Chasing Trouble (Texas Trouble) (17 page)

Her mouth opened
and shut a couple of times then she told him, "I'll be at the office on Monday at nine sharp.  Is there anything else you need, because that's all I'm going to discuss."  He nodded sharply then turned his back on them and jogged back to the helicopter giving his pilot a thumbs up as he climbed inside. 

H
e fastened his seatbelt and put on his headphones, then made the mistake of glancing back at the field.  Beau Bowman led Jenny back toward the house with his arm around her hips.  A roar seesawed in Chase's chest, but he managed to hold it back as the bird lifted up into the air. 

Stubborn hard-headed women, he could live his life without ever getting involved with another one...and he knew one thing for sure,
he was done chasing this one.

When the chopper landed at the airfield near the office, he got out and thanked the pilot then headed for his truck.  What Chase needed right now was a good drunk.  He hadn't done that in years.  Another woman who was destined to be his friend...someone he respected, or had respected, and thought he could connect with on more than a sexual level. 

Jenny Anderson was so stubborn she could drive a preacher to drink.  Why she thought what she did of him didn't make a damned bit of sense.  If she was that damned insecure and jealous he didn't need her anyway.

With determined steps, he made his way to his truck and got inside, then cranked it.  He was going to the lake house, he needed a break to think...or not think.  His boat was back from the fiberglass shop, and the shop guy assured him she was as good as new.  Maybe with the lake air and the wind in his face when he raced the boat across the lake, he could forget about the mess he'd made of his life lately. 

Women were nothing but trouble, he thought, and pressed his foot harder on the accelerator.
 

He drove straight through, without stopping anywhere, except at the gas station one time, so he made it to
Bowie in a little over four hours.  He breathed a sigh of relief when he pulled into the driveway of the lake house and saw the She Devil floating happily by the dock.  She was the only woman he needed...she never let him down.  It was nearly midnight, so he'd have to wait to take her out though, because tonight, he wanted his other good friend more...Jack Daniels.

Chase walked down the steep hill to the dock and stripped down to his underwear at the edge of the dock.  He was too covered in grime to go inside the house yet.  He'd get most of it off with a swim, then he'd go finish the job in the shower.
 

Wolf whistles
, cat calls and then giggles sounded from the house next door, the one owned by Sheriff Cole Jackson.  He turned to look that way, shading his eyes from the bright dock lights.  Karlie, Katie, Sabrina, and Jess all stood at the railing waving at him and grinning widely. 

All four
of the beautiful women were bikini-clad and looking hot as hell, but none of them did a damned thing for him.  Only one woman did that these days, and she had made it clear she wasn't interested.

Emotion surged up into his chest then he turned away from them and took off running down the dock.  Maybe he could swim this shit out of his system, he thought then dove off the end of the dock into the water.
  His arms sliced through the water and it felt wonderful.  The mud loosened up and more of it drifted off of his body with each stroke he made.  Chase dove deep then ran his hands through his hair breaking up the mud caked there.  With a push on the bottom, he headed back to the surface.  When his head broke through the top of the water he heard the hum of a small motor boat nearby and looked around to find the source.

Coming toward him was the motor boat that stayed moored at the house next door and in it were the four, obviously drunk women
who he called friends.  When they got close, they killed the motor and called out to him.

Chase groaned and took off swimming away from them.  The last thing he needed right now was conversation with four drunk women.  He needed some peace to lick his wounds and get his head right.

"C'mon Chase, you good looking devil!  Was'samattah? You don't like us anymore?" a voice he recognized as Karlie's yelled across the lake.

He kept swimming and tried to tune out the other women who added their own comments.  His muscles warmed up then he hit his stride and stroked along the lakeshore, until he was finally out of calling distance.  Some of the tension in his body left and he relaxed in the water.

An hour later, he swam back to the dock then pulled himself up on the wooden pier and laid back in an exhausted heap.  Maybe he'd overdone it, he thought.  One thing was for sure, he'd overestimated the power of exercise.  Thoughts of Jenny swirled around in his brain even more than they had on the drive to Bowie.  It looked like he needed that liquor after all, so he pushed up to his feet to go find it.

He left his mud covered clothes on the ground where he'd taken them off and walked up to the back deck of the house in his
wet underwear.  Going straight inside the sliders he headed to the liquor cabinet and pulled out a glass and the fifth of Jack he kept for emergencies.  This situation definitely fit that description.  Chase needed some relief, and some sleep.

Carrying the bottle and glass out to the back deck, he plopped down in a chaise and opened the bottle.  He looked at the glass then put it on the ground beside the chair and took a long hard swig directly from the bottle.  The alcohol burned a fiery path down his throat and he grimaced
.  He laid back and waited for it to numb him, warm up the coldness in his chest.

It took half the bottle for that to happen, and by the time his system caught up with how much he drank, Chase was truly drunk.  He took a few more swigs then set the bottle down beside the glass, and finally found some peaceful sleep.

Footsteps on the stairs to his deck woke him up and Chase opened his eyes then immediately closed them as the sun caused a sharp pain to pierce his skull.  He groaned and his stomach heaved reminding him why he didn't drink often.

He shaded his eyes and saw
Katie Tucker step up onto the last stair then stand there staring at him with her hands on her hips.  He huffed out a breath and closed his eyes. 

He worked up some saliva in his cottony mouth, then asked, "What do you want, Katie?"  His voice was hoarse and gravelly.

"Good morning to you too, sunshine," she said then walked over to him.  "I was worried about you, so I decided to come check and see what was wrong," she said then plopped down on the chaise next to him.

"Nothing, I just want to be alone," he told her.

"Chase, you are a people person...last night when you didn't even say hello, I knew something was going on.  Now spill it!" she told him and slapped him on the chest. 

Chase flinched.  "Just go away, Katie, I don't want to talk about it...I've got a hangover if you haven't noticed."

"Oh, I noticed, darlin'.  You being in your underwear on your back deck in broad daylight with that empty bottle beside you, pretty much tells the tale.  You don't drink either, so something bad must've happened," she surmised, then pleaded in a low concerned tone, "C'mon, sugar...tell me what's wrong...please."

When she put a hand in the middle of his chest, Chase sucked in a breath to stop the emotion
clogging his throat from coming out in a wail. 

"Just go, Katie," he begged, then turned over on his side giving her his back.  That wasn't such a good idea he discovered when his stomach pitched and he moaned then quickly sat up and ran inside.

A few minutes later he exited the bathroom, and staggered to the living room.  Katie was sitting on the sofa waiting for him.  He plopped down beside her.  "You aren't going away, are you?" he asked morosely and leaned his head back against the sofa.

"Nope," she said and crossed her arms over her chest.

"What'll it take to make you leave?" he asked.

"Tell me what's wrong with you...we're friends and I want to help you like you helped me.  That's what friends do," she informed him.

"You can't shoot me instead?  A friend would do that too," he begged glancing over at her.

"No, sir...you're gonna tell me what's wrong, no matter how much it hurts," Katie told him firmly.

"I need coffee...this will take a while," he said then pushed up off of the sofa.  She got up too then shoved him back down.

"You sit, I'll make the coffee."

Chase and Katie talked for an hour and she dragged every bit of the story out of him.  He told her about Jenny, about Beau Bowman, about the job he hired Jenny to do and how worried he was she wasn't going to show up, and finally he told her what Jenny thought of him, and how that hurt him. 

When he finished, Katie calmly collected their coffee cups then brought them to the kitchen and rinsed them out. 
It wasn't until she walked back into the living and around the sofa, that he saw how un-calm she really was.  Her bright blue eyes glittered with anger and her full lips were pinched.  Her red hair was almost glowing. 

"Ah, hell no..." she said, then asked, "You say this woman is at Beau's daddy's ranch?  And Beau's there too?"

"Yeah, I saw them last night before I came out here," he told her.

"And Jazzie doesn't know?" she asked.

"Not to my knowledge," he replied, thanking God the coffee had kicked in and his brain fog had cleared.

"You stay here and relax...we'll take care of it," Katie told him then walked purposefully to the sliding glass door and flung it open then stalked outside.

Chase got up to follow her, but the coffee rolled around in his stomach and he ran for the bathroom, hoping those hotheaded women weren't going to go over there to cause a stink.

***

  Jenny was coming out of the barn with a saddle over her shoulder.  It needed cleaning and she was going to do that sitting on the back porch sipping a glass of sweet tea.  It was hot out today and she was a sweaty mess.  Beau had left earlier this morning, and promised her he'd go talk to Jazzie.  He was a helluva lot more torn up over Jazzie Ramos than he'd ever been over Jenny leaving.  That told her right there that leaving when she had was the right decision.  Jenny now realized that she and Beau had been more friends than lovers. 

Chase was another story.
..worrying about him was driving her crazy.  She couldn't stop herself from wondering if he was okay.  Last night he'd looked and sounded hurt and pissed off, and she wanted to talk to him, but she knew if she had overruled Beau and talked to him alone, she would cave in.  Beau had been a buffer between them, and she was thankful.

A
huge pickup truck came hauling ass down the driveway, and the cattle darted away from the fence.  Jenny shaded her eyes to try and see who it was, but didn't recognize the truck.  Dropping the saddle on the porch, she walked around to the front of the house. 

When she reached the front steps, the doors of the truck opened and two women slid out of either side.  They converged at the front of the truck then walked toward her in formation.

Jenny didn't know any of them and the hair on the back of her neck stood up, so she stepped up onto the porch to wait for them to reach her.  She was the only one at the ranch right now other than the hands and they were out in the pastures, so whatever trouble had found her she'd have to meet alone.  As they walked toward her, she scanned each woman's face and saw thunderclouds.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"Jenny Anderson?" one of the identical twins
in the group said angrily then stopped one step ahead of the others.

She lifted her chin and replied, "Who's asking?"

"I'm Katie Tucker and I want to kick your ass," she announced then threw a thumb over her shoulder and said, "And this is my army...they feel the same way."

"
I don't know any of you, what the hell could you want with me?" Jenny asked and took a discreet step closer to the door.  If she could get inside, she could lock it, then find the shotgun that Ben kept in the foyer.  When she lived here, Beau had made sure she knew how to fire it and a handgun.

"We want some answers
as to why you hurt our friend," the other red headed twin stepped forward to stand beside her sister.

"What friend would that be?" Jenny asked warily.

"Chase Rhodes," the tall blonde with them said and stepped forward, putting her hands on her hips.  "You hurt him, and he's a fucking wreck at the lake house."

"Did he tell you that," Jenny asked incredulously.

"He didn't have to.  When a man goes swimming in his underwear at midnight, then sleeps on the back porch with a bottle, you know something's wrong with him."

Panic poured through her and her hand flew up to her chest to calm her breathing, and she asked, "He did that?"

"Yeah, and about swam the damned lake," the short brunette stepped up next and said.  "He's lucky he didn't drown.  We'd be here with shotguns instead, if that were the case."

"I didn't do anything to him," Jenny protested and stepped onto the top step.

"Bullshit," they all said in unison, then Katie Tucker said, "You accused him of being a playboy and an asshole.  We're here to tell you he is one of the most kindhearted men we've ever met.  He's helped all of us in one way or another, and he's our friend.  We don't stand for people doing that to our friends." 

"I didn't hurt him...he's my boss, that's all," she said then sat down on the porch.

"Again, bullshit.  He's interested in you...he didn't give me the rundown on your relationship, but I can assure you he's hurt."

"I don't want to have a relationship with him," she looked up and told them.

"Are you blind, woman?" the petite brunette said incredulously.  "Next to my husband, Cole, that is the most delicious piece of man candy around, and he wants
you
!"

The tall blonde added, "And what's this with you and Beau Bowman?  Jazzie Ramos is my best friend and she's in love with him.  You don't go treading on another woman's territory."

"I don't want, Beau, I've had him," Jenny told them then finished with a snort,  "Besides, he's in love with her too.  You wanna see a wreck, you go look him up."

"You don't want Beau, you don't want Chase...are you a lesbian?" the second twin snorted and asked.  Jenny didn't know
the second twin's name, but that sound was so damned funny she laughed.  It sounded like a cross between a pig snort and a horse knicker.

"Something funny
?" she said and lifted a perfectly arched red eyebrow.

"That sound is pretty funny," Jenny told her.

A slight smile curved her lips then she said, "Yeah, my husband Gabe thinks so too."

"Are you all married?" Jenny asked wondering why the hell they were here for Chase if that was the case.

"Yes, but we love Chase too.  He's our friend and we care about him, so you better watch yourself," the leader, Katie Tucker, told her.

It suddenly dawned on Jenny that these were the women who'd called while he was at her apartment.  The
y were the sugars and babies he'd talked to. 

"He wasn't lying then?  Ya'll haven't slept with him?" she asked
breathlessly as regret filled her.

"Hell, no!" they all chimed at once.

Katie spoke up again and told her, "He's given you a quarter-million dollars to bail your ass out of a crack, paid you over a hundred grand a year, and then gave you all kinds of other things to boot, just because he wanted to help you and thought you'd do a good job for the company.  And you thank him how?  By accusing him of being an asshole.  I'm telling you he isn't that man."

It was true, Jenny realized and tears burned behind her eyes.  She'd unfairly judged him, and he'd been nothing but good to her.  Yeah, he was attracted to her, but he hadn't done anything to her that she didn't want done.  Her jealousy had blinded her, and she's the one that felt like an ass. 

"I'm sorry..." she told them and felt a tear track down her cheek.  She backhanded it to wipe it away then took a deep breath and stood up.

"Sometimes that's not enough, sugar," the petite brunette told her with a shake of her head.  "You've got a long row to hoe, honey...he's pretty much don
e with you, except for work."

Jenny's heart squeezed in her chest and another tear tracked down her cheek. 
Did she want a relationship other than work with him?  Could she chance having her heart broken again? Was Chase Rhodes the man she wanted to take that chance on?  Her heart said yes, and that everything these women said was the truth. 

He was a good man, kindhearted
, caring and funny, so good looking he set her body on fire with a smile...and he smiled a lot...at her. What more could she ask for? 

The thought that he truly was done with her made her want to bawl like a calf separated from it's mother...and that was something Jenny didn't do. 
She could count on one hand the number of times she'd lost it emotionally.  One of them was the night she left Beau, another was when she heard that baby she'd misdiagnosed was going to survive.

I
mpulsively, she offered, "I'll go to the lake house an talk to him."  When all the women shook their heads, her heart fell to her toes.

"Not a good idea, he's not feeling good.  Wait until Monday when you go to work and see if he'll talk to you,"
Katie told her firmly then turned to walk back to the truck with her posse following her.

Jenny had no idea how she was going to get through the rest of the weekend.  She didn't have a vehicle, so she couldn't go see him, which was a really good thing, because she didn't know if she could have resisted otherwise.  She didn't know where the lake house was anyway.  But Jenny knew his phone number.  The words she'd said to Beau yesterday flickered through her mind,
"Dumbass, when you're in as much trouble with her as you seem to be, you go and see her, you don't call."

Well, she'd have to take her own advice and stay away from the phone too, because
her advice was right, that would probably only make things worse.  She needed to confront him face to face, and make him believe how truly sorry she was...sorrier than she'd ever been in her life.

***

Chase had had a sleepless weekend, he was edgy, agitated and
work was the last place he wanted to be this morning.  He'd spent Sunday recovering from his hangover at the lake house.  The girls had tried to help him, but his misery was complete.  He'd drank the nasty egg hangover remedy that Karlie had made for him, then promptly worshipped the porcelain goddess, he eaten the bland grits and toast that Katie had cooked for him, and again they didn't stay with him.  Sabrina made some ass-kicking homemade chicken noodle soup for them, and he did manage to keep a little of that down.

After all of that, he just wished someone would cut his head off to stop the incessant pounding.  Finally, the headache was gone this morning, but his head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and his mood had definitely not improved.  Chase handed
Sarah a letter to type and she smiled at him.  He tried, but couldn't force one in return.  He told her to hold all his calls and went into his office and closed the door, leaning back against it.

His dad walked into his office through the door of the joint conference room and boomed, "What the hell is wrong with you boy?'

Chase flinched then told him raspily, "Rough weekend, so lay off, I'm not feeling well."

"Well you better get better fast, Jenny Anderson just got here, and you need to make sure she has something to do," he told Chase.

Good god, that's all he needed.  He certainly wasn't up to dealing with her today.  Chase didn't even want to see her, but his dad was right he needed to suck it up.  "I'm going to the conference in Dallas...leaving in two hours," he told him.  That was another thing he wasn't looking forward to.  Traveling was a grind under normal circumstances, with the dregs of a hangover, he imagined he was going to be in hell.

"When do you get back?" Jack Rhodes asked him gruffly.

"Wednesday night, but I'm flying to meet with Dave on Thursday, so I won't be back in the office until Friday afternoon.  I'm going to try and help him figure out who's sabotaging the wells.  We have to speed things up, the vote is coming up and our latest safety report sucks.  They're going to use it against us to try and stop the legislation."

"But our record is
the best in the industry!  Until those bastards started setting fire to our wells, we didn't have a problem," his dad protested.

"Doesn't matter...they'll use the latest data and say we're not any safer than they are, even with the new valve.
  Unless we can
prove
that the wells were sabotaged and find the asshole doing it, we're cooked.  I wouldn't be surprised if they try to get something through that stops the mandate to use the valve.  I talked to the lobbyist and he's pretty concerned.  That environmental stuff they tacked on could stop it anyway."

"Shit!" his dad said and pulled his hat off and slapped it against his thigh
.

"We'll get it worked out one way or another...so, I'm getting involved.

Suddenly, his dad's eyebrows raised as if he remembered something.  "Make sure you're back by Saturday.  You need to ask Jenny to the party your mama's throwing.  It's Saturday night at the house," he told him and Chase groaned.

"Daddy, it's not a good idea right now.  We have too much going, please ask her to wait," Chase begged.
  The last thing he wanted was to have to be near Jenny Anderson. 

"She ain't waiting...already hired the caterer's and the band.  She's sending out the invitations today," Jack told him.

"Shit!" Chase said and pushed off the door then walked around his desk.

"Make sure she's there, you he
ar?  This party is for her, and your mama would be insulted if she didn't come."

"Fuck..." Chase said and pushed a hand through his hair.  "I'll see if she'll come, but I'm not making any promises."  There was no telling what that stubborn woman would agree to, and now he was responsible for making sure she was there.  Like he didn't have enough to do
or worry about.

"Your mama wants to meet her family too, so tell her they're invited," his daddy told him then walked back through the conference room door.  Chase laid his head on his desk and bumped it against his blotter a few times.  It didn't help, he was damned afraid nothing would.
  There was no getting around it short of firing her, he was going to have to work with Jenny Anderson...and if that wasn't bad enough, he was going to have to socialize with her now too.  Because his mama had commanded it.

A knock sounded at his door and Chase looked up as
his assistant, Sarah, opened his door.  "Chase?  There's a Jenny Anderson out here that says she's a new hire?  She wanted to see you."

"Have her fill out all the necessary new hire paperwork in the big conference room, and tell her I'll be in there in a few minutes," he told her and felt his mouth drift down into a frown.

"But she insist--"

"I don't want to see her right now, Sarah..." he said plainly, then gritted, "Tell her to fill out the damned paperwork."
 

Sarah's lips wobbled and her eyebrows lifted, then she nodded and shut his door.  Damn, he never yelled at people.  Chase was becoming just what Jenny accused him of being, an asshole...and it was all because of her. 

Maybe he should pass her off to someone else to train and supervise.  He had enough on his plate, he'd talk to George Carroll his Resource Director to see what they could come up with.  There had to be someone else he could push her off on.  He knew it was a chickenshit thing to do, but to keep his sanity it was necessary.

In the meantime, he'd keep her too busy to get in his way...idle hands and all that. 

He just didn't have the time or energy to deal with drama.  The less he saw of the beautiful, judgmental doctor the better, which is why he'd decided to go to this damned conference in Dallas at the last minute. 

Chase picked up the safety manual from his desk, and walked to his door like he was walking the last mile.  He looked down at it and smiled, then opened the door.  Maybe he could get a little revenge after all.  It was a lowdown thing to do, but Jenny Anderson could use to be taken down a few pegs, and this was just the task to do that.

Before he went to the conference room, Chase took a few minutes to apologize to Sarah, he sat on her desk and shot the shit with her.  After they talked, she looked more relaxed and was smiling again, and he breathed a sigh of relief.  In the future, Chase had to make a point not to take his anger and frustration out on anyone other than the person who was causing it.  It wasn't the way he'd operated in the past, and he certainly wasn't going to start now.