Chapter Fifteen
“I told you, Mom. It wasn’t like that. Jessie and Becca were there. We all ate pizza and watched a movie. It wasn’t a date.”
The first question his mom had asked when he’d walked in this morning was if Chase had met Bear. He should have just said, “Yes,” and left it at that. Instead, he’d mistakenly told her that he’d not only met Bear but hung out with him for a while. That admission had led to not-so-subtle hopeful questions of “Why?” and “What were you doing there?”
“Dinner and a movie sounds like a date to me,” Chase’s mom stated, not allowing the hope bubble she remained happily floating in to be burst with silly things like semantics.
He shook his head as he let out a sigh. As much as Chase truly believed that he and Krista were making small steps towards…something, he still wasn’t clear what that something was. She had unquestionably seemed more relaxed around him over the weekend—Saturday night when they’d been dancing and then yesterday with her sisters. But there was still something holding her back from him. Her guard was still up.
Chase hadn’t expected Krista to run to him, fall into his arms, and declare her undying love for him. Sure, he’d hoped it, but he hadn’t really expected it. Still, he had been home for five days and they hadn’t had a real conversation.
He still felt like the connection was there. Physically, there was so much heat between the two of them he was surprised they didn’t set off fire alarms. They had fallen back into their same combative-slash-flirtatious banter. There was a shorthand between them that he’d now lived long enough to know didn’t just happen. The kind of bond they shared was because of not only their history, but also the fact that even after all of the years they’d been apart, they still knew each other.
“I wish I could have spent more time with her when you two were kids. Seen you together more.” Sadness laced his mom’s tone.
Chase felt his defenses immediately erect. “I didn’t like to bring her around.”
Feeling his jaw tense, he looked down, not wanting his mom to see his expression. So far, he and his mom had been doing great. A large part of that, Chase was sure, was due to the fact that they hadn’t discussed a certain subject. His dad.
Chase felt his mom’s slim-boned hand cover his own. He looked up and saw tears forming in her eyes. “I’m so sorry.” Her voice was strained, and it sounded like she was speaking over a great lump.
“It’s fine,” Chase assured her.
Nothing she could say would change the past, and she needed to conserve her strength. There was no reason for her to expend even one ounce of energy on Chase’s asshole of a father.
“No it’s not.” She shook her head emphatically. “It’s not okay. I shouldn’t have let—”
Chase could hear the raw emotion in his mom’s voice. “Mom, don’t. It’s okay.”
She sat up straighter, her long, dark hair falling around her shoulders. After she took a deep breath, her voice cracked as she continued. “I’m so sorry. I should have—”
“Okay, beautiful. Your ride is here,” Vickey interrupted as she backed through the door with a wheelchair.
Part of Chase was relieved for the interruption. His mom was getting worked up, and that couldn’t be good for her recovery. But a small part, a part that was buried deep in his soul, wanted to hear what she had to say. As a child, he’d just accepted his home environment, not knowing any better. Once he’d begun going over to friends’ houses and seen that not all dads were like his, he hadn’t understood why his mom had stayed. Why she’d subjected herself and her son to that man.
“Are you comin’ with?” Vickey asked him as his mom settled into the wheelchair.
“Aren’t you taking her for tests?” Chase asked.
Several times nurses had come and taken his mom down for tests, and every time, they’d said he could stay there and wait. He had been fine with that. The less he was out and about, the less chance of any incidents. So far, using the back entrance and having the private room right off the service elevator had kept the paparazzi at bay. But if he wasn’t mistaken, he’d spotted a few when Chip had picked him up this morning to come to the hospital.
“Nope. We are headed to PT with the hospital’s best physical therapist.” Vickey winked at him as she pushed his mom, who was smiling from ear to ear, out through the doorway.
Chase was up and out of the chair before they’d even made it out of the room.
* * *
“Mr. Yates, you have to do the stretches I showed you. Every. Day.” Krista knew that she was wasting her breath, but she also knew that if she didn’t remind him firmly, then there wasn’t even the tiniest sliver of hope that he would start to follow her directions.