Pierced by Love (2 page)

“Don’t you wish that people could be more honest?” Jessie asked, sliding her gaze over to Noelle. She flinched under Jessie’s scrutiny while her brain began running through possibilities of why Jessie would be upset with her. Nothing substantial came to mind.

Pierce shrugged. “It happens. Unfortunately, we have to be really careful these days.”

Chase jerked on her arm while stepping around her. “Come on, Noelle. Let’s get out of here.”

“Just a sec, Chase.” Turning back to Pierce, she said sympathetically, “I agree.” She noticed Melody turn away and stare at the wall. Why was everyone suddenly acting so strangely?

Jessie left the room and returned shortly to hand over the thick book. “I need it back by tomorrow night so I can study for my test the next day.”

“Thanks. I’ll get it back to you,” he assured her. “I wouldn’t even be taking this class now if I had taken my classes more seriously during my freshman year. I’m still disappointed in myself for wasting so much time and money before my mission. I’m even more frustrated that I’m still here when I should have already graduated from the biomedical program.”

“That’s too bad, man.” Chase tugged a little more forcefully on Noelle’s arm now. “Come on, Noelle. You’re going to be late for your study date with Jill.”

Noelle stiffened at his abrupt manner. “Hold on, Chase.” Turning back to Pierce, she offered him an apologetic smile for her boyfriend’s rudeness. Taking a deep breath, Noelle continued, “Didn’t your grandfather set up a trust fund to help you pay for your degree?” She vaguely recalled him saying something to that effect a few years back.

Pierce stopped frowning at Chase long enough to bring his watchful gaze back to hers. In response to her question, he nodded. “For my brothers as well. Education is almost as important to my grandparents as serving a mission. After serving mine, I can understand why they felt that way.”

That got Chase’s attention. At the mention of the word
mission
, Chase stopped in his tracks and began in a superior tone, “One thing is sure, missions separate the boys from the men. Once when my companion and I . . .”

Noelle stifled a groan. Chase often repeated the same stories from his mission over and over. Once he got started, there’d be no end to his recitation. Noelle blurted the first thing that came to her mind. “So, Pierce, who’s your hot date this weekend?”

One side of his mouth quirked at her blatant attempt to forestall her boyfriend. “What makes you think I have one?”

Hannah, her long red hair draped dramatically over one shoulder, replied coyly, “You’re the coolest guy on campus, Pierce. You always have something fun planned. No offense, Chase.” Coming closer to Pierce, she wheedled, “Come on. You can tell us. Who is it this week and what do you have planned?”

“Why should I tell you?” Noelle’s heart tugged at Pierce’s obvious discomfort. His dates were legendary around here. The girls on campus liked to date him because he took them on fun outings. But Pierce never stayed with one girl for long.

At a recent get-together between the girls and Pierce’s roommates when Hannah had hounded him unmercifully about his “flavor of the week” dates, much like she was doing now, Pierce had admitted that he dated simply as a diversion from his studies and that he figured he’d get serious about settling down someday. He’d even hinted of something in his past making him gun-shy. Since Noelle could definitely relate to that, she had changed the subject then to take the pressure off him.

“Because I saw you driving off with Kasey Hamilton last Saturday,” Hannah insisted. “Are you going out with her again?”

Pierce’s eyes narrowed to slits. Instinctively, Noelle knew that Hannah had hit upon a sore spot. “I don’t think so.”

“Hmm,” Melody piped up for the first time. “When I talked to Kasey yesterday, she said that she was looking forward to another date with you.”

“Then she’s delusional,” Pierce answered in a clipped tone.

Sensing that, once again, Pierce needed rescuing from this line of questioning, Noelle tugged on Chase’s hand. “We really need to get going. We’ll see you all later. Bye.”

Once outside, Noelle turned to give Chase a good-night kiss. But when she leaned closer and saw the stormy look in his eyes, she asked uncertainly, “Is something wrong?”

Chase opened his mouth to speak before apparently changing his mind. He shook his head abruptly. “No. I’ll see you later.”

“Wait. What time are you picking me up for the Valentine’s Day party tomorrow?” She’d been looking forward to this institute activity for awhile. It sounded like a lot of fun.

Chase jiggled the car keys in his pocket before responding, “Actually, I was thinking of taking you to a movie instead.”

Noelle stared at him in surprise. “You were?”

“Yeah. We could go to dinner and see a movie afterward.”

Ooh, he must have something special planned if he wanted to skip the activity to spend some quiet time with her. “Okay.” She playfully reached up with her gloved fingers to muss his hair, hoping to coax a smile from him, but all she managed to do was make him flinch. Okay, that was weird. What was going on? “You sure you’re all right?”

“Fine,” he answered tersely, stepping back away from her. “Listen, you need to get going. And I’m tired and sweaty. I’ll see you later. Tell Jill hello for me.”

“Okay. I will. Love you.”

What should have been an “I love you” in return came out sounding garbled. As Chase stumbled away, Noelle wondered if he was coming down with something. Maybe she should ask Melody to make him some chicken soup. That would fix him right up. Heaven knew that Noelle was no good at that sort of thing.

A few hours later, after Noelle and Jill had hammered out the major details of their project, Noelle drove back to the apartment and parked her car, rubbing a tired hand over her face. Once her eyesight came into focus again, she saw her apartment door open and Chase slip out, zipping his navy jacket up. How could that be? He’d left with her a few hours ago. Odd.

There must be a plausible reason for him being here. Maybe it had something to do with the special Valentine’s Day surprise he was planning for her. Perhaps a sparkly ring? With a shiver of excitement, she grabbed her backpack and headed inside.

TWO

A
LMOST TWO WEEKS later, Noelle again pulled her car into the parking lot of her apartment complex with a sense that something was not right. Otherwise, why would Melody have called and asked her to come home early from studying at Cline Library? Already feeling downhearted from Valentine’s Day coming and going with no ring—
as if dinner and a movie could compare!
—she had driven with caution on these slushy roads. Finding a relatively snow-free parking space, Noelle parked and locked her car. She distractedly noticed Chase’s red Honda Civic in the parking lot. Maybe he was here to apologize for his rude behavior of late. And she needed to apologize for the fact that she hadn’t handled not being given a ring very well, either.

Noelle had been patient. She really had. They’d been dating for almost a year now. Chase had no right to date her much longer if he didn’t intend to marry her. Still, she didn’t want to break up with him. When she’d impatiently explained this after having to sit through a stupid comedy on the big screen, he hadn’t responded kindly, accusing her of acting snarky. The date hadn’t ended well. When he brought her home, Noelle had slammed his car door and stormed inside.

Expecting Melody to baby her if she even saw one tear, Noelle had managed to hold her emotions in check until after Melody had gone to bed. The argument had been on Noelle’s mind today. She’d finally made the decision to quit pressuring Chase for an engagement when he clearly wasn’t ready.

She unlocked the door and stepped inside, calling, “Hi, Melody. I’m here. What did you want to talk to me about?” Chase and Melody looked at her guiltily from the couch before abruptly disentangling their intertwined hands. Noelle stared at them, dumbfounded. “Chase? Melody? What’s going on?”

Melody’s sigh spoke volumes. Glancing at Chase, she turned back to Noelle, clearing her throat nervously. “Noelle, we wanted to talk to you before the others get home.”

“We have something to tell you.” Chase’s voice was grave, his eyes penetrating hers stoically.

In that instant, Noelle knew. A sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach told her what she didn’t want to hear.
Please, no! Not again!
Surely Chase wasn’t doing the same thing to her that Mike had done, right? Chase couldn’t be breaking it off with her just when she was ready to make a serious commitment. And for him to be pursuing her sister—she just couldn’t believe it.

Chase took Melody’s hand again and enfolded it lovingly in his. The same agony she’d felt two years before sliced through her heart. Gasping for breath, she turned and ran out of there as fast as she could go, her brain barely registering Melody’s and Chase’s frantic calls.

“Wait, Noelle!” Chase’s strong grip jerked her wrist as she yanked on the door to her car, pulling it open quickly. “Look, there’s no easy way to say this.”

“How? Why?” she wailed, shoving at his chest while her own heaved with excruciating pain. Through the blur of tears that were quickly forming, she made out her sister’s form approaching them more slowly. “I can’t believe you’re doing this to me!”

Melody came to an abrupt halt and hugged herself as if she wanted to hug her sister. There was no mistaking the anguish in her voice as she replied, “We didn’t fall in love intentionally. The day you were rescheduling your classes, Chase stopped by and since you weren’t home, we started talking and realized that we have a lot in common.”

“Fall in love?” Noelle echoed stupidly. “How do you fall in love in just six weeks?”

“It just happened. I called your phone the next day, but you had left it home,” Chase explained. “Melody answered it and we basically picked up our conversation from where we left off.”

With a grimace, Noelle remembered that day. She’d had a lot on her mind with rearranging her schedule to accommodate the child psychology class she hadn’t known that she needed to take in order to earn her teaching certificate. Running back and forth from work to the Northern Arizona University campus to obtain permission to register late for that class had cost Noelle her boyfriend? She couldn’t wrap her mind around it all. “But at some point, you two got together intentionally,” she argued. “You’re not as innocent as you claim to be.”

Melody stepped forward, placing her hand on Noelle’s arm. In a low voice, she said, “Maybe we should go inside to finish this conversation.”

“No!” Angry, she jerked her arm away and smacked her hand on the car. Yelping in pain, she insisted, “Just hurry and tell me so I can go!”

With a sheepish look, Melody admitted, “He stopped by and we walked down to the institute building and played ping-pong for a while. The next day we ran into each other at the grocery store. We chatted about our class schedules, then we compared our missions. So then Chase wanted to come and look at my mission pictures.”

Noelle remembered the night Chase had come over unexpectedly to do that. He’d given her a quick kiss and told her that he wanted to see some of Melody’s pictures since he’d served in Italy and she’d served in southern France. In fact, Chase had been dropping by more often and staying longer lately, Noelle belatedly realized. She felt foolish at her own stupidity.

Melody and Chase looked at each other regretfully. If the situation hadn’t been so serious, Noelle would have laughed at their penitent expressions. Melody gave Chase an encouraging smile and, taking a deep breath, he turned to Noelle and said, “I’ve asked Melody to marry me.”

“
What?!
” Noelle exploded. She didn’t care that she was yelling now. “Melody, you’re barely home from your mission. That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard!”

Melody’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry, Noelle. I don’t know how to do this without hurting you, but I feel like I've known him all my life. Chase is going to take Friday off work so we can drive down to see Mom and Dad and plan our wedding.”

“Congratulations!” Noelle spat. Without a backward glance, she spun around and sank into the interior of the car.

“Noelle, please!” she heard. “You shouldn’t be driving like this—”

Noelle didn’t wait to hear the rest of what Melody had to say. Her own sister stealing her boyfriend! Noelle slashed the hot tears from her face so that she could see well enough to drive. Traffic was clogged today and the road conditions were already bad enough with the mounting snow. Realizing that Melody was right, she turned onto Humphreys and soon found herself at Wheeler Park. She parallel parked and turned off the engine. How could this happen? And with her own sister? Noelle curled herself into a ball on the front seat and wept.