Chasing McCree (2 page)

“
My head hurts.” She
gasped, her giggles coming to a halt.

“
You told me.” I smiled,
urging Ash into the shadows when a car passed on the street
nearby.

“
I did?” she sounded
confused, like she didn’t remember.

“
Yup.” And she’d probably
tell me again.

“
How many feet do you have,
Chase?”

“
Two.”

“
I have four.” She was
upset again, bottom lip trembling.

“
No, Briar, you have
two.”

“
Are you sure?”

“
Yeah, I counted.” I
touched her right leg, “one,” I touched her left, “two.”

“
I hate pickles.” And then
she passed out.

“
Me too.” I let out a
breath, one I hadn’t realized I was holding. Earlier today I’d been
thinking about how incredibly boring it was here. Nothing like a
drunken a cheerleader to spice up the night. “Let’s go home.” I
said to Ash, keeping Briar tucked close, and heading for my
mother’s house.

Chapter 2

Briar

I passed out.

I couldn’t help myself. One minute I’m
slurring and puking, then the next I’m zonked. And when I woke up I
wasn’t on the back of the massive gray horse.

I was in a bed.

I stared up at a brown ceiling fan,
realizing it wasn’t my bed, and scanned the rest of the room. It
was sparse. Bare beige walls, a big oak dresser, and a clothes
hamper lined the wall on my right. There was a closet on the other
side. The doors were open wide, and its contents weren’t what I
expected. There were boots, cowboy style, on the floor, and a
whip.

Yeah, this wasn’t my room. It had to be
the room of the boy named Chase, who’d been riding his horse in the
park by my house.

My eyes landed on a saddle. It was set
on some sort of wooden contraption by the bedroom door. Whatever it
was, it looked like it was made for keeping the saddle
on.

I sat up slowly. My head throbbed and
my stomach hurt like hell. “I hate you Alex.”

“
Who’s Alex?” the familiar
voice was low, closer than I expected.

“
Alex Franklin Walker the
third, my boyfriend.” I groaned, sliding back to lean against the
pillows behind me. Chase was sitting at the foot of the bed. “Make
that ex-boyfriend. The reason why I was drunk and stumbling through
a park.”

“
How is he the reason?” he
sounded amused. I blinked hard, focusing on a pair of chocolate
brown eyes. They were his of course, and very
intelligent.

“
I…” Crap. I wasn’t
actually going to tell this guy how I ended up in a park drunk and
disoriented, was I? Hell no. I glanced at the alarm clock on the
bedside table. It was way after midnight. “Oh, god. I have to get
home.”

“
Did he do that to you?”
The anger that flashed in his eyes startled me. I had to force
myself to stay put.

I glanced at my knees. They were
crusted with blood and dirt. “No, that happened after I left his
house. I walked past a bar and a man chased me…I think I told you
the rest.”

“
Yeah, you did.” He
frowned. “Anything else happen?”

“
Like?”

“
Like, why would someone
get you drunk?”

“
Oh,” My cheeks heated with
embarrassment. I hoped he couldn’t see me blushing. “You think he
did it to have sex with me.”

“
Well, I don’t think he did
it for a laugh, Briar.”

“
No, that wasn’t the
reason…at least not the initial one. I have to go.” I swung my legs
over the side of the bed and stood. Immediately I realized I wasn’t
over being drunk. The room spun. I dropped back onto the mattress
with a groan. “I feel like hell.”

He laughed. “No offense, you look
it.”

I shook my head and tried to stand
again. It didn’t work. On my third try Chase took me by the elbow.
But instead of helping me to the door, he steered me toward a
bathroom.

“
When I said I needed to
go, I meant home.”

“
I know.” He was very
patient, making sure I didn’t smack into anything or hit the floor.
“But I don’t think you want to walk into your house looking like
this.”

I stared down at myself. “Yeah, good
point. Clean up, then leave.”

He retrieved washcloths and soap out of
a cabinet and set the water to warm in the sink. I reached for the
soap. He shook his head and turned me so my back was to the
counter. I stared up into his darkly lashed eyes, breathless. His
mouth kicked up in a grin, and without a word his hands went to my
waist. He lifted me up and set me on the counter next to the sink.
Not even Alex could pick me up like that. I was five foot three.
All the blustering and posturing Alex did compensated for his
height of five foot six. But Chase was bigger than Alex. I’m
guessing six feet, maybe taller. He had hard muscles, very well
defined, and broad, strong looking shoulders. I didn’t usually feel
petite around Alex, but being around Chase, I felt almost
tiny.

“
Don’t pass out on me.” He
said, tapping his finger to the tip of my nose.

“
I won’t. I-I can do this.”
I insisted, blushing again. Chase was unlike any person I’d ever
met. He was being so gentle, actually taking care of me. His
behavior was completely foreign. I didn’t come from a warm fuzzy
family. The only person who bothered to take care of me was
Grandma.

“
Uh-huh, sure. You can
barely walk. And if you fall on the tile, it’s going to hurt a lot
worse than carpet.”

“
Fine.” I looked over my
shoulder in the mirror as he began to soap up a washcloth, and let
out a squeal. “Oh my god! I look awful.”

“
So fix it.” He handed me
the soap.

I scrubbed the makeup off my face, and
removed the dirt from the palms of my hands. It burned. Chase
carefully wiped the blood from my legs, blotting and removing
little flecks of gravel. I had to grit my teeth and close my eyes,
despite his light touches. I really did a number on my
knees.

He went to a medicine cabinet and
pulled out Band-Aids and antiseptic. I held my breath, wincing as
his fingers pressed the sticky part of the Band-Aids in place.
Finally he was done.

I looked and felt better again.
Although, I’d stripped off every ounce of makeup layered on my
face. The freckles that smattered my nose were visible, and my fair
eyelashes were unnoticeable. Thick black mascara usually coated
them.

I spent an hour this morning trying to
make my hair perfectly straight. The strands were curling into the
tight corkscrews that I worked so hard to hide.

Chase met my eyes in the mirror and
grinned, dimples gracing his cheeks. “You know, I never would have
guessed you looked so normal under all that crap.”

“
Don’t get used to
it.”

He shrugged and tossed the dirty
washcloths into the shower. “You find something appealing, lookin’
like a hooker?”

“
I am not…”

His hand settled over my mouth, and I
wondered if I should really trust him. I didn’t know anything about
him. He was a stranger to me. “Now, my mom’s downstairs. I’d like
to keep you a secret. She won’t take kindly to me having a girl in
my room this time of night.”

I nodded and he took his hand away.
“Sorry.”

“
As am I.” He smiled
ruefully. “I just think you’re prettier without a face full of
makeup.”

“
Everyone else wears just
as much, sometimes more.” I countered, feeling childish. He paid me
a compliment. I could have at least acted grateful, after what he
did for me tonight.

“
If everyone else decides
to jump off a bridge, will you?” He helped me down from the
counter, raising his thick brown eyebrows.

“
You sound like my
grandmother.” I turned to look in the mirror and took my hair down,
letting the strands free. It reached the middle of my back when it
was straight. But the corkscrews fell just past my shoulders. “And
no, I won’t.”

Chase pulled a rogue clip out and
tossed it on the counter. “See, that’s the thing about old people,
they’ve got all the good advice.”

“
How would you
know?”

Sadness swept across his features,
fleeting and disconcerting. “I was raised by my
Grandparents.”

“
Why?” I followed him out
into the bedroom, still sore, but more flexible now that my knees
weren’t crusted over with blood.

“
That’s a story I’m not in
the mood to tell.” He sat on the bed and leaned back against the
headboard, crossing his legs at the ankles. It was then I noticed
his cowboy boots. They were the real deal, reddish-brown leather
worn to perfection. “But I’d like to know your story. Then, maybe
I’ll share.”

I eyed him for a minute, decided he was
genuinely curious, and threw my arms up in surrender, plopping down
beside him. “What the hell, you’ve got questions, ask
away.”

“
First, it’s nearing the
end of May. Why the cheerleading uniform?”

“
Practice for a school
rally coming up. Kind of like an end of the year celebration, and
to start recruiting for next year.”

“
Why did Alex get you
drunk?”

“
He had sex with my best
friend, Rachel. Getting me drunk was to loosen me up so I wouldn’t
overreact when he confessed.” I said. “But it made me bold enough
to dump salsa, chips, and beer all over him.”

“
Why would you go out with
someone like that?”

“
It seemed like a good
idea…and I’d never had a real boyfriend before.” We’d been dating
for one month solid. Before that he winked and over complimented
me, but it didn’t get serious until Miranda Carlson, one of the
most popular girls on the cheer squad, had to move away because of
her dad’s job transfer six months ago.

Rachel needed me to take Miranda’s
place as her best friend. My social status rose. And Alex got
interested.

I was excited to have my first
boyfriend. A guy who took me out on dates, drove, paid, and could
be a good kisser. I didn’t think that he was with me because of our
social positions. I thought he genuinely liked me. It was simply a
coincidence that he’d been dating Miranda.

I’m so naïve, it’s not even
funny.

Alex had been sweet and everyone at
school said I was the luckiest girl. He made me feel special in the
beginning, so I didn’t bother looking deeper. I thought it was
going to be sunny days and chirping birds, like the
fairytales.

Of course my eyes were truly opened
when I realized my boyfriend spent his spare time breaking his
personal record for most drinks consumed in one sitting.

And it wasn’t just beer anymore. He
moved onto the hard stuff—vodka, whiskey, bourbon, rum—his parents
kept a well-stocked house. They didn’t seem to care either, since
they drank just as much.

I’d been trying to figure out the best
way to break up with him. His habits were unhealthy. I don’t like
to drink, not that much. A sip of champagne at a wedding, or a nip
of a margarita that Grandma has at her poker parties is as much as
I like.

I’d never been drunk, never been
buzzed.

So this wonky reality was really
unsettling. I didn’t like the fact that I wasn’t in complete
control.

“
All my friends said I
should. That I was crazy if I didn’t.” I trusted their opinions on
everything, from straightening my hair, to the clothes I bought at
the mall. We didn’t do anything without running our ideas or
decisions by each other. Rachel, Hadley, Emma, and Beth were all
inseparable. They did everything together, and even though I wasn’t
as far in with them, I was far enough to ask them what they thought
before buying a dress.

I looked down at my uniform, stomach
sinking.

Was I a cheerleader because I liked it,
or because all my friends did? Rachel went out for the squad
freshman year, so I did too. Then she met the fab three, Hadley,
Emma, and Beth. They became the fab four. If I kept hanging out
with them, we’d be the fab five. The most popular group of girls in
school.

Was I that much of a sheep?

“
Are you okay? You look
green.” Chase glanced at the bathroom, probably wondering if he’d
get me to the toilet in time.

“
Uh, I’m just reevaluating
every major choice I’ve made. I’m thinking I’ve based every one on
what other people think I should do.”

“
Sounds intensely life
changing.” He chuckled, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

I nodded, smiling.
“Probably.”

“
So, you’re
okay?”

“
I think so.” Hell.
No.

“
No more crying, hysterical
laughter?”

My face flushed. “I promise. I’m good.
And I want to thank you for everything, bringing me home with you,
helping me clean up.”

“
You’re
welcome,”

I stifled a yawn, “I should
go.”