Chasing Trouble (Texas Trouble) (5 page)

"Oh, no..." Jenny
gasped as she noticed Chloe stretching and arching her back under the kitchen table.  Her cat hated men, would claw their eyes out if given the chance.  She'd rescued her from a shelter, and was told implicitly that she didn't do well around men.  At the time, she'd just left Beau, and was off men totally, so they'd had that in common.  Now, with Chase in her kitchen, she was afraid he was about to take the brunt of Chloe's distaste for the male gender.

"Um, Chase..." she said and pushed off the couch to stand
then put her half-eaten slice of pizza on the lid of the box.  Her heart about stopped when she saw Chloe's ears pin back to her skull and her muscles tense.

Chase walked to the doorway with the plates in his hand and looked at her curiously.  "Yeah?" he asked then looked down as Chloe came from under the table and stalked toward his leg.  He smiled that wide
beautiful smile and Jenny flinched then ran around the end of the sofa to try to save him.

"Chloe!" she yelled and watched in horror as her pet sniffed at the leg of his jeans
.  He calmly set the plates on the table then bent down, reaching his hand toward her head.  Jenny had a bad feeling she was going to be patching Chase up again really soon. 

"Chase, don't!" Jenny shouted, but
skidded to a stop when instead of baring her teeth and latching onto his hand with her claws, her fickle cat rubbed her head tentatively against his hand, then smoothed her body against his leg. 

"Beautiful cat," he told her then stood back up
, and walked to the sink to wash his hands.

"You like cats?" Jenny asked in awe.  Most men hated cats, Beau had hated cats, even the barn cats that hung out on his daddy's ranch.

"Yeah, my sister had several when we were growing up.  Mom inherited them when she left for college, and they like to hang out at my place."

"You live with your parents?" Jenny asked him incredulously
, the idea cementing her assumption from yesterday that he must be a mama's boy.  She'd known he was too good to be true, and now she knew why.  What man his age still lived with his parents?

"Sort of," he told her with a derisive laugh.  "I rent the guest house from them.  My mom prefers to have me close by, and it was convenient because my dad and I work together, but I think it's time I buy my own place...I need a little more space."

"I'd imagine that gets pretty interesting," Jenny said with a snort.  She'd also pegged him for a player, so living so close to his parents must really cramp his style.

"You have no idea," he told her and picked up the plates from the counter then walked back to the living room
with her trailing behind him.

"So, it's just you and your sister?" she asked.

"No, I have a younger brother, but he's happily married and had the good sense to move to Dallas."

"He's not in the family business?" Jenny asked and grabbed her slice of pizza and put it on a plate
, then sat down.

"No, way.  He and dad don't really get along, he's an attorney."

"What kind of attorney?"

Chase
grunted, then chewed his pizza before he turned sparkling blue eyes her way to say, "Oil and gas of course."

"Of course...so
he's connected to the family business, but not subject to your dad's rules."

"Exactly. 
Joel was the smart one, I think.  Papa Jack, my grandpa, started Rhodes Drilling, and ran it until he turned the reins over to my dad, but his heart was always in inventing, my dad's the only one who's rabid over the family business," Chase told her with a chuckle, then shook his head.

"Your grandpa is an inventor?" Jenny asked surprised.

"Yeah, he has a lot of patents, especially for things to make oil derricks safer, pressure release valves, tools, fire equipment...he's brilliant," Chase told her with a proud grin.  "And very much a character...you'd like him."

"Sounds like you're close..." she said and nibbled on the crust of her pizza.

"Very close...I love to help him out in his workshop, but I haven't had time to do that in a long time," Chase admitted.

Chase's phone rang again and he huffed out a frustrated sigh, then put his pizza plate down on the table and pulled it out.  It was Karlie Roberts, Katie Tucker's twin.  He pushed the button, knowing she'd probably call again if he didn't answer. 

"Hi Karlie," he said flatly.  "Can I call you back in a little while, babe?"

A
nother
babe
, Jenny thought and tried to swallow down the pizza that seemed lodged in her throat.  She picked up her beer and took a long swallow.  Her second assumption about Chase Rhodes appeared to be correct as well, he was a player, if all the women calling to check on his welfare was any indication. 

He hung up the phone and smiled apologetically.  "Sorry about that," he said and went to stuff his phone in his pocket, but it rang again.  He glanced at the caller I.D. and his face turned red, but he connected the call.  "Hey, Jazz...what's up, sugar?"

Two babes and a sugar...and this one was Jasmine Ramos, Beau's girlfriend, she had no doubt.  Anger bubbled up into her chest and she tried to tamp it down, but was unsuccessful as she heard the cozy way he was talking to the woman. 

Supposedly, Chase
came here to have dinner with her, but he was talking to his various other women, and Jenny was about over it.  He could drive his ass back to Amarillo and talk to them all the way there for all she cared.  All she knew is she was getting him out of her apartment as soon as possible.  Pushing up from the sofa, she sat her beer down and headed toward the door.

CHAPTER FIVE

Cha
se disconnected the call and vaulted up from the sofa, then shoved the phone into his pocket.  "Jenny, wait!" he said and ran around the end of the sofa.  He didn't see her cat, until the last second and sidestepped to try and avoid stepping on her.  His feet wound up tangled together then he felt himself falling. With one arm in a sling, he had no hope of softening the blow by catching himself, so he watched the floor come up to meet him and flinched in anticipation of the impact. 

The bad part was he was falling on his left side, the side of his injured shoulder.  When he hit the ground his breath left him in a whoosh and pain of monumental proportions shot through his shoulder and he groaned
fighting the nausea that roiled around inside of him.

"Chase!" Jenny yelled then ran over to him.
"Dammit, you shouldn't even be out of bed,
what the hell were you
thinking
!?!" she chastised him as she dropped down on her knees beside him and rolled him over. 

Chase held back a
nother groan when her fingers moved over his shoulder.  "You've opened up your wound again, you're bleeding!" she told him then she opened the buttons on his shirt and shoved it over his shoulder, before fiddling with the tape securing the gauze over his wound.  With a yank, pulled it and he flinched again as the adhesive tugged on the wound.

She huffed out a breath.  "Jesus, at least you didn't tear the stitches.  I worked damned hard to make sure they were small and tight, so you didn't scar," she told him, then her fingers moved to his head and through his hair
feeling around his skull in a practiced manner.  "Did you hit your head again, feel nauseated?" she asked.

"Yeah, I do, but I didn't hit my head...took most of the fall with my shoulder," he said weakly.

"Well, at least that's something...we need to get you back to the E.R. and get your wound cleaned and redressed...and if you're nauseated you might have hit your head again, you need another CAT scan," she told him clinically.

There was no
damned way he was going back to the hospital, Chase thought. 

"No, I'm fine," he moaned and tried to sit up.
  She shoved his shoulder back to the ground and Chase looked up into her worried eyes.  His jaw clenched against the pain radiating from his shoulder and he assured her through gritted teeth, "I'm fine, Jenny...really," and tried to get up again.

"You should never have come over here tonight, you should be in bed and still, so your wound can heal.  What the hell were you thinking?"
she asked him a lot calmer this time, but her brows were drawn together and her eyes were worried.

"I was thinking about a beautiful angel that I saw when I woke up in the E.R. and how much I wanted to get to know her better," he told her softly.

Jenny groaned and her eyebrows lifted. "Oh, you've got the lines for sure.  A player even when you're in pain, huh?" she said in frustration and shoved up to her feet.  "You stay right there and let me get my first aid kit."

"A player?  What the hell are you talking about?" he asked
in confusion.

"Your women...the ones you've been on the phone with all night," she told him then
turned to walk off, tossing over her shoulder, "Never mind, let me get my kit then you can get back to your harem...I'm sure one of them will come over and take care of you when you get home."

Chase watched her
stiff back as she walked out of the room then turned down a hallway to the right.  He could understand why she'd be pissed that he was on the phone all night while he was here, but jealous? 

That was something he didn't expect. 

Those women were married, and Jazzie might as well be.  She'd sure let him know that she was hooked on Beau Bowman.  Not a one of those women had a romantic interest in him, they'd all made that perfectly clear to him.

When
Jenny walked back around the corner lugging the largest first aid kit he'd ever seen in his life, Chase asked, "You're jealous?" 

He wasn't asking, because it pleased him, he wanted to make it clear to her that those women were just friends.
  Her beautiful face flushed and her lips pinched, then she sat the kit down beside him and knelt down to remove his sling and shirt.

"No, I'm not jealous.  I don't even know you, why would I be jealous?"

"Sure sounds like it to me, sugar," he told her and flinched when she jerked his arm to pull the sleeve of his shirt down over his wrist, before laying his arm back down.  Obviously without a care to the pain that shot through him, she jerked the tape off of his shoulder and uncovered the wound.

"You're mistaken," she told him then said gruffly, "Roll on your right side."  He rolled and his back was facing her.

"I don't think I'm wrong, you're jealous," he repeated and groaned, when she jerked the tape off the wound on his back.

"I'm not jealous," she repeated louder, then something wet was rubbed roughly over his back, then the front of his shoulder.

Chase knew women and this one was jealous.  "That was Karlie and Katie, the Upton twins, both are married, and then Jazzie Ramos, and she might as well be.  They're friends, not thing more."

"When someone is the first person you ask about after you wake up from unconsciousness, after just being shot, I'd say that person is more than just a friend," she said and he felt some kind of cold gel being applied to the back of his shoulder.

"Wrong, darlin'," he told her the tried to roll back over to look her in the eyes.  She shoved against his shoulder and he sighed.  "Yes, I was interested in Jazzie Ramos, but she's not interested in me.  We're just friends," he said in frustration.

"Because of Beau Bowman?" Jenny asked and Chase heard the edge of hurt in her voice and wondered at it.

"Yes, because of that asshole," he ground out.  "I can't figure out why women are so attracted to men who treat them like crap.  You wanna explain that to me?"

"No explanation, we're just stupid," she said with a snort.  "And she's especially stupid to get hooked up with him."

The way Jenny talked about him, like she had firsthand knowledge, didn't escape Chase.  Now, it was his turn to be a victim of the green-eyed monster, and that was a good description of Beau Bowman. 

"You know him?" he asked not really wanting the answer.

"Oh, I know him alright..." she said mysteriously, then he felt a dry gauze pad being placed over his wound.

"How?" he asked when he heard her tear off strips of tape,
before she tacked down one corner of the gauze.

"I dated him for two years, then was engaged to him," she said matter-of-factly and taped another side of the gauze down.

Shock shot through Chase and he jerked away from her and turned over to look into her eyes.  "No, shit?"

She sat back on her feet and her hands droppe
d to her lap as did her eyes.  "Yeah, until I figured out how little he knew me," she told him.

Chase laid on his back and huffed out a breath.  "How the hell did that bastard get so lucky?" he mumbled and shook his head.
 

Jenny lifted up again, then dropped a gauze over the front of his shoulder and tore off more strips of tape from the roll.  She leaned forward and put the tape on the edges of the bandage, but didn't meet his eyes.

"What happened?" he asked gently, trying but not succeeding from keeping his eyes off of her full breasts, which were peeking over her sports bra.

"You don't want to know...just suffice it to say I agree with your assessment of him," she told him.

Chase moved his good hand over his chest and covered hers at his shoulder.  "Tell me," he urged with a gentle squeeze.

"He accused me of sleeping with his father," she admitted and he saw her face turn red
and her eyes get moist.

"
What
?!?" Chase shouted and went to sit up, but she shoved him back down again.

"
He also couldn't say the words I needed to hear, being his fiancé.  He just didn't love me...I don't think he's capable of loving anyone.  That's why I wished Jasmine Ramos good luck with him.  She's gonna need it," Jenny said then shook her head, and bent down to finish taping the fresh gauze to his wound.

Raising
back up, she pinned him with her professional clinical gaze.  He knew that look, he'd seen it at the hospital. Chase realized that she was done talking about her relationship with Beau Bowman, when she asked, "Where are the antibiotics and pain meds you were prescribed?"

"In the car," he told her and she pushed up to her feet.

"What kind of car?" she asked with her hands on her hips.

"Black Cadillac at the back of the lot," he told her, then reached into his pocket for the keys and held them up to her.
  "License plate says CURLY"

Her eyebrows raised and her lips twitched as she repeated, "Curly?"

Chase felt blood rush to his face as he told her, "That's what my dad calls my mom...it's her nickname."

"Oh, I thought maybe you liked the
Three Stooges or something," she said with a chuckle.

"I do like the them, but this is my m
ama's car, so it's her plate.  The story is she got a bad perm in her hair one time, and he's called her that ever since."  Chase grinned up at her and Jenny felt its impact in her solar plexus, and parts south. 

Damn that man had a gorgeous smile.
  His whole face lit up, and the corners of his beautiful blue eyes crinkled telling the story that he smiled...a  lot.  Her brain wandered off into never-never land wondering what it would be like to wake up every morning seeing that smile when she opened her eyes.

He sat up, then got on his knees and pushed up to stand.  Jenny shook her head to clear it, then told him, "Just go sit on the couch and I'll be right back."  Seeing his
naked muscled chest was making her sweat, literally, so she turned toward the door and grabbed the knob. 

He obviously had a problem following direction, because she felt him walk up behind her.
  "It's dark out there, be careful," he drawled near her ear, then leaned forward over her shoulder and grabbed the edge of the door.  "I'll stand here at the door and watch."  

The space between their bodies
sizzled with a crackling energy, like static electricity from clothes fresh out of the dryer. It danced over her skin and made her hair stand on end.  Jenny slid sideways and squeezed through the door and he opened it wider to stand in the doorway.

Her intention had been to send him on his way tonight,
but since he got hurt again, it looked like he'd be staying at her apartment.  There was no way she was going to let him drive after taking the pain medication, and she knew he had to be hurting.  Driving four hours to Amarillo tonight was out of the question in his condition.  It had been stupid of him to stay in Henrietta instead of going home with his family in the first place. 

And it was all
Terri's fault he was on her doorstep.  Her friend was going to hear about it too.

Taking long strides, Jenny made her way across the darkened parking lot and scanned the row of cars, until she found the Cadillac.  Her gaze flitted over the license plate and she smiled.  One day she'd have a man care enough about her to nickname her something cute like that.  It sounded like Chase's mom and dad, although really an odd couple, loved each other.  Her family wasn't close like that.
  Her mom and dad's nicknames for each other couldn't be repeated in polite company.

With a push of a button on the key fob, the door unlocked and she opened the door and grabbed the white bag off the front seat of the luxurious car, then shut the door and hit the button again.  Halfway back across the parking lot, she looked up and saw Chase Rhodes backlit in her doorway, staring down at her, smiling as he watch
ed her walk toward the stairs. She held up the bag and wiggled it then smiled back before she took the steps two at a time.

He opened the door wide for her when she got to the landing and she brushed past him, then turned and put a hand on her hip.  "I thought I told you to go sit down.  I'll get you some water," she told him then walked to the kitchen.

"And I told you I was gonna watch to make sure you got there and back okay.  If you haven't noticed, Doc...this isn't the best neighborhood," he said and the statement made  both touched and pissed her off a little.  Who was he to judge where she lived?  He lived with his fricking parents!

"It's what I can afford right now, and it's just fine for me.  The neighborhood isn't that bad, and I can walk to work," she told him defensively as she filled a glass.

"You're a doctor, can't you afford better?" he asked curiously.

"I'm a doctor because I racked up a ton of student loans.  My parents aren't rich, and couldn't help me," she told him as she walked back into the living room.  She saw he had closed the front door and locked the deadbolt, before he went and sat on the sofa. 

Even without voicing his negative opinion overtly, it was obvious he thought she lived in the slums or something the way he acted.  He might have been born with a silver spoon, but she certainly had not.  This neighborhood was a helluva lot nicer than the one she'd grown up in.  She shoved the glass of water at him then tore open the pharmacy bag and doled out the prescribed dosage of each medicine.