of her thigh. She might have overdone it this morning…a little. It’s not that she’d been trying to show off. That really wasn’t the case. It was just that Chase had always known how to push her buttons—all of her buttons. His cocky attitude had seriously pissed her off. Since she was young, whenever she got mad, she did things fast.
Her dad used to irritate her on purpose when the family would be swimming in the pool just because it amused him to see how fast she would make it from the deep end to the shallow end. Her sister Jessie used to intentionally frustrate her whenever they were doing chores because she knew that Krista wouldn’t stop when she’d finished her own—she would keep cleaning until the entire house was spotless.
So true to form, this morning she’d run around the track like her sweats were on fire. Which was not a total stretch in the analogy department, considering that the entire time she’d been on the track she’d felt the heat of Chase’s stare as she ran. Krista hated to admit it, but she’d liked knowing that he was behind her, watching her as she ran like the wind. When they’d finished their laps and walked over to stretch, she’d seen just how much he’d enjoyed the view straining against his shorts.
She’d be lying if she said that it didn’t give her a thrill knowing how she’d affected him more than once since his return. In fact, practically every time they’d seen each other, his pants had gotten snug below the belt. Krista knew that she’d been just as turned on as Chase all of those times, but he didn’t. He might suspect it. But there was no indisputable proof as was the case in his lower region.
“Krista?” The questioning sound in Becca’s voice forced her to open her eyes.
“Huh?” Krista turned and saw that not only was Becca staring at her, but Haley and Jamie seemed to be all ears as well. Thankfully Amber, Chelle, and Katie were all in getting massages. Otherwise this would have been a tad bit too much.
Becca’s brow furrowed in concern. “I asked if you were going with Chris to the engagement party tonight.”
Chris!
Holy shit. She’d completely forgotten about Chris. Not that they were really a couple, but they had definitely moved past the booty-call-slash-friends-with-benefits stage of their relationship.