Tempting the Best Man(22)

Chase’s deep, husky laugh warmed her belly. “This reminds me of something.”

At first, she didn’t know where he was going with that statement as she pulled the sunglasses off her head and placed them next to her water on the top ledge. And then it hit her.

Oh, for the love of all things holy in this world.

“You were seven,” he said, humor lacing his voice.

She lowered her head in shame. Chase had this wonderfully selective memory when it came to remembering the most humiliating moments in her life.

“And Mitch and I were going to the park to play a game of basketball and you wanted to go, but Mitch wouldn’t let you.” Another chuckle filled the pause. “So, you decided to retaliate.”

“Can we talk about something else?”

He ignored her. “By stuffing yourself in a chest in the tree house—what the hell did you hope to gain by that?”

Her cheeks burned. “I was hoping that you guys would come back and miss me, and then you’d feel bad for not letting me play with you. Yeah, I know, not the smartest plan, but I was a kid.”

Chase shook his head and a lock of dark hair fell forward over his forehead. “You could’ve killed yourself.”



“Well, I didn’t.”

“Except we thought you went to the neighbors’ house,” he added, frowning now. “Man, you had to be in that chest for hours.”

She had. Luckily it had a huge rusted-out hole in the side, but something had gone wrong when she had closed the trunk. It had locked on her. Even with her scrawny arms, she couldn’t reach the latch from the inside. So she had stayed in that damn chest, helpless as night fell and she felt like spiders were crawling over her. She remembered crying for what felt like days and then finally falling asleep, positive she was going to die alone.

“When your dad realized you weren’t at the neighbors’ and no one had seen you since we’d left for the park, I thought he was going to lock us in one of his bomb shelters.”

Imagining how angry her father must’ve been, she laughed. Half the reason why she’d been able to tail them so much as a kid was the fact her parents had put the fear of God in Mitch and the Gamble brothers. If Madison wanted to play with them, she got to play and set the rules.

Too bad it didn’t work that way now.

“You found me,” she said, closing her eyes.

“I did.”

“How?” she asked. It was the one thing she’d never figured out.

Chase was quiet for so long, she thought he might not remember. “We searched everywhere—my brothers and your family. They’d been in the tree house, but I don’t know why I checked it again. I saw that damn chest we used to sit on and looked in that hole. I saw your red jumper and about had a heart attack. I called your name and you didn’t answer.” A heartbeat passed. “I thought you were dead in there. I had to use that busted old hammer to pry the lock open.” He took a deep breath. “You scared the hell out of me.”



She bit her lip as she remembered him picking her up and carrying her back to the house. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you guys.”

“I know. You were just a kid.”

There was a pause and then she said, “Sorry about last night.”

He shrugged it off.

“No. Really. I was pretty blitzed, and I vaguely remember hitting myself in the face.”

The skin at the corners of his eyes crinkled as he chuckled. “You did do that.”

“So embarrassing,” she muttered. “Anyway, I’m sorry you had to deal with that.”

“Don’t be. It was fun.”

“Fun?”

He nodded. “You were pretty keen on the moon and teaching Mitch and Lissa’s kids about volunteering and stuff—lots of stuff.”

Madison grinned.

There was a drawn-in breath and then, “So, you sleep naked?”

Aw, man…



“All the time?” Curiosity marked his tone.

She sighed. “All the time.”

“Nice.”

Peeking over her shoulder at him, she raised her brows. He winked. And then he said nothing else. In the silence that followed, she searched for something to say. “How’re the clubs going?”

“Good.” He folded muscular arms over his chest. “I’m thinking about opening a fourth in Virginia.”

“Really? Wow. That’s a lot to handle.”

“I don’t know. Nothing is in stone yet, but it’s looking good. There’s Father’s clubs, but they seem to be doing well under their own ownership. Never thought to step in and buy them out from the management he had in place. I rather prefer having my own. It means more that way, like it wasn’t handed to me…” His gaze dropped to where she was rubbing her calves, and she stopped, flushing.