Emancipating Andie

With an a

Andie dropped her head back and closed her eyes. Maybe she was overreacting. Honestly, if she felt stupid explaining why she didn’t like Chase to Colin, then there was a good chance her reasons for not liking him actually were stupid. Plus, it was possible that she had caught him on a bad day that night in the cellar. Lord knows she wasn’t at her best at that particular moment either. Maybe he’d be different. Maybe she’d be different. Maybe they would have a decent time.

Or maybe she’d be stuck in the confines of a car with an obnoxious, caustic, antagonistic moron for two entire days.

She exhaled heavily as she powered down the laptop before bringing it back to her bedroom. She had been looking forward to two whole days alone. While solitude made some people uncomfortable, like Tracey, who would turn on every television she owned to simulate a house full of people when she was by herself, Andie relished her alone time. Whether that was the result of being an only child, or growing up in a house where it was customary for everyone to be off in separate corners of the house doing their own thing for hours at a time, she didn’t know. What she did know was that her two days of pleasant seclusion had just slipped right through her fingers.

What irritated her more though was that she had pla

Few things made her more uncomfortable than the unknown.

She grabbed her iPod and put it in the dock, starting the playlist she had titled “Mellow” and singing softly to herself in an effort to snap out of it as she rummaged through the kitchen cabinets, collecting the things she’d need to make di

A little while later, she had just finished dishing everything out onto plates when she heard her front door open. Seven-thirty on the nose, she thought with a smile, bringing the plates to the table. She couldn’t see him yet, but she heard the sounds of him by the door. She knew he’d be taking his shoes off and placing them on the side of the entryway. She knew he’d take off his jacket and drape it over the small half wall. She knew he’d come over and kiss her, and tell her everything smelled delicious. And after di

And in that moment, it had never felt so good.

“So are you all set?” Colin asked as Andie pulled the car up to the curb.

“Yeah, I just have to finish packing and then stop by the restaurant tonight.”

“What time are you heading out tomorrow?”

“Early. No later than six. If all goes according to plan, I should get down to you sometime Thursday afternoon.”

“Alright, be careful. I’ll call you when I land,” he said, leaning over to kiss her. It was quick and chaste, but then he leaned in again, this time kissing her fully.

“Mmm,” she hummed as he ended the kiss, leaning into him as he pulled away from her like they were magnets.

He smiled to himself as he got out of the car, reaching into the backseat to grab his bags before placing them on the curb. He turned, leaning into the passenger window.

“I’m really glad Chase is going with you.”

Her smile dropped, but he seemed not to notice as he blew her a kiss and turned to grab his bags, walking through the automatic doors.

She watched him go, the seed he had planted with that last sentence slowly growing into a lump of foreboding in her stomach.

CHAPTER TWO

Chase McGuire sat on his bed, leaning over in his sleepy haze to zip up the duffel bag at his feet. He needed coffee. It was too damn early to be up, but Colin had told him that Andie wanted to leave by six that morning.

He still didn’t know why he’d agreed to this.

He had no problem paying the extra money for a last-minute ticket to Florida, but Colin was insistent that he drive down with his girl instead. He had to admit, it was a little strange to have a guy practically beg him to spend forty-eight hours alone with his girlfriend, but he knew this was about Andie’s safety. Apparently, she was adamant about driving and could not be persuaded to fly down with him.

He hadn’t thought about Andie much in the past year or so, not since that night in Justin’s wine cellar, but considering what he remembered of her, it seemed fitting that she would stubbornly insist on driving all the way to Florida alone.

The cab arrived outside, a

Stubborn.

That’s what he remembered the most about her, he thought as he slid into the back of the cab and gave the driver Andie’s address, the one Colin had given him when they had solidified these plans.

But as the gentle rocking of the cab began to lull him, he closed his eyes, and he couldn’t help the other things he started to remember about her now that he was thinking of her again. How awestruck she looked wandering into the cellar that night, and how quickly those big brown eyes had changed from i

At least, it wasn’t supposed to be.

He remembered the way her jeans fit her like a second skin, the way the low neckline of her shirt straddled the line between classy and painfully seductive.

His eyes flipped open as the cab came to a stop, bringing him back to the present and his senses.

He laughed to himself, paying the cab driver. Chase was fully aware that he had a tendency to exaggerate a woman’s appeal when he knew she was off limits, and that in this case, what he remembered of Andie would be even more overstated since he hadn’t seen her in over a year. Thankfully, he had enough self-awareness to know exactly what needed to happen. He needed to walk into her apartment and see that she was just like any other woman—just a pretty girl, not nearly as appealing as he built her up to be in his mind, and that would be that.

He walked up the steps to her apartment with a duffel bag in each hand and used his elbow to knock on the door. It was barely a minute before he heard shuffling, followed by the muted click of the dead bolt.

The door swung open, and his mind went completely blank, save for one word.