"Anytime, Abby."

Ellie was in the kitchen when Abby entered.

One look at Abby, and she stopped wiping down the counter. "What's wrong?"

Abby didn't know where to start. How to explain the situation without letting another person know

Chase's closely guarded secret?

"Did things go bad with Tommy Leavitt?"

Abby immediately shook her head. "No. Tommy and Becky were wonderful."

"Then why do you look so upset? Something didn't happen with Chase, did it?"

"Sort of." Abby sank onto one of the wooden chairs at the table.

Ellie joined her, worry creasing her brow as she waited for her sister to continue.

"Summer-Ann showed up at the party, and she told everyone a secret that Chase has obviously worked

very hard to hide."

"Oh no," Ellie whispered, visibly distressed, much more upset than Abby's vague description warranted.

Abby frowned, but then the reason dawned on her. "You know that Chase can't read."

"He can read," Ellie said defensively, her dark blue eyes brimming with tears. Then she amended her

statement. "He can read some and write a little too. He's severely dyslexic."

"And you taught him to read." Suddenly everything made sense. Elbe's relaxed demeanor with Chase.

His knowledge of her cooking skills and, of course, what she read.

"A little," Ellie said. "It's difficult and frustrating for him. He can do it, but it's very slow. He tries so

hard." She started to cry.

Abby hugged her sister, and she felt like crying too.

For the boy who had looked so alone at graduation. For the guy who wore a relaxed smile when he

must have always been on guard. And for the man who had been so wounded today, his pride horribly injured.

"Where is he?" Ellie sniffed.

"I don't know."

By the following Thursday, Abby still didn't know where he was. Sometime, she guessed while she was at work, Chase had returned home to get Chester and to pick up his truck. But other than that, Chase Jordan had disappeared off the face of the earth.

"Well, he does have to come home eventually," Ellie said practically.

Abby knew he did, but alter checking his driveway for the umpteenth time that evening alone, she was starting to doubt the fact.

Sitting down at the kitchen table, she sighed and lay her head onto the table.

Ellie came up behind her, rubbed her back and placed a cup of tea near her nose. "What are you going to do?" She lifted her head, staring at the steam curling out of the cup. Ellie always boiled the water when she made tea. Abby was too lazy; she just got it warm enough to get the tea bag to steep. And everyone thought Abby was the perfectionist.

"I'm going to go to Boston."

Ellie nodded. "So you've made up your mind?"

"Yes." Although the decision might be the worst mistake of her life. "I'm going to pack up my apartment, find someone to sublet it, and move here." The surety she heard in her own voice impressed her.

"How long will you be gone?"

"Hopefully only two weeks at the most."

"He'll have to be home by then," Ellie said reassuringly.

"Yeah." And if he wasn't, Abby would continue to wait.

Chapter 26.

Chase sat on the dock, drinking a beer and half-heartedly dangling a fishing line in the water. Chester lay on the dock beside him.

When the dog's tail started thumping against the weathered boards of the dock, Chase turned to look at the long path that led from his cabin to the water.

"I knew you'd be here," Mason said, his wing-tipped shoes making a staccato clack on the boards.

"Beer?" Chase hauled up a rope that was dangling in the water. A six-pack of beer was tied to the end. Three cans were already gone from the plastic rings.

Mason sat down beside him and pulled one off. Chase grabbed another and dropped the single can back in the water. It bobbed for a second, then sank.

The crack of their cans being opened seemed to echo over the silent lake.

Chase imagined what people would think if they happened upon the odd couple. Chase looked like a crazy hermit. His hair was a mess, and he hadn't shaved in a week. He was wearing a pair of cut-offs and a sleeveless sweatshirt that even he noticed smelled a little funky. Mason wore polished shoes, tailored slacks, a long-sleeved dress shirt and a tie with little things on it that looked like...

"Are those bananas on your tie?"

Mason picked up the tie, studied it for a moment, then dropped it. "Yeah, I thought they were just random half-moon shapes when I bought it."

Chase nodded as if the same thing had happened to him many times.

"I've seen Abby. She came to me looking for you. And I know what Summer-Ann did. Ginny," he added as though that were explanation enough.

It was.

"So when do you plan to stop this little self-pity fest?"

Mason's question caught him up short. "What?"

"Chase, you can't just hide. No one thinks any less of you."

"I can't read," Chase said flatly. "I'm sure they don't think I'm a genius."

"Actually I think quite a few people do. They sure think it's pretty darn amazing you kept it a secret all through school. How did you do that?"

"Got kicked out of class a lot," Chase said dully.

"Tricky."

"Mmm."

"It is," Mason said more emphatically.

Chase didn't respond again.

"So this is the plan-hide at your old fishing cabin, drink beer and feel sorry for yourself?"

Chase took a sip of his beer.

"Abby is really worried about you."

"Well, you can tell her I'm fine," Chase said.

"It would be better if you stopped wallowing in self-pity and told her yourself," Mason stated.

"You seem to have a theme going here."

"I'm trying to get a point across."

"I thought you were no longer an advocate of relationships."

"I'm not. Not for myself, anyway. But I've seen how happy you were lately. And I also saw how worried and upset Abby is."

"Don't forget pity," Chase added bitterly. "Don't forget the pity she's feeling for me."

Mason snorted. "Like I already said, the only pity I've seen is the pity you're wallowing in." He got to his feet, took a drink of his beer and set the can down on the deck. "I'm going. But I thought you should know that there are a lot of people out there worrying about you."

Chase didn't turn to watch Mason leave, instead listening to the click of his shiny dress shoes grow more distant.

He took another drink of beer and shook the fishing rod. He wasn't feeling sorry for himself. He was taking a much-needed vacation.

Hell, when was the last time he'd taken any real time off, other than a day here or there? Over a year anyway. That was all he was doing. Taking a break.

He reached over and patted Chester's huge, yellow head. The dog's tail thumped lazily.

He knew Abby would be looking for him. And he also knew, if she found him, she'd tell him that his learning disability didn't bother her. But it would have to. Someone so exceptionally intelligent couldn't help but feel embarrassed.

Okay, so he had technically run off, rather than take a planned vacation. But he'd been doing Abby a favor; giving her the out she would be too nice to make for herself. She didn't deserve a guy who couldn't read her articles in the science magazines or read to their children at night Hell, he couldn't even read the menu at a restaurant.

Well, that wasn't exactly true. He could read some. Ellie had taught him more than any teacher had throughout school. But the process was slow and tedious. And it frustrated him that he couldn't seem to get any faster. No matter how many books he and Ellie sat and read. And they had read-probably a hundred together, ranging from children's hooks to romance novels. It just never seemed to get easier.

He sighed. Ellie hadn't told Abby his secret. Of course, he knew she wouldn't. Ellie didn't think it was anyone's business but Chase's. Still, he wondered if Ellie disapproved of him being with Abby. If she thought Abby was too good for him.

Nah, not Ellie. She was a kind soul, a romantic. She would have seen his relationship with Abby as a real-life romance. God knows, her romance novels were riddled with strife. He guessed he should be thankful this was the only problem he and Abby had. No uncles trying to kill them for an inheritance. No secret babies. No amnesia. All and all, his reading disorder was small potatoes.

But it wasn't. Not to him.

He should have known Summer-Ann wasn't going to take being fired without a fight. But he'd never believed she would go this far. She'd known about his dyslexia for years and years. It was one of the reasons she had dumped him for the college boy. She wanted someone who was going to be able to make a good living. She wanted someone she could be proud of.

At the time, her rejection had hurt like hell. But now, he could understand it. Chase had been a very poor prospect indeed. And ultimately, he had forgiven Summer for all her lies, because he understood her desire to be someone else, to live somewhere else, to have more. He wanted all of that too.

And to some extent, he had been able to get more, to make over Chase Jordan into a different person. He'd changed his wild ways. He'd built a successful business. But he'd gotten greedy, like Summer-Ann had been. He wanted something that was too far out of his reach. Abby.

She appeared in his mind. So lovely, so classy, so intelligent. So out of his league.

What had he been thinking? Had he really believed that he could hide his dyslexia from her forever? The answer was easy-he hadn't been thinking. He'd been a lovesick fool, believing everything would simply work out.

He took another swallow of his beer, draining it. He looked down at the rope binding the beer to the dock and considered pulling up the last one. Then he decided against it He was livid with Summer-Ann, but she had made him see the truth and come out of his fantasy world. Abby wasso far above him. He was a stupid schmuck, stuck on earth reaching for a star.

He eased back against the warm boards of the dock. Chester lifted his head to look at him, then dropped it back down onto his paws with a loud sigh.

The sky was a deep blue scattered with puffy clouds. A dragonfly buzzed over Chase's head, and the lap of the water against the dock's pilings created a peaceful cadence.