“Hey, Lauren?” he called, and she stopped so abruptly her bag slid off her shoulder. She caught it at the last second and turned, her expression taken aback.Del smirked. “Don’t be so surprised that I know your name. You’re not as invisible as you think you are.”She closed her mouth, looking at him. “I’m not gonna stop calling you Red, though” he added casually.”

“The crust is the best part,” he explained around his mouthful of food. “If they made an all-crust pizza, I’d be a pig in shit.”Lauren took a delicate bite of her own slice. “I’m pretty sure they do. It’s called bread.”He stopped chewing as he looked at her, and a smirk lifted the corner of his mouth. She’s a wiseass.”

“Don’t ever apologize for being you, Andie.” She opened her eyes and turned to him. He was looking at her, and there was such conviction and sincerity in his expression that Andie felt like she was going to break under the weight of it.”

“Are you gonna put your shirt back on?” she blurted out. Chase froze, looking over his shoulder at her with the most maddening smile. “Why? Is this bothering you?” “I just…” Andie sputtered, floundering through her response. “I mean, what if we get pulled over or something?” “If we get pulled over, this could only work in your favor,” he said, running his hands over his chest. Andie tried to stifle a laugh. “My God, you’re insufferable.”

“And when he winked at her, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt thatfrom that moment on, she would do anything for him.”

“I think it’s sad that we’ll never know her,” Chase said. She glanced over at him suspiciously. “Think of how many people there are in the world that you’ll never know. Like that guy right there,” he said, nodding toward the car that whizzed by them. “What’s that guy’s name? Where’s he going? Is he happy with his life? Did he want Bella to end up with Edward or Jacob?”

“Well,sometimes if something is really important to you, itgets stuck in your body,” he said, poking her ribs andmaking her laugh. “So even if your mind thinks that it’sgone, it’s still in there, kind of hiding inside of you, justwaiting for you to remember. It never goes away.”