It seemed to take a year for my eyes to open and I did not care even a little bit because when they finally did, Chace was smiling a small, warm, beautiful smile at me.

Then he was speaking.

Or, in his Chace way, gently ordering.

“Eat your pizza, baby, so I can make you a sundae.”

What could I say?

Except, “Okay.”

Which was exactly what I said.

Then I did exactly what I was told.

And I did it knowing that it was no skin off my nose to eat the pizza so he could make me a sundae since his sundaes sounded awesome.

But I also did it knowing I’d walk to the ends of the earth hand in hand with Chace Keaton and all he had to do to get me to do it was kiss me deep, smile at me, hold my hand and call me baby.

Chapter Six

Do You Like My Dress?

Six oh three in the morning, the next day

I struggled up from sleep when I heard my house phone ringing. My heavy eyes shifted across the expanse of my piles of pillows to peer groggily at my alarm clock and see it was three after six in the morning. I didn’t have to be to work until nine thirty. Therefore, unless I went to work out before work, I was never up this early and everyone who knew me knew it.

This could mean bad things and, with drowsy trepidation, I grabbed the phone out of its charger, beeped it on, put it to my ear and mustered up a, “’Lo.”

“Mornin’, baby.”

Oh my. It was Chace sounding drowsy too. No, correction. That would be, it was Chace, his deep voice sounding husky, soft, sexy drowsy.

Wow.

“Hey, Chace,” I whispered. “Is everything okay?”

“Just wanted to know what you sounded like when you woke up in the morning.”

Oh.

My.

Even still sleepy, I felt my blood start to fire and my belly dropped which caused a tingle between my legs that also tingled down my thighs.

He went on, “And sounds like I woke you up.”

“Yeah,” I told him, still, for some reason, whispering. “You did. I’m never up this early.”

“Never?”

“Well, never if I’m not working out. But I usually can’t muster up the energy to get out of a warm bed in order to go work out so I turn off the alarm, go back to sleep and go to the gym after work.”

He said nothing.

I kept talking.

“I have good intentions though.”

He again said nothing.

So I called, “Chace?”

His voice was deeper, huskier, softer and way, way sexier when he told me, “Sorry, baby, I’m back at you in a warm bed. What else did you say?”

My vaginal walls contracted and my ni**les started tingling as I whispered in answer, “I forget.”

That was when I heard his deep, husky, soft, way, way sexy chuckle.

God. I was going to have an orgasm just listening to him chuckle!

“You staking out today?” he asked and I wasn’t following. I was concentrating on my body and memorizing the sound of his voice in the morning.

“Pardon?”

“Our kid, honey. After you lay out the stuff, you staking out?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll bring the coffees.”

My heart fluttered.

He’d bring the coffees.

This meant I’d see him again. And soon.

“Eight thirty?” he continued.

“Sounds good,” I replied in a vast understatement.

“See you soon, darlin’.”

“Soon, Chace.”

I listened to him disconnect. Then I put the phone back. After that, I smiled at my pillow. It was then my body caught my attention again and there was nothing for it. I reached to the drawer of the nightstand. As I was doing this, it occurred to me that I might have had the same effect on Chace as he had on me. It also occurred to me that he might do much what I intended to do because of it.

This meant when I pulled out my vibrator, my self-induced orgasm was off the charts.

The best.

By far.

After I was done, I put my toy away, stretched languorously and smiled again as I snuggled into my pillows.

It was early. I was awake. I had time.

I could relive the night before.

So I did. Happily.

After we got deep during pizza, Chace led us firmly out of deep. The good news was, after our conversation there wasn’t any residual heaviness underlying the evening. The other good news was, for the rest of the night, neither of us had a problem talking.

This, I had to admit, was mostly due to Chace guiding the evening. He asked more about my family. He asked about my schooling. He asked about my time in Denver and the grueling schedule I had, going back to Denver on the weekends to do my Master’s coursework while working at the library in Carnal. And he taught me how to make chocolate peanut butter sundaes which were exactly all their name cracked them up to be.

After that, with his arm light around my waist, he perused my shelves, my DVDs, my CDs, my books and the rest. He teased me about my chakram in a sweet way that wasn’t mean at all. It made me feel warm all over not to mention he made it clear he thought my geekiness was cute. He laughed when I cracked a joke. He told me when we watched TV he got to pick (suffice it to say, I was not wrong about Southland). He asked what “frak” meant and I explained it was how they said the f-word on Battlestar Gallactica which made him roar with laughter. The best part about that was I got to watch.

He also showed me what he got the boy. Deli turkey and swiss that he put in one of those disposable but reusable plastic storage tubs. Three bottles of different flavored energy drink. A box of Lucky Charms and one of Golden Grahams. More milk. Grapes washed and in another tub. A bag of washed, prepared baby carrots. Six different kinds of candy bars. A pack of paper plates, another of paper bowls. A set of camp cutlery. And a really nice Swiss army knife. It was thoughtful and generous and as we went through it, Ella Mae started singing to me again.

After that, we sat on my couch, Chace arranging us so we were sitting but also (yum!) cuddling and he told me more about his Mom. It was clear he loved her. He didn’t lie when he said they were tight because the things he said made it clear she loved him too. The only damper on the evening (though I didn’t expose I thought this, I just listened and smiled) was that it also sounded like she was mentally unstable. Strangely, Chace didn’t dance around it and the matter-of-fact way he described it made it sound disturbingly normal. Then again, maybe it wasn’t strange seeing as, for him, clearly since he could remember, it was a fact of life.

But I had to admit, it disturbed me. A father who was too hard on him, not a good role model when he was young and more not one when he was older who he detested and a Mom who wasn’t just flighty and sensitive but, perhaps, mentally ill didn’t sound good.