Page 35 of Her Elusive Cowboy Billionaire

Chapter8

Meri sat at the table in her mother’s kitchen.The place she’d grown up.The house wasn’t huge.It only had three bedrooms and none of them were big.By the time she and Ben had been old enough to need separate bedrooms, her older brothers had been gone from home for years.

The kitchen was where she’d spent a lot of her time.She’d done her homework at this table.Done her first drawings here.After she and her brothers had all left home, Dad finally bought new appliances for the kitchen.Her mother had insisted on keeping a gas range.She said electric was harder to cook on and that gas was much easier to control the temperature.They replaced the top-freezer refrigerator with a side-by-side model that had ice and water available on one door.

Above the stove, they had mounted a microwave and next to the sink they had installed a dishwasher.All the appliances were white.

They kept the table but never had the leaves in it now with just the two of them most of the time.

Meri turned her gaze toward Chase.He had been there when she was shot and she was sure he felt responsible, but he wasn’t.Meri knew that.She also knew the shooter could have hurt many people, but by shooting her, he thought half of his problem was gone.And yet, why would he try to kill them in front of thousands of witnesses?As soon as she asked herself the question, an answer came.There weretoomany witnesses and she would bet no two would describe him in the same way.And he could escape with the crowd, just as he’d done.

Two days had passed now, so they would have found the weapon if he ditched it, but she doubted it would lead to him.He was smart enough to get in there and find their seats, so he was smart enough to have removed all traces that could lead to him.

After visiting with her mom for half-an-hour, Meri suddenly felt exhausted.All the thinking and visiting after just getting out of the hospital was draining her.She laid a hand on Chase’s arm.“I need to lie down.”

“Yes, of course.”He turned to her mother.“Carole, it’s great meeting you.I hope to see you again soon.”

Carole nodded.“You will.I guarantee it.In the meantime, take my daughter home and let her rest.”She turned toward Meri.“Thank you for stopping by, but you need to be in bed now.You can barely keep your eyes open as it is.”

“I wanted you to see that I’m all right.Tired, but all right.Now that I have, I’m definitely ready to go home.Or in this case, to Chase’s, after we get my things from the loft.”

She was still nervous about living with him, even though she knew she didn’t have a reason not to go and one excellent reason to go.She wanted to live.

Carole walked them to the door.She gently put her arms around Meri and kissed her cheek.“Please be safe, my darling girl.”

“I will, Mom.”She kissed her mother goodbye and headed out the door.

Chase placed an arm around her waist and then, when they reached the car, he lifted her into it.

Almost as soon as Chase buckled her seatbelt, she relaxed into the seat and her lids lowered and she nodded off.

The drive took about fifteen minutes, with good traffic, to get from Lakewood to downtown Denver, and another five minutes to reach LoDo and her loft.

Meri woke and gazed out the side window.

Chase reached over and took her hand in his.“A penny for your thoughts.”

She turned toward him and smiled.“Nothing really.Just wondering what would happen to me if not for you.”

He sighed.“This is my fault, and I’m sorry.”

“You misunderstand.”She reached over and touched his arm.“I’m not blaming you.If anything, I’m grateful.I would be vulnerable, if not for you.You’ll keep me safe, I believe that, or I wouldn’t be going with you.”

“How can you not blame me?If we hadn’t gone to dinner, none of this would have happened.”He closed his eyes for a moment and then focused on the traffic again.

She smiled and squeezed his arm.“And I would have missed finding out more about the most interesting man I’ve met in a long time.”

He looked over at her and cocked a brow.“You think I’m interesting?”

“Very.You’ve built your empire yourself, from ideas in your head that you made real.Then you built another business, providing security to those who need it.Neither of those are insubstantial accomplishments.”

Chase shrugged.“I suppose not, but I never intended to become a billionaire.I just wanted to make my ideas real.Maybe make enough to build a house somewhere.That was it.I couldn’t have predicted how popular my little games would be.”

“And yet, they are.But you didn’t just sit and watch your money grow, you started doing something else, and it’s been extremely prosperous, too.”

“I’ve been lucky.”

“You’ve worked hard.That’s why they both are as successful as they are.”