Chase and Company

Chapter Sixteen: Two Different Kinds of Hurt

                “I’m not going to the Hamptons.”

               Everybody must have gotten whiplash from whipping their heads around so quickly to face me.

               “What the hell are you saying, Shay?” Clark cried.

               I glared at him. “I have work.” I looked pointedly at Aiden. “We have work.”

               Aiden scoffed. “We work for my mom,” he said. “She granted us two week off.”

               “This is why Lan and I went to go see her,” Hudson contributed. “We needed to sort the whole thing out with her as well as getting permission to use the Hampton house, and asking for you and Aiden to come along.”

               I folded my arms across my chest. “Just because we’re not at work doesn’t mean work stops,” I said. “The show is in more than a month and there’s still a lot to do.”

               Landon raised an eyebrow. “You have a partner, don’t you?”

               I snorted. “Yeah, like he ever does work.”

               All three boys frowned. “That’s not fair. You’ve been way too busy and stressed lately,” Aiden said. “Seriously Shay, you need a vacation. He can just take over while you’re gone. Do you need us to talk to him—“

               “No!” I hurried to say. I made eye contact with Jillian and we both had a fleeting moment of shared panic. Jillian was the only other person who knew that Brody was my partner and she agreed that none of the boys should know that I’ve had so much contact with him.

               “I’ll talk to him,” I amended, trying to ease their suspicious looks. “Don’t worry, I’ll go.”

               Hesitantly, Hudson smiled. “Perfect.”

               “So when do we leave?” Camille asked excitedly.

               “Tonight,” Hudson confirmed. “All your bags are already packed.” He glanced Camille’s agape mouth and took it as a question. “This is why I took you shopping last week. Aiden did the same with Shay.”

               “What about me?” Clark protested. “Why didn’t anyone take me shopping?”

               Landon smirked. “Sorry babe, but I don’t bat for that team, and the other two are already taken.” Landon glanced at me. “Well, practically taken.”

               I’m pretty sure my face was redder than Jillian’s hair. “Jillian, are you coming along?” Clark asked, oblivious to his best friend’s embarrassment.

               Jillian shook her head. “I have some things to attend to here,” she said, pouting. She glanced at Clark, who seemed truly and deeply crestfallen. Blushing slightly, she muttered, “But if you want, I can go out with you when you guys get back.”

               Clark’s head snapped up, grinning goofily. He turned to everyone. “Well then, what are we waiting for? The sooner we’re at the Hamptons, the sooner we can come back and I can go on that date!”

~~~

               Almost two hours later, I woke up from my nap on Aiden’s shoulder just as Landon pulled up in front of the prettiest home I had ever seen. A dark gray, the huge house had white steps leading up to the white porch. The second story balcony was set into the roof as it wrapped around two thirds of the house, and overlooked part of the front as it continued to the back of the house.