Loving the Chase (Heart of the Storm #1) (13 page)

Not that Harlan knew about the film-crew part. And Zach wasn’t about to share that tidbit. He may be a friend and a surrogate father figure, but he was also a Boudreau.

Zach saluted him. “Got it.”

Harlan shook his head in disgust. “No, you don’t. You’re humoring an old man, but I’ve been around the block a time or two, Zachariah Chase. I know what it’s like to have the chase burnin’ in your blood but no warm body in your bed.”

Zach chuckled. “I do okay with the warm bodies, Harlan.”

“I’m not talking about your dick, boy,” he said. “I’m talking about in here.” He knocked his gnarly fist against his chest. “You can have it all kickin’ out there, but once a woman gets in here, it messes with you. Changes things.”

“I know.”

“Do you?” Harlan fired back.

Zach met his hard gaze dead-on. “I believe you pointed that out about thirty seconds ago with the
no woman is worth it
comment.”

Harlan started a slow nod, narrowing his eyes to slits. “You’d be smart to remember that time. Keep it from repeatin’ itself. You have to keep your focus.”

I’ll always be your second choice.

“I’ve got it,” Zach said again, slowly.

Harlan sighed. “You boys are stubborn as shit.”

Zach let himself grin. The old man was just trying to look out for him. To do what his dad might do. Even if it was annoying as hell. “We come by it honestly.”

Harlan nodded and raised his eyebrows a notch. “That, you do.” He cut his eyes sideways to Zach. “You know Jonah and Hannah are talkin’ again?”

Zach lifted his chin. “They are?”

Harlan shrugged. “Saw her name come up on his phone the other day,” he said. “Could be nothin’. But I have a feeling.”

“You should be talking to him right now, then,” Zach said. “He’s still married to Derrie, right?”

“Already did,” Harlan said. “And yeah, he’s still married to that blood-suckin’ troll. Not that I hold any ill will. She
is
the mother of my grandson.”

Zach chuckled. “I’d hate to see you hold ill will, then.”

“Whatever,” he said, ambling toward the door. “Gotta go. Better be a shitload of meat in that stew, because if I can’t eat it with a fork, I ain’t eatin’ it.”

Zach slapped him on the back and chuckled. “Good luck with that.”

Harlan turned around once outside. “Head in the game, boy.”

Zach nodded. “I promise.”

Chapter Eleven

M
addi woke up the next morning with the strangest moment of déjà vu. Sleeping in Hannah’s old room the night before hadn’t been as odd as she thought it would be. Lou had transformed it into a sewing room, which just happened to have a guest bed in it. So really, there wasn’t much in the way of similarities to kick her around.

But this morning, with the sun shining in and the smell of breakfast on the air, and the woody aroma that was always distinctly
this house
, Maddi felt pulled from bed by an invisible force. Namely, the gnawing in her gut that had nothing to do with hunger and everything to do with wondering if Zach was there.

The new normal.

She sat up and pulled her legs under her, rubbing at her eyes. “This is so twisted,” she whispered. Male laughter just then from somewhere in the house jolted her feet back to the ground. “And I’m sixteen again. Shit.”

Thankfully, Hannah’s was the only room with its own bathroom, so Maddi didn’t have to go skipping across the hall, but still she jumped into clothes like a fire drill was coming. Suddenly, being ready for anything at all times was of vital importance.

Pausing in front of the bathroom mirror after brushing her teeth, she froze in mid-dilemma. Normally, when she’d worked a project in the past, her appearance was not a priority. In fact, blending was part of the requirement: hair pulled back, no makeup, nothing alluring or distracting. But now she was in charge. Now—

Now—Zach Chase was going to be out there.

Maddi met her own eyes in the mirror and restrained the urge to hiss.

“So the hell what,” she said. “You aren’t here for him.” She took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before letting it out slowly. “This is your career. Get your shit together.”

Slapping on some powder and mascara, she called a happy middle ground and brushed her hair out, twisting it up into a clip. It was good enough.

It was going to be a dirty, physical day. Wiring a house for a show was a tedious job, involving the whole crew, including her. Which suited her just fine. That was where she came from, the techie world. Where she felt most at home. In an office, sitting in on meetings and pitching to upper management—not so much.

Today would be figuring out the locations of the bulk of the activity, wiring the microphone packs in strategically hidden places, wiring the vehicles and finally the people before doing sound checks. Tomorrow would be cameras and lighting and possibly filming a test run at the table. So much to do, it made her head spin, but she loved this part. The set-up—the transformation from ordinary to film-ready—was where the rush was for her. Nicole got a high on the rough cuts, when the editing turned a huge pile of raw footage into polish and shine, complete with background music and voiceovers. The grueling part was in between. Filming and interviews and timing and scheduling. And then keeping everything on that schedule.

Especially with something like this. This wasn’t like any of their other reality shows, where the scheduling was at their call. All she had control over were the still shots and interviews. The filler in between the action. Everything else was completely at the mercy of the weather and the Chases.

Her first time at the head of the table, and it was already impossible before she even started. Maddi sighed. It was time.

The smell of breakfast had her mouth watering as she entered the family room. Most of the crew was sitting around the big table, happily chowing down bacon and scrambled eggs and biscuits with pepper gravy. Others had wandered out onto the patio with their plates like it was a hotel or a bed-and-breakfast. Maddi made a note to talk with the group later. Maybe get with Rudy since he was the oldest of them and they tended to look to him. Miss Lou was graciously offering her hospitality, and Maddi didn’t want anyone taking advantage.

“Maddi Marie! Get yourself in here and fix you a plate, my girl,” Miss Lou said, coming out of the kitchen with a big bowl of fruit. “Y’all grab you one,” she said to the table as a whole as she set it down. “That’s an order. You need your vitamins.”

“Yes, ma’am,” several of them said in unison, chuckling as they reached for an orange or a banana.

“Miss Lou, you don’t have to do all this,” Maddi said. “Really—”

“Really, I know,” Lou said. “Quit worrying about it, I love this.”

“But—”

“Maddi,” Lou said, stopping her with a hand on her arm. “Do you remember what it was like here when everyone was home?”

She did. Chaotic and crazy and usually involving someone yelling at someone else. And food. All the time, food. It was a wonderful place to grow up.

“Yes,” Maddi conceded.

“Well, I don’t get that anymore,” Lou said. “It’s so damn quiet around here, I can’t stand it.” She squeezed Maddi’s arm. “Let me have a little fun.”

Maddi laughed. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Now go eat.”

“You heard her,” came the voice she’d been simultaneously dreading and looking for. Maddi turned as Zach came out of the kitchen with a biscuit in one hand and two pieces of bacon in the other. “No arguing.”

Damn it, she hated how her body reacted to him
every time
. Surely she’d be getting used to his presence soon, right? Just the sight of him standing there—not posing a particularly striking figure, unshaven, with food in his hands and a sloppy T-shirt—made her suck in a quick breath as her heart double-timed it.

“Get a plate, you heathen,” Lou admonished, thumping him in the ribs on her way back in the kitchen. “You weren’t raised—”

“In a barn, I know,” Zach finished. “I’m just grabbing mine to go. I have some work to do in the shop today.”

Disappointment coursed through Maddi at the news he was leaving. A feeling that made her want to stomp on her own toes.
Leave! Leave! Yes, please leave!
This is what her brain should have been saying, instead of fantasizing about eating the bacon out of his hand.
Shit!
This was how women like Blakely became women like Blakely. Because of men like Zach.

“You okay?” Zach asked, pulling her out of her own head.

“Yeah, why?” she retorted. Maybe a little too harshly.

He shrugged. “You looked pissed off for a second there.”

Maddi pushed her lips into a smile. “I’m good.”

“Okay,” he said, studying her face for a little longer than was comfortable. “I’ll be back for the sound test and stuff,” he said. “Two o’clock okay?”

Maddi nodded and let her eyes start working the room. She was too nervous to eat, and it was a better distraction than looking at Zach.

“That’s fine,” she said, nodding absently.

“Hey,” he said, taking a step closer.

Maddi head-jerked back to him. “What?”

“Relax.”

“I
am
relaxed,” Maddi said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Zach laughed, the warm sound both infuriating her and melting her muscles.

“Yeah, I can see that.”

Maddi blew out a breath and rubbed her arms. “It’s just—there’s a lot riding on this, Zach. And I’ve never run lead.”
And you are standing too close.

“And you’re nervous.”

She scoffed. “Wouldn’t you be?”

Zach held up his hands. “I’m not accusing you, Maddi. We’re just talking here.”

“Weren’t you leaving?” she asked.

Zach chuckled again, his eyes looking happy. Why was she noticing that?
Shit, Maddi, focus.
A sound tech emerged from the kitchen with a fresh plate of biscuits and gravy. Zach plucked it from his hand and placed it in Maddi’s.

“Zach!” Maddi exclaimed, mortified.

“You don’t mind taking care of the boss, do you?” Zach asked the surprised guy Maddi was pretty sure was named Bob.

The-guy-who-might-be-Bob darted a glance at Maddi, probably trying to get a read on the situation. “Not at all,” he said. “I can go get another one.”

“I am so sorry, Bob,” Maddi said, snatching Zach’s bacon from his hand and adding it to her plate just to spite him. And maybe to stop a certain image. “Mr. Chase hasn’t had his medication yet this morning.”

“Oh, good one,” Zach said with a wicked grin.

“It’s Rob,” the tech said with a polite smile and a wink. “Enjoy.”

Maddi closed her eyes and counted backwards. She just had to get through this first day, and things would take on their own momentum. If the day didn’t kill her first.

“Relax,” Zach said again, this time in a whisper way too close to her ear. “Sit. Eat. Fuel your brain.”

Taking the plate from her hands again, Zach stuffed the biscuit in his mouth and grabbed her hand. “Phommow-mmmm.”

She followed him, not that she had a choice. And not that she would have done differently if she had. He had her hand and that’s all she could think about as they went out the back door where three other people were sitting. Placing her plate on the ottoman, he gestured for her to land in the big wicker chair before taking the biscuit from his mouth.

“Y’all don’t mind Maddi joining you, huh?”

“Jesus,” she mumbled under her breath, feeling her face go hot.

“No sir,” said a young guy that barely looked legal age to work at a fast food restaurant, much less a corporation like Infinity.

“There you go,” Zach said. “Eat.”

“Got it,” Maddi said, wanting the patio to swallow her.

He squatted to look her in the eyes. “It’s gonna be fine,” he whispered.

Some of the nerves dissipated as she looked into his eyes, and she chuckled, shaking her head at his craziness.

“Okay.”

He patted her knee and got up, completely oblivious of the little trails of fire his hands kept leaving behind.

“Gentlemen, make sure she eats.” Zach looked back at Maddi and then raised his eyebrows at her plate. “Take a bite.”

“What? You’re gonna watch me?”

“You took my bacon,” he said. “I get to see you eat it.”

Maddi’s throat closed up as somehow that turned dirty again. The way his eyes sparkled at the words told her he went there, too. And as some switch inside her flipped, she complied.

“Okay, then.”

She picked up a piece of bacon, hoping her hands weren’t shaking, and slid it slowly into her mouth, taking a slow exaggerated bite and widening her eyes to make the point. She watched his mouth curve on one side as she chewed slowly and swallowed, licking her lips.

“Happy?” she managed to say, her heart thundering away.

He smiled as he inhaled slowly and looked away. “Two o’clock?”

“See you then.”

And then he was gone. Maddi let go of a breath and looked out at the yard, catching the faces of the men staring at her as she did. The young one’s mouth was held agape.

“What?” she said, feeling her whole body go fifteen shades of embarrassed. “Eat. You heard him. We have a lot to do today.”

The men dove into their food, and she stared down at hers, biting back the urge to laugh. She hadn’t played around like that in a long time, and it made her feel about ten years younger. Bacon would never be the same again.

Zach didn’t think two o’clock would ever get there. And the fact that that bothered him got under his skin more than anything had in a very long time.

All he had to do today was the final sanding job on a bench he was making his mother, smoothing out the rough spots from the first coat of polyurethane and putting the last finish on. It wasn’t a big day. He’d finished up his last paid clients’ pieces four days ago, and had waited to schedule the new requests until he saw how the show was going to play out. He’d rather put off the commitment entirely than not be able to make a deadline, and he wasn’t hurting for money. Those pieces had paid well. Now, if this show would just pan out—they could all do well.

This show that had seemed like a great idea until it came with one Maddi Hayes. Fuck if she wasn’t going to be the death of him. Seeing her in his mother’s house again, living there, breathing there, was harder than he thought it would be.

And the little bacon porn show she put on earlier—Jesus Christ. That was the old Maddi right there. The playful one that always loved messing with him. And mess with him, she did. Watching what she did with her mouth, just to get his goat? He’d had a semi ever since.