Under the Lights (12 page)

He snorted, reaching for her hand. “It's not
that
bad.”

“Gretchen's grandmother told Jen, Gretchen and me that you bought a box of condoms at the drugstore, so I guess I don't need to ask if you have protection.”

He froze, his eyes wide. “You're kidding. Her
grandmother
? And she told all of you?”

“Never underestimate the small-town grapevine. She also warned me you were up to no good.”

Taking her hand, he pulled her to her feet. “Considering I haven't seen her since high school, she's remarkably correct on both counts. I bought a box of condoms, put a couple in my pocket and now I'm up to no good. So what are you going to do about it, Officer McDonnell?”

“I'm not going to handcuff you, Sanders.”

He pulled her hard up against his body, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. “How about a little mutual frisking?”

“The cheesy cop innuendoes might have gotten you out of a ticket—and they didn't even do that, technically—but
they're not going to get you in my pants, as inviting as these pants might be.”

“Oh, I think sweatpants are
very
sexy.” He slid his hand just under the waistband at her back. “I'm a fan of elastic.”

Her skin heated under his touch, and she pulled up on the bottom of his T-shirt so she could return the favor. His ab muscles tightened when her palms skimmed over them, and he brushed his mouth over hers. Kelly caught his bottom lip between her teeth and chuckled when he moaned.

Then he kissed her, his tongue dancing over hers until she relaxed against his body. Usually she didn't have a lot of patience for the act, but Chase kissed with just the right blend of softness and hunger, and she thought she could happily spend hours just tasting his lips.

His hands were under her sweatshirt, caressing her back, and she could feel the rough edges of his calluses. He was a man who worked with his hands, and the strength and hardness in them felt good.

His mouth left hers and she would have mourned the loss of his kisses, but he nipped at the side of her jaw before moving to her neck. Her sweatshirt was bunching up under her arms, so she grabbed the hem and started tugging it up. Chase backed off enough that she could take it off, and then his mouth was on her breast.

He tugged at her nipple and she hissed. “Do you like that?”

She raked her nails up his back in response, dragging his T-shirt along. He took it from her, yanking it over his head so abruptly, she expected to hear tearing fabric. He flung it, and then turned his attention back to her breasts. First one and then the other was teased by his tongue until she couldn't take it anymore.

Grabbing a fistful of his hair, she dragged his face back to hers so she could kiss him again. His hands slid under the waist of her sweatpants, cupping her ass. When he pushed down, the loose elastic slid over her hips, and he kept pushing until she stepped out of them.

His kisses grew more demanding as he ran his thumbs over her nipples. She touched as much of him as she could reach, from his hair to his back and chest and down over his abdominal muscles.

It took a moment for Kelly to realize he'd slowly been backing her up, and she sucked in a breath when her back hit the wall and she realized his intention. “Chase?”

He grinned and pulled a condom wrapper out of his pocket before shoving his shorts and boxer briefs down so he could step out of them. “What?”

She'd been about to point out she had a bedroom with a perfectly good bed in it, but she changed her mind just in time. She could give him a tour of her perfectly good bed later. “Hurry up.”

She heard the crinkle of the condom wrapper and seconds later, his hands and mouth were on her again. Hungrier this time. More demanding.

Moaning, she threw back her head and bared her neck for his mouth. When she trailed her fingertips across his hips to the start of his lower back, the muscles twitched under her touch and made her smile. “Ticklish spot?”

“I didn't think so, but you have those fingernails and—” She ran them over the same spot, and his whole body jerked. “Okay, enough.”

As if guessing it would take more than a stern voice to dissuade her from amusing herself, he grabbed her wrists
and pinned them against the wall over her head. Heat flooded through her, but she didn't resist.

After a few more kisses, his thigh pressed between hers, the amusement was gone and all she wanted was for him to be inside her. It had been longer than she cared to admit since she'd had an orgasm with a man present, and she wanted one now.

Finally, he released her wrists and draped her hands over his shoulders. Then he grinned as his hands began sliding down her back to the backs of her thighs. Guessing his intention, she tightened her grip just in time for him to hoist her up and brace her against the wall.

“I've been thinking about this since the night I kissed you.” His voice was rough, and she knew he wanted this first orgasm to come as hard and as fast as she did.

When he used the wall to hold her so he could reach between their bodies, she almost moaned in anticipation. And then he was sliding into her, slowly, as she released the breath she'd been holding.

He was patient, moving his hips slowly to give her body time to adjust, and she ran her hand up the back of his neck into his hair. When she curled her fingers, tugging a little, he groaned. Then he began to move in earnest, every thrust a little deeper, and she gripped his shoulders.

The angle was just right and, as he rocked his hips, she urged him on with her fingernails biting into his skin and his name on her lips. Faster and harder he drove into her, her shoulder blades pressed against the wall, until her muscles tightened and the orgasm hit. She raked him with her nails, arching her back until he had to slide his hands under her to hold her up.

As the tremors eased, she ran her hands over his shoulders and forearms, loving the feel of those muscles on his body. “Oh, yes.”

Chase groaned as he found his own release, and she tightened her fingers in his hair again as he thrust into her over and over until it had passed. Then he kissed her hard, their ragged breaths mingling between them.

After a long moment, he reached between them to hold the condom while sliding free of her body, then slid to his knees, lowering her along with him, before rolling onto his back. Being stretched out on top of his body was pretty comfortable, and she was content to rest her head on his chest and listen to his heartbeat.

Still breathing a little hard, he stroked her back. “When I can walk again, or at least crawl, you can show me that perfectly good bed of yours.”

She turned her head to laugh into his shoulder. “Definitely. But not yet. I don't know if I can get up.”

“I hate to admit this, but it can't be too long. I remember now why I don't lie around on linoleum very often.”

“Since we're doing confessions, there was a second there when I was afraid your knees would give out.”

“Trust me, so was I.”

—

A
n hour later, Chase would have given everything he owned—which admittedly wasn't much, but his truck
was
fairly new—to stay in Kelly's perfectly good bed and keep holding her until they fell asleep. It probably wouldn't take very long.

She was already in that lazy state of sliding in and out
of sleep, and he probably should have gotten up and left a few minutes earlier. The heavier her head got on his arm and the softer her breathing grew, the more he wanted to wake up next to her in the morning.

They'd already used the second condom, but there were ways around that. Some very fun ways, actually, that he'd like to explore with her in the future, whether they had condoms or not. But it had been a long day in the hot sun, capped off for her by repeated immersion in icy water, followed by a hot shower and several orgasms. It was no wonder she was almost asleep.

He was growing increasingly drowsy himself, and he forced himself to slide his arm free. She made a moaning sound that would have turned him on again were he not exhausted, and burrowed deeper under the light blanket. But when he climbed off the bed and the mattress shifted, she rolled to face him, her eyes open.

“You can stay.”

“Tempting.”

“Because you want more or because you're too tired to walk?”

He laughed and slapped her blanket-covered ass. “I'm not answering that. But maybe a little of both.”

“I'll be honest. I'm not really up on the rules of casual, friendly sex, but it's really okay if you want to stay.”

He frowned and clicked on the small lamp next to her armchair. “I might have to if I can't find my clothes.”

“They're in the kitchen.”

“Damn, that's right. Be right back.” He went into the kitchen and pulled his clothes on. Then he gathered hers to take into her bedroom.

After setting them on the chair, he knelt on the side of the bed to give her a kiss good-bye. She had almost nodded off again, and she smiled drowsily. “You're stubborn.”

“You realize I have to go sneak into Coach's house now, right?”

She waved a hand. “I'm an adult.”

He caught the hand in his and kissed her palm. “Yes, you are very much an adult. But since I'm the one sleeping under their roof, in your childhood room no less, and trying to remember where the squeaky floorboards are, I'm not sure I am.”

“You are.” Her eyelids slid closed, and he knew she was losing the battle to stay awake.

“Do you need your alarm set for the morning?”

“It already is,” she muttered.

He kissed her cheek and turned off lights as he walked through her apartment. He made sure the top door locked behind him, and then did the same for the street-level door, hoping like hell he hadn't forgotten anything.

Standing in the dark, chilly air, he took a deep breath. It had been a damn fine evening, and now he could only hope he made it back to Eagles Lane and into Kelly's old bedroom without attracting attention. Since there weren't any taxi services, he started walking.

He wasn't sure whether it counted as a walk of shame if he hadn't actually slept and put on the same clothes but, all the same, it wasn't a walk he'd expected to be making back in Stewart Mills.

C
hase spent some time silently lecturing himself in the mirror before heading downstairs to face the McDonnells. It was kind of important he not look like a man who'd had amazing sex the night before, but it would take some effort to hide it.

The kitchen was empty when he finally went down, so he poured himself a cup of coffee. He could hear movement and knew somebody was in the house. After plucking a spoon from the dish drainer, he added sugar and grabbed the milk from the fridge.

“Good morning, Chase,” Mrs. McDonnell said when she walked in and saw him at the counter.

“Good morning. I'm sorry I came in a little late last night,” he said, maybe taking a little too long to stir his coffee so he had a reason not to look up. “I tried to be quiet,
but I ran into an old friend and started catching up and time got away from us.”

It wasn't the truth, but it wasn't exactly a lie, either, which he wanted to avoid if at all possible. Maybe it was a stretch to call Kelly an old friend, and he didn't want to admit what they'd been catching up on, but time had definitely gotten away from them.

Was it his imagination or was Mrs. McDonnell's smile a little tight this morning? “I told you, we're pretty sound sleepers.”

“Where's Coach?”

“He went out on an emergency call. I think the only thing worse than Sunday morning calls are holiday calls.”

“I would have gone with him if I'd known. I could have given him a hand.”

She shrugged. “Would you like some breakfast?”

He was starving, but he had too much guilt going on this morning where she was concerned to ask her to cook for him, too. “I'm heading to O'Rourke's, actually, but thank you.”

“Give them my best.” She took her grocery list pad and a pen and opened the pantry door.

Chase drank the coffee as quickly as he could and got out of there. He knew it was probably his imagination—or guilty conscience, maybe—but Mrs. McDonnell didn't seem as warm as usual. If knowing he'd been with Kelly was at the root of it, he dreaded what Coach's reaction would be.

Once he hit the front porch, he sent texts to the guys, letting them know he was buying breakfast if anybody wanted in, but only Alex and Sam were free. Since they were farther away and he didn't want to go back into the house, Chase killed some time by walking to the restaurant.

Because he had to stop and talk to what seemed like a million people, the guys already had a table when he arrived. He slid into the booth next to Alex, since Sam was wider, and gratefully accepted a full coffee mug from their server.

He looked across the table at Sam, who looked tired as hell. “You look like shit.”

“Good morning.”

“Yeah, good morning. You look like shit.”

Sam shrugged. “Didn't get a lot of sleep last night.”

Unlike Chase, who'd slept like a rock once he'd left Kelly's apartment and snuck into Coach's house. “Maybe we'll get lucky and she'll accidentally leave the coffeepot on the table.”

Over breakfast, Alex told them stories about some of the places he'd traveled for work. Being a freelance photojournalist, his work varied, and sometimes he was in a quiet town in Italy, capturing the architecture, and sometimes he was in the middle of a violent coup. It sounded like a great life to Chase, except for the fact that he refused to fly. It would take a long damn time to get to the Middle East without a plane.

He kept the conversation going as long as he could, but both guys had made commitments for the day with their host players. Since Chase had a host coach instead of a host player, he made the walk back to the house, hoping Mrs. McDonnell would have something for him to do.

Coach was sitting in a rocker on the front porch when Chase walked up the steps, and the sight of him formed a knot in his stomach so tight he wished he hadn't eaten a huge breakfast. “Morning, Coach.”

“Morning. Have a good breakfast?”

“Yes, sir.” The man was giving him nothing as far as a possible emotional response. “Cassandra doesn't serve up quite as good a breakfast as Mrs. McDonnell, but it's not half bad.”

Coach smiled and the knot in Chase's gut loosened a little. “You know, you're a grown man now, and she's said she doesn't mind if you call her Helen.”

“I appreciate that, but it doesn't feel right.”

“That's what I figured you'd say. You all had your share of troubles, but you were all good boys at heart.”

Guilt reared its ugly head again, but Chase hid it behind a smile. “There were times you were the only person who seemed to believe that.”

“It might have felt that way, but I wasn't the only one. And it makes me proud none of you ever disappointed me.”

Chase wasn't sure if he was simply reminiscing or if Coach was trying to give him some kind of message, so he just nodded and kept his mouth shut. He figured if Coach knew where Chase had been last night and was mad about it, he'd have let him know by now.

Hell, maybe Coach would even be happy about it. Chase had always been close to him, so maybe the older man was thinking about him as a potential son-in-law. One who was good at heart and had never disappointed him.

But Chase wasn't looking to be anybody's son-in-law anytime soon. And Kelly wouldn't have him if he were. It had been a no-strings bit of fun—maybe even a one-night thing, though he hoped not—and that was it.

He was pretty sure if Coach knew the truth of what was going on, he would be pretty disappointed in Chase, after all.

—

B
ecause she didn't have a family at home, which made one day more or less like any other, Kelly often worked Sundays. She didn't mind. They were slow days, with most of them spent monitoring the flow of traffic heading south through the town as the tourists went home.

This particular Sunday she would have liked to spend in her bed, basking in the glow of great sex. Instead, she was driving around, trying not to dwell on whether Chase would call her or if she should call him or if there should be any phone call at all. Since she'd never done the casual-fling thing before, she wasn't really sure what the rules were.

The only thing she knew for sure was that she wanted to be alone with him again, and sooner rather than later. They didn't have a lot of time.

She sat on the side of the road into town for a while, watching the noses of vehicles dive as drivers saw her cruiser and hit their brakes. None of them were speeding enough to merit banging a U-turn and pulling anybody over, but she liked slowing the flow of traffic before it hit the main street of Stewart Mills.

When the dispatcher called, she sighed and knew her peaceful morning was probably over. “Go ahead.”

“Officer Clark responded to a shoplifting call at the gas station. He has a twelve-year-old female in custody and is requesting a female officer on scene. So, that would be you.”

“ID?”

“It's Emily Jenkins.”

Her heart sank. “Oh, damn. Tell him I'm on my way.”

Emily's mom had been a friend of Kelly's, and they'd lost her two years ago to cancer. Emily seemed to be doing okay, but shoplifting was so out of character for her that Kelly wondered what could have gone wrong.

When she pulled into the gas station, she saw Emily sitting in the back of Dylan's marked sedan, her head bowed and shoulders shaking. Dylan was leaning on the outside of the car, and he gave a shrug of his shoulders when Kelly looked his way.

She decided to start inside so she could get the full story before she talked to Emily. Janie Vestal was behind the counter, and it occurred to Kelly that the woman had been Chase's girlfriend back in high school. Even though it was stupid, she felt awkward all of a sudden and almost forgot why she was there for a second.

Then she took a deep breath and stepped up to the counter. “Hey, Janie. What's going on?”

“I caught her shoplifting feminine hygiene products,” she said, almost in a whisper even though the store was empty. “You know, pads.”

Oh, the poor child. “Is this the first time you've caught her shoplifting?”

“It is. I called the owner. It's hard, Kelly. I mean, my heart breaks for the child, but with the economy the way it is, we can't be seen as an easy target. If we look the other way when a kid going through a tough time steals from us, we'll be having tough times, too.”

“I understand, and I agree. What about pressing charges?”

Janie shook her head. “She's only twelve, and it's not like it was cigarettes or beer or something. The poor girl's having
her period and it might even be her first. But we need you to make sure she understands she can't do it again.”

“I will.” Kelly rubbed the spot between her eyebrows. “You can tell your boss I'm going to speak to her father and that I appreciate being able to handle it. Trying to scare the kids with jail only does more harm than good.”

“I know you care about the kids. All this work you're doing for the football team is amazing.” Janie cocked her head sideways. “I couldn't believe it when Chase Sanders walked in the other day. I dated him in high school and thought we'd get married someday. I heard his life's a wreck, though, so I sure dodged a bullet there, huh?”

Kelly nodded and smiled, as if she agreed, but she had to fight an urge to defend Chase. So what if he'd fallen on hard times not all entirely of his own making? A woman who'd just had to call the police on a little girl who didn't have money to buy pads for her period should probably be a little more sympathetic.

“I'm going to go see to Emily now.” She saw the package of feminine pads on the end of the counter and slid it over to the register as she pulled out her wallet. “I'll pay for these.”

After Janie put the package in a paper bag, Kelly walked outside and took a deep breath. Sometimes she wondered what it would be like to be a police officer in a big city. More dangerous, of course, but maybe more impersonal, too. But she supposed community was community no matter the size, and it would always be personal on some level.

“I'm going to take her home,” she told Dylan, who looked relieved. “I'll talk to her dad and hopefully that'll be the end of it.”

“I wasn't sure what the story was because Emily just kept crying, and then Janie got all choked up and said it was a female issue. I figured with you being a woman and being a friend of her mom, it would be easier for everybody if you came.”

“Absolutely.” She opened the back door of the sedan. “Come on, honey. I'm going to take you home.”

Emily seemed to calm down once she was riding shotgun with Kelly, but she sniffled a little when she handed her the paper bag. “I'm sorry I tried to steal them.”

“You got lucky, Em. The man who owns the gas station is a nice guy and Janie went to bat for you, but you can't try to steal from them again or it'll be bad.”

“I know. But they're expensive, and Dad's still paying for Mom's medical stuff even though she's not here anymore and I didn't want to ask him for money.”

“You'll need these every month, honey, and they're a lot cheaper if you buy them at the big grocery store. He'll just put them on the list and it won't be a big deal.”

“It's embarrassing,” she mumbled.

Kelly tried to imagine having to go to Coach the first time she'd had her period, but her mind didn't even want to go there. She'd gone to her mom and that had been that. But Emily didn't have a mom. “As you get older, there are going to be things you need to talk to your dad about, honey. And even if you or he or both feels a little uncomfortable, you still need to talk to him. Or at least to somebody. Go to Miss Cooper. Or to me.”

“I don't like telling people we don't have a lot of money,” Emily said, her mouth setting in a stubborn line.

“Your family's not the only one going through hard times. Trust me. But stealing is not the answer.”

“I won't do it again. I promise.”

Talking to Emily's dad was as awkward as she'd imagined. Between hearing the news his daughter had shoplifted and learning she was transitioning into young womanhood, he was so flustered he forgot to be mad. After pulling him aside to give him a crash course on how to deal with this new chapter of his daughter's life, Kelly got back in her cruiser with a sigh of relief.

She had to go back to the gas station to fill her tank, and she was thankful the department had cards to swipe at the pump so she didn't have to go inside. And there were other customers, so Janie couldn't do more than give her a quick wave through the window.

She wondered who had been telling tales about Chase's life, but she also thought about Janie's
dodged a bullet
sentiment. It made Kelly wonder how she would have coped if her husband had lost all of their money and his business and their home. Probably not well, because she tended to be very conservative when it came to money and wouldn't do well in financial chaos.

But she already knew Chase wasn't marriage material for her, and she didn't care. She didn't want to marry him. She just wanted him to call her. Or text her.

She got back in her cruiser and, after a glance at her silent phone, went back out on patrol.

—

C
hase sat in the back of the high school cafeteria, which had been chosen for its seating, trying to pay attention to the television that had been wheeled in and hooked up to somebody's laptop. They were all there—the alumni, the
football team and a few of the dads and staff members—watching video of the Eagles' previous season.

They were good, he thought. Maybe not great, but they were a solid team, and he recognized some of Coach McDonnell's personal touches in their training. They were positive without being cocky. They communicated with each other rather than constantly looking to the coaching staff as go-betweens. No play was made by one single player, so they celebrated together and they also shared fault together. Whether they ever got to play for a championship or not, the things they learned from Coach and on the field would stay with them forever.