Giving Chase

  “I’m sorry, Red. I didn’t mean to be rude but I couldn’t believe how she was talking to you.”

  Maggie threw her head back and laughed. She laughed and laughed until tears ran down her face and she had to sit down right in the middle of the floor. “Oh my lands! I’ve never seen her with that look on her face, I hope it freezes.” She gasped out her laughter.

  A smile cracked Kyle’s worried face. He joined her on the floor and pulled her onto his lap. “Girl, you are something else,” he murmured into her hair.

  “Question is, what exactly is something else?” she asked, looking up into his face.

  “Something special,” he said softly, leaning down to kiss her upturned lips. “Something sweet,” he added and nibbled on her chin. “Something sexy.” She tipped her head back to give him access to her throat and he kissed down to the hollow there.

  “Mmm. That’s nice.”

  He looked down the line of her body, over the curve of her breasts, down her stomach, her small hands fisted in his shirt. “Yes, very nice.” God he wanted to see her naked. To feel her bare flesh against his own. To taste her.

  Maggie laughed then, a low, sexy sound. This woman was trouble. She made him want to jump inside her skin. Wanted everyday memories like going camping and working in the yard. Yearned to hear her voice, smell her skin. See if she had freckles anywhere else.

  For years he’d avoided such trouble, liking the single life very much. But Maggie Wright was the best kind of trouble he’d ever been in and he wanted to gorge himself with more.

  Trailing the tips of his fingers down her belly he traced circles around her navel, slightly easing the hem of her blouse up. She shifted then and ran her fingers through his hair, dragging her fingernails lightly across his scalp. “Oh God, please touch me. I need your hands on me,” she whispered.

  “Hey, girl! You in there?” They both jumped at the sound and Kyle reluctantly sat Maggie up, smoothing her shirt down.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered and he laughed and shrugged. “In here, Liv,” Maggie called out, having to clear her voice.

  Liv walked into the living room and saw them both getting up off the floor. “Whoops! Sorry. I can come back later.”

  “No, I need to finish installing those motion lights, anyway.” He turned and kissed Maggie’s nose and whispered, “I’ll get back to where I was later on.”

  “You’d better.” She smiled at him and watched him walk out of the room.

  “Well,” Liv said with a grin on her face.

  “Yeah, turns out I had the wrong Chase brother to start with but now that I’ve corrected my mistake things are much better.” She snorted, starting to laugh.

  Liv tossed her bag into a chair and crossed her arms, looking at her friend. “So what happened with Alex? By the way, I’m parched. Can I get some tea?”

  “Yeah, come on through.” Maggie motioned her into the kitchen, giving her the basics on the way. “They let him out on bail today. He’s home! I can’t believe that. Oh, and they’re charging him with possession of stolen property for having ten pairs of my underwear, three bras and a teddy, a bustier and a silk robe. It was my favorite robe, too! I thought it was at the dry cleaners. It’s not like I can wear any of that stuff again, God only knows what he did with it all.”

  Both women shuddered in disgust. “Eww. What about the pictures?”

  “What about them? Apparently he didn’t do anything illegal. Any pervert can set up and, using a telephoto lens, shoot you taking a shower. Ridiculous. You can bet I’ll keep my curtains closed up tight. Hell, I even safety-pinned them closed because a few of the pictures were shot between the gap where the two panels didn’t quite meet. Though they do go toward making him look like the perverted stalker he is so we can use that in the protection order hearing.”

  “I feel guilty, he seemed so nice.”

  “Don’t feel bad, Liv. How could you have known? He was a nice guy for a while.”

  “So tell me about the fracas with Janie last night.” Liv’s eyes lit up as she drank her tea.

  Maggie spilled the entire story to Liv.

  After first being shocked, Liv started laughing at Kyle’s response. “I knew that boy was a keeper! Has hurricane Cece been here?”

  “Of course. She starts in on how she’s been trying to get a hold of me and how nice girls don’t stay out all night. Kyle comes in and tells her I’ve been vandalized. She actually flirted with him and then he tells her he’s my boyfriend and she laughed like it was a joke. Liv, she told me that my word couldn’t be trusted over Janie’s and that I was jealous because she was superior to me.” That sliced into her gut.

  Liv looked like she saw a pile of steaming dog doo. “Your mother is awful. She’s a crime in thirty states.”

  “I stood my ground, Liv. For once in my life I defended myself and it felt great. Kyle defended me, too, which was very sweet. Poor ol’ Cece ran for the door looking like she needed some more Botox. I hope she and Janie get five new wrinkles from this.”

  Unashamedly listening from his ladder outside, Kyle nearly burst out laughing.

  “You know, Liv, the Chase family showed me more love and concern in half an hour than my mother has my whole life. You should have seen them all here last night. Every single last one of them helped me. Matt and Marc boarded my windows and then finished scrubbing my door off. Polly showed up and ordered me to stay with them. At their house she made me hot chocolate and Edward appointed himself my attorney. Today he came to court with me. Shane took my report personally and has kept me updated on everything and Kyle has been with me the whole time. He took on my insane evil mother and sister.”

  She stopped for a moment, tears choking her voice. “It’s just that I’ve been alone for a long time. I’ve had you and Dee and all but if my knee got scraped I got a lecture about being clumsy. Polly Chase is the kind of woman who would’ve cleaned it off and blown on the skin while she put hydrogen peroxide on it. They’re all so wonderful and I’m horribly frightened that Kyle’s feelings for me will wear off and I’ll be alone again. Only after having been a part of their world, it’ll be really lonely.” Her voice had gone to nothing more than a whisper at the last admission.

  Liv held back her own tears and hugged Maggie tight. “Girl, you always, always have me and Dee. And I think you should give Kyle a chance. By your description of his actions, he’s in it for the long haul—the good, the bad and the ugly. Anyway, why quit now? You’ve already been in their world, it’s not like you can erase it.”

  “Oh, Liv, last night it was so clear that I’m in way over my head. At The Oak Room everyone knew him. It was filled with people who never spoke a single word to me in high school. Everywhere we go women stare at him blatantly. Lyndsay Cole came on to him right in front of me! Even after he told her he was with me. How can I compete with that?”

  “Maggie, you have got to stop this. You’re nearly twenty-seven years old. How long are you going to let your mother and sister do a number on you? You don’t need to compete with the Lyndsays of the world. You’re better than they are anyway! Take a real look at yourself, please. You underestimate yourself so much! That’s why you dated men like Sam for so long. You made a comment a while back about lowering your standards—sugar, raise them. You deserve it. Let yourself be happy. Let yourself be with Kyle Chase. You won’t die if it doesn’t work out. But imagine if it does.”

  Kyle leaned against the wall of the house, under the window, trying to process all he’d heard. He had to launch Operation Make Margaret Wright Know What a Goddess She Was, and he had to do it right away. Listening to her talk about her mother and sister, about how she felt last night among people he’d moved with for years, he felt bad. He needed to look at his own life a bit. He saw how shallow Jane Marie and Lyndsay were and wondered how many others in his circle were like that.

  He pushed himself to stan
ding and finished the last bit of installation for the lights and tested them. He was walking around the front of the house when Shane pulled up.

  “Hey, Shane.” He walked over to meet his brother’s approach.

  “Hey. Listen to this, Alex Parsons has four prior no-contact orders on file. Seems that he had quite the way with the ladies back in college. I also talked with Dad’s investigator who spoke with two women here in Petal who’ve had such bad experiences with Alex they were afraid to file police reports.”

  “Well, well, well. What a bastard. What does this mean then, for his case?”

  “I passed it all on to the prosecutor’s office. They contacted Alex’s attorney. He’s going to plead out.”

  “At least she won’t have to testify or face him in court,” Kyle said. “Let’s go and tell her.”

  Shane nodded and they went in. Liv gave Shane a dirty look but smiled at Kyle.

  “What’s happening with the case?” Maggie asked, handing each of them a mug of hot tea and pointing their attention to the platter of scones.

  “He has a criminal history of stalking women, Maggie. He’s got four protection orders taken out by women at the UGA. He also apparently has a bad history here in town. He made a plea deal today. He’ll officially sign it in court next Wednesday if the judge agrees, which he will. He’s agreed to a permanent no-contact order—he has to stay five hundred feet away from you at all times, can’t contact you, and he’s promised to not take any pictures of you. He’ll have to pay for your windows and take anger management classes and have counseling.”

  “And how much time will he have to serve?”

  “He won’t be serving any time at all.”

  She froze, blinking quickly. “What? The man broke into my house and stole my panties...for God’s sake! My favorite robe—I bought that robe in Milan and I can’t ever bear to touch any of it again. He took pictures of me without my knowledge or consent, he manhandled me, broke my windows out and wrote an offensive word on my door and he doesn’t serve any time? Worse, he’s got a history of this and he gets away with it again? It’s no wonder those other women didn’t come forward. But oh well, I suppose I got what I deserved and all, being a woman who dared to go out with him and then you, oh and don’t forget Kyle too.”

  “I’m sorry, Maggie. If it were up to me he’d be in prison for years, you know that. But the court doesn’t view his crime as that serious and they’d rather take a plea agreement than prosecute because it’s cheaper and easier. If he violates the protection order—which you’ll have granted as a permanent order because he’s agreed to that as well as the no-contact order—you’ll have double protection.”

  “Oh well, I’m sure that piece of paper will do a fine job! Oh and now I can’t even use the library because he’s there.”

  “This conviction will go on his record. He’ll have to get help. Maybe he’ll truly get the help he needs.”

  “Oh, his permanent record, I’m sure he’s shaking in his boots! And help? Bully for him. But. What. The. Fuck. About. Me? Huh? What do I get out of this except for broken windows and a twitch every time the wind blows a branch against a window?”

  Liv gasped, not because she found the word so horrifying but that she’d never, ever heard Maggie use it. Kyle had an amused look on his face.

  Shane looked at his brother, annoyed. “What?”

  Kyle turned and looked at Maggie. “Get mad, Red! Who is this asshole to terrorize you? Who are these judges and attorneys who’re going to let this guy off? Who is your mother to treat you like crap? Who is Jane Marie to treat you so badly when she’s a nasty cheating liar? Aren’t you sick and tired of it all? Don’t you deserve better than that?”

  “Yes! Damn it, I do! I’m a good person. I volunteer. I’m a teacher. I treat people right and look at what happens.”

  “Look what happens when you don’t accept anything less than the respect you deserve, Maggie,” he said softly, running the backs of his fingers down her cheek.

  Realization dawned. “You trying to teach me a lesson, Kyle Chase?”

  “Sure am.” He folded his arms over his chest with an aura of authority. “You may not be able to make the court system punish Alex for this. Not in the way you want, but damn it you can make sure that everyone else in your life treats you with respect and on your own terms.”

  “Like my mother.”

  “Yeah, and your sister.”

  “And women like Lyndsay,” Liv added.

  “Definitely,” Maggie added, looking dangerous.

  “And me,” Shane said. He sat down on the couch and looked up at her. “I owe you a big apology. I’m sorry I didn’t just have the decency to say I couldn’t see you anymore to your face. You deserved better than me shoving Kendra at you like that.”

  Maggie looked at Shane for a long silent moment. Panic ate at Kyle when he understood that he was falling hard for little Miss Red. If she still had feelings for Shane he didn’t know what he’d do.

  She took a deep breath. “Apology accepted. Shane, you know, I didn’t expect you to propose or anything. I understand you’ve been hurt badly but not every woman is like your ex. There’s someone out there who you can make a future with. But if you keep running and closing yourself off at the first thought of actually having feelings for someone, you’ll die lonely. Don’t do that. Underneath that gruff exterior, there’s a really special man.”

  Maggie looked over at Kyle. Smiling, she held out her hand for his. Relief rushed through him but he pretended that he’d never been worried at all.

  “In the meantime, Shane, if you ever hurt a friend the way you hurt Maggie, I’ll kick you right in the junk.” Liv’s eyes were ferocious as she said it and Shane crossed his legs.

  Maggie’s phone rang and she grabbed it. It was Polly.

  “Hi, honey. Are any of my boys over there with you now?”

  “Yep, Shane and Kyle. You need them?”

  “I just wanted to invite you to dinner. You can tell them to come too. I’m making smothered pork chops, mashed potatoes, salad, corn bread and I wasn’t gonna bother baking after you sent those delicious scones and muffins over.”

  “Thanks, Polly, that’s so kind. I don’t want to impose on you two nights in a row.”

  Kyle narrowed his eyes at her. “Is that my momma?”

  “Yes, she’s inviting me to dinner and she says you two can come, too.”

  “What’s she making?” Shane asked.

  “Smothered pork chops.”

  “Tell her I’ll be there,” he said immediately.

  “You and I will be there in half an hour.” Kyle’s expression didn’t leave room for argument. “Oh, and wait, let me talk to her.” Kyle grabbed the phone she held out. “Momma, you got room for one more?”

  “Of course I do. Who else is coming?”

  “Olivia Davis, the mayor’s secretary. She’s Maggie’s best friend and she’s here right now.”

  “Good, she’s a pretty one. I’ll put her between Matt and Shane. See y’all soon then.”

  Kyle hung up and looked back at them all. “Olivia, my mother would love for you to come as well. I promise you an excellent meal. Plus, well my family can be a bit overwhelming so it’ll help Maggie to have you there.”

  “That and there’s never an objection at our house to another beautiful woman,” Shane added.

  “Flattery and pork chops when all I was gonna do was eat a Lean Cuisine? Hmm, I think I’ll have to choose the pork chops.”

  “Okay, but let me change. I have dust and glass shards on this skirt.” Maggie bounded up the stairs to her room.

  She changed into a pair of soft jeans and a fleece sweater and came back downstairs. “I sure like watching you go up and down stairs,” Kyle murmured as he captured her waist, pulling her to him.

  Smirking, she kissed him quickly as they
headed out to the car. “Glad to be entertaining.”

  * * *

  Maggie felt immediately at home when she walked inside the Chases’ home. Within moments she’d garnered hugs and kisses from everyone, although Kyle scowled at Marc who just laughed.

  “You all know Olivia?” Maggie introduced her friend.

  “Yes,” Matt answered immediately. “You’ll be sitting next to me tonight.”

  Maggie smiled. It looked like with a little help from Polly, Maggie was able to get Matt and Liv together after all.

  “You got any other hot friends, Maggie?” Marc asked.

  “Sorry, Marc. You’ve dated most every woman in Petal. Dee is lovely but she’s engaged. Everyone else you’ve probably gone out with.”

  Kyle laughed at that one until Marc took her hand and kissed it. “Except for you, sugar.” He winked.

  “My goodness, you boys are a menace.” Maggie blushed and Edward laughed as he led them all into the dining room.

  The food was, as advertised, completely delicious. Maggie watched, amused as Matt and Liv hit it off. The brothers argued about the Braves’ chances for the next season while Polly and Maggie talked about the upcoming auction for the Historical Society.

  After they’d eaten and cleaned up, Kyle put his arm around Maggie. “Well folks, I’m going to get Maggie home. Matt, can you please give Liv a ride home? She rode over with us and I want to stop by my place for a minute to pick something up.”

  Matt perked up. “Of course, no problem. I was hoping to stay for dessert though. Liv?”

  “Are those Maggie’s lemon almond scones I see?”

  “Oh, yes. She brought them over earlier today.”

  “Then I’ll definitely stay for dessert.” Liv got up and hugged Maggie and whispered, “Tell Kyle I owe him one.”

  Once they were driving, Kyle reached out and grabbed Maggie’s hand. “I wasn’t trying to get rid of you, Red. I was trying to get rid of them. I thought that it might be nice to stop by my condo to get some coffee ice cream. Maybe watch a movie. What do you say?”