Loving the Chase (Heart of the Storm #1) (10 page)

“I’ve been so antsy waiting for you to get here,” Miss Lou said, rocking her back and forth. “I made you lemon bars.”

A laugh laced with the emotion she was fighting bubbled up from Maddi’s chest as she let Miss Lou hug her. “I can’t believe you remember that.”

“
Remember
that?” Lou echoed. “Girl, the recipe is named after you.” She pulled back and met Maddi’s gaze with wet eyes. “Maddi Marie’s Special Super—”

“—Duper Lemon Supreme Foo Foo Bars,” Maddi completed with her, laughing and swiping under her eyes. “Holy crap, I haven’t thought of that in years.”

Miss Lou grasped her by the shoulders and held her at arm’s length. “Look at you—all grown up and still a stunner. God, I’ve missed you, my girl.”

Maddi smiled and dug her nails into her palms, determined to keep it together. “I missed you too, Miss Lou,” she said. “And you look fabulous.”

Lou’s laugh filled the air. “Oh quit lying, I look old!” She looked past her to the entourage behind. “So who might you all be?”

Maddi spun around, having completely forgotten the crew. And Nicole. Nicole was leaned up against her car with a crooked little smile and her fingers tucked into the pockets of her jeans, looking very intrigued and smug.

“I’m Nicole Brian, Mrs. Chase,” she said, pushing off the car and holding out a hand. “I’m the associate producer on this project, and these guys are the crew you’ll be working with,” she said, gesturing behind her without looking. “It’s so nice to meet you. Thank you for having us here.”

Miss Lou smiled and took her hand. “Well, anyone here with Maddi is good enough for me.”

Nicole’s head tilted slightly. “So you and our Madison were close?”

Shit.
Maddi knew that was for her benefit, and she was busted for playing down her connection to the family, but
our Madison
? Please.

“Close?” Miss Lou snorted. She let Nicole’s hand go and slung an arm over Maddi’s shoulders. “This one was just like a second daughter back in the day. She and Zach were almost—”

“Mom.”

The unexpected sound of his voice sent tingles down Maddi’s back and arms, and they all turned toward the man leaning against a porch post in faded jeans and a white T-shirt that stood out in stark contrast to his suntanned skin. His arms were folded tight over his chest, and his jaw had a grim set to it. His dark eyes seemed to pierce her, and she had to resist the urge to lick her suddenly dry lips.
Shit.
Why the hell did he have that effect on her? Why could she not catch her damn breath?

He pushed off the post and sauntered their way, the stormy expression on his face lightening up. “Enough ancient history,” he said, squeezing his mom’s arm as he passed between them. Maddi had to back up a step as he brushed against her. She held her breath and raised her chin as he held her gaze, staring down into her face for a moment too long before fixing Nicole with his most killer smile and grasping her hand.

“Zach Chase, Miss Brian,” he said. “Nice to finally meet face-to-face.”

Nicole’s eyebrows shot up, and one corner of her mouth curved upward. “Likewise.”

“Would you like a tour?” he said, ever the charmer. “My brothers are on their way, and we can pass the time.”

Maddi let out her breath slowly and shoved her hands in her pockets so the nerves wouldn’t show. Eli and Simon were coming; that was good. Distraction was good. Even talking with Miss Lou—although bittersweet—was helpful. Anything that brought her away from direct contact with Zach was good. Hannah would be better, but she had the feeling Hannah wasn’t her biggest fan anymore. That thought dug at her more than she expected it to.

“Absolutely,” Nicole said. “Lead the way.” She cut her gaze in Maddi’s direction as she followed him. “Oh, yeah. No big thing, right?”

Chapter Eight

N
icole Brian was a force. Like a magnet that everyone else needed to revolve around. Zach recognized it immediately, since people tended to accuse him of being the very same thing.

She was hot in every conceivable way, exuding raw energy and sex appeal from the top of her dark-red carelessly falling hair to the electric blue polish on her toes. Even her voice—a little bit smoky with a hint of snark behind her words—was sexy and seductive. He’d put together an image from the very first time they’d spoken on the phone, and she definitely delivered.

A week ago, it would have been game on. He would have had a plan halfway in place before they even made it to the porch. Maddi laughing with his mother four feet behind him, however, vaporized any interest in Nicole. As he led the way into his mom’s house, trying to focus on Nicole’s questions and still remain charming, all he could hear was Maddi’s voice.

“Oh, Miss Lou,” Maddi said, her voice soft and low and longing. “My God, it’s all exactly how I last remember it. Nothing’s changed.”

Her words cracked into a whisper, and Zach couldn’t help himself. He had to turn to see the expression that went with the words.

Maddi crossed her arms over herself almost protectively as her eyes moved around the front living area. When they landed on him, the rawness there rooted him to the floor.

“Mr. Chase?”

Nicole’s voice yanked him back around, spinning him back from a place he had no business going.

“Yes,” he responded, clearing his throat of the gravel that had taken residence.

Damn it, her being there was unnerving. Other places were different. He could deal with that. But there, back in his mother’s house—it was too personal. It put an itch under his skin that he couldn’t scratch. And a poke at an old wound. She left him here. She could look around in awe and nostalgia all she wanted, but she left
him
. Springing into motion, he put a hand on Nicole’s back and led her past the kitchen into the big family room. This was business.

And now Maddi Hayes was business. He had to start acting like it.

“Oh, wow,” Nicole breathed, turning in a circle. “What a fantastic room.”

“Thank you,” Lou said, strolling in next. “We like it.” She held her arms wide as if all her baby ducks were within reach. “It’s home—nothing fancy, but it’s comfortable.”

“No, it’s fabulous,” Nicole said, her green eyes soaking up everything. “I couldn’t dream up a better set if I wanted to.” She gestured around her, lost in her own plan. “Cozy and soft and masculine at the same time. Lived in.”

“Well, that it is,” Lou said, laughing. “Lived in and worn out. If anything interesting ever happened, it happened in this room.”

Zach’s gaze shot straight to Maddi, where she’d stopped in the doorway, leaning against the jamb. The rawness was gone—recovered and glossed over with a cool indifference, as if she were touring homes for sale. He felt his jaw twitch. She got choked up by the entryway, and
this
room evoked nothing? Everything happened there.

Everything.

“This will be great,” Nicole said, looking as if she might bounce. “I see this room as where all the secondary action takes place.”

She turned in a circle, skimmed past the bookcase with its oddities and books and many photographs. She picked two of them up and held them out. One of Simon and Hannah dressed up one Halloween as rappers. The other of Levi with his daughter, Kinley.

“It’s home,” she said. “It’s perfect.” She set the photos back down and turned back, her eyes zeroing in on the big table. “This,” she breathed as she approached it. “I see most of the home segments—the discussions, plans, fights—happening right here.” She rolled her eyes and spread her hands along the wood. “Oh, my God, this table!”

Zach thought she might have a sexual experience with it there for a second, but noise from the front of the house brought her back to them.

“Fights?” Lou asked. “What fights?”

Her question was drowned out by Maddi’s squeal of delight as she turned to whoever was coming and put on a brilliant smile that stole Zach’s breath. He hadn’t seen a smile like that on her since—well, since.

“Holy shit,” came a deep voice, tinged with affection.

“Eli!”

Maddi disappeared from the doorway as she evidently ran into Eli’s arms. He walked into the room hugging her with her feet a foot off the floor and her laughter filling the room.

“Damn, lady, you haven’t changed,” Eli said, setting her back on her feet, his face transformed from his usual scowl. “God, it’s good to see you.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist for another squeeze. “You too. Monroe says hello.”

Eli laughed out loud. “He probably said a few other things, too. We’ve been trying to get together for a beer for the last year.”

“Yeah, he said that’s your fault,” Maddi said, tilting her head and bringing another laugh from Eli as he patted her cheek.

Zach looked away, focusing on a stick in the yard just outside the window. Every muscle in his neck felt ready to pop. He had to quit. He had to fucking quit. She was business now. Taking a slow breath, he let the stick go and turned back. Unfortunately, Nicole’s sharp gaze was the first thing he snagged on.

“You’re the one she dated, right?” Nicole said under her breath as the chatter continued.

Zach forced a soft laugh. “That was a long time ago. And her brother, Monroe, is Eli’s best friend.”

“Since childhood?”

“Since forever,” he answered.

“And the sappy little reunion over there?” she asked, gesturing with her head.

Didn’t matter.
It didn’t matter.
Zach shrugged and sat on the back of the couch. “She was always his little sister, too, I guess. Felt he needed to protect her.”

Nicole chuckled in her husky, throaty way. “From what—you?”

A bitterness filled his mouth that he couldn’t swallow away. “No, he failed there,” Zach said, his voice sounding odd to his own ears. But watching the two of them laugh it up and catch up in their comfortable easy way tugged at his gut in ways he couldn’t put logical thought to.

“Jealous?” Nicole asked, bringing his internal battle to the surface.

“Hell, no,” Zach said, done with the conversation.

Nicole opened her mouth to respond, clearly unable to pick up on subtlety, but Zach was saved by his mother swatting at his ass.

“Get up, you heathen, you weren’t raised in a barn,” she said, pushing him off the back of her precious couch.

“I want to meet these barn people you always talk about,” Zach said, trying to shake off the irritation simmering under his skin, stepping aside before his mom could hit him again.

“Hush, smartie,” Lou said, affection sparkling in her blue eyes. Simon’s eyes. “Plenty of cushions on the other side, and enough chairs to sit an army.”

“And yet you let Cracker reign on here like he’s a king,” Zach said. “Where is he, by the way?”

“Closed him in my room,” she said, smiling at Maddi and Eli as they walked up arm in arm like it was completely normal to do so. “All these new people would freak him out.”

“Cracker?” Nicole asked.

“Mom’s dog,” Zach said, meeting Eli’s eyes, amazed at the openness there and wanting to smack him more than ever.

Maddi looked like she was holding her breath, Zach noticed. Like an actor thrown into a play at the last minute, expected to know all the lines. She was trying to fit in, trying to appease her boss, and when her eyes met his, he saw something else. Panic. All her coolness from earlier was a front. She didn’t want to be there any more than he wanted her there.

“
Our
dog,” his mother corrected. “He’s part of the family.”

“Mom’s dog,” Zach and Eli said in unison, making everyone laugh. Zach continued, “He’s deaf and ornery.”

“Hush,” Lou said, with swats to both men’s stomachs. “I’ll be deaf and ornery one day, too, you know.”

“And we’ll lock you in your room when company comes over,” Eli said, putting an arm around her and kissing the top of her head.

“Yeah, you try that, and I’ll pull out my ninja moves,” Lou said, poking him in the ribs till he let go.

“Hey, we missing a party?”

All heads turned to see a gorgeous tiny blonde woman making her way through a line of uneasy-looking crew members hovering in the doorway. Parting like the Red Sea, they hurried away from said doorway as a jubilant if not apologetic Simon followed in her wake. Pushing Gran.

“Quinn!” Lou bellowed at first sight of her, leaving them behind in search of new hugs. “Come on in, honey.” She stopped short at the sight of Annabelle riding her throne and glanced up at Simon, who was mouthing an
I’m sorry
at that very moment. “Annabelle, I didn’t know you were coming.”

Gran laughed, her white pin curls trembling around her face while the rest of her hair didn’t dare move from the chignon she’d worn publicly since the dawn of time.

“Yes, I gathered that, by the lack of an invitation,” she said, clasping her hands together. “Luckily, I happened to call Simon on his way out. Quinn, sweetheart, can you go find me a glass of something cold? In an actual glass, not those tacky plastic things.”

“Absolutely,” Quinn said, biting back a smile as she rolled her eyes in apology and made for the kitchen.

“Glad to help out, Gran,” Simon said, resting his hands on her shoulders and tilting his head at his mother with another
I’m so sorry
silently formed on his lips.

Lou grinned. It wasn’t her first dressing-down from Annabelle, and barring cardiac arrest there in the family room, it wouldn’t be the last, probably not even in the next ten minutes.

“There was nothing to invite you to, Annabelle, this isn’t an event,” she said.

“We’re just getting together to go over the contract, Gran,” Zach said. “Dotting and crossing and getting on the same page.”

“And working out the filming schedule,” Nicole piped up, coming forward with a hand outstretched. “I’m Nicole Brian, associate producer of—”

“The Chase,”
Gran finished, her eyes taking in Nicole as she squeezed her fingers. “Yes, I heard. Clever name. So, you’re in charge?”

“Well, indirectly,” Nicole said, looking the tiniest bit flustered. Zach had to stifle a grin. Gran had that talent. “Madison will actually be handling things on-site.”

Quinn came back with a glass-glass of ice water.

“Thank you, sweetheart,” Gran said. “You are just a doll. Zach—where’s Zach?”

“Right here, Gran,” Zach said, lifting a hand.

“Zach, you need to snatch this precious woman up right now before that fiancé of hers gets around to sealing the deal,” she said, amidst Quinn’s reddening cheeks and laughter. “She’s beautiful! You’re single! What’s wrong with you?”

Simon looked like he could slide his hands right up to her neck without a second thought, but Zach latched on to the hook like a drowning man. He needed something to pull his manhood out from wherever it was hiding.

“Oh, I don’t think Quinn would know what to do with me, Gran,” Zach said with a grin and a wink at Quinn. She’d never surpassed the sister role in his head for some reason. Probably because she was Hannah’s best friend and Hannah’d castrate him if he tried anything.

“Really?” Quinn said, twisting her face into a mock grimace.

“Really?” Simon echoed under his breath, smiling daggers at Zach.

Zach laughed until a certain voice made his blood warm under his skin.

“Eli and Simon?” Maddi began, turning both men around to where she stood next to Nicole. “I want to introduce you to my boss, Nicole Brian,” she said, all passive and professional again as Nicole held out her hand and lifted one eyebrow.

“My goodness, this family has amazing genetics,” she said as both Eli and Simon took her hand in turn. “Made for the camera, that’s for sure.”

Eli’s expression went cooler as his eyes glazed back into the mask Zach recognized. The one saying he was perpetually unhappy with anything Zach did, and mention of a camera clearly reminded him that Nicole fit that bill.

“Miss Brian,” Eli said.

“Mr. Chase,” she responded, her whole tone and stance changing as she held eye contact with him. Maybe she wanted to provoke him. Maybe she knew he was the holdout vote. Hell, maybe she just wanted to ride him like a prize bull, by the seductive twist in her voice. Whatever it was lit a fire in Eli’s eyes, and it looked like he accepted the challenge. “Great to finally meet you,” she said.

Even Simon looked back and forth between them as if a remote had gotten stuck on pause, and then shook his head in resignation.

“Am I the invisible man today?” he muttered to Maddi, who laughed and took his arm.

“Hardly,” she said.

“Maddi Hayes, my goodness,” Gran said, her voice low enough to stay under the chatter of the room, but loud enough to catch Maddi’s attention. And Zach’s. And his mother’s too, by the way she pivoted right out of a conversation with Quinn to lay eyes on her mother-in-law. “How many years has it been?”

Maddi chuckled nervously and tucked her hair behind her ears. “A few,” she said on a laugh, leaning over to pat the older woman’s hand.