I couldn’t stop looking at her.
So beautiful, yet distant. Confident on the exterior, but so obviously feeling out of place, wondering how long she had to stay before she could sneak out without offending anyone.
Over the last nine months, since Chloe had reappeared back in my life, I’d gotten to know everything I could about her. Not just by doing background checks and such for Gabe, but by observing her whenever we were near each other.
Shit, that makes me sound fucking creepy, I thought as I tore my gaze away from where Chloe was standing by herself on the deck, overlooking the dark backyard pensively.
I looked down to see Shauna watching me curiously, and mentally berated myself for being such an obvious dick.
“Do you need anything?” I asked. “Another drink?”
“Why don’t you just go talk to her?” my date asked, perfectly comfortable calling me on my bullshit.
“Huh? No…” I stammered. “I don’t want to talk to her.”
Shauna rolled her eyes, then squeezed my bicep.
“I think you like her,” she whispered, leaning in so no one could hear. “You’re different with her than I’ve ever seen you.”
Shauna had been my plus one, and I hers, whenever either of us needed one for as long as I could remember. We’d both had serious relationships, her even a short stint of marriage, but we were always there for each other if we were single.
“Nah, she’s like family,” I replied lamely, sneaking another glance at Chloe and not feeling the least bit familial about the way she looked in that skirt.
Shauna snorted, indicating she didn’t believe me in the least.
“Whatever you say, hot shot, I’m not gonna make you talk to her,” Shauna said, then effectively changed the subject when she added, “Oh, and my roommate is out of town this weekend, so, if you want to come by after this, I’m game.”
Shauna winked, then walked over to where Dillon was piling a mound of shrimp cocktail on his plate and said something that made him laugh.
Yeah, so Shauna and I also had sex, in addition to being each other’s plus ones, whenever we were both single.
We’d never been serious, had never even hinted at it. It was a weird relationship, one Jasmine never understood, but Dillon wished he could have. We didn’t want anything from each other, other than to be there to lend occasional support and fuck like bunnies when the need arose.
I enjoyed Shauna, but I was getting tired of being in relationships that didn’t go anywhere.
I looked over to where Gabe and Zoey were talking with Gabe’s parents. Gabe had his hand around her shoulder, a huge smile on his face, and Zoey was absently rubbing her baby bump.
As usual, my cousin was one lucky bastard, and I couldn’t help but feel a little bit jealous over his good fortune. Once again, he and I had been together when a woman had come wandering up to us, and once again, she’d gone for him. First Chloe, then Zoey … and they were sisters. Maybe something in their DNA was attracted to large, built, rich football players…
No, that was in every woman’s DNA.
Not liking the direction of my thoughts, which were heading into self-pity land, I turned from my happy cousin, my gaze catching on Chloe once more. I could see her sigh deeply, her shoulders hunching slightly, making her seem sad or upset, and before I could tell them to stop, my feet started in her direction.
The noise from my loud family’s raised voices dimmed as I stepped outside and closed the glass door quietly behind me. Hearing the door latch, Chloe looked over at me, her face betraying that she wasn’t very excited to see me approaching.
I couldn’t blame her; I had been kind of an ass every time she’d seen me.
“Hey, I was, uh, just coming to check and see if you’re okay,” I stuttered awkwardly as I walked toward her.
Chloe tilted her head in a manner that I found endearing, and gave me an uncertain smile.
“Oh,” she started, a nervous laugh escaping her lips. “Yeah, I’m fine, just wanted to get some fresh air. I love it out here.”
Chloe gestured out in to the abyss that was Gabe’s yard.
“Yeah, they’ve got a great setup here. Have you, ah, thought about where you want to live?”
Chloe shook her head and replied, “A little, but I’m still doing research. I did stop by the realtor’s office on Main Street today and got a list of houses, plus I have an app on my phone that shows houses available in the local area.”
“Well, the good thing is, we’re small enough that you can live pretty much anywhere and be close to downtown. It just depends if you want a gated community, a place on the lake, or something downtown.”
“Chris and I have been checking the different areas out. Of course, he wants to be close to here, but I’m not sure if that’s what I want…” her voice trailed off, and by the look on her face, I could tell she thought she’d talked out of turn.
“Hey,” I said, hoping my voice was gentle and understanding. “It’s an awkward situation, everyone knows that. You moved here so that Chris could be by Gabe and our family, and you by Zoey, which is pretty amazing. I think everyone would understand if you didn’t also want to be Gabe’s neighbor. Find a place that suits you and will make you happy.”
Chloe turned toward me, her face showing her surprise at my words of support.
“Thanks, Reardon,” she said softly, and my name on her lips caused my insides to light up. “I know you haven’t been exactly thrilled about me, and everything I’ve done, so it means a lot to me to hear you say that.”
My brows furrowed at her words, and I wondered just how big of a dick I’d been to her since she came back.
“That’s not…” I began, wanting to clear the air and let her know that I didn’t feel any ill will toward her at all, quite the opposite, but Shauna chose that minute to seek me out and interrupted before I could explain.
“Hey, there you are,” Shauna said brightly as she opened the door.
I turned to her, confused at her sudden appearance. Hadn’t she been the one who told me I should talk to Chloe? Why, then, was she stopping me from doing just that?
“You ready to go?” Shauna asked when I didn’t acknowledge her appearance.
“I’d better get going myself,” Chloe said from beside me, then added, “Thanks, Reardon,” before brushing past me and saying goodbye to Shauna as she went inside.
“What was that?” I asked as I moved toward Shauna.
“What?” she asked, the picture of innocence.
“You said I should talk to her, and then you interrupted us when I did.”
“You can’t come off too eager, now can you, hot shot? You gotta show her that you’re a sought-after eligible bachelor. You can’t just roll over at her feet and beg her to scratch your belly. Women like a challenge.”
Unsure if whether what she said made sense or if Shauna was playing some sort of game, I followed her inside, just in time to see Chloe sneaking out the front door.
Chapter Four ~ Chloe
Over the years I’d gotten used to either doing things by myself, with Chris, or with Zoey. Since both Zoey and Chris were over the moon in love with Gabe, I’d been doing a lot more stuff by myself. Not because they didn’t invite me along, but because I was not the fourth wheel in their happy little family.
Not to sound bitter … at least, not much. I was happy for all of them, truly, but I realized that this was now my reality.
So, since I’d said no when they invited me along with them, I was now heading into the local Cineplex by myself to watch the new Star Wars movie.
Zoey was the one who’d actually gotten me into Star Wars. Even before she’d become a successful writer, Zoey had always been into comics, movies, and anything that took her mind away on an adventure. At first, I’d been reluctant to watch, but she’d literally sat on me until I’d agreed to at least give the first movie a shot.
We’d been kids, and since I was the oldest, and our parents were never that
involved, hence Zoey’s need to disappear into fictional worlds, I’d usually been more interested in hanging out with my friends than my weird little sister. But that day I’d agreed, and it had become a thing we did together. Any time a movie based on a comic book, graphic novel, or basically anything with a fandom, came out, we’d go and see it together. First, the two of us, then the three of us.
As I took the popcorn from the movie theater employee, I thought that maybe it had been childish of me to refuse to go with them to see the movie with Gabe, but it was our tradition, so I’d said no, then sulked about it.
The movie had been out for a while now, so the theater wasn’t that packed.
I selected a seat near the back, in the center, and put my Icee in the cup holder as I leaned back into the seat and prepared to watch the previews.
I saw someone sitting down the aisle in my peripheral and turned my head slightly, then tried to sink farther into my seat when I noticed it was Reardon.
God, how pathetic is he going to think I am, going to a movie by myself?
“Chloe?” I heard him whisper/shout from down the aisle, and knew I’d been spotted and there was no getting out of it, so I sat up in my seat and turned with what I hope looked like a genuine smile.
“Oh, hey, Reardon,” I replied lamely, then my heart pounded nervously when he stood up and came down the aisle toward me.
“Hey,” he said, looking around me at the empty seat next to me, then around the theater. “You here alone?”
I swallowed, then gave a slight nod.
“Me too,” Reardon admitted, and I swear it looked like he swallowed nervously too, before asking, “You mind if I join you?”
“Oh, ah, sure,” I replied, wondering where his girlfriend was and why he always seemed to make me so nervous.
Then I thought back to how sweet he’d been at the party the other night, and decided, maybe he was becoming more of an ally than a foe.
“I didn’t peg you for a Star Wars fan,” he said quietly as he unfurled his long legs as much as he could in the small space of the movie theater.
Reardon was seriously huge.
Zoey had jokingly called him a Viking, but looking at him trying to fit that long body into this regular-sized space had me thinking she was right on the money.
Crazy tall, with blond, perfectly styled hair and bright-blue eyes, Reardon Lewis was not a hard man to look at. In fact, sometimes I would catch sight of him and my body would react in a completely unexpected way.
Kind of like it is now…
I was aware of the heat coming off his body, his shoulders so large that they were barely a centimeter away from mine, as he slouched into the seat, probably trying to reach some level of comfort. His hands were palm down on his thighs, and were so very large that just looking at them seemed to cause something inside of me to start twitching.
Then there was his smell.
Good Lord on earth, it was heavenly.
I’d caught a whiff every now and then, but at this proximity the bright, clean smell of him seemed to wrap around me in a warm hug.
“Chloe?” he asked, and I snapped out of my scent-induced stupor, and realized he’d asked me something.
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked, hoping he didn’t suspect that I was having a physical reaction to his presence. I clenched my thighs together and started counting to twenty, hoping to make the tingle go away.
“I asked if this is the first time you’re seeing it.”
“Seeing what?” I asked dumbly.
“Star Wars,” he replied with a chuckle, then narrowed his eyes at me. “Are you okay?”
Giving a nervous giggle, I tried to play it off.
“Oh, yeah, sorry, my mind just wandered for a minute. No, I haven’t seen it yet. You?”
“Yeah, a couple times.”
The way he replied, his tone a little embarrassed as he turned his face back toward the screen, had me asking, “How many?”
Reardon cleared his throat, then rolled his eyes toward me and said, “Twelve.”
“Twelve? You’ve already seen it twelve times? And, you’re here for number thirteen?”
“Yeah.”
“Aren’t you a lawyer?” I asked jokingly. “When do you find the time?”
“It’s kind of what I do to unwind,” Reardon replied sheepishly. “Rather than go home and sit in front of the TV, I like to come to the movies.”
“That makes sense,” I replied, then couldn’t help but tease him a little. “Do they give you a punch card or something? Do you get a Wookie for thirteen punches?”
“I wish,” he replied, and he sounded so wistful that I had to laugh.
The lights dimmed, and our conversation stopped for the next two hours and sixteen minutes.
During that time, I cheered, laughed, and cried, and when the credits began to roll, I turned to Reardon with a smile and thought how much I had enjoyed sharing this experience with him, and how I didn’t want it to end.
So, without even thinking, I asked, “You want to go grab a bite and talk about the movie?”
Chapter Five ~ Reardon
Even though she brought out the awkward in me, there was no way I was passing up the chance to spend more time with Chloe. I was enjoying myself too much.
I ignored the voice in my head that said I should just go home, that it was too complicated, and my feelings for her were on a different level than hers were for me. I knew all of those things, I did, but I wasn’t ready to go back to being her son’s father’s lawyer and cousin. I was enjoying being just a man she watched a movie with.
I held the door to the diner open for her, then followed behind, pointing out a booth in the corner, away from the few other patrons who were scattered throughout.
“Evening, Reardon, the usual?” Dolores, the diner’s senior waitress, asked from across the dining room.
“Coffee and chocolate cake work for you?” I asked Chloe.
When she nodded, I held up two fingers to Dolores, who shouted, “Got it!”
“You come here often?” Chloe asked with a chuckle when my attention was back on her.
“Maybe a little too much,” I replied with a grin. “So, did you like it?”
“You know, I really did,” she replied as she sat back against the booth and got comfortable. “I was worried, because I didn’t love one, two, and three, as much as four, five, and six, but this one really hit the mark for me.”
I murmured thanks to Dolores as she set our coffee and a small pitcher of cream down on the table, then poured a healthy dollop into my steaming cup.
“I guess I don’t have to ask if you liked it, since this was your thirteenth time,” Chloe teased, causing me to think about how much I liked this side of her, and how unexpected it was.
“No, you probably don’t,” I agreed. “But, I’m with you a hundred percent in that I was nervous going in, and left pleasantly surprised.”
We talked about the movie until we were both mostly done with our cake and on our third cup of coffee each.
“How’s the house hunting going?” I asked, wanting to know more about how she was settling into Cherry Springs.
“I looked at a couple places, but nothing I fell in love with yet.”
“Do you have a better idea of what you’re looking for?”
“Well,” she began, her expression thoughtful. “I’d like someplace quiet, but that still has kids in the neighborhood. Somewhere safe, where Chris can go out and play football or ride his skateboard, and I don’t have to worry about him. I want a three or four bedroom, I think. It would be nice to have an office…”
“Are you looking for a job? Something like you were doing back in North Carolina? I know Zoey said you’re going back to school…”
Chloe chewed her lower lip as she contemplated my question, and I felt my blood heating as I focused a little too closely on those white teeth worrying her lip.
“I am going back to school. I’ve already signed up for classes
and they start next week. I was initially going to just focus on school, but with Chris being a teenager now and being involved in school and splitting his time between me and Gabe, I think I do want to get a job sooner rather than later.”
“You know, Jazzy said something to me the other day about her friend Laurel looking to hire a business manager … I’m not really sure what it’s about. Laurel was Jazzy’s best friend growing up, but left after high school. I guess she just moved back. I’m not sure what her business is, but it could be something. You should talk to Jaz about it.”
“Thanks, I will.”
“Oh, and I live in Copper Woods, which is a gated community that sounds a lot like what you’re looking for, if you want to check it out. My place is three bedrooms, with an office, and the neighborhood is quiet.”
“Really? That sounds perfect, like just what I’m looking for. Are you sure it wouldn’t be an imposition?”
“No, of course not,” I said, taking in her wide eyes and tanned skin and thinking how much I wanted her in my house. In my life. Shit, I sound like a creeper again. “You could come by one night after work this week; we could do dinner, if you want.”
Chloe blinked at that, then seemed to remember something and relax.
“Sure, if you aren’t too busy.”
“Not at all,” I assured her, then thought about what Shauna had said about playing hard to get, but no, that wasn’t my style at all.
“Then, I’d love to,” Chloe said with a smile. “Should we exchange numbers or something, so we can set it up?”
“I already have yours,” I said, then watched her face close up again as she remembered the reason why I had her number. I thought about how formal, sometimes bordering on rude, I’d been with her when we’d been dealing with Chris’s paternity tests, then the paperwork for joint custody and the back pay that Gabe had insisted I put into Chloe’s accounts. It was no wonder she was frowning at me now.
“That’s right,” she said in a small voice, and I wanted nothing more than to take back my words and act like I’d never said anything to bring up our past.