“Me?” I squeak as I swipe at my smudged eye makeup. “What are you doing here?” I repeat.
“Chase, meet my friend Olivia. Olivia, meet Chase James, my foster brother,” Daisy says. “Though, for some interesting reason, it seems like the two of you are already acquainted.” She tilts her head in question.
“You’re Daisy’s brother?”
“You’re Daisy’s friend?”
“Why didn’t you tell me Chase was your brother, the other day when I was—I, ah…never mind,” I mumble in mortification, not wanting to out myself as having searched him online.
“When what?” Chase asks, his eyes bright with interest.
“It must have slipped my mind.” Daisy stretches out her legs in the back of the car. “Maybe the same way it slipped your mind that you already knew Chase. And you still haven’t said how you know him?”
I try to angle my knees demurely, in such a way that I don’t flash anyone because of my teeny tiny dress, but I only succeed in brushing against Chase’s knees in the tight space. “He, um…” Shit. Busted.
“I stopped for coffee a few times where she works. It’s only a few blocks from the Heights,” he explains smoothly, omitting our conversations and The Kiss.
“And you didn’t stop by my house?” Daisy asks, sounding hurt.
“It was early in the morning, Daisy. I just stopped after a run. You wouldn’t even have been awake. I called you last night, remember? I wanted to surprise you today with a visit. I had no idea you’d be calling me for a get-out-of-jail emergency.”
“And you failed to mention this?” Daisy asks me pointedly.
“It didn’t come up!”
Daisy snorts.
“Also, I thought he wouldn’t want anyone to know. It didn’t seem right to broadcast it,” I defend. “And you didn’t mention who your brother is either.”
Chase runs a hand through his hair. “That’s not Daisy’s fault. We try to keep our foster-sibling relationship quiet.”
“But why?” I ask.
Instead of answering, he looks at Daisy.
“The first reason is because Chase is insanely overprotective.” Daisy rolls her eyes.
“With good reason,” he shoots back.
“It’s a long story,” Daisy says to me, interrupting whatever else Chase was about to say. “Too long to get into now, but I promise I’ll share it with you one day. Basically, the few times people have found out about our connection, they’ve tried to sell the story to the tabloids.”
“That’s terrible!” I exclaim. “But I would never do that.”
Chase massages the back of his neck, bringing my attention to the veins on his forearms. How can forearms be so attractive? But when my eyes meet his, I feel guilty for getting distracted. His eyes are stormy. Clearly, this is a topic that upsets him.
“It’s not just a matter of trusting someone’s motives,” he says, his brows drawing down in a frown. “If it accidentally gets out, or if I’m photographed with Daisy, her life will be splashed all over social media and the tabloids, with lies dragging her down. No one even knows my real background or that I was a foster kid in the system. So, if they found out about Daisy, the press will be all over the story, and she’ll be caught in the crossfire.”
“You can’t protect everyone and everything, Chase,” Daisy says. “I’m not afraid of the tabloids or rumors. I’m also not as young and stupid as I was that summer I stayed with you. What happened then never will again. I promise.”
Chase snorts. “You’re telling me I don’t need to protect you anymore when I just kept you from being arrested? What the hell do you think you were doing? Do you know how many favors Duncan had to call in to get you out? These little stunts have got to stop, Daisy. And you’re not to involve Olivia in them. Do you understand?”
I look from Daisy to Chase and back again, not knowing what to say. I’m a little worried that Daisy will get mad at Chase’s heavy-handed reproach. Daisy, mad, is fearsome to behold.
But instead of getting angry, she surprises me by leaning over and hugging him tight. “I’m sorry, Chase. Thank you for rescuing us.”
He stares at her, as if he’s not sure whether to hug her back or to shake her. Finally, his tight posture relaxes and his lips quirk in an affectionate half-smile. He ruffles her hair and gives her a quick kiss to the top of her head.