Chasing Serenity (River Rain 1)

And he asked, “What irked you before I was a gargantuan smartass?”

“Why did you emphasize ‘gargantuan?’” she asked in return.

“I don’t think I’ve met a single soul who’s used that word in an everyday sentence.”

“It’s a word you understand,” she noted.

“Yup,” he agreed.

“And you were, indeed, being a gargantuan smartass,” she went on.

“I’ll cop to smartass. Gargantuan?” He shook his head.

She rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

Yeah, he needed to kiss her.

“So what irked you before I was a smartass?” he pressed.

“Shall we say continued being a smartass?” she suggested.

“Chloe, give it up,” he ordered.

She did that.

“She didn’t ask my name at the counter. Therefore, it irks me that the name ‘Judge’ is going to be written on my cup.”

It was his turn to stare, though he didn’t do it with daggers. He did it with surprise.

Because…what?

“That irks you?” he inquired.

“You’re annoying,” she sniffed.

“You’re just now headed to Phoenix to do your job and live your life. What’s it matter my name is on the side of your coffee cup? You’re eventually gonna throw it away.”

“Did you miss me sharing you’re annoying?”

“I hope your eyes are going to be on the road, and not reading your coffee cup.”

“You know, don’t think I don’t know this is all kinds of fun for you.”

She was absolutely right.

He just didn’t know why she said that.

“I’m just—” he started.

“Flirting with the woman who you, being all you are,” another eye-sweep of him, top to toe, “think is an easy get, but you also think she’s just a throwaway,” she finished.

Hang on a second.

Before he could speak, she kept going.

“A bit of fun. Someone you can make a shitty comment to one day. And because you’re tall and hot and lanky and rustic and unpretentious and nature-loving and you have a noble job and a fabulous dimple, you also think the next day, you can see that woman and chat her up and maybe get a date that’ll lead to you getting laid.”

He knew better than to date her.

Still, he was one hundred percent angling for a date.

But not just to get laid.

He was fascinated by her, and even though he knew it would end up being no good for either of them, he wanted more.

“Then,” she carried on, “you can tell your friends you hit that chick with the nice ass and the silly shoes. And in so doing, you don’t think even for a second that maybe that chick’s life has been turned on its head. That everything she knew is now gone. Everything she was certain of, everything that meant anything, everything that mattered has vanished. And she doesn’t know quite how to live in a world without those foundations steady under her magnificently shod feet. That maybe she’s looking for something to hold on to, something stable, not mercurial, like the whole world has suddenly become. Even if what she manages to hold on to is some new sense of self. But first, she has to find that. Which means, what she’s not looking for is some flirt who treats her like fair game, no matter how incredibly attractive he is.”

Judge heard all the compliments.

You bet he did.

It was all the rest that was souring his gut.

“So no, Judge,” she continued. “I’m a bit of fun for you, a girl from the city who’ll go back to the city, and you won’t have any strings tied to you. But I don’t want your name on my coffee cup. I want to go home and do my job and figure out how to live my life when up is down and a very serious wrong leads to a right that is very right, but it nevertheless breaks my heart, and anything that’s meaningful in the world is absolutely not how I know that world to be.”

“Chloe,” he whispered, because he had no fucking clue what else to say.

“So you should have let me pay, like I asked,” she stated. “Because now, I’m leaving. However, as you bought it, feel free to give my drink to someone else. I hope they enjoy the benefits of the turmeric. I’ve read more testing needs to be done, but I’ve found it’s fabulous for inflammation and mood. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m headed to a drive-through.”

After she delivered that, she pulled her shades from her hair, perched them on her nose, and with steady, strong raps of her heels on the floor, she walked right out of the coffeehouse.

And with no other choice, Judge watched her do it.

* * *

It wouldn’t be until the next day when he’d find out what was behind Chloe gutting him with that speech.

And the person with this information would not be the person Judge would put money down on having said information.

It started with a call.

Not a text.

Which was already a stunner.