Chapter Nineteen
C HLOE HOPED GWEN had somehow gone to bed and forgotten to switch off the TV , but as luck would have it, her sister was lying sprawled on the couch. Her sitcom had ended, and she had changed to a film.
‘Hi,’ she called after Chloe. Chloe didn’t respond, but quickly slipped up the stairs to scrub off her make-up and change into her pyjamas and dressing gown.
She was still reliving the evening in her mind, and she had a smile on her face when she sat in the armchair, the new book from Gwen tucked under her arm.
‘Hmm?’ Gwen gave her a knowing smile as Chloe flicked on the lamp by her chair.
‘Hmm?’ Chloe echoed. It was something they’d done as children, mockingly repeating what the other had said.
Instead of becoming annoyed, though, Gwen leaned forward. ‘I saw a boy outside. Have you been seeing a boy ?’
Chloe’s good mood couldn’t even be dampened, not even by Gwen’s nosiness, and she burst into laughter. ‘Boy? We’re thirty soon, Gwen.’
Gwen looked offended. ‘You’re nearly thirty. I’m sitting pretty at twenty-five, thanks. Don’t change the subject. Was that the guy from the library? He was, wasn’t he?’
‘You’re such a busybody. What, were you peeking through the curtains?’
‘Of course.’
Chloe snorted. ‘Yes, I was with the boy from the library.’
‘On a date?’
The word ‘date’ gave her pause. Was her dinner with Harry a date?
She stayed quiet for too long. Gwen squealed, startling Chloe.
‘Calm down, Gwen. Nothing happened. He only kissed my cheek and said goodnight.’ A true gentleman , she thought but didn’t say.
‘That’s it?’ Gwen leaned back into the couch as though she was already uninterested. ‘He sounds boring, to be honest.’
Chloe’s neck prickled. She didn’t feel comfortable with Gwen knowing anyone she was seeing, romantically or otherwise. She knew, partly, that it was silly. The kiss with Liam had been such a long time ago, but . . .
Gwen still hadn’t acknowledged it. She just sat watching Bridget Jones like it had never happened.
‘I have a date tomorrow, too,’ Gwen said, making Chloe stare at her. Some of the tension in her shoulders loosened.
‘You do? That’s great.’ She privately wondered if the date’s name was Dean, the awful mechanic she had had the terrible first date with, the evening that had sent her into the waiting arms of the library.
No, it was likely a millionaire who owned a big mansion somewhere in Derbyshire. She hid her smirk and started to read.
It made her feel better that Gwen had a date.
Chloe went to see Hannah and her daughter Lily at the weekend, and they spent a cold, sunny Sunday morning feeding the ducks. To Chloe’s surprise, Hannah reported that the boy who had tried to rob the café had come in with his mother in tow.
‘She made him apologise.’ Hannah sounded amused as she handed some frozen peas to her daughter. Lily threw them with gusto, jumping with excitement as the ducks raced to peck at the vegetables. ‘She said he had fallen in with a bad crowd and it wouldn’t be happening again.’
‘Well, that’s good.’ Chloe still recalled how the superhero had picked him up with no effort, putting him in his place quite well. ‘Hopefully it won’t.’
Hannah nodded grimly. ‘Just glad Lily wasn’t there.’
It was a pleasant morning with her friend, and Chloe was relieved that the boy had apologised. It made him seem much less threatening, somehow.
Her thoughts wandered to her sister. She wondered if Gwen was in.
Her little sister hadn’t come back last night by the time Chloe had gone to bed, so Chloe had finished reading her book, wondering if the date was going well.
She supposed it must have. Maybe she wouldn’t see her sister again now until a post on Instagram popped up telling Chloe her sister had sailed to the Bahamas or the Mediterranean on the arm of some middle-aged tycoon.
A small part of Chloe thought it sounded rather fun, dangers aside. Gwen hadn’t run into any trouble so far.
Still, though.
She said goodbye to Hannah and Lily, then pulled out her phone to text her sister. She hesitated, wondering if ‘How are you?’ was too vague and ‘Where are you?’ would be too possessive. She finally settled on, I’m on my way home from town. Do you need anything?
She walked clutching her phone in her hand, trying and failing to resist the urge to glance at it every couple of seconds.
That morning, she had been in a hurry to meet with Hannah and Lily before Hannah had to take her daughter to see her dad, and Chloe hadn’t paid attention to whether Gwen’s coat or her bag were in the house.
She wished she had checked now. It seemed irresponsible, as the older sister, not to know where Gwen was.
Gwen’s words of Chloe never reaching out echoed in her mind.
Maybe she was right. Chloe was the older sibling, and she had never spoken to Gwen aside from the short conversation about the funeral. Not since that night seven years ago.
She hadn’t heard any sounds from her sister’s bedroom in the night or the morning. What if Gwen had ended up meeting someone unsafe? She wasn’t the most cautious of people. Chloe hadn’t even asked her date’s name, hadn’t bothered to find out where she was meeting him.
Finally, the speech bubble popped up on the screen to indicate Gwen was typing, and Chloe almost laughed with relief.
Mint ice cream. Please.
Chloe stopped off at the corner shop and bought every mint ice cream she could find.
She thought Gwen might be in bed, nursing a hangover, but she was wearing sweatpants, the TV on in the background while she straightened her hair.
‘Hi,’ said Chloe. ‘Did you have a good date?’
‘What?’ Gwen turned to her, her eyes glazed over for a second. ‘Oh! Yeah, it was fine. Good, actually.’
They exchanged small smiles. Gwen didn’t offer any more information, and Chloe didn’t ask, not when she was so reluctant to tell her sister anything herself. For the rest of the day, the sisters stayed out of each other’s way. Gwen didn’t even ask Chloe for her help with her CV again.
Chloe was nervous about going back to work, to facing Eric. She still hadn’t got round to messaging him – what on earth would she say? – because she hated bringing things up. Maybe it would be more comfortable to ignore it and continue as normal.
It wasn’t as terrible as she anticipated, though.
Still studying for his A-Levels, Eric wasn’t a full-time worker, and through the week they only bumped into each other twice.
He did look a little embarrassed, but she caught relief on his face that she wasn’t going to mention what had happened. That was fine by her.
The library roof was patched up, the space used as a fenced-off play area for Clementine. Chloe used some of the library’s budget to invest in a kitty’s play area and a brand-new bed. She even managed to find a three-tier cat tree from a charity shop.
‘Mr Ashcroft gave us a discount for the roof repair, you know,’ remarked Mrs Cook with a knowing smile, while Eric played with the cat, waving a plastic stick with a fluffy, tail-like toy at the end of it for him to chase.
Chloe had never seen Clementine so interested in a game before.
He made for the toy with his paws, then when Eric pulled it out of his way, Clementine straightened, a look of dignified disapproval on his face that made them all laugh.