Truce or Dare (Sweet Fortuity Book 1) (20 page)

He stroked my hair, and I leaned against him, my cheek on his shoulder. “I don’t need anything. You told me what it was like at home, with your mom, her head all over the place. I haven’t forgotten that.”

Maybe he had some super photographic memory kind of powers. He had great memory, even with the flowers, even with my quirks. “Do you remember everything?”

A smile touched his lips as he answered, “Only when it comes to you. Open it.”

I parted the bag open carefully.

My hand touched something soft. To my surprise, as I pulled it out, I realized I recognized it. It seemed like it was so long ago when I last saw it.

“You– You won this,” I said, stunned, holding the festival scarf with the panda prints. Panda prints! “During the festival. You cheated, but still.”

“I wanted to win it,” he admitted, “because I wanted to give it to you.”

The next one was an awesome vintage-style notebook, and every couple of pages sprinkled with daily inspiring quotes.

I loved stationery. Put me in the middle of a stationery shop and I would probably impulse buy a little of everything. I had to limit my trips for that reason.

The last was a small, square-shaped flat box.

My heart stopped. Was this…?

"Chase–"

“Not a ring,” he said, nudging it closer. “Open it.”

I lifted the lid, and found a gold necklace with a small circular pendant. It was a small cluster of diamonds.

With a sudden intake of breath, I whispered, “Chase…” I couldn't keep the awe from my voice with the way it glinted from the light of the lamp. “This– It’s too much.”

“Take it. I’ve had it for a long time, Sherr.”

Realizing what that meant shot straight to my heart. “You kept it?”

“It's not a ring. I’m not asking for anything more than what we already have. ”

"I know," I replied softly.

I dropped my head on his shoulder again.

"Talk to me."

"I... We had that.” I looked down at my lap as I talked. “And then we didn't. Just like that, gone so fast."

“I fucked up,” he said. “I should’ve waited. But if I learned anything, baby, it’s because you can lose something the next second that I’m fighting to keep this.”

And with those words, I felt all my defenses crumble. Obliterated, each one. He kicked them down, like they were nothing. I’ve never felt more exposed.

Then I realized I was wrong.

Because my heart didn’t melt just every time he kissed me, but with every word, with every action, and everything he did with care.

“Thank you,” I whispered, and with those two words, I felt his grip on me tighten.

* * *

H
alf an hour later
, still unable to sleep, I shifted slightly to face him in the dark.

"Can't sleep? This a habit now?" he mumbled, his voice rough from sleep, amused.

Honesty. He needed that from me. I mustered up the courage to tell him.

"I'm afraid I'll wake up," I whispered against the dark, "and it would be just another dream."

He squeezed my shoulder at my admission.

He didn't say anything for a while, and I thought he'd fallen asleep, until he said, "Not a dream, baby.”

He moved to kiss my forehead, an arm going to my back, sliding down until it reached the curve of my hip. The warmth lingered even as I drifted off, and I could almost swear I fell asleep with a smile.

I
woke
up to the smell of coffee.

When I was old enough to want to drink coffee regularly, I claimed it as my one true love. What better thing to soothe you, to wake you up when you needed a jolt of common sense?

He stood barefoot in the kitchen, him reaching to crack open an egg, and on top of the stove a skillet.

And it gave me an odd feeling.

Here he was, doing something so domestic, it made me melt inside. It reminded me so much of the past, and of what could’ve been if I’d given a different response back then.

We’d been through so much.

It was scary, and huge, and overwhelming, especially with everything I learned from last night. In a way, it was also very new.

“Morning, beautiful,” he said with a smile when he saw me.

Sitting there, the warmth of the sun streaming through his window, thinking that with the state of my hair this morning I was far from beautiful, I was stunned by a new realization.

It was magnified when he pushed a fresh cup of coffee in front of me, even further when he grinned at me.

Two simple words and a smile, and it changed everything. He hadn’t even given me a chance to build my walls back.

This infuriating, but sweet and thoughtful man was sexy as hell and a little bossy at times, but he cooked for me, he made sure I slept well, and he gave me a place to stay when I needed it the most.

Add to the growing list that I’d fallen in love with him all over again.

He saw them all. All my flaws, my insecurities, everything I was, laid bare.

And he didn’t give a damn. He didn’t care that I apparently snored, that I wanted (needed) extra pillows to sleep, that I moved a lot in bed when I slept, or that my hair was messed up in the mornings, because to him it was beautiful.

I’m fighting to keep this
.

He’d let me go back then, but he’d never stopped waiting for me.

And I found, in those mere moments, I needed to make the conscious decision to let go. It wasn't something that was going to happen overnight, but it was a step. More than selfishness to protect myself, more than pride, I wanted to keep him in my life.

Trust was earned. It was scary and huge for me, but it was precious. And if I learnt anything in the past two years, it was that if something was important to you, to keep it in your life, you had to nurture and protect it. That was just the way it went.

Because I didn't just have him to forgive. To move on, I also needed to forgive myself. I was often harsh on myself because I’ve made mistakes that I wished I could undo. But it was time I stopped looking back.

“Chase.”

He looked at me in silent question. I don’t know what he must’ve saw swimming in my eyes, because he turned the stove off and went to me. “Sleep good?”

He took my hands and linked them with his, rubbing a thumb over my hand absently, his gaze intense on me. He lifted it up and pressed his lips over it.

My heart beat wildly on my chest. “Yeah. You?”

“Of course,” he said it like it was ridiculous to think otherwise.

My heart was filled with something overwhelmingly huge, something I couldn't name. I had to let it out.

"Chase–" I stopped. Then I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.

I could do this. Somehow, I felt like it was vitally important to get the words out, and get them right. "I want fight to keep this too. Or at least, I want to try,” I said earnestly.

His eyes shot to mine. I don't know what he saw in them, but a smile stretched wide on his face. “Fuck. Early morning surprises.”

Then the next thing I knew, his hand was buried in my hair, his tongue dove inside my mouth, licking, tasting. I kissed him back with the same hunger, my hand on the warm skin of his shoulder, then glided up to his neck.

When he pulled back, he touched his forehead against mine. “I’m going to finish so we can both eat.”

* * *

M
y phone rang
, and I pulled it out of my pocket.

“Sherr,” Eva said a little hesitantly.

“What’s up?”

“Can we go Abe’s for lunch?” She sounded somewhat unsure, as if trying to gauge my mood.

“We’re continuing?” I asked. I couldn’t hide the worry in my voice, and it seemed Chase honed in on it, because his eyes shot to me as I took a sip of my coffee.

“Sure.” In the back of my mind I was thinking about what Haley said, that if we thought we were in any trouble, we’d stop. Since she punched a big guy yesterday, I’d say we were in dangerous territory. Maybe I could convince her later to stop pursuing it.

“Eva?” Chase asked when the call ended.

“Mmm,” I hedged, lifting the coffee up to my lips to keep me from talking. “Damn good coffee.”

“Thanks. You going out later?” he asked as he sat down opposite me, placing a plate of eggs and ham on the table.

“Yep.”

“Need a ride?”

“Oh it’s fine, I’m stopping by the library after this, anyway.”

Abe’s was pretty close to the library, so it wasn’t a huge deal.

“Gonna be drinking?”

“Nope.”

My phone rang again. It was Sierra.

“Hey,” I answered, picking up.

“Oh my God Sherr, Evie is insane. That’s probably partly my doing, but why she had to decide to do this
now
I have no fucking cl–”

The line clicked.

“Hello?” Did she just hang up on me? That was odd. But then why would she… Oh. Eva must’ve been with her.

I was starting to think lunch was a bad idea. Not that I thought it was a good idea from the start anyway, but if I already thought it wasn’t a great idea, then that could only mean it could be much worse.

It was then that I realized Chase was looking at me, a brow raised in question.

I opened my mouth to say something else when my phone rang again.

Why the heck were so many people awake at this time?

It was Haley.

“Hi,” I said cautiously.

“Sherr,” Haley said, sounding a little breathless. “I don’t think it’s safe to meet at Abe’s later. Try Goodies’ Donuts?”

What on earth?

“Did something happen?”

“Well,” she continued, weary, “I just went to Abe’s to get some coffee after my night shift, and maybe a cookie, and I found Eva and Sierra basically fighting for a phone.”

Oh my God. If those two get me banned from the shop, I wasn’t going to speak to either of them for a long time.

I let out a sigh. And because I was a little curious, I asked, “Who won?”

“Neither. They broke it. It was Sierra’s phone, so now Eva feels bad, except she doesn’t look it. She did promise to replace it though.”

Pressing my forehead against my palm, my elbow resting on the table, I grimaced. “I swear, those two…”

“I know. I’ll be crashing right about now, so I’ll try to make it later, but no guarantees. Tell me about it if you decide to come.”

“Will do.”

As soon as I set my phone down, I stabbed some ham with a fork, and got some eggs. When I looked up, his expression was more than curious now, it was stern and unrelenting.

“Something wrong?” Chase asked.

"Just a brawl at Abe's."

He stewed on that as he ate some toast. “Something I've been thinking about. Where'd you go yesterday?” he asked, but his eyes were sharp.

"Umm. Just a little further out town, up north.”

"Why?"

Conflicted, I decided to tell him straight up. “I can’t tell you.”

He frowned, going still. “Can’t? Or won’t?”

“Can’t. I’ve been sworn to secrecy,” I told him gravely.

He seemed to think about this carefully before he asked, as concern flickered his gaze, "Will it get you hurt?"

Good question. I had no idea what it was going to be about that even Sierra declared was insane, but I couldn't lie to him.

"I don't know," I admitted. "But I'm going to find out."

* * *

G
oodies' Donuts sold
a variety of donut flavors, some hot dog rolls and a decent selection of ice cream. It had less people than Abe's, but that probably had more to do with their coffee being just okay, not the way that Abe's coffee was kick-ass.

So maybe that partially had to do with me not only getting a headache, not only not knowing what to say, because someone finally
did
go insane, but also that I had no idea what the heck to do. Having just had breakfast, I didn't feel like I had room for desert, so I had no sweet treat to fall back to.

"I'm sorry," I slowly said, finally losing it. "I thought you just told me that we were going to walk into a drug deal, with some drug-dealers in some shady alley, with some even shadier people. But that couldn't be right, right? Because," I pinched the bridge of my nose, and continued, "what. The. Fuck."

"We're not going to walk in on the deal. We’re just going to listen in, in case one of them might be Alan."

"And if they're not?" Sierra challenged.

"Then we go home."

"And then what next, Evie?" Sierra retorted. "You go on to the next deal you hear about from some source you can't even fully trust?"

"It's my brother!" Eva yelled back as she blinked back tears. "I don't even know that he's okay."

"The deal was, we stop if we think we're in any danger," Haley said quietly. "I think this puts us directly in danger."

Kate looked between us all, conflicted. "I think they're right. This seems a little crazy. I don't mind asking a few people about whether they've seen him, but…"

"I'll t-tell Wes," Eva said, hiccuping. "I'll tell him e-everything. Please, can we just do this one?"

The thing was, no one could look at Eva the way she was, crying and heartbroken, and not feel like you wanted to help her. Having her miserable now contrasted greatly with her usually sunny disposition.

* * *

"
T
his is crazy
," Sierra muttered for the seventh time.

"I know," I agreed, an equal number of times.

She'd gone insane.

By the time she told him, Wes was pissed. He was about to call the police, but all Eva had to say was "my source knows about me" and Wes reluctantly agreed not to, but I could tell he was still fuming.

The place of the drug-dealing was supposedly only a few blocks away from Doug's. I didn't like being anywhere near that place considering our reception when we last came.