Dear Emily (9 page)

She touched her palms to her cheeks.
Yep, she was blushing. Just like when they were younger.

He leaned on the doorjamb with one
hand at his waist. “The valve's on the east side of the house in
case you were wondering.”

Natalie's head jerked in his
direction. “Like I'm supposed to remember directional indicators at
the drop of a hat? There was water spraying at my face.”

She looked down, having forgotten what
she was wearing: Yoga pants, and a white shirt that clung to her
body. Feeling nothing but ready for a wet T-shirt contest, she
raised her chin and crossed her arms over her chest.

Again, the corners of Chase's mouth
tipped up. She dropped her arms to her sides in response. “Would
you please hand me the towel?”

He did, without urgency if she had any
opinion on the matter, and she wrapped it around her
shoulders.

“The faucet?” he asked.

She held her hand out. “It's right
here and not at all attached to the wall where it
belongs.”

He made a valiant effort to suppress
his laughter and failed spectacularly.

“Please stop laughing.” Although she
was forcing back her own laughter. His laugh was contagious that
way. It was a full-body laugh, the way he threw his head back. Hers
wasn't so good. It was the kind of laugh that could turn into
sobbing if she wasn't careful.

“Were you always this serious?” He
took a step toward her and pulled the towel tighter around her
shoulders. “Come on, you think it's a little funny.”

He was so close, and Natalie worked at
remaining unaffected. But he smelled like he was genetically
designed to excite her hormones. If only she could press her face
against his neck and get a sampling of the goods.

“Do I look like I'm laughing, Chase?
The video made it look so fricking easy.”

“It always seems easier in the
video.”

She snorted. “Right, like you need to
watch videos to fix things.”

“You'd be surprised,” he
said.

She sighed and ran a hand over her wet
ponytail. “I wanted to get these repairs done before my shift at
the hospital.”

“I'm sure you were about to finish,
and I interrupted you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I do stuff
like this all the time, and sixty percent of the time it works
out.”

He said nothing and continued stroking
her upper arms.

“Stop that.” She was wet and loving
the heat that was coming off his body, or maybe that was just her
reaction to him. “I can do this on my own, you know?”

“I know you can,” he said. His eyes
were so kind that she felt her heart squeeze. “How about I take a
look and see if I can finish what you started?”

Natalie warred with her inherent
stubbornness. “Don't you have somewhere to be?”

“It's just a faucet, Nat.”

“Yes...just a faucet that I couldn't
fix.”

“That's not what I meant.” He relaxed
his posture.  “I've done this before.”

Natalie nodded and took a step back
from him. “Why are you here again? Ellie isn’t here. You know she’s
out of the country, right?” She removed a leaf from his hair,
something he must have picked up while looking for the
valve.

Chase stopped to look at her. “Yes, I
know where my sister is, thank you very much.”

He moved around in the small bathroom.
“Where's the box the faucet came in?”

Distracted, Natalie stared at his
strong muscles shifting beneath his thin shirt. “It's behind the
door. Wait! Don't close the—”

He did just that.

“Door,” Natalie said, pressing the
heels of her hands to her eyes. This was not happening. She was not
stuck in a bathroom with Chase Hammond. Her shift at the hospital
started in, oh, two hours. Everything remained broken. She was
soaking wet, and did she mention stuck in a bathroom with Chase
Hammond?

“Nat?”

She peeked from behind her hands.
“Yeah, Chase?”

He slid his hands into his pockets and
rocked back on his heels. “Why shouldn't I have closed the
door?”

“Fixing the door lock,” Natalie said,
placing her hands on her hips, “was next on my list of things to
do.”

Chase clicked his tongue. “Right after
fixing the leaky faucet?”

Natalie nodded. “Right after fixing
the leaky faucet.”

Chase tried the door handle. It didn't
open. He closed his eyes, exhaled, and jiggled the knob, a little
harder, but still, nothing.

“Hey, watch it. You're going to break
it.”

He gave her a long look.

“Even more. You're going to break it
even more.”

He turned around in a circle. “What is
it with you and handles?”

“If you're looking for tools, they're
on the other side of the door. All I have here is this
wrench.”

He took the wrench from her, but set
it down on the shelf. “A wrench isn't going to do much
good.”

“I'll call someone,” Natalie said. She
picked her phone up off the shelf just as the phone vibrated,
signaling a text message. “Oh, wait, it's your brother.”

“Which one?”

“Dylan,” Natalie said.

Chase's shoulders relaxed. Dylan would
get them out.

“What?” Chase asked after she'd
texted.

“Nothing,” Natalie said, looking down
at her phone. “I hear you need a place to stay.”

“What's the verdict? Make it worth
your while.” Dear God, was he flirting with her?

At that, Natalie's eyes swept up and
down Chase's body before locking in on his gaze. She looked away,
blushing. “Well,” she said. “I haven’t seen you in ten years. I’m a
little in shock; embarrassed to begin with. Give me a second to
assimilate.”

He winced. “It’s been eight years, and
I’ve looked into every other option.”

“I didn’t say no.”

She didn’t say, “yes” either. “Listen,
I’ll stay with my parents.”

She wrinkled her nose. “That’s not
even a cottage for two, Chase. It’s a blessing your mom isn’t over
five feet tall and doesn’t take up much room. It’s like goldfish in
there.”

“Like goldfish?”

“If you keep them in a small bowl,
they stay small. You put them in a big bowl; they get big.” She
went back to the text messages.

“Why are you embarrassed?” he
asked.

“Because, you know.” She shrugged. “I
broke everything,” she said, sweeping her arm across the
bathroom.

“You’re embarrassed because you’re not
good at plumbing.” He moved to stand behind her and read over her
shoulder as his brother pleaded Chase's case.

Natalie: First sign of a tenant, he
leaves. Now I have a favor.

Dylan: Name it.

Natalie: We're locked in the
bathroom.

Dylan: You and Chase?

Natalie: It's not what you think. He
was helping me with a leaky faucet.

Dylan: Right... A leaky faucet. Be
there in 5.

Natalie returned her attention to her
new tenant. “Dylan is on his way. You can stay here in the rental.
Don't worry about rent.”

His eyes narrowed. “We'll talk about
rent later. Dad is recuperating, this will be a week max, and then
it's back to Japan.”

Chase slid down the wall and sat on
the tiled floor. Natalie mirrored him. He caught sight of her
toenails, painted a cheery, pale pink. “Cute,” he said.

She smiled and searched his face. “You
look tired.”

He paused before settling back against
the wall. “Gee, thanks.”

“Sorry, I just meant—”

He patted the air between them. “I
know what you meant.” He must look bad. He didn't know if it was
the long travel, or if worry over his father was making him look so
ragged. A seventeen-hour flight from Japan to Florida, followed by
a three-hour drive to his hometown of Divine Island would do it,
alright.

“He's better than you'd guess,” she
said. “It makes your mom happy when I visit to check his
vitals.”

Chase's face softened.

“It's no big deal,” Natalie said,
appearing uncomfortable with the look he gave her.  “I'm not
an RN, yet. All I do is check his blood pressure.” She shrugged.
“Your mom could do that.”

Chase shook his head. “It's a big
deal, Nat.” According to his mom and siblings, Natalie was a big
deal. “I'm pretty sure they're one blood pressure monitor away from
naming a wing of the inn after you.”

“The inn doesn’t have ‘wings,’” she
said.

“For you, Nat, they’d build
them.”

Natalie took in a big, shaky breath
and failed at looking relaxed. Well, sweetheart, he was feeling it
too. Turned out eight years and a few thousand miles of distance
didn't solve a damn thing.

“You know...,” he said, cupping the
back of his neck. “I didn't come right away because of
work.”

Natalie shook her head in quick
back-and-forth movements. “I don’t know why you’re telling me
this.”

“Dylan had everything under control,
so I hopped on a plane the minute I could get away.”

Natalie frowned. “Nobody is wondering
about that. Japan is far away, and your dad was out of the hospital
faster than anyone could have predicted.”

Chase nodded. It was typical of her to
accept his excuse without question when it had been fear that held
him back.

“Tell me about these jobs you're
working on,” she said.

“Change of subject?” he
asked.

She shrugged. “Don't say I never threw
you a bone.”

He coughed. “My team bid on a project
to design a skyscraper in Tokyo. We'll win the bid, and then it's
back to Japan for a year.” He leaned his head back until it rested
on the wall. “Dad's health could change my plans,
though.”

“He's great, Chase.”

He ran his hands through his hair,
mussing it up.

She forced a shaky laugh. “God, I feel
like such an idiot. You flew around the world to see your father,
and I locked you in a bathroom.”

“I'm the one that shut the door,
right?”

“Right.” She snapped her finger and
pointed at him. “This is all your fault.”

Chase said, “Don't you have a
management company to do the repairs?”

“No.”

 “
You're handling the
property all on your own?”

She shrugged. “I applied to get it on
the city's historic registry. It's way more work than I
anticipated.”

“Alex is a fucking asshole,” he said,
which summed up his complete estimation of the man. How Chase had
called Alex his best friend was incomprehensible.

Natalie tried at an indifferent smile.
“I married him. So, what does that say about me? How do you know
what happened with Alex?”

There was no room for it in the
bathroom, but Chase stretched his legs out and folded his hands on
his stomach. She watched his every movement, so he watched her
every movement, liking the way she made wild curls in her hair with
her fingers. She always had great hair. It was a mess half the
time, but still, great fucking hair.

“I haven't been on the island, but I
still talk to everyone. They're all obsessed with video
conferencing, and they've come to visit me on jobs.”

“And the best your siblings can come
up with is gossip revolving around my failed marriage?”

His head tilted to one side. “It's not
gossip. And besides, it's either that or I have to hear about
Ellie's boyfriends. I ask about you; they tell me what's going on.
How Alex talked you into buying this property and then left you in
a shitstorm.”

“It's not all that dramatic,” Natalie
said.

He would bet money it was.

“I'll be fine once I finish school and
get a steady tenant.” She leaned her head against the wall and
raised her voice. “If I can ever get a steady tenant.”

Chase rocked his head back and forth.
“You're doing it wrong. You have to stand up with your arms in the
air when you make a plea to the rental gods.”

She gave him a rueful smile. “I would
try anything.”

God, he felt good—happy to be locked
in a bathroom with Natalie, when he should be with his
father.

“I thought you were already a nurse,”
Chase said.

“I am, but I want to be a Registered
Nurse. That way I can supervise and have more responsibility.”
Natalie’s eyes were downcast as she absently picked at the dried
paint on the tiled floor. “Also, it will make my parents happy.
It’s not as good as being a Doctor like my sister-in-law, but my
mother probably won’t frown at me so much anymore.”

“Frown at you?” Chase
asked.

“You know, the whole, we sacrificed
everything for you speech.” She took a deep breath and sighed. “My
turn for a subject change. So, you ask about me?”