Breathe (70 page)

I didn’t want a problem. We’d had enough problems.

I was enjoying good. Like, a frak of a lot.

So I didn’t want bad.

But even so, I turned the burner down on the meat and moved to Chace though I did this on leaded feet. He spread his legs when I got close and I took that as my cue to move between them. When I did, I rested my hands on his thighs and he lifted one to shift my hair over my shoulder as the fingers of his other hand curled around the top of my hip. After he slid my hair away, he wrapped his fingers around the side of my neck, his thumb gliding over my jaw.

“Is it Miah?” I whispered. “Have you heard something?”

“No,” Chace whispered back, his eyes moving over my face in a way I couldn’t quite read.

It wasn’t bad. But I wasn’t sure it was good since it was so intense.

“Becky?” I went on quietly.

“Nope,” he answered immediately and also quietly.

I pulled in a breath then cautiously put out there, “Has something gone down with Misty’s case or, um… anything around that?”

“Nope,” he repeated and his hand left my neck to drop to mine on his thigh and wrap around it.

“Chace –”

His head dropped to watch his thumb move over my fingers as he muttered, “Naked, baby.”

My head twitched at his weird word.

“Pardon?”

His eyes came to mine and he repeated, “Naked.”

I felt my brows draw together and I asked, “Naked?”

He held my gaze even as he moved, his other hand leaving my hip to shove into his jeans pocket then he held my hand as his other moved to it.

My eyes tipped down as my breath stopped coming when I watched a simple but stunning diamond solitaire being slid onto my left ring finger.

“Naked,” he whispered and I sucked breath into my nose as I stared at the diamond now at the base of my finger. “You marry me, I’ll add a band under that, cover you up.”

I blinked as the sting hit my nose, the wet hit my eyes but after I blinked, my gaze didn’t move from that ring and I again stopped breathing.

“Baby,” Chace whispered, his hand holding mine giving me a squeeze, “
Breathe.
”

I breathed.

His thumb moved over the ring and his beautiful deep voice came back at me, “Will you marry me, Faye?”

“Yes,” I whispered so quietly it was like a breeze.

But I didn’t take my eyes off Chace’s ring.

His hand stayed curled around mine, his thumb firm at the base of his ring but his other hand came to the side of my neck and slid up into my hair behind my ear.

“Will you build a home with me?” he whispered his question.

“Yes.”

“A family?”

“Yes,” I repeated, my breath catching just at the idea of that beauty.

“A life?”

My head tipped back, his beautiful blue eyes locked on mine and everything he felt for me was shining from them, warming me to my soul in a way I knew I’d never, ever be cold.

Not again.

Not in my whole life.

“Yes,” I whispered as the tears slid out of my eyes.

When they did, his hand slid out of my hair so it could cup my jaw and his thumb moved across my cheek to catch them as they fell.

“I love you, Faye Goodknight,” he said quietly, looking deep in my eyes.

I sucked in a breath that broke twice before I replied, “I love you too, Chace Keaton.”

His lips tipped up and his eyes grew super warm.

“Want you movin’ in, baby,” he murmured.

“Okay,” I agreed immediately.

“Next weekend,” he went on.

“Okay,” I agreed, again immediately.

“We start buildin’ our home, our life now so we can give it to our kids after that band joins your diamond.”

My breath hitched again and I repeated, “Okay.”

His eyes lit with a different light, one I loved just as much when he asked, “You gonna jump on-line and tell your geek squad you landed me?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Kiss me and I’ll finish the tacos so you can do that.”

“Okay,” I said yet again but stayed where I was and didn’t move.

“Baby, kiss me,” Chace prompted when this lasted a long time.

“In a second, honey, I’m memorizing this moment.”

Raw flooded his features but this time, it wasn’t pain.

It was beauty.

Then Chace’s hand drove back into my hair, he pulled me to him and kissed me.

Ten minutes later, Chace finished the tacos and I got on-line to give the news to Benji and Serenity.

* * * * *

Krys didn’t miss my ring when we wandered into Bubba’s an hour later.

Therefore, Chace didn’t have to hit the ATM. Any time he tried to pass a bill to her, she refused and Chace could be bossy but if Krys was in the mood to refuse, you had no hope of winning.

There were a lot of hoots, hollers, claps on the shoulder for Chace, hugs for me as Krys and Twyla shared the news around the bar then told anyone who came in. One or the other of them got on the phone which meant Tate and Laurie came in. Then Deke. Wood and Maggie came a little later. Deck wasn’t far behind them. Sunny and Shambles hit the bar not long after. The flow continued as did the hugs and claps on the back and news spread so fast, I took a call from my father whose voice was thick when he told me we’d have a family celebration soon and he’d try to keep the news from Liza so she wouldn’t do something dramatic to steal my thunder.

Although I would have liked to share the news with my family, I was too happy to care someone took away my shot and I was happier hearing Dad was happy.

Bubba jacked the stereo up and after a few songs, Krys took over the control of the iPod attached to it. She clearly was in a romantic mood and Chace was definitely in a romantic mood because even though no one was dancing, the minute Mazzy Star’s “Fade into You” came on, he led me to an open space by the window, pulled me into his arms and we started swaying.

Before Chace, this would have mortified me.

In Chace’s arms with his ring on my finger, the world faded away as I faded into him.

Krys followed this with Bad Company’s “Feel Like Makin’ Love”, Bruce Springsteen’s “Leah”, the Cowboy Junkies singing The Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane” then back to Bad Company for “She Brings Me Love”.

Through all this, Chace held me close in his arms, I kept mine locked around him, our friends were close, part of our town looking on but there was no one who could penetrate our moment. We were in a sea of happy people celebrating love and babies and a town free to just be. But for me it was just Chace and for Chace it was just me.

And through it, holding me in a way I knew he’d be happy never to let me go, Chace proved he could hold me close and dance until the morning light.

Then she played it. Whether she remembered me telling her about it or whether it just came up, Krys played it.

Ella Mae Bowen singing “Holding Out for a Hero”.

And when she played it, I decided it was time he knew.

So I pressed even closer so I could lift my lips to his ear.

“That night, it wasn’t Dobie Gray,” I whispered. “It was this song. It was Ella Mae singing this to me when I thought you weren’t all I knew you to be, which is all the words to this song. Twenty-nine years, I held out for this. Then, half an hour later, you proved every one of these words true and every moment since then, you kept doing it. I’ll take you thinking I’m your angel but you need to know you’re my hero. Twenty-nine, honey, I held out for this. Twenty-nine years, I held out for you.”

His face, already in my neck, burrowed deeper. His arms, already holding me tight, pulled me closer.

He said nothing.

But as he swayed me to Ella Mae, I sang with her in his ear.

And that moment in that bar in Chace’s arms with me whispering his song into his ear telling him all he was and all he was to me, no matter the beauty that lay before us, no matter the beauty we created, I knew there would never be a moment more beautiful than that for me.

At the end of the song, Chace sealed that beauty by sliding his lips to mine then sliding his tongue into my mouth, sweet, gentle, soft, giving, letting me give.

Everything that was him.

Everything that was me.

Chapter Twenty-One

Holding out for a Hero

There was movement at the other end of the bar and Chace watched a brunette leave the back hall and enter the common area from where the bathrooms were.

Faye had disappeared back there fifteen minutes ago and it was time to go home. It was time to go to bed. It was time to make love to his woman for the first time while she was wearing his ring on her finger.

Fifteen minutes was a long time for her to be gone. He was impatient. He wanted her alone. He wanted to keep dancing with her. He intended to dance with her until dawn but in a different way.

But the bar was packed which meant there could be a line at the women’s restroom.

He grabbed his beer, lifted it up, took a drag and on the way down his eyes caught on Tate.

Tate was just down the bar leaning two forearms into it, one hand curled around a bottle of beer. Laurie was at his side but she had an arm around his gut and her torso was draped over his back, leaning into Wendy who she was talking to and Chace couldn’t see Lauren but Wendy was laughing.

Tate’s woman might be draped over his back but his eyes were on Chace.

When he caught Chace’s he lifted his beer and he tipped it out as his lips twitched.

Chace knew what that salute meant.

Tate knew what Chace was feeling. Not finding the right woman but finding the only one, the perfect one, the one that was meant for you. Then putting your ring on her finger, claiming her and knowing she was yours, no one else would ever have her, your bed would never be cold, you’d always have someone at your side or taking your back.

Tate Jackson knew how good that felt. He knew what it meant. He knew how important it was. He knew there was nothing better in the world.

Chace lifted his chin to him then watched as Lauren shifted to say something in his ear. Tate’s eyes unfocused as he listened, his face got soft, his lips curved up then he turned his neck and Chace lost sight of him as he took his woman’s mouth.

Yeah. Tate Jackson knew how good it felt.

At that moment, his phone vibrated in his pocket.

He pulled it out, not surprised it was vibrating even though it was late. Word was traveling fast. Well wishes were coming thick. Chace reckoned that day was significant for the town of Carnal. Ty Walker had moved onto the next step of good coming out of a life fucked by the men who’d fucked over the town. On the same day, Chace had too.

Chace looked down at his phone to see it was a text. He moved his thumb over the buttons to pull it up and when he saw it, his body went still.

We have Faye. As of now, she has four hours of air. You have that time to find and return the articles needed. If you don’t, we won’t tell you where to dig her out and she’ll run out of breath.

After reading it, his lungs burning, Chace moved swiftly from his position at the bar and shoved through the crowd toward the back hall. When he made it to the mouth, regardless of the heaving bar, he saw it was empty.

He moved down it to the women’s restroom.

He opened the door, a blonde at the sink turned and narrowed her eyes at him but he ignored her and called sharply, “Faye!”

“You cool, dude?” she asked.

He was absolutely not.

“Faye!” he clipped.

Nothing.

His eyes went to the blonde. “You seen a redhead in here?”

She looked at him and bent slightly to aim her eyes under the stalls, calling, “Any of you redheads?”

“Nope.”

“Not me.”

“He cute?”

None of them Faye.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Before she could answer, he swung out and moved quickly down the hall to the back and the emergency exit. He pushed the door open and heard no alarm. Outside in the alley there was no car, there was no one. There was nothing.

Fuck.

Fuck.

He moved up the hall, stopping at the mouth and tipping his head down to the phone.

Fifteen minutes, if they incapacitated her, had a car, they could be long gone.

He stared at his phone.

Four hours of air.

Chace kept staring at his phone.

Dig her out.

Chace continued to stare at his phone.

She’ll run out of breath.

Memories collided in his brain.