Breathe (Colorado Mountain #4)(76)

She fell silent but this didn’t last long.

“No, I still want to talk to him. Tell him to call me after church. I have a few things to say.”

An even shorter pause.

Then, “Okay, and just so you know, I’m angry but still, if I found you were an unknown model of Cylon, I wouldn’t kill you because you’re my Mom. But I would find you a habitable planet and dump you there. I’m also angry enough to dump Gaius there with you. He’s brilliant but he’s annoyingly arrogant, smug, a total jerk, completely self-serving and unpredictable. You’d hate him. So that tells you just how angry I am at you for not letting me speak my mind to Dad. Enjoy church and I’ll see you next Saturday.”

Then without waiting for a response from her mother, she beeped off the phone and whirled to him.

Once she had his eyes, she snapped, “God!”

Then she clamped her mouth shut and glared at him.

Chace studied her, her cheeks pink, her eyes heated, thinking, with that hair, he shouldn’t be surprised her temper was fiery.

He studied her thinking that he was feeling something he didn’t quite get, didn’t know what it was because he’d never felt it before. He just knew that whatever it was was huge and it was good.

She took him out of his thoughts when she said quietly, “Chace, I’m so sorry Dad did that.”

“Faye,” he called softly. “Come here.”

“Give me a second,” she replied. “I’m fighting the urge to throw your phone across the room.”

She was too far away and what he was feeling was too big so he pulled out the big guns.

“Baby, come here.”

She came to him immediately.

Chace buried a smile, uncrossed his arms and ankles, bent his knees so his feet were to the floor but his legs were open and he leaned forward, reaching for her hand when she got close. He took the phone out of her other hand, tossed it to the top of the couch and guided her between his legs. When he had her where he wanted her, he let her hand go but both of his arms circled her loosely though not loose enough not to communicate he didn’t want her pressing close. As she always did, she got the message he didn’t need to verbalize, leaned her body into his and looked into his eyes.

“We got a problem,” he murmured.

“I know,” she agreed.

“Actually, you got a problem,” he told her.

“I know,” she agreed again. “I have an overprotective father who I’d like to kick in the shin.”

Chace gave her a squeeze and shared his thoughts. “He did right. I took no offense. Honest to God, I had a daughter whose first boyfriend had my reputation, I’d do the same f**kin’ thing. Wouldn’t think about it, wouldn’t give a shit she got pissed. I’d make my thoughts known, feel him out and make sure he knew he had in his hands something precious. It ended good. I understood why he did it. I admire him for doin’ it and it shows how much he loves you. And, I’ll repeat, I’d do it myself. So quit bein’ pissed.”

As he spoke, the anger shifted out of her face, her eyes went from heated to warm and her body relaxed deeper into his.

When he was done speaking, she asked softly, “So what’s my problem?”

“Faye, seriously, you’re hilarious when you’re angry.” He grinned at her, one of his hands trailing up her spine and into her hair as he continued, “This does not bode well for you, baby, ‘cause you ever get that pissed at me and you start talkin’ about Cylons and bein’ a fighter pilot, I got no choice but to laugh which’ll likely make you more pissed.”

Her lips twitched and she whispered, “Likely, seeing as Mom laughed through nearly that whole conversation and that only annoyed me more.”

Chace didn’t doubt it.

“What’s a Cylon anyway?” he asked.

“Robots that look like robots, the scary kind with a red eye that flashes back and forth but there are other models that look so much like humans they’re nearly undetectable from real humans. This means they’re very dangerous because they can infiltrate the human world and even if you cotton onto one of the models, since they look and act so much like humans, you never know what they’re up to. You might think you can trust them but you can never be sure.”

He felt his lips tip up. “Which one of your shows is this from?”

“Battlestar Galactica.”

His hand cupped her head, pulling her face closer to his as he whispered, “Honey, you are one serious geek.”

“It’s a good show,” she whispered back.

“Right.”

“You might like it.”

He doubted that.

She read his doubt and pushed, “Seriously, Chace, Admiral Adama is your type of guy.”

“Should the unfortunate event occur that I’m in a full body cast and unable to move for months, there’s no sports on TV and I’ve rewatched reruns of Friday Night Lights so often, I can quote them, you have permission to introduce me to Admiral f**kin’ Adama.”

At that, she gave him a soft giggle then her eyes dropped to his mouth. Her ear dipped toward her shoulder, the smile faded from her lips and her hand at his chest trailed up before she whispered a very hesitant, “Chace?”

“Right here, baby,” he whispered back, his gaze moving to her bubblegum lips.