Head Over Hearts

Chapter 6

~ ~ Chris ~ ~

Regret was a bitch. By keeping my distance, pushing her away, I didn't know a damn thing what was going on in Beth's life.

Dragging my hand across my forehead. I should have got in the car and gone and picked her up myself.

The waiting was strangling me, slowly, as I stood in my open doorway, barefooted, in a pair of shorts and an old tee-shirt. I was staring so hard at the driveway like I could magically manifest Beth's truck.

Fuck.

She should be here by now.

The temptation to call April back had my fingers twitching. I wanted to call Beth, but if she was driving and it distracted her, that might make the situation a lot worse.

Although I didn't know what the situation was. April had been vague about why Beth was driving to my home in the middle of the night.

I tried to think back on anything I missed in my conversations with April and Cal over the past month. According to April, Beth had moved out and was now a live-in nanny for a family that seemed nice. And she'd not mentioned anything about a boyfriend.

So what the hell had happened?

But April had been upset and panicky, and that was enough to have me worried.

When my mobile phone had dragged me from sleep, I'd thought something had happened to Cal, him being a cop. But hearing her say Beth's name caught my heart in an invisible lasso, squeezing it to a standstill.

And because I didn't know what was happening with each passing second, the scenarios of what could have happened spread anguish through my veins. "Where are you, Beth?" My chest felt so tight I couldn't breathe.

"Chris," I heard my name called from the top of the stairs. It was Heather. "Still no sign of your niece?"

I cringed when she said, niece.

"No." I turned briefly. "Go back to sleep. I might be a while." It was the second time me and Heather had hooked up. It had broken my never-ride the rollercoaster twice rule. The rule that was supposed to be cast iron since Judy. However, Heather wasn't clingy. In fact, I felt like she was using me. And I was fine with being a booty call.

I would just need to make sure she left before Beth got up in the morning. The last thing I wanted was for them to meet.

"Are you sure you don't need me to leave?" I was an asshole, but it would make me an even bigger asshole to kick her out in the middle of the night. "I don't want to get in the way."

I should let her go home. "You're not in the way. Go back to bed."

"Okay, shout if you need me."

"Sure," I replied absently.