Chapter 15
Chloe
Two weeks later…
I’m sitting in my car outside an apartment complex in Billings —about to sign a lease I don’t want for a job I’m not sure I even care about— when my phone rings.
Carol Westerland’s name lights up the screen. Jonah’s mom? Is something wrong with the girls? With him?
I stare at it for three rings, my heart crashing against my chest. I haven’t talked to her since I moved out of Jonah’s house five days ago. Haven’t faced the disappointment I know I’ll hear in her voice.
But the fear something is wrong with one of them makes me answer.
“Hi Carol. Is everything okay?”
“Chloe, honey. Do you have a minute?”
She would have said immediately if something was wrong.
I close my eyes against the kindness in her tone. “I’m actually in the middle of something—”
“I know. You’re in Billings, looking at apartments.” Carol’s voice is gentle but firm. “Valentine’s gossip network is alive and well, dear. Mrs. Patterson saw you at the grocery store yesterday.”
Of course she did. Small-town gossip travels faster than lightning.
“Carol, I appreciate you calling, but—”
“My son is miserable.” She doesn’t let me finish. “He’s not sleeping. Barely eating. He burned three batches of bread yesterday, and Jonah never burns bread. The twins ask about you constantly, and he doesn’t know what to tell them.”
Guilt crashes over me in waves. “I didn’t mean to hurt them.”
“I know you didn’t. But you did. You hurt all of them. And you’re hurting yourself too.” I hear her take a breath. “Can I tell you something? Mother to the daughter of my heart?”
Tears spring to my eyes at “daughter of my heart.” “Okay.”
“You’re not Derek.”
The words catch me completely off guard. “What?”
“Your ex-boyfriend. The one who got engaged three months after you broke up. The one who made you feel like you weren’t enough.” Carol’s voice is knowing. “Jonah told me about him. About how he hurt you.”
“Derek has nothing to do with this—”
“Doesn’t he? You’re running from Jonah because you’re terrified he’s going to do what Derek did. You’re protecting yourself from being left again.”
I press my hand against my mouth, trying to hold back a sob.
“But Chloe, honey, Jonah is not Derek. Derek was a boy who didn’t know what he wanted. Jonah is a man who knows exactly what he wants— you. He wants you so much it terrifies him. Because he’s been hurt too, remember? Rachel left him with two babies and a broken heart.”
“I know that—”
“Then you know he understands your fear better than anyone. But he chose to trust you anyway. He gave you everything —his heart, his home, his daughters— because he believed you were worth the risk.” Carol pauses. “But you couldn’t do the same for him, could you?”
The truth of it cuts deep. “I’m scared, Carol. What if—”
“What if you spend the rest of your life running from the best thing that ever happened to you because you’re too afraid to get hurt?
” Carol’s voice is firm now. “What if you wake up in twenty years, alone, and realize you had everything you ever wanted, but you threw it away because you were scared?”
I’m crying openly now, my breath coming in gasps. “I don’t know how to stop being scared.”
“You don’t stop being scared, sweetheart. You just decide that love is worth being scared for.” Carol softens. “When I married Jonah’s father, I was terrified. My mother told me I was too young, that I should see the world first, that I’d regret tying myself down. You know what I told her?”
“What?”
“I told her that I’d rather have fifty years with the man I love than a lifetime of perfect safety with someone who didn’t make my heart race.
” I hear the smile in her voice. “We’ve been married thirty-five years.
And yes, it’s been hard sometimes. Scary sometimes.
But I’ve never, not once, regretted choosing him. ”
“But what if Jonah changes his mind about me?”
“What if he doesn’t? What if you have a beautiful life together?
What if those girls grow up calling you Mom?
What if you have more babies, and family dinners, open more bakeries, and fifty years of waking up next to the man you love?
” Carol’s voice cracks. “What if you’re throwing away your happy ending because you’re too scared to reach for it? ”
I lean my head against the steering wheel, sobbing. “I’ve already ruined it. He told me to leave.”
“He told you to choose. There’s a difference.” Carol is quiet for a moment. “That job in Billings— do you want it?”
“Not at all.”
“The apartment you’re about to sign a lease for— do you want it?”
“No.” Not one square foot.
“Then what do you want, Chloe?”
The answer comes immediately, from the deepest part of my heart. “I want Jonah. I want Ava and Mia. I want our life in Valentine. I want to wake up in his arms and make bread at five a.m and read bedtime stories and be a family.”
“Then stop being scared and go get it. It’s yours for the taking, sweetheart.”
“What if he won’t take me back? What if I hurt him too badly?”
“Then you fight for him. The way he’s been fighting for you all along.” Carol’s voice is gentle but insistent. “Love isn’t about guarantees, Chloe. It’s about choosing someone even when it’s scary. Even when you don’t know how it ends. It’s about trusting that they’re choosing you back.”
“I’m so afraid.”
“I know, honey. But you know what’s scarier than getting hurt? Never knowing what could have been. Never taking the chance.” She pauses. “You love my son, don’t you?”
“More than anything.”
“Then prove it. Come home. Tell him you’re all in.
Tell him you choose him, choose those girls, choose the life you’ve been too scared to claim.
” Carol’s voice is fierce now. “And if he’s stubborn about it —which he will be, because he’s a Westerland man, God love ‘em— you fight for him. You show him that you’re not going anywhere.
That you’re finally ready to trust what you have. ”
I sit up, wiping my eyes. “What if it’s too late?”
“It’s never too late for real love. But Chloe? You need to mean it this time. No backup plans. No job applications in other cities. No exit strategy. You need to be all in.”
“I am. I will be.” The certainty fills my chest, warm and solid. “I’m all in.”
“Good. Then what are you still doing in Billings?”
I look at the apartment building, at the life I was about to settle for because I was too scared to reach for the one I actually wanted.
“I don’t know,” I say chuckling and starting my car. “But I’m leaving right now.”
Carol laughs, and I can hear the relief in it. “Drive safe, sweetheart. And Chloe? When you get here, don’t just tell him you love him. Show him. Make him believe it.”
“I will. Thank you, Carol.”
“Thank you for loving my son. For loving my granddaughters.” Her voice is thick with emotion. “Welcome home, honey.”
I hang up and pull out of the parking lot, leaving Billings —and my fear— behind me.
I don’t know if Jonah will forgive me. Don’t know if I can undo the damage I’ve done.
But I know I have to try.
Because Carol’s right. I’d rather risk everything for a chance at happy ever after than spend my life wondering what could have been.
I choose Jonah. I choose Ava and Mia.
I choose us.