Chapter 2
CHLOE
“Red Face is back!” Effie shouted as I entered the house. She had pasta sauce all over her own face.
“You’re one to talk about a red face,” I noted. “But I’m happy you’re enjoying your spaghetti.”
Evan tossed her a napkin and muttered, “Wipe yourself, honey.”
Effie swiped it across her mouth and turned to me. “Your box came.”
Box? Shit. I’d ordered some stuff to be shipped here, since I didn’t want to bring everything from Chicago with me.
“I opened it,” she added.
I stilled. “You did?”
Evan cleared his throat. “We didn’t realize it was your name on the address label. Effie had been expecting a fort I ordered her. That was supposed to be delivered today, too.”
I swallowed. “I see.”
“Can you curl my hair?” she asked eagerly.
“Huh?”
“With the wand you bought,” she said.
“Wand?”
“Yeah.” Effie nodded. “I didn’t know what it was, so I asked Daddy, and he said it was a wand to curl your hair.”
My face had to be flaming now, because it hit me that the “wand” was a brand-new vibrator I’d ordered.
When I looked over at Evan, he was stifling a smirk.
Just when I’d thought this night couldn’t get any worse, the universe turned it up a notch.
This was definitely my cue to get the hell out of here.
I gestured toward the bedroom with my thumb. “I’m just gonna grab my things and be out of your way.”
Evan arched a brow. “You found a place?”
Looking down at my feet, I shook my head. “No.”
“Well, then you can’t leave,” Effie insisted.
My mouth curved into a sad smile. “Sure I can, sweetie.”
After I started down the hallway, I felt the floor creak beneath Evan’s heavy footsteps behind me.
“Don’t be stupid, Chloe,” he said, his voice vibrating against my back. “There’s no reason you have to sleep on the damn streets just because you hate me. You can resume looking for another place tomorrow.”
I shuddered. His use of the word hate felt jarring and confirmed my suspicions that the letter I’d written him was still playing in his head all these years later.
But I didn’t hate Evan at all, and I never had. I’d just been hurt that he didn’t return my feelings. Had I used the word hate? I barely remembered what I’d written in that letter. Still, I attempted to deny.
“I never said I hated you, Evan.” I turned to face him after he followed me into the bedroom.
“Actually, you did.”
Great. I looked down in shame. “Anyway, I won’t be sleeping on the street. I’ll be sleeping in my car.”
He gestured to the bed. “That’s ridiculous when you have a warm bed to sleep in right here. Just close the door. You won’t even have to look at me.”
To think he assumed I didn’t want to look at him. Little did he know, I wished I could look at him all I wanted, just without him knowing. And now that he was standing so close, I could smell his intoxicating leathery scent, which caused another rush of awareness.
“There’s got to be some other place to stay in this godforsaken town.” I huffed.
His jaw flexed. “You used to like this town. If I remember correctly, I was the one who had to convince you to leave. Sorry if you think you’re too good for us now.”
“You’re putting words in my mouth,” I protested. “I don’t think I’m too good. If anything, I feel like Dry River left me behind. I don’t recognize it, mainly because there’s no place for me here anymore with my family dismantled the way it is.”
Evan was misguided, thinking I was being a snob about Dry River when he was the biggest reason I couldn’t handle being here at the moment.
But he was right about one thing: I’d loved living here back then.
At nineteen, though, I’d felt obligated to accept the full scholarship Northwestern had offered me after I’d taken a gap year between high school and college.
Yet I might’ve turned it down if Evan and I had become something. But we never got that far.
Effie called from the kitchen, “Daddy, can I have a Fruit Roll-Up for dessert?”
“Yeah. Go ahead,” he shouted back, not taking his eyes off me.
His incendiary stare practically made my skin sizzle.
My body felt more activated than it had in years.
“This isn’t easy, Evan. I certainly never imagined I’d run into you so soon after getting here, let alone be in your way like this.
I thought I’d have this house all to myself, be able to decompress and live in peace. ”
“Diddle in peace while eating copious amounts of sour peach rings, you mean?”
I crossed my arms and huffed. “Hair wand. That was a nice save, by the way.”
“What choice did I have? This day was hard enough without having to explain masturbation to Effie.”
“Well, you guys shouldn’t have opened my box.”
“Let’s not talk about your box any more tonight, okay?” He winked.
Jesus.
After another moment of tense silence, he snapped, “Do what you want.” Then he turned and walked out, leaving me alone in the room.
Wow. Such a jackass. It took me a couple of minutes to recover. And I still didn’t know how to proceed. Truthfully, sleeping in my car tonight just to spite him was dumb. I was the only one who would suffer in that equation.
I looked over and noticed the box I’d ordered sitting in the corner of the room.
Sure enough, it was wide open, the purple vibrator still in its package, but on full display, covered in a see-through plastic shell.
While I was mortified, I was also impressed with Evan’s creativity in conjuring an explanation Effie actually bought.
I sifted through the box. Besides the vibrator, I’d ordered multiple feminine products, including a giant box of overnight pads. I cringed at the idea of Evan having seen all this. I’d also ordered the sour peach rings he’d mentioned. My mouth watered.
Exhausted from driving around all day, I lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. I told myself I was just parking here to think for a bit. I certainly wasn’t expecting to fall asleep so soon after my head hit the pillow.
When I woke up some time later, two little brown eyes were staring back at me.