Read Texas! Chase #2 for Free Online

alterations were fussing around me. The room was filled with wedding gifts.
    "I looked at myself in the mirror and tried to relate that bride to myself. The gown was gorgeous. My parents had gone all out, but it wasn't me.

    "I tried to imagine walking down the aisle and pledging undying love and devotion to this man I was engaged to. And in a blinding instant I knew I couldn't do it. I couldn't be that dishonest. I was fond of him. I liked him very much. But I didn't love him.
    "So I calmly stepped out of the white satin
    creation and informed my mother and the flabbergasted seamstress that the wedding wasn't going to take place after all. As you can imagine, my announcement created quite a commotion. The next few days were a nightmare.
    All the arrangements, flowers, caterer, everything had to be canceled. The gifts had to be returned to their senders with notes of apology."
    "What about him? How'd he take it?"
    "Very well. Oh, at first he argued and tried to talk me out of it, passing off my reservations as prewedding jitters. But after we had discussed it at length, he agreed that it was the right thing to do. I think he realized all along that… well, that I didn't love him as I should."
    "That was a helluva thing to do, Marcie."
    "I know," she said with chagrin. "I'm certainly not proud of it."
    "No, I mean it was a helluva thing to do. It took real guts to break if off at the eleventh hour like that."
    She shook her head. "No, Chase. If I'd had any guts, I would have admitted to myself, before involving an innocent man, that it just wasn't destined for me to get married."
    They were silent for a while, which suited
    Marcie fine since the road had gone a stage beyond being glazed and was now like the surface of an ice rink.
    Before long, however, Chase moaned and laid a hand against his ribs. "This is hurting like a son of a bitch."
    "Take another pill. The doctor said you could have one every two hours."
    "That's nothing but glorified aspirin. Stop and let me buy a bottle of whiskey."
    "Absolutely not. I'm not stopping this car until I get to your place in Milton Point."
    "If I wash the pill down with whiskey, it'll go to work faster."
    "You can't bargain with me. Besides, it's stupid to mix alcohol and drugs."
    "For godsake, don't get preachy on me. Pull off at the next exit. There's a liquor store there. It won't take a sec for me to go in—"

    "I'm not letting you buy any liquor while you're with me."
    "Well, I didn't ask to be with you, did I?" he shouted. "You ramrodded your way into my business. Now I want a drink and I want it now."
    Marcie eased her foot off the accelerator and let the car coast toward the shoulder of the highway.
    Gradually she applied the brake until it came to a full stop. She uncurled her stiff, white fingers from around the padded-leather steering wheel and turned to face him.
    He wasn't expecting the slap. Her cold palm cracked across his bristled cheek.
    "Damn you!" Her whole body was trembling.
    Unshed tears shimmered in her eyes. "Damn you, Chase Tyler, for being the most selfish, self-absorbed jerk ever to be born. Look at my hands."
    She held them inches in front of his nose, palms forward. "They're wringing wet. I'm scared to death. Haven't you realized that it isn't easy for me to drive under any circumstances, but especially under conditions like this?" She gestured wildly toward the inclement weather beyond the windshield.
    "I'm afraid that every car we meet is going to hit us. I live in terror of that happening to me again. Even more so when I have a passenger sitting where Tanya was sitting.
    "I was in that car, too, Chase, when that kid ran the stop sign. To this day I have nightmares where I experience the sound of squealing tires and feel the impact and taste the fear of dying all over again. I had to undergo weeks of therapy before I could even get behind the steering wheel of a car again.
    "If you didn't need to get home immediately,
    I would be holed up in my hotel room