Read Texas! Chase #2 for Free Online Page B

volunteered to drive him here and promised the doctor that I would see to it he got into bed. He gave him a prescription for pain medication—the bottle of capsules on the nightstand," she said to Lucky.
    "He's taken only the prescribed amount."
    Obviously relieved, Laurie lowered herself to the sofa. "Thank God you happened to be there, Ms.
    Johns, and took it upon yourself to look after him for us."
    "Please call me Marcie."
    "Thank you very much."
    "It was the least I could do."
    They fell silent then. What had gone unsaid was that Marcie's assistance in this matter was nominal repayment for having been driving when Chase's wife had been killed.
    Devon was the first to break the uneasy silence. "What's all that?" She pointed toward the sacks standing on the bar.
    "Food. There was nothing but a can of spoiled sardines in the refrigerator. Nothing at all in the pantry. I also bought some cleaning supplies."
    Laurie ran her finger over the coffee table, picking up a quarter inch of dust. "I don't think this place has been touched since Tanya died."
    "That's right. It hasn't."
    As one, they turned to find Chase standing in the doorway. He had pulled on a bathrobe, but sturdy, lean bare legs were sticking out of it. The white bandage showed up in the open wedge of the robe across his chest. His hair still looked like he had run through a wind tunnel, and his stubble had grown darker. It was no darker, however, than his glower.
    "It hasn't had any visitors either," he added,
    "and that's the way I want it. So now that you've had your little discussion about me and my character flaws, you can all clear out and leave me the hell alone."
    Laurie, still spry even in her mid-fifties, sprang to her feet. "Now listen here, Chase Nathaniel Tyler, I will not be spoken to in that tone of voice by any of my children, and that includes you. I don't care how big you are." She pushed up the sleeves of her sweater as though ready to engage him in a fistfight if necessary.
    "You look so disreputable I'm almost ashamed to claim you as my eldest son. On top of that, you smell.
    This place is a pigsty, unfit for human habitation. All of that is subject to change. Starting now," she emphasized.
    "I'm fed up with your self-pity and your whining and your perpetual frown. I'm tired of walking on thin ice around you. When you
    were a boy, I gave you what was good for you whether you liked it or not. Well, you're grown, and supposedly able to take care of yourself, but I think it's time for me to exercise some maternal prerogatives. Whether you like it or not, this is for your own good."
    She drew herself up tall. "Go shave and take a bath while I start a pot of homemade chicken-noodle soup."
    Chase stood there a moment, gnawing the inside of his jaw. He looked at his brother.
    "Go get me a bottle, will you?"
    "Not bloody likely. I don't want her on my tail, too."
    Chase lowered his head, muttering obscenities.
    When he lifted his head again, his angry eyes connected with Marcie's. "This is all your fault, you know."
    Having said that, he turned and lumbered down the hallway toward his bedroom. The door was slammed shut behind him.
    Marcie had actually fallen back a step as though he had attacked her physically instead of verbally.
    Unknowingly she had raised a hand to her chest. Devon moved toward her and laid her arm across Marcie's shoulders.
    "I'm sure he didn't mean that the way it sounded, Marcie."
    "And I'm sure he did," she said shakily.
    Lucky tried to reassure her. "He wasn't referring to the accident. He was talking about bringing Mother's wrath down on him."
    "He's not himself, Marcie." Laurie's militancy had abated. She was smiling gently.

    "Deep down he's probably grateful to you for being there last night, forcing him to do something he really wanted to do—come home.
    You provided a way for him to do it and still save face. We owe you a real debt of gratitude and so does Chase."
    Marcie gave them a tremulous smile, then gathered up her