Emancipating Andie

“Can I ask you something?” Andie asked before she had even fully decided to speak.

“Anything,” he answered softly.

“Colin said that you…” She trailed off, realizing now that she didn’t exactly know how to phrase her question without sounding rude.

“Colin said that I…?” he prompted her.

“That you…didn’t have to…live here,” she finally said, chewing on her bottom lip and cringing slightly.

She felt his chest bounce with laughter beneath her cheek. “What do you mean? You don’t appreciate the five-star accommodations?”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” she said, sure he could feel her blush against his chest. “I just meant…he said that you could…that this apartment wasn’t…God, never mind,” she said with a frustrated roll of her eyes, realizing there was no polite way to ask the question and wishing now that she just hadn’t said anything.

Chase pulled his fingers through her hair again. “Are you asking about my money?” he said, a smile in his voice.

“No, no,” she protested, officially transitioning from embarrassed to mortified. “I just…God, I’m sorry…I shouldn’t have said anything.”

He laughed again, leaning down and kissing the top of her head. “It’s okay,” he said. “And he’s right. I do have the means to live in a nicer place than this.”

Andie licked her lips, her embarrassment ebbing slightly as he continued to run his fingertips up and down her back.

“And you wanted to know why I choose to stay here?” he asked against the crown of her head.

She nodded softly, and she felt him take a deep breath.

“Because that money isn’t mine. I didn’t earn any of it. It was my mother’s, and it’s only mine now because she’s gone. To take that money, her money, and use it to keep myself comfortable while I play around, pretending to be a photographer—”

Andie lifted her head off his chest. “Stop it,” she cut him off. “Don’t belittle yourself like that.”

He smiled up at her. “Put it this way; I couldn’t support myself any better than this off of my photography right now. And until I can, I consider myself to be just playing around. It’s not self-deprecating. It’s just fact.”

Andie frowned, and he twined their fingers together before he brought her hand to his lips and kissed it softly. “Anyway,” he exhaled. “I won’t use that money unless it’s going toward something…I don’t know…worthy. Something she’d be proud of. And I just don’t feel like I’ve earned it yet.”

Andie looked down at him, completely humbled by his words. It seemed like every time she thought she had him figured out, he did or said something that revealed him to be even more complex, more amazing than she initially gave him credit for.

“Well I love this apartment,” Andie said as she leaned down and kissed him softly. “In fact, when you make it big as a photographer, I think you should keep it.”

He laughed again, pulling her down onto his chest. “We’ll see,” he sighed, and Andie began to trace shapeless patterns on his chest with her fingertips.

Chase lifted his head, looking down at what she was doing. “Are there bruises there?”

“Bruises?” she asked, lifting her head.

“Yeah. In the shape of your hands?”

Andie rolled her eyes as she saw the smirk lift the corner of his mouth. “Shut up. I didn’t push you that hard.”

“Didn’t push me that hard?” He laughed in disbelief. “You almost put me through the wall!” Andie pressed her lips together, fighting laughter as he added, “I mean, shit, remind me never to piss you off again.”

Her composure finally broke as she laughed, dropping her forehead to his chest. “You’re lucky that’s all you got.”

“That’s true,” he said, his hand finding its way to her hair again. “I thought you were go

“I was thinking about it,” Andie said, “but I don’t really know how to throw a punch. It would have taken away from my point if I was making it from the back of an ambulance on my way to get x-rays.”

She felt his chest bounce with laughter again. “Plus,” he added, “how could you have lived with yourself if you messed up all this pretty?”

It was quiet for a beat before Andie sighed. “You are such a smug bastard.”

He laughed outright then, pulling her body up the length of his until they were face to face, and he brought his mouth to hers, kissing her with an expertise that made Andie feel like they had been kissing for years instead of just a few hours, almost as if she’d never kissed anyone but him.

He rolled them onto their sides as he ended the kiss, smiling softly as he brushed the hair away from her face. As he lifted his arm, Andie’s eyes were immediately drawn to the side of his torso. In the heat of the moment, she had vaguely noticed the ink there, but now that she was lucid, she lifted her head to get a better look. She brought her fingertips to his skin, and he moved his arm, giving her better access as she dragged them over the words written up the length of his side.

KNOW REGRETS.

Andie lifted her eyes to his. “Isn’t it supposed to be no regrets? Like, n-o?”

“What! It is?” he said, jumping up in fabricated alarm. “You mean it’s been spelled wrong this entire time?”

He looked up at Andie with mock incredulity, and Andie laughed, playfully pushing him back down onto the bed.

He reached up and pulled her down next to him, and she immediately crawled back into the nook of his body that seemed to be made just for her.

“It actually did say no regrets when I first got it. I was sixteen. Me and my friend went to this shady tattoo parlor that didn’t card. I’m lucky I made it out of that place without hepatitis,” he said, and Andie smiled against his chest. “I added the k and the w a few months after my mom died.”

Andie trailed her finger over the ripples in his stomach. “I don’t get it,” she said softly.

“Because when I got it, I was this headstrong, self-important teenager. I was go

Andie pressed her lips to his chest, thinking of everything he had endured that he shouldn’t have had to: the pressure from his overly critical father, the divorce, the loss of his mother.

“A lot of shit happened to me after that and, I don’t know, I guess I just realized I didn’t want to be the kind of guy who had no regrets. Honestly, I wouldn’t trust someone who had no regrets. It means that they’ve never learned from their mistakes, or they’re too arrogant to realize they’ve made them in the first place.” He shifted onto his side, facing her fully.

“I think having regrets makes us better people,” he said. “So…instead of having no regrets, we should know our regrets.” He lifted his arm and looked down at his side. “Wear them like a badge of lessons learned.”

He brought his eyes back to hers, and the intensity behind them caused a flood of butterflies in Andie’s stomach. “If we can’t recognize when we’ve messed up, then how will we know when we’ve gotten it right?”

Andie bit her lower lip, fighting the words that were on the tip of her tongue. She had told him earlier that she was going to fall in love with him.

But she knew then, with absolute certainty, that she already had.

She brought her lips to his, and his kiss once again took her breath away. I love you, she thought as she laid her head back on his chest. I love you, Chase McGuire.

“So,” Chase said softly, “do you have any secret tattoos?” He lifted the sheet, peeking underneath, and she squealed as she tugged it back around herself.

“No,” she laughed.

He pulled her body against his beneath the sheet. “I figured. I think it’s safe to say I’ve thoroughly acquainted myself with your body tonight,” he said, ru