by Hart, Taylor
Postponing the wedding had been a big deal to her mother. She and Chloe had been planning it since Chloe was a freshman in college. Her mother had already designed Chloe’s dress on paper, and they had chosen the colors and decided on which types of flowers to use. Of course that was before they realized that Chloe was doomed to wear the handed-down lump of cheese dress that was a size too small.
She walked over and looked out at the giant sycamore tree, shaking and shivering in the wind from the approaching summer storm. The air whipping in through the open window felt good against her hot cheeks. She grabbed her phone off the dresser, put in her ear buds, accessed her music, and plopped down on her bed. A few minutes later when she felt herself drifting off, she welcomed it. She didn’t know how long she slept before she felt him beside her. He was right there, almost as though he’d never left for Afghanistan. She breathed in his familiar scent that was a combination of musky, sandalwood cologne and those soft peppermint sticks he loved.
“Dan?” She opened her eyes, and then rubbed them, not trusting what she was seeing. A smile broke over her face. “Dan,” she breathed. “You’re home.”
Her heart leapt for joy. “I’ve missed you so much.” But wait. Something was wrong. Her mind was playing tricks on her. When did he get home? She reached to touch his sandy hair that was casting gold flecks like it did when the sun hit him, but there was only air where he should’ve been.
“Dan, come back!” she cried. “DAN!”
* * *
She awoke to find the pillow wet from her tears, and then she saw the rain splattering in through the open window. She got out of bed, closed the window, and then rubbed down the goose bumps on her arms. Her pulse was still beating rapidly. The dream had seemed so real that she had the uncanny impression that if she turned too quickly, she might catch a glimpse of Dan standing beside her. She caught a trace of sandalwood in the air. Dan’s cologne? A shiver ran up her spine, and she glanced out the window at the ominous sky and to the sycamore tree that was practically turning cartwheels in the wind. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was just a dream, she told herself, all the while trying to understand why she was feeling so unsettled. She went to the dresser, pulled out the middle drawer, and grabbed her nail polish. Then, she sat down in the middle of the bed and began painting her toenails. Doing something normal helped calm her nerves—that is until a crack of thunder made her jump. She gasped when the bottle toppled and liquid spilled across the white comforter. Bright red polish. Bright red blood. Dan’s blood spilling across the hot, white sand. Get a grip! Where had that image come from?
She looked up when her mother came into the room. “Hey, Mom. I spilled my nail polish,” she started explaining, then her voice trailed off when she saw the odd expression on her mother’s face. Her heart began to pound. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Dan,” her mother whispered, slumping down on the bed.
Chloe jumped up. “What happened?”
“They said it was a roadside bomb.” Her mother’s mouth was still moving, but Chloe didn’t hear a word.
Everything went black.
* * *
Looking back later, Chloe wasn’t sure how she made it past those first few days, and then when it didn’t seem like things could possibly get any worse, Dan’s mom, Jane, collapsed after the funeral and was rushed to the emergency room. Chloe put off going to visit Jane as long as she possibly could, but eventually the day came that she could no longer postpone the inevitable.
“I’m going with you,” her mother said, and Chloe didn’t argue. She needed all the emotional support she could get. It was hard for her to believe that Dan was gone. The funeral had been closed casket, which made matters worse in some ways because she couldn’t even get one last look at him. It was like he’d vanished into thin air.
“Are you ready to go inside?”
Chloe looked at her mom and then back at the venerable old house with the spacious front porch and ivy trailing up the wide columns. It had always seemed so charming and inviting in the past. Now, the closed gate at the head of the sidewalk looked like a fortress that she could never pass. Dan’s world was closed to her forever.
Julian, Dan’s sister, answered the door and gave Chloe a cold fish hug, involving as little body contact as possible, before quickly releasing her and ushering them into the living room where they found Jane sitting on the couch. She was dressed impeccably in a deep purple pantsuit, but grief had left an indelible mark on the stately woman’s features, making her look much older than Chloe remembered. Tears welled in Chloe’s eyes when they embraced, and she let them flow freely down her cheeks.
“Thanks for coming,” Jane said, her cultured voice heavy with sorrow.
Chloe nodded. They sat and reminisced about Dan, even though they knew that no amount of talk could help ease the pain. Everything in the room screamed Dan and brought back so many memories that she half expected him to walk through the door any minute. He’s dead! she told herself fiercely. He’s never coming back!
“He loved you,” Jane said.
Chloe bit her lower lip to stay the emotion and looked down at the floor. “I know,” she whispered. “I loved him too.”
“I want you to know that you’ll always be a part of this family. You were Dan’s world, his everything.”
Julian scoffed, and it had the same effect as a shotgun going off in the still room. Chloe’s head shot up. Is that really what she did—scoffed? She and Julian had never gotten along, but this was too much!
Chloe glanced sideways at her mother and saw her jaw tense the way it always did before she went on the warpath. Oh, no! Naomi Kensley was no cultured debutant like the wilting Jane Thurman, and she certainly had no qualms about getting to the heart of the matter, regardless of how tactless her methods appeared. Naomi scooted to the edge of her seat. Chloe put a hand on her mom’s arm in the hope of preventing her from causing a scene, but it was a futile gesture because her mom wasn’t about to let Julian’s antic slide. “What’s going on here?” Naomi wanted to know.
“Don’t mind Julian,” Jane said. “We’re all trying to deal with this the best we can.”
Julian’s face went dark. “Is that what you’re trying to do, Mother? Because it seems to me like you’re doing something else.”
“That’s enough, Julian!” Jane’s face grew whiter than the columns outside, and Chloe feared the woman was going to pass out. Jane reached for a tissue, but her hands were shaking so badly that she could barely pull one from the box.
Julian glared at her mother. “Why don’t you tell them the truth?”
Jane’s mouth disappeared into a thin line. “Enough!”
Chloe looked at her mom. “Maybe we should go.” She didn’t know what Julian was trying to pull, but knowing her, there was no telling—the persnickety witch! She’d always made it clear to Chloe that Dan was too good for her, but this was over the top.
“No,” Naomi said, looking straight at Jane. “We need to know what’s going on.”
“Tell her, Mother,” Julian pressed.
At that, Jane broke down in tears. “Are you trying to destroy what’s left of your brother’s memory? Is that what you want?”
“No, Mother, he did that himself. I just want the truth.” She slung her hair over her shoulder. “Oh, all right. I’ll tell her.” She looked at Chloe. “Dan had a girlfriend—a lover—in Afghanistan. She was in his battalion. She’s been calling here, saying that she’s pregnant with his baby.”
The room seemed to expand and contract in one hard punch, and Chloe fought to catch her breath. Everything was spinning. She felt her mom’s arms around her and knew she was saying something to Jane, but for the life of her, Chloe couldn’t make out any of the words. Somehow she got to her feet. Jane reached out to her. “Oh, Chloe. Don’t leave like this. Please don’t leave like this.”
Chloe backed away. “I have to get some air,” she squeaked. She looked wildly around the room.
&nb
sp; “Chloe!” Jane urged. “Come and sit down.”
Chloe shook her head and ran to the door. She paused long enough to look back at the broken woman who would’ve been her mother-in-law. “I don’t belong here.”
“She’s right,” Julian said, giving her a haughty look. “Let her go. She doesn’t belong here. Not anymore.”
Find Promise Me Love on Amazon.
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Summer in Snow Valley: First Love
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