Chapter Ten
About a weekafter his little chat with Ella regarding her date, Chase had his first photo shoot for his endorsement deal with Kelly Boots. He wasn’t sure what to expect since Wyatt hadn’t mentioned exactly what they wanted him to do. He’d said their publicity person would handle that but she hadn’t said much besides telling him when and where to show up. They’d talked about shooting before he got rid of his sling, but decided to wait.
In the meantime he’d had three more dates with different women—every one of them fine but forgettable. His fault, he was sure. The women were nice, they were pretty, they should have been interesting. But they weren’t Ella. God, he needed to get back to the circuit. Surely then he’d forget about her. Nothing like getting tossed on your ass to get your attention.
They paired him with a female model for the initial campaign. Naomi had dark blonde hair, green eyes and looked a whole lot like Ella. There were lots of shots with Naomi, making it obvious that the boots were one of the big draws. She wasn’t exactly hanging all over him, but it was close enough. She also made it very clear that she wouldn’t mind getting to know him better—outside of work.
So he took her up on it. They wound up at Booze’s for a drink first. He was having a good time and had gone a fair way to forgetting another blonde when his sister walked into the bar, and Ella was with her.
Seeing Ella in the flesh made him realize that while Naomi was a perfectly nice, and even a beautiful woman, she wasn’t Ella. Damn it.
Damaris and Ella waved at him but didn’t come over. He tried to ignore them but he couldn’t help sneaking glances from time to time. Before long Hazel Forrester, the woman who owned the equine therapy place, had joined the two women and so had several men. He knew most of them, one of them being Nate Kershaw. Ella was laughing at something he said, their chairs close together, Nate’s arm across the back of her chair. Chase wanted to go over there, yank Ella to her feet and march her out. Then he wanted to put his hands and his mouth on her and—
“Chase, is something wrong?” Naomi asked.
He jerked his attention back to her. “Not a thing. Why?”
“You keep scowling at that table over there, looking like you want to skewer someone.”
“Oh, that. My sister, the one with the dark hair, is flirting with someone she shouldn’t be flirting with.” Raleigh Douglas was one of the doctors who owned the urgent care clinic. Chase had heard he liked women, but that wasn’t a crime. After all, the same could be said of him and a whole lot of other guys he knew. Still, he needed a scapegoat.
“You’re the big brother?”
“One of them.”
“She looks old enough to decide that for herself.”
“She is. Hence the scowl.”
Naomi laughed and patted his arm. “Cheer up. He looks like a nice guy.”
Chase started to shrug and bit off a curse. His shoulder, while being a lot better, still wasn’t totally back to normal. “Looks can be deceiving,” he said, gazing at Ella and Nate. Damn, he should get out now before he had to watch her leave with the bastard.
He glanced at the table again and met Ella’s gaze. They stared at each other for a brief moment and then, deliberately, she looked away and continued talking to Nate. Shit. He wanted to punch something. Instead, when Naomi suggested they go to her hotel, he said yes.
Forty-five minutes later he walked out of her room leaving behind an extremely annoyed woman. He’d tried but his heart wasn’t in it. Naomi had put up with him for a little while but finally had asked, “No offense, Chase, but if you didn’t want to be with me why the hell did you come back to my room?”
He had no answer to that. Not one she’d want to hear, anyway.
*
Gabe called afamily meeting for the following day. Or as much of the family as he could gather on short notice. Chase walked into the kitchen to find Damaris and Marshall already there. “Does anyone know what’s going on?”
“No, but Damaris thinks Gabe and Chantel have set a date.”
“About time,” Chase said. He went to the refrigerator and pulled out an energy drink. “We’ve been expecting it for months.” He guzzled the drink.
“Good, you’re all here,” Gabe said, entering the kitchen with Chantel right behind him. As usual Chantel looked great, but since she had model looks with her long red hair, blue eyes and smokin’ body—which he damn sure wouldn’t say in front of Gabe because he didn’t want Gabe to kill him—that was no surprise.
Gabe took Chantel’s hand and looked at her with that totally gone on her smile that came over him damn near every time he looked at her. Gabe and Chantel had been living together for three months and both of them seemed loopier about each other every time he saw them. Which would have been kinda disgusting if he hadn’t been so happy for his brother. Chantel was good for him and was clearly as sappy in love as his brother was.
As an artist, Gabe preferred spending time in his workshop working on his unusual metal sculptures, or with his outside forge for the larger pieces. He was the epitome of the reclusive artist but while Chantel was very supportive of his art, she also convinced him to live in the real world occasionally. She was good for him, which made his family happy.
“We’re getting married,” Gabe said.
They all looked at him with varying degrees of ‘duh.’ “Hate to remind you, Gabe,” Marshall drawled, “but we know that already.”
Chantel laughed. “We’re getting married next weekend.”
