out of whatever spell that came over her when she looked at him, her senses returned. “Did anyone see you down there?”
“No one was around but your doorman.”
“We have to be careful, Chase. If we’re seen together, there will be questions and gossip. If anybody finds out Irv is buzzing me to let you up, someone will investigate.”
“I get it. We’ll have to work something out,” he said, as if seeing each other might become a common occurrence. Because of paperwork? Because of resolving their situation, of course.
“We can’t be seen together here,” he reiterated. “I understand that. But certainly there are ways you go out when you don’t want to be recognized, right?”
“I have a wig.”
He nodded. “Come to breakfast with me. I know a hole in the wall, otherwise known as a truck stop, where you won’t be recognized and neither will I. There’s wonderful food there. We can talk about all this and what we’re going to do.”
She thought about it. Sometimes she did feel as if she were a captive in her apartment. Having a normal life was tough in her position. In her family, it had always been that way. Maybe that was why she’d been so reckless in Scotland when she met Chase. She just wanted to be normal. Since then, she’d accepted the fact that her life would never be that.
However, today—
“We can’t just walk out of here together,” she warned him.
He took his phone from his belt, tapped on his picture gallery and handed her the phone. “That’s a photo of my truck. It’s a blue pickup. I’ll drive into the parking garage and meet you up on the third level. Will that work?”
“That works, but I need at least ten minutes to get dressed.”
He looked her up and down. “I don’t know. What you’re wearing works for me.”
She blushed, and his grin and the sparkle in his eyes told her he was remembering when her being dressed in her robe or without her robe would have been just fine.
But that had been another time and place.
“I’ll meet you up on the third level, parking row C,” she confirmed.
“Got it,” he agreed, then went to her door and opened it. As he left, however, he threw another look to her that told her that, dressed or undressed, he still found her attractive. Just what was she going to do about that?
Fifteen minutes later, Lucie had her wig firmly in place, her sunglasses on her nose and all her wits about her. She would not let Chase rattle her. She couldn’t. There were too many consequences if she didn’t control this situation.
Finding Chase’s truck easily, she opened the passenger door and climbed inside.
Chase gave her a smile, nodded and started the engine. As he exited the parking garage, turned and drove down the street, he cut her a sideways glance. “You look hot as a redhead.”
So much for not being rattled by him. She didn’t respond.
She didn’t recognize the route he took, but then she didn’t know the city all that well yet. Ten minutes after they’d left the parking garage, he pulled up next to a gas station where several semis were fueling up. There was a restaurant attached—the Lone Star Diner.
Lucie had dressed in a more casual way than she usually did. After all, she didn’t want to be recognized. She’d worn jeans and a T-shirt and a blouse on top of that. Her auburn wig was curlier and fuller than her own hair and the chin-length strands brushed her cheeks. She had to hurry to keep up with Chase’s long strides as he led her into the diner.
“It’s totally impersonal,” he told her. “The waitresses rotate shifts, so the same ones are never on at the same time.”
“Do you come here often?”
“There are times when I like to be nameless, too. When I agreed to stay at the ranch, I told my mom I wouldn’t be there for regular meals. I didn’t want anybody keeping tabs on my comings or goings. So I drop in here now and then. The waitresses seem to have a high turnover. I haven’t run into the same one twice.”
All of that was good to know, not that she’d be coming back here again.
“The thing is,” he said in an aside to her, “this isn’t a royal kind of place.”
“I’m not a snob, Chase.”
He sobered. “That wasn’t an insult. I was just teasing.”
Yes, her sister and brothers teased her, but no one else did. She wasn’t used to it.
There were a few stools open at the counter, but Chase led her to a booth in the back, and she was glad of that. He was definitely aware of her need for anonymity.
The waitress arrived immediately and Chase said, “Two coffees and lots of cream for her.”
When the waitress moved away, he asked, “You still take it that way?”
“I do. But, you know, Chase, I’m not used to a sterling carafe to pour it from. When I go to developing countries to help with orphanages, sometimes I physically help to build them. My life isn’t all silver spoons and Big Ben.”
After a long, studying look, he nodded. “Noted. I won’t take the tabloid stories about you seriously anymore.”
“I’m surprised you read them.”
“Only when you’re on the cover.”
So he’d been curious about her and what was going on in her life? She was curious about him. “So, tell me what you’ve been doing for the past ten years. In Scotland, you explained you’d never work for your dad because he was manipulative and hard, and he had to control everything.”
“Yes, I told you that. After Scotland, I joined a construction crew, but I found I missed the horses on the ranch. So I signed on as a trainer at a quarter horse spread. I liked the work, and I liked being separate from my family.”
“But then?” she prompted.
“But then Dad had a stroke. At first we thought his one side would be completely paralyzed. But it’s amazing what rehabilitation can do now. I helped him with it. He’s so stubborn and independent that we set up a home gym. My mom asked me to live there and watch over him. When he went back to work, she asked me to be his right-hand man there again.”
“He didn’t ask you?”
“Are you kidding? He always expected me to work there, so that’s where I’ve been the past five years. But it’s time for a change. It’s time for me to leave. My plans are in the works. That’s where the loan and me finding out about our marriage have come into play.”
Because Lucie had known Chase before, she felt she could read into his expression and his words. He’d felt trapped for five years, and he couldn’t wait to break free. Now, however, he was trapped in a marriage he’d assumed had been dissolved.
“You
