Ride (19 page)

“Just tell me exactly what you did.” His heart was pounding now and the steak threatened to come back up.

“When you and that girl fell asleep so early, Skeeter and I thought it would be funny to play a little joke on you. We went down to the gift shop and bought a novelty marriage license and two cheap rings. Then it was Skeeter’s idea to make up one of those tear off receipts to make it look more authentic. You know those receipts like waitresses use when they take your order at a diner or whatever. So we asked one of the cocktail waitresses for a blank one and we made up a receipt. We didn’t mean to get you mad though. We just thought it would be funny.”

Chase dropped down onto Cody’s bed and buried his face in his hand. It still didn’t make sense though. “How did you get our signatures?”

“Dude, how many autograph signings have we been to together? I mean I could forge your signature blindfolded.”

“What about Leesa’s?”

“Yeah, that I feel kind of bad about, but it was actually Skeeter’s idea so you can get mad at him too. Her wallet was lying on top of her duffle bag. We opened it and got out her driver’s license and copied the signature from there. I’m sorry about that. We shouldn’t have gone through her stuff, but we were kinda drunk. You know?”

Chase drew in a shaky breath. “Yeah. I know.”

He’d just lost any hope of keeping her around and found out he’d been living a lie thinking he was married for the past few days. It hadn’t been very long at all, but knowing it wasn’t true…he almost felt like he was mourning the loss of it. It had been real to them.

Thank God he hadn’t gone to his uncle with some novelty marriage certificate forged by his two drunk friends. It was bad enough he’d have to confess it all to his parents. And worse, tell Leesa.

Then what? He dreaded even thinking of that.

“Chase. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s all right. I’m not mad.”

“Okay. Good. So what’s up? What have you been doing? Ooo, what happened with that girl? You left so fast the next day and I haven’t gotten to talk to you.”

It was back to business as usual with Garret. He had no idea what news he’d just delivered to Chase and how it had affected him.

Cody walked through the door. He only had to look at Chase’s face before he frowned. He mouthed, “What’s wrong?”

“Listen, Garret. My brother just got home and I gotta talk to him. I’ll call you back later. Okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Later.”

Chase hit the button to disconnect the call and sat, phone still in his hand.

“What happened? Did one of the guys get hurt?”

“No.” The question shook Chase out of his shock. Finally he shut the phone and tossed it onto the dresser. He glanced down at his hand and let out a sad laugh. “I’m not married.”

“The divorce went through that fast?”

“No. We were never married. The guys were playing a practical joke on me.” He pulled the ring off and tossed it next to the phone. “It was all a big joke.”

“This is good news, bro. Now you don’t have all the divorce stuff to go through. You two can just date like normal people.”

Chase shook his head. “I’m not sure Leesa wants that.”

“Did you ask her?”

“No.”

Cody threw his hands up in the air. “Then how can you know that?”

“I don’t know. I just do.”

“Well, you’re going to have to tell her the truth.”

“I know.” Chase ran his hands through his hair. Could he put it off until tomorrow? Not that he’d get any sleep tonight. “Maybe she’s sleeping already.”

Cody frowned at the clock. “It’s a little early for her to be sleeping.”

He didn’t even have to look at the clock to know that was true. He’d just said good night to Leesa and left her at the door. “Yeah. I know.”

“Putting it off isn’t going to do any good.”

Chase knew that was true, but putting it off felt better. At least it gave him a little time. He got up. “All right.”

“Good luck. And ask her.”

“I will.” Like a man walking to his execution, Chase headed out the door.

The hallway had never seemed so short. Before he knew it, he was standing in front of his bedroom. Leesa’s bedroom. He raised his fist and knocked softly. He heard her footsteps inside and pictured her adorable feet. Then the door was open.

He leaned against the doorframe. “Hi.”

“Hi.” She was still in the dress she’d worn to dinner.

She’d only owned it for a few hours, but he already had very fond memories of that dress. He tried not to think of that. It was only making this harder. “We need to talk.”

“Um, okay.” She backed away from the door. “Do you want to come in?”

“Yeah. Thanks.” He walked in and closed the door behind him.

To hell with his parents’ rule. Like Cody said, it was still early and they needed to talk in private. His mother and father would have to deal with it. He was an adult, after all. They both were. “Um, so I talked to Garret.”

“Good. I felt bad you kept ditching his calls.”

Chase laughed, wishing he’d ditched him one more time and not listened to the voicemail.

“He told me something.” This was turning out to be harder than he’d anticipated. “Sit down.”

Leesa frowned but perched on the edge of the bed. “Okay. I’m sitting.”

He found himself glancing at the ring on her finger. At the same time, he felt the smooth ringless skin on his own. “It was a practical joke. We didn’t wander down to the chapel drunk or sleepwalking or whatever. Garret and Skeeter forged our names on some souvenir marriage license they found in the gift shop.”

“What?” She shook her head like she was trying to comprehend it.

“We’re not married. We never were.” She had no idea how much it pained him to say that.

“Oh.” She glanced down at her ring and laughed sadly. “I guess I should take this off then.”

His heart jumped. He walked to the bed and kneeled in front of her. Taking her hands in his, he pulled the ring off her left hand and slid it onto her right. “How about you wear it here? I know it’s not a fancy ring but…”

“It’ll give me something to remember us by.” Her voice was so soft he barely heard it. He wished he hadn’t. That wasn’t exactly the finish to his sentence he had been hoping for. What Chase wanted was for her not to go far enough to have to remember him, because he’d be right there.

“I guess we should tell your parents now.” Her gaze met his. “How do you think they’re going to take this piece of news?”

“After the last announcement we made, I can’t imagine anything I say now will shock them. I’ll handle it though. It was my stupid friends who did this, and my fault I drank enough I slept so hard I didn’t hear them doing it. I’ll deal with it. Besides, my daddy will likely have a few choice words to say about Garret and Skeeter, and I’m not sure they’ll be fit for a lady.”

She smiled, but it managed to have sadness in it. “I’ve heard pretty much everything, but okay. You can handle it.”

Chase nodded. “There’s something else.”

“What else could there possibly be?”

“Well, now that we don’t have to deal with a wedding we didn’t remember and a divorce we weren’t sure how to go about getting, I figure we might have time to just date each other. Tonight was a really good start.” Oh boy had it been. He wouldn’t mind a few repeats of it and soon. “What do you think? We were pretty good at being married. I’d like to see if we’re good at being a couple.”

He waited for her answer, still holding on to her hands tightly.

“There is nothing I’d like more.”

He didn’t understand the tears that filled her eyes, but her answer made him more than happy. “Good.”

Chase dropped a kiss on her mouth. It was meant to be a quick one, but it somehow became more. Perhaps it was Leesa’s hands tangled in his hair as she kissed him until they were both breathless. Maybe it was just that he couldn’t ever seem to get enough of her.

He broke away. “If I don’t leave now, I’m never leaving, and I think Mama and Daddy might object to that. Especially now that we’re not even temporarily married.”

She nodded, her eyes still glassy with what he hoped were tears of happiness. They should have plenty to be happy about. He’d asked her to be his girlfriend, she’d said yes and they didn’t have to go through the divorce.

One day he’d figure out women. He’d enjoy figuring Leesa out.

Chapter Sixteen

Leesa didn’t sleep. She knew she wouldn’t. This was it. It was over. Time to leave. There was nothing left keeping her here besides her pointless desire to be Chase’s girlfriend and see where things went with them.

She couldn’t do that. Not with Jerry after her, and staying any longer under false pretences was wrong. She couldn’t stay with Chase just because she felt safer hiding here. Besides, what if she was wrong and Jerry’s guys knew exactly where she was and were just biding their time. Waiting for the perfect opportunity to, she didn’t know, blow up the house with her and all of Chase’s family in it. She couldn’t take that risk.

She’d watched the odometer in his truck on the drive to town. It was only about a mile. She had seen a pay phone at the gas station. She could call information and get a cab from the next town over maybe. It could take her to the nearest bus station. That would put a considerable dent in her spending money but what else could she do?

Leesa waited until the house was silent. She’d never actually unpacked her bag. She’d been kind of living out of it, knowing she wouldn’t be staying long. That didn’t make going any easier though. She considered leaving the dress Chase had bought her but decided that was silly. It wasn’t like he could return it. She’d already worn it. She folded it and the sweater and put it neatly on top of the rest of her things, then laid the new shoes he’d bought her on top and pulled the zipper shut.

Now for the hard part. She sat at Chase’s desk and pulled open a drawer. Being a boy’s desk, there was everything in the drawer, from an old metal toy truck that probably dated back a good fifteen years, to a few awards for his riding. Leesa eventually found a pencil. Holding it up, she saw teeth marks and smiled. She pictured a younger Chase doing his homework, chewing on the pencil as he thought about whatever problem he was working on. With that pencil, she wrote the hardest letter she’d ever written, then left his room and didn’t look back.

She was back in her sneakers and sweatshirt again, but given the cool night, and with a mile to walk, she was grateful for that. She’d at least gotten to do a load of laundry, so her pitifully small wardrobe was clean. With that small happy thought which was outweighed a million fold by the sadness in her heart, she slipped out the back door and started walking.

The night was clear. It was kind of peaceful actually, with not a car on the road. Just the sound of the night in the country. Leesa hadn’t heard that in a long time. The hoot of an owl. The scampering of little furry feet in the woods along the road. She reached the pay phone without seeing another living soul. Leesa wasn’t sure if she should find that comforting or scary.

After letting her bag drop heavily to the ground, she rotated her shoulder and tried to work out the stiffness there. She hoped she’d be able to get a taxi or it was going to be a long walk ahead. She rummaged in her pocket and pulled out her wallet. Inside, she found an old calling card that still had some minutes on it. Without her cell phone, this would have to do for now.

Leesa imagined where that phone might be now. Could she even dare report it lost and have it deactivated? Of course not. That would tip Jerry off to her location. She sighed. Vegas had defeated her. She’d never get out of the hole she was in. She’d never be able to go home to her parents as the success she pretended to be.

She should call them now, on her way out of town. If the bad guys had a trace on her parents’ phone, she’d be long gone by the time they got here looking for her, hopefully on a bus heading somewhere else.

Leesa steeled herself to dial her parents’ number. It wasn’t too late to call the West Coast. They’d be sitting in their chairs, side by side, watching one of their shows on television. They’d stay up for the eleven o’clock news so they could check the weather for the next day, then go to bed. She’d never been able to convince them that they could get a computer and see the weather on there. Or even watch the weather channel any time of day or night and get the local forecast. They were creatures of habit. Maybe that was why they believed her lies so readily. They were simply used to trusting her. Leesa’s lying was a recent addition to her repertoire.

Her mom would answer after the first ring. The phone, an ancient looking one, the kind that still had a cord attached to the wall, had always sat on the table between their two chairs. An easy reach for either one of them, though her mother was usually the one to answer.

Every word Chase had said over dinner replayed in Leesa’s head as she changed her mind about calling her parents and hung up the receiver. She didn’t want to lie to them anymore, but she also couldn’t tell them the truth right now.

Maybe if Jerry and his brother weren’t in the picture things could be different. She could go home and tell them everything. As things stood, it was safer to stay away. She didn’t know what she’d do or where’d she’d end up eventually, but at least she knew her next move. She had to get out of here.

This was a small town. There was even a phone book where one was supposed to be. She flipped through the pages, looking first for public transportation and then for a taxi company close by but not from this town. Chase would have probably gone to school with the driver if she chose a company from here. She didn’t want him to be the laughing stock of the locals or pitied either, that the girl he’d had dinner with snuck out on him in the middle of the night. She also didn’t want to risk him tracking her down and trying to follow her. The situation was both too dangerous and too painful for her to see him again.

Selection made, Leesa marked the toll free listing for the cab company with one finger and picked up the receiver. Time to get on with her life.

Leesa wiped her hands on the polyester apron tied around her waist and tried to remember why she’d walked back into the kitchen. Her weary brain finally supplied the answer as she stared into the reach-in fridge and frowned. Catsup for table eight.