“Listen, I don’t want to ditch you, but I’m not putting up with that embarrassment. That girl said I did a fuck and run. You know it’s been a rough few weeks for me already.”
“I know, which is why you can’t just run away from Chase again. Why not hang out with him and see what happens?”
Chase stood a few feet away watching us. I assumed he was deciding whether to intervene.
“Why not? He’s just in town for this show, right? What good is going to come from putting myself through it?” I wrapped my arms around myself.
“Putting yourself through it?” She looked up at Chase and then back at me. “You really like him. You regretted running off. That’s why this is hard for you. You think you’re going to get hurt. That changes things.”
I sighed. “Why does it change anything?”
“It’s even more important you don’t leave.” She turned around. “Hey, Chase. Cara’s fine. She just wanted to make sure I was really okay with hanging out tonight.”
I groaned. Did Jade really think he was going to believe a word she said?
“Nice.” He jumped down. “How would you like to get something to eat?”
“Just us?” I asked. Looking at Jade out of the corner of my eye.
“Jade is welcome to join us. I just thought I’d spare you from dealing with my bandmates right now.”
I noticed Jade eyeing the stage. As frustrating as she was being, she was trying to help me. I might as well help her.
“Why don’t you ask Len to come?”
Chase eyed me skeptically, like he was trying to figure out whether I was into his brother, until he noticed Jade’s face light up. “Oh. Gotcha. Be right back.” He headed back to the stage. He turned around at the last second. “You’ll still be here in a minute when I get back?”
Jade waved him off. “I promise she’ll be here.” She waited until he disappeared to turn to me. “Thanks.”
“Not a problem. At least one of us should have fun tonight.”
“You’ll have fun tonight.” She nudged me. “If you liked him enough to sleep with him, in theory you should enjoy an actual date with him.”
“This isn’t a date.”
“The guy asked you to go and get food. You’ve already had sex. It’s a date.”
Chapter Four
“All right, ready to hang out with my favorite sorority girls.” Len put an arm around each of us. That lasted all of two seconds before Chase took my hand and tugged me away. I couldn’t deny the feeling of warmth that came over me when Chase held my hand.
We walked away from the steps into the mostly empty main venue. A few groups of fans still stood around. I got the feeling they were hoping for a glimpse of the band.
“So, where to?” I tried to bite back the smile that wanted to come out as a group of girls stared at us with mouths agape.
“Do you guys need to get a car or anything?” Chase asked.
“No, we cabbed it.” I was grateful not to have to worry about moving my car. I was nervous enough as is.
“All right. Let’s walk down to King Street then.”
“Are you from here?” I asked Chase. I didn’t expect the guys to know Charleston at all.
Chase adjusted our hands. “No, but our older brother lives here. That’s why we planned to spend the night in town before heading on to Charlotte. Sometimes it’s nice to schedule in a decent night’s sleep every once in a while.”
“You guys have another brother? How did I not know that?” Jade was animated now. At least she had her confidence back.
Len looked at her. “Riley tends to stay away from us, unless of course we’re in town. Then he puts us up at his place because he has no choice.”
“Are you in town often?” As soon as I asked the words, I regretted them. I probably sounded like I wanted him to be, which would be bad. I was supposed to be the one who didn’t even want to see him again.
“Every few months we come through,” Chase answered. “Maybe more if I want to be though.”
“Oh. Cool.” More if he wanted to be? What did that mean?