Can't Buy Me Love (26 page)

“Chase?”

“It’s
a damn good thing you’re marrying me, Lena Magill.” His voice was guttural as
he continued, one hand moving down to gently brush her hair back from her face.
“And it needs to be soon. To hell with your father. I’m not going to be
satisfied until you’re in my house, in my bed, and in my life. Every part of
it.”

She
smiled up at him, her entire body relaxed under his. “I’ll start making a to-do
list tonight,” she teased.

But
Chase shook his head. “Tomorrow. You’re going to be way too busy tonight to call
anyone,” he said, leaning down to kiss her gently.

“Oh
yes,” Lena said with a sigh. “That’s true. I need to clean the kitchen, do my
laundry, walk Winston, make a list for the grocery store…”

She
laughed as he kissed her to shut her up.
Oh well
, she thought.
At
least we’ll walk Winston. But later.

Humming
to herself on Monday morning, Lena was up early. She brewed a pot of coffee and
perused her refrigerator for ingredients for breakfast while Chase took Winston
out for a quick walk around the block. At first, Winston had looked back at
Lena with some trepidation, since this wasn’t his usual routine, but Chase
bribed him with a bacon treat, and the dog followed him out the door without a
backward glance. Chase grinned back at her and winked, and Lena’s heart melted.
Again.

So
after a quick shower, she dressed in a pair of old jeans and a long-sleeved
t-shirt, and then looked in her fridge to figure out what to feed them. Banana
and pecan pancakes, she decided. And fresh fruit. And she thought she had some
bacon in here somewhere – she remembered buying it for one of Kat’s recipes a
while ago. She was just starting to put the strips onto her griddle to fry when
the door opened.

“Look
what the cat dragged in,” Chase drawled as he bent down to release Winston from
his harness.

“Pops!
What are you doing here?” Lena turned off the griddle and went over to hug the
old man who was standing beside Chase, his eyes twinkling at his granddaughter.
“And more importantly, why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

“I
heard that this imbecile here had broken your heart. I figured you could use a
little cheering up. But looks like I was all worried for nothing,” the old man
grinned. “Unless he’s here to irritate you, and you want me to kick him to the
curb?” he asked.

“Nah.
He’s being useful. And Winston likes him. But seriously? You came all this way
to make sure I was OK? Pops, you’re the best. Get in here. You want coffee? Breakfast?”

“I
won’t say no to either. But Chase, it’s only fair to warn you that your
grandfather is probably knocking on the door of your apartment right now. He
might not be too happy to know that he missed Lena’s cooking. You might want to
give him a call.”

Chase
rolled his eyes. “You two are a couple of interfering old geezers, you know
that?”

“Sure.
Go call Charlie,” he grinned as he walked into the kitchen and eyed the bacon
on the griddle. “Put on more bacon, Lena. We’ve all gotta go sometime.”

Lena
laughed. “Extra bacon it is. Get yourself a cup of coffee, and then go
introduce yourself to Winston while Chase calls Charlie.”

“Sure
thing, boss,” Pops teased her as he found a clean mug and proceeded to pour the
coffee. “Geez, this is much better than finding you hunkered down over a carton
of Ben and Jerry’s. I figured you’d be catatonic, and I’d have to do some sort
of emergency intervention. When did you guys work things out?” he asked as he added
cream to his mug.

“Over
the past couple of days,” Lena said. “Believe it or not, Dad was a catalyst. Not
in a good way, of course.”

“Sounds
like a good breakfast story. And Charlie will want to hear it.”

“Speaking
of that old man, he’s on his way over here,” Chase said to Lena as he walked
into the kitchen and found himself a coffee cup. “And I just called the office
and told them I would be late. Way late. So you don’t have to deal with these
two on your own.”

Lena
smiled her thanks as Chase held out the coffee pot to her. “You want another
cup? If we finish this off, I’ll make another pot.”

“Yes
please. If I have to deal with both our grandfathers first thing on a Monday
morning, I need all the help I can get.”

“Hey,
this is one cute dog,” Pops called from the other room. “And I think he likes
me.”

Sure
enough, Winston was sniffing the old man’s hand and allowing himself to be
scratched. He looked up tentatively at Chase and Lena, but since they didn’t
seem to be too concerned about this man, he apparently decided that he was OK. Lena
glanced over at Chase. “Where did you find Pops?”

“He
was just getting out of a taxi in front of the building as Winston and I got
back from our walk. I debated just turning around and high-tailing it out of
here, but he’d already seen me, so it was too late.”

“I
heard that!” Pops called.

Chase
leaned over and kissed Lena. It was a hard possessive kiss, and it made Lena
wish they were alone again, but she just sighed into him, and then turned and
went back to making breakfast. By the time there was a knock on her door, she
was just pulling the bacon from the griddle and putting it in the oven to keep
warm. The pancake batter was mixed, so she dried her hands on a towel and went
to open the front door.

“Ned?”
She looked up in disbelief at her brother. “Doesn’t anyone in this family
believe in telephones?” She reached out and hugged her brother, realizing at
the same time that there was someone standing behind him. She pushed herself
away and reached out to the tall handsome man in the hallway.

“You
must be David,” she said warmly, hugging him quickly as well. “Come in, please.
Despite my brother’s appallingly bad manners, you’ve come at a good time.”

Ned
was watching with a grin. “I’m sorry I didn’t call, but David and I decided at
the last minute to…” He looked up then and saw his grandfather grinning behind
Lena.

“Pops?
What are you doing here?”

“Checking
up on my granddaughter. Same thing as you, apparently. So get your no-good butt
in here and give your old grandfather a hug. And introduce me to your partner
here.”

Chase
just watched in disbelief as Lena’s brother and partner made their way through
Lena’s apartment, greeting the dog, hugging Philip, and eventually shaking his
hand as well. Ned looked at him with suspicion. “You’re done thinking
ridiculous things about my sister?” he asked.

“Yeah,”
Chase grinned.

“Well
OK, then. Nice to meet you. You moron.”

Chase
just laughed. “Nice to meet you too.”

Lena
and Chase both retreated to the kitchen then, Chase to pour himself another cup
of coffee, and Lena to add more bacon to the griddle. When there was another
knock at the door, Lena rolled her eyes. “That had better be your granddad. I’m
going to run out of bacon at this rate.”

Chase
opened the door, sighing with relief to see Charles standing in the hallway.

“This
is a ridiculously shady neighborhood for that woman,” he said sternly. “You
move her out of here. And soon.”

Lena
giggled from the kitchen. “Good to see you too, Charles,” she called. “Coffee?”

“Lord
yes. And a lot of it.” The older gentleman strolled into the kitchen and gave
Lena a hug. “Good to see you, Lena. If my grandson ever pulls such an idiotic
move again, you let me know. I’ll hide the body where nobody will find it, and
you and I can abscond to Aruba.”

“Oh!
Aruba! It’s a deal,” she grinned. Handing the man a cup of coffee, she pointed
him out to the living room. “Pops is out there, along with my brother Ned and
his partner David. Get out of my hair and I’ll have breakfast ready in fifteen
minutes,” she promised.

“I
love a woman who can cook,” Charles grinned, kissing her on the cheek as he
took the mug of coffee. “Let me go meet this brother of yours.”

Lena
looked over at Chase and started to laugh. “You know, it’s a damn good thing
that Winston needed to go out, and you and I were getting hungry, or this whole
crew could have shown up…”

Chase
grinned. “Yeah, I thought of that when I saw your Pops getting out of the taxi.
Winston gets extra dog treats tonight.”

“Speaking
of which, where is that crazy pooch?”

Chase
looked out into the living room. “You’re not going to believe this, but he’s
just lying on the floor in between all of them.”

“He’s
not cowering?”

“No.”

“Not
shaking?”

“No.”

“Not
looking like he’s going to barf up his breakfast?”

“Shockingly,
no. He looks happy.”

“Wow,”
Lena said, a look of wonder on her face. “Go Winston!”

Chase
laughed, then leaned over and kissed her. “You need help in here, sweetheart?”

She
smiled up at him. “I’m just going to whip up a bit more pancake batter. I’ll
have this ready soon. Go enjoy that crazy crowd.”

Over
breakfast, Ned regaled the family with his stories of hunting down David in
Tokyo, while David looked on with amusement. Then Lena and Chase filled
everyone in on the latest craziness from Lena’s father, including his plan to
marry Lena off to save his own skin. This time, there was less laughter and
more concern, until Lena and Chase filled them in on Chase’s offer to her
father – and the conditions he’d placed on that offer.

“Wow.
Dad really lost it this time,” Ned said, shaking his head as he leaned back in
his chair and sipped his coffee. “Chase, you’re a good man to help him out. But
if you need or want a partner in the bailing-out-of-William-Magill, I’m happy
to contribute.”

“Nah.
If you
want
in, I won’t say no. But Lena and I both think that the
shelter work will be good for him. And I really don’t want him to feel like he
can renege on anything if I only put up half the funds.”

Lena
nodded. “I hope it helps his relationship with Jeanette too. And you should all
know that despite my overall support for my father, Chase is actually feeling a
lot more benevolent about this than I am. So I’m pretty much staying out of it.”

“That’s
because I actually agree with the man on one issue,” he said. “I completely
agree that Lena should marry me.”

And
with that, the table erupted with cheers, but before Pops could go in search of
the bottle of champagne that he’d seen earlier in Lena’s fridge, Chase winked
at Lena, then said, “The problem is, she said no.”

“Oh
for heaven’s sake,” Lena said when everyone looked at her in disbelief. “I said
yes, I just said not yet. If I marry Chase now, what is Dad going to think?”

“Ah.”
Ned spoke for all of them. “Yeah, I see why that could potentially be
disastrous.”

“So
we need a plan,” David spoke up. “Preferably a devious one.”

Lena
looked over at David, then at Ned. “I approve of this man,” she said.

Pancakes
eaten, mess in kitchen cleaned up. Winston fed and walked. Chase seen off to
work with a promise to be back as soon as he could.

“For
better or worse,” Lena reminded him. “I’m not exactly sure how to categorize
this particular gathering, but please don’t be too late.”

Chase
laughed, kissing Lena thoroughly before heading out the door. “I’ll make
reservations somewhere for tonight and call you with details. You have a
preference for anything?”

“Steak,”
yelled Charlie from the living room.

“Vegan
and gluten-free,” Lena said loudly. “Preferably somewhere that only serves
organic fruit drinks too.”

“I
heard that. And no,” was the response from the other room. Lena giggled.

Chase
rolled his eyes. “Try not to get into too much trouble before then.”

“With
this crew? I promise nothing. See you tonight.”

David
and Ned had all sorts of devious plans, all of which Lena vetoed.

“I
can’t lie to the man. It’s not right.”

“Lena,
two words. Patterson James.”

“Yeah,
yeah. But I still can’t lie.”

“So
what do you suggest?”

“I’m
not sure. But I think Dad may be rethinking a few things these days,” Lena
mused, and then told them about the conversation she’d had with her father earlier
that week. “I’m not saying he’s changed – I think it’s too soon to say that. But
I think we can safely say that he’s looking at his life and his priorities.” She
shrugged. “I kind of want to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

“You’ve
got a much kinder heart than the rest of us, Lena.”

“He
reacted very well when you told him that you were gay,” Lena pointed out. “Far
better than you expected.”