“Thanks for letting me know you got pizza,” I say dryly when I sit down.
“We didn’t want to bother you,” Dad replies. “I know how little sleep you get.”
“And no one wanted to go up and risk seeing your naked ass on top of—” Mason cuts off when Nana glares at him.
“Speaking of, where is Chloe?” Mom asks.
“She’s still sleeping. I don’t want to wake her up,” I tell her and pick up my pizza.
“Is she not feeling well?”
“No,” I say. “I think she’s worn herself out from traveling back and forth from Chicago to LA.”
“Oh, she lives in LA? That’s rough.”
“She could move back to the Midwest,” Mom notes, hoping if she says it enough it’ll actually happen.
“She could,” I agree. “If she wanted to.”
“She seemed like she did want to,” Mom goes on, and Jacob gives me a look from across the table, knowing where the conversation is going. “She did mention that she likes it here.”
“Mentioning you like an area doesn’t mean she’s putting her house up for sale,” Dad says.
“Chloe is a small-town girl at heart, like her mother,” Mom says. “I’m sure she’d prefer our wonderful little town over Los Angeles. The crime rate there is high, isn’t it, Mason?”
“I don’t work in LA,” he says back, not wanting to get involved in Mom’s crazy planning and plotting.
“Well, all I’m saying is Silver Ridge is a much safer place to live and raise a family.” Mom blots the grease off her pizza with a napkin. “I’m still holding out hope for you two.” Mom looks at Mason and Jacob. “But I think Sam's the next to get married.”
“Start taking bets,” Jacob grumbles. “Profit off of our misery while you’re at it.”
Mom gives him a pointed look. “I want you all to be happy, no matter what that entails. If the only grandchildren you give me have four legs, then I’m happy if you’re happy.”
“I like being single,” Mason quips.
“I did too,” Nana agrees with a wink. “It was much more fun to be single, if you know what I mean.”
“See?” Mason motions to Nana. “Also, gross.”
“Oh, don’t act like you think I’m innocent. If I was, you wouldn’t be here.”
“I don’t like being single,” Lennon says with a frown. “I think I’m cursed to be alone forever.”
“You’re looking at it all wrong,” Mason tells her. “It’s a blessing. No one to hold you back or tie you down. And no one to disappoint you.”
“That’s depressing,” Lennon tells him. “And you want to talk about disappointment? Try online dating. Yep, pretty sure I’m going to be single forever.”
“You need to get out of this town,” Mason says and immediately winces from Mom’s icy glare. “It’s a nice town, I’ll give you that,” he adds. “It’s quiet and relatively safe, and yeah, I like it. I’d like to come back here eventually, but…” He looks at me. “We can’t all date the one person we had the hots for back in high school.”
“Then date someone else,” Mom says. “You dad wasn’t my high school sweetheart.”
“My point is,” Mason starts, and we all watch him knowing Mom’s not going to like what he’s going to say. “Small towns mean small dating pools.”
Mom just purses her lips and picks up her pizza. “How’s your class this year?” she asks Lennon.
“My first-graders are great, but I have some parents I already know are going to drive me insane. I have a new principal this year too,” she adds ruefully. “A new hire from an outside school corporation. Not me.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell her, knowing she’s been applying for principal jobs for several years now. “Are you back at Silver Ridge Elementary now?”
She nods. “Yeah. The big city chewed me up and spit me out. Though it’s kind of funny I leave Detroit right as Mason gets reassigned there. I do like it here, like Aunt Jeanette.”
“You always were my favorite niece.”
“I’ll let the fact that I’m your only niece slide.” Lennon winks and leans to the side, looking out of the dining room. “There’s either a ghost in the house or Chloe is coming downstairs.”
I stand, smiling as soon as I see her coming down the stairs. Chloe’s eyes meet mine and she smiles too, and then sees everyone behind me in the dining room. She slows, eyes going wide.
“Your whole family is here,” she whispers. “And you just let me sleep?”
I slip my arm around her. “You didn’t feel well. I thought you should rest as much as you could.”
“Now I feel stupid.”
“Why would resting when you don’t feel well make you stupid? I think it would be the opposite.”
“Because,” Chloe presses, cheeks reddening a bit, “now I have to walk in and everyone will look at me.”
“And they wouldn’t look at you if you’d walked in with the rest of us?”
“Yes,” she says with a laugh. I kiss her neck and go into the kitchen with her. The dining room is connected to the kitchen by a butler’s pantry with cabinetry that was original to the old farmhouse. You can’t see straight in, but I can tell by how quiet everyone’s has gotten that they’ll all peering in, or at the very least listening.
“Now I have to be the center of attention.”
I laugh. “Wait, so being on a talk show or being interviewed on national TV is fine, but walking into the dining room after everyone else is already seated isn’t?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds even worse.” She picks up a plate from the counter. “Really, I can’t ever face your family again. We should leave now while I still have my dignity.”
“And pizza.”
She puts two pieces of cheese pizza on her plate. “I have to eat.”
“Fuck, I love you, Chloe.”
Her eyes meet mine. “Good.”
“What do you want to drink?” I ask as I get a glass from the cabinet.
“Water’s fine.” She turns and sees the wine on the counter. “Oh, and maybe like a little bit of that.”
I fill up a glass of water and pour half a glass of wine for her and take it into the dining room. Cookie, Mom’s old gray cat who Jacob rescued years ago, is sitting on my chair, and looks at me innocently when I go to sit down. I pet her and then gently move her to the floor, where she slinks over and rubs against Mom’s legs, knowing she’ll get table scraps. That cat begs worse than a dog, and she’s fat enough to prove it.
“Hey, Lennon,” Chloe says as she sits down. “I don’t know if you remember me. I’m Chloe.”
“I remember you,” Lennon says. “I played D&D with you and Rory a couple times.”
“Right, you did! Do you still play?”
Lennon shakes her head. “No. But only because I have no one to play with, well, other than Rory. But she had to go and get married and leave me.”
“The nerve, right?” Chloe says with a smile.
“How are you feeling, honey?” Mom asks.
“I’m fine,” Chloe says without missing a beat. Her cheeks are still a little flushed, making me think she might still have a fever, and the usual spark in her eyes has yet to return. “I’m tired from traveling so much, I think.”
“You need to make my lazy do-nothing brother go see you,” Mason says with his mouth full. “LA has better weather than Michigan this time of year.”
“Oh, it does,” Chloe agrees. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to lounging around my pool with a drink in my hand. Well, after I finish the book I’m working on.”
“I am a huge fan of the Nightfall show. Sorry, just had to get that out of the way. I’ll admit I never read the books, but the trailer for the show hooked me and I’ve been a fan since day one,” Lennon says rather quickly.
Chloe smiles. “That’s always good to hear. It’s kind of scary having my vision leave me and get filmed and directed by someone who’s not me.”
Nana Benson leans forward, eyes narrowing as she looks at Chloe. “Who is that?” she asks. “Marion? Is that you?”
“No, Mom,” my own mother tells her. “That’s Chloe. She’s Marion’s daughter.”
“Well, shit! You’re the spitting image of her,” Nana says and Chloe smiles. “How is Marion doing these days?”
Chloe’s smile wavers. “She died years ago. Cancer.”
“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry. I remember your mother.” Nana looks at Mom. “And the hell these two raised.”
The smile is back on Chloe’s face. “I like hearing the stories about my mom when she was a kid. You know, I have all her old yearbooks.”
“Oh my goodness,” Mom laughs. “Please do us all a favor and don’t even look at my photos.”
“My favorite is your freshman year,” Chloe goes on, smile growing. “The big hair and braces was a great look for you.”
Dad nods. “We might not have been high school sweethearts, but I remember that look.”
“That’s how you fell for me, right?” Mom asks, and Dad shakes his head, making us laugh.
“What have you been up to, dear?” Nana asks Chloe.
“I’m a writer,” she replies. “I write romance novels.”
Nana’s eyes light up. “Is there—” She leans in closer "—sex in your books?”
“Always,” Chloe says with a wink.
“Well, leave me a copy.”
Chloe smiles and, fuck, she’s so beautiful. Her hair is messy from sex and then falling asleep, and I’m pretty sure she put her sweater on backwards when she got redressed, but she’s perfect and I wouldn’t have her any other way.
14
Sam
“Ohhh, that feels nice.” Chloe holds her hands out and closes her eyes, soaking in the warmth of the fire pit. We’re outside on the patio of my parents’ house, sitting around the fire with Jacob, Mason, and Lennon.
“Let’s play a drinking game,” Mason suggests.
“Haven’t you had enough to drink already?” Jacob replies.
“To enjoy hanging out with you? Clearly not.” Mason reaches down and picks up a bottle of whiskey none of us saw him bring outside. “Who’s in?”
“I’ll play,” Lennon says, finishing her can of sparkling water. “But I’m getting wine. Chloe, you want some too?”
“Yeah, that would be great, thanks,” Chloe tells her. We’re snuggled up together on an outdoor lounge chair, with a blanket over our laps. Chloe started coughing more during dinner but insisted she’s fine, and I’m doing my best to put my years of medical training aside and not pester her about it.
Obviously, I like taking care of people and making patients feel better. I get a deep sense of satisfaction from helping ease pain or cure any sort of ailment. It’s what separates the good doctors from the just okay ones…the ones who look at patients as people with lives and families and value from the ones who look at them as puzzles to be solved.
But seeing Chloe sick hits me on a whole other level. I don’t want her to feel one ounce of discomfort, and knowing that I’m going to drop a bomb on her later makes my stomach twist up in knots. Everything feels wrong.
Sitting around the fire with my family.
Chloe cuddled up in my lap.
The friendly chatter. The not-so-subtle talk about the future.
Wrong. All of it.
Because I’m keeping a truth from everyone, and once I finally fess up and come clean, the hopeful feeling in the air will be zapped away.
“What about you guys?” Lennon gets up, zipping her jacket in preparation to move away from the fire. “Want anything or are you going to be gross and share a bottle with Mason?”
“Sure,” I say, feeling the urge to drink much stronger than usual.
“What do you want?”
“A Coke,” I tell her. “Jack and Coke sounds good.”
Jacob nods. “I’ll have the same.”
“Need help?” Chloe asks, already getting up. She goes in the house with Lennon, and my heart aches the second she leaves.
“I gotta say, bro,” Mason starts, unscrewing the lid to the bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand. “You and Chloe are good together. I never thought I’d sink so low to admit it, but I’m fine with her officially joining the family.”
“It’s kind of soon for that,” I shoot back, throat tightening. I want nothing more than to ask Chloe to marry me. “We’ve only been dating for a few weeks.”
“Yeah, but you’ve been in love with her for years,” Jacob quips. “And I’m sure she’s more than tolerated you for a while.”
“True,” I agree and feel tempted to take the bottle of whiskey from Mason. The truth bubbles up on my tongue. Confessing everything to my brothers would bring me a level of peace, I know. We might not always get along, but I know I can always count on them. “I, uh,” I start and swallow hard. The back door opens and closes, and I twist my head around, seeing Chloe and Lennon come back outside already.
“That was fast,” I say when Chloe comes back onto the lounge chair. She’s holding a stemless glass of wine filled with dark red liquid and another glass, with my Coke inside. Ice clinks against the sides of the glass.
“I already added whiskey,” she tells me. “From the house.”
“Let’s get started,” Mason says, holding up the bottle of whiskey. Lennon sits back down in a folding chair, taking a drink of her wine.
“What are we playing?” she asks, looking at Mason. “I assume you have something in mind?”
Mason doesn’t, but he won’t let that stop him. “Twenty questions.”
“That’s not a drinking game, dumbass,” Jacob huffs.
“Like I said earlier, you can turn anything into a drinking game. We’ll take turns asking questions. Be as personal as you’d like. If you don’t want to answer, take a drink. If you don’t want to drink, answer honestly.”
Lennon’s eyes light up. “This could be fun! Who’s gonna start? Mason? Jacob?”
“You start,” Mason tells Jacob. “We’ll go in a circle, so you start.”
“Uhhh.” Jacob takes a drink as he thinks. “What is your most embarrassing moment,” Jacob says with a shrug. “Chloe, you’re up first.”
“Ohhh,” Chloe muses, scrunching up her face as she thinks. She turns her head, looking at me for half a second, and I think she’s going to tell everyone about that stupid, fated party back in college. The one where she was tricked into showing up in costume, and the one where I stood there like a drunk idiot, too stunned and scared to do something about my feelings for her.
“Right after the showrunners announced that they were officially turning my Nightfall series into a show, I did a live interview with this huge book blogger in Miami. It was my first live interview in front of thousands of people and was already nervous, plus even more so because we were doing the interview at the beach and someone picked out my outfit for me and got my swim top a size too small, and we didn’t have time to change. It clasped in the front, and when I inhaled, the clasp broke and my top popped open. Thankfully, I caught it before my nipples were aired to the world, but part of the clasp that flew off hit the blogger in the eye.”
We all laugh, and Chloe buries her face in her hands. “The poor girl started bleeding and everything, and we tried out best to carry on with the interview. I held a floppy hat over my chest, and she held a bag of ice to her face. It was awful.”
“That would be,” Lennon agrees, still laughing. “Okay…my turn.” She takes a drink. “Don’t worry, I’m still telling you. I just needed a drink first, because the most embarrassing thing that ever happened was I shit my pants on a date and I wish I was joking.”
“How the fuck do you shit your pants?” Mason asks. “Was this recent?”
“Two years ago, so the wound is definitely still raw.” Lennon throws her head back, laughing at herself. “I was on this fitness kick and hardly ate anything that wasn’t considered clean. I went out with this guy I really liked, and h
e insisted I order the burger I was eyeing as we waited for our table. I decided to treat myself to onions rings and a milkshake too. Yeah…bad idea. My stomach could not handle the overload of grease all at once.”
“Was there a second date?” Chloe asks.
“Oh, no.”
“Well, any guy who won’t stick by your side after shitting your pants isn’t worth your time,” Chloe laughs. “What about you?” She turns her face up to mine and it hits me all over again how much I fucking love this woman. “Would you stay with me if I shit my pants on our first date?”
“I would. I’d bring you new pants and everything.”
“You have an unfair advantage,” Lennon says. “You’ve known each other for like ever.”
“True,” Chloe agrees. “Keep the circle going. Mason?”
He shrugs. “I don’t get embarrassed easily.”
“Drink then.” Jacob holds up his cup and they both take a drink. All eyes fall on me, and I have to agree with Mason on not getting embarrassed easily.
“If I had to pick…my first week on the floor in med school, I was given the wrong chart and went into a room thinking I had a pregnant patient, but it turned out to be an overweight middle-aged woman who as at the hospital to have a severely infected toe cut off.”
“Psssshhh,” Chloe says with a shake of her head. “That’s nothing compared to nip slips and shitting your pants.”
“My turn.” Mason pokes at the fire with a stick. “Who’s your hall pass?”
“Hall pass?” Jacob echoes.
“It’s the one person—typically a celebrity—you want to fuck and your significant other would give you a hall pass to do so,” Lennon explains. “Chloe’s already had mine.” She wiggles her eyebrows. “And god help me if Charles isn’t as good in bed as I imagined.”
“I, uh, I, we…we never slept together,” Chloe says, flustered from being put on the spot.
“Awkward,” Mason says with a snort of laughter. “Though don’t feel bad, Chloe. Sam was a manwhore.”
Desperate Times (Silver Ridge Series Book 2) Page 13
