He'd never met anyone like that before.
Ever.
There was another car in the driveway, and as soon as Chloe got out, the driver's door opened. A blond woman in jeans and a sweatshirt hopped out. "Chloe!"
"Emma!" Chloe broke into a run and threw herself into the arms of Harlan's wife. The hug was so hard, so tight, and so intense, that Blue realized that for all of Chloe's bravado, she was hanging on for dear life.
He might not know how to notice pink flowers without someone pointing them out to him, but hanging on for dear life? Now, that, he understood.
Chapter 5
The moment Chloe felt Emma's arms around her, suddenly all the emotions she'd been holding at bay crashed over her in an overwhelming wave. Tears flooded her eyes, and a tremendous sob wracked her body, until she felt like Emma's hug was the only thing keeping her from crumbling into a million pieces.
"Hey, sweetie," Emma said, holding her tight. "It's going to be okay. I promise."
Emma's words were almost an exact duplicate of what Blue had said to her earlier, but this time they didn't elicit a clever quip from her. She just felt overwhelmed, and unable to believe that such a simple promise could be true. She hugged her friend hard, fighting desperately to control the sobs that she'd been holding in for so long.
"It's okay to cry," Emma whispered. "We all need to do that sometimes. Then all the crap can be cleared from your system, and you can look up, and see what you need to do."
Chloe took a deep breath and shoved back the tears. She let go, and stepped back, lifting her chin as she wiped the back of her hand across her cheek. "Crying isn't my thing. It gives too much power to all the bad stuff that I'm trying to get over." She summoned a smile that she didn't feel at all, and pushed her hair back from her face. "I love this house. It's gorgeous."
Emma's brow furrowed, and she tucked Chloe's hair behind her ear. "Well, I think you'll be able to stay here for a while. It's been on the market for over a year, and it's still for sale. The owners have gotten a few offers, but each time they've turned down the offer. Quite frankly, I'm not sure that they really want to sell. They lived here for fifty years, and although they've moved to New York to live with their grandkids, I don't think they really want to let it go."
Chloe looked up at the charming white house, with its beautifully carved wood, and the Victorian nooks and crannies that gave it so much character that it almost seemed like a piece of art. She could almost imagine kids leaning out the windows shouting at their neighbors to come play. The yard was overgrown, but it still had a sense of being cared for and loved. It was a home, in all the ways that a home was supposed to be. All that was missing was the family that was supposed to be in it. "I love it. Can I fix it up? Paint a little bit? Do a little weeding?"
Emma nodded. "Of course. I'll bet I could even get them to pay you to do it. Since no one's been living in it for a year, it's not showing as well."
Chloe pressed her hands together over her heart, and knew that she'd come to this house for a reason. It needed to be brought back to life, and she needed something positive to do. "Perfect! I'm in!"
The sound of a car door closing caught her attention, and she spun around as Blue walked around to the back of his truck and opened the tailgate, where they'd stashed all her luggage. "Oh, thanks!" She started to hurry over to him, when Emma caught her arm and pulled her back.
"Is that Blue?" Emma asked, her voice low.
Chloe raised her eyebrows. "You haven't met him? I thought he was Harlan's friend?"
"He is, but he's never actually been to Birch Crossing before." Emma glanced at her. "He is certainly one healthy dose of testosterone, isn't he? I thought Harlan had a distinctive predatory quality, but Blue blows him away. Is he nice?"
"Yeah, sure. Super nice." Of course, nice didn't even begin to describe the complexity of the man beginning to drag her suitcases out of the back of his truck. Tormented? Yes. Insanely well-built? Definitely. Charming? Surprisingly so. Intriguing as all hell? Without a doubt. Strong, oh, so strong and capable...yes...as evidenced by the way his biceps were flexing as he lifted her bags out of his truck. "Blue!" She hurried over to him. "You don't need to unload that."
He cocked an eyebrow at her as he dragged the first of many bags out of his truck. "Oh, okay. I think I'll just sit on the steps then and watch you and Emma carry your seventeen thousand bags up the stairs and into the house. And when you're done, maybe you could rub my feet because they might be tired from sitting." He winked at her as he said it, and she couldn't help but smile, a grin that seemed to wipe away the last of the tears she refused to acknowledge.
"Yes," she agreed. "I think sitting on the steps while we worked would be an appropriate activity for a strapping, strong man such as yourself. I wouldn't want to tax you. That would just be insensitive and mean."
Blue handed a small duffel to her. "Insensitive and mean isn't your style, I'm guessing, so I appreciate the fact that I don't need to help carry anything in, even though I'm standing here, and I'm completely capable of it, and still feeling guilty as hell for the fact I pulled a gun on you."
Chloe grinned as she slung the duffel bag over her shoulder. "Oh, that's right. I forgot you're still working through the guilt of traumatizing me. In that case, I'm totally okay with you breaking a sweat on my behalf —"
"What?" Emma walked up. "He pulled a gun on you? Seriously?"
The smile dropped off Blue's face, and he turned toward Emma. "It was a mistake. She was never in danger."
His denial was quick and succinct, but Chloe saw the way he tensed, and she heard the tightness in his voice. She realized that his guilt ran far deeper than she thought. She quickly put her hand on his arm as a sign of solidarity and smiled at Emma. "It's all good," she said. "We kissed and made up." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, heat flared in her cheeks. Dear God, had she just said that out loud?
From the look of shock on Emma's face, she was pretty sure she had. Blue, on the other hand, was grinning, as if he were completely all right with the fact that she had just announced their brief romantic liaison to the world.
Emma looked back and forth between them, a look of surprised shock on her face, clearly trying to figure out if Chloe had meant it the way she'd said it. "You guys…"
"So, yeah, could you help us bring my stuff in?" Chloe quickly interrupted. "My whole life is in his truck. I know, it's sort of pathetic that almost three decades of living fits into a truck. Let's just pretend it's because I'm super conscious of leaving a teeny tiny environmental footprint on this earth, and not because those are the only possessions I managed to acquire despite all my best efforts to become grossly overly materialistic and accumulative." She shoved the bag at Emma, and then set two more on top of it, trying to ignore the low chuckles of amusement from Blue.
Emma grunted. "Using me as a pack horse isn't going to distract me from what you just said about kissing."
"It's worth a try." Chloe wrinkled her nose at Blue, who was still grinning. "The least you could have done was deny it," she muttered as she grabbed another bag from him.
"Why? Would your reputation be besmirched by being associated with me?" He looked amused, not offended, as he hauled more bags out of his truck.
"How would I know? I don't know you well enough to answer that question." She slung a bag over her shoulder. "Would associating with you besmirch me?"
"Definitely."
"Damn. Less than two hours in town, and I'm already besmirched." A bag in each hand, she turned toward Emma, who was staring at them. "Ready?"
Emma was glancing back and forth between them, a quizzical look on her face.
Chloe stiffened. "What?"
"I've never heard you be so funny before. You're usually so serious."
Out of the corner of her eye, Chloe saw Blue smile as he turned away. "It's because my life has hit so low that the only solution is to laugh hysterically at all times so I'm not sucked into the quicksand of my life. Let's g
o. I can't wait to see the inside."
But as she followed Emma up the steps, she couldn't help but think about what Emma had said. Was Emma right? Was she usually more serious? She thought back to the many conversations she and Emma had had over the years, and she realized that Emma was right. So, why was she different now? Was it Blue? Or just the fact that her life had completely fallen apart?
She hoped it was the latter. The last thing she wanted was to attribute a lightness in her heart to a man, even if he did kiss like he was sent from heaven to remind her what a kiss could be like —
She became aware of Emma staring at her, the key to the house in her hand. "What?"
Emma glanced over her shoulder at Blue, who was still at the truck. "You really did kiss him, didn't you?"
Chloe couldn't keep the grin off her face. "Yeah. Is that bad?"
Emma slid the key in the lock. "You just got out of an eleven-year relationship."
"This is true. We didn't kiss much by the end, though, so it's really been more like ten years and six months since I've been with a guy —" She looked past Emma as the front door opened and Emma turned on the light, and promptly forgot what she was going to say. All she could do was stare in awe at the little shop that they'd just walked into. Beautiful shelves lined the walls, and a dusty glass counter sat in the middle of the room. It was charming, pure New England craftsmanship, so homey and intimate that her whole heart seemed to fill up. "What is this place?"
"They had a little store here. The wife was a big knitter, and she used to sell things she knitted, along with assorted knitting supplies." Emma pointed at a table in the corner with six chairs around it. "Anytime you came in here, there were women sitting around knitting. Anyone could come in and knit at any time. It was a big social thing for those folks."
Chloe could almost see the women sitting there, laughing and gossiping as they knitted. She immediately dropped the bags on the floor and sat down at the table. She spread her hands on the old, battered wood, imagining all the conversations that had happened at it. "I can almost hear them talking. It's amazing."
Emma laughed. "You've lost your mind, Chloe. It's just a table."
"It's not. It was a center of their community. A place for people to come, where they would always be welcome. Do you see how beautiful that is? No wonder they don't want to sell it."
Emma sat down across from her, and spread her hands on the table. "I hadn't thought of it that way." She looked at Chloe. "It's your past, isn't it? That's why you can see the table that way, isn't it? You're so sensitive to anything that brings a sense of belonging and connection."
Chloe's feeling of peacefulness vanished, and she shrugged, pulling her hands back into her lap. "I don't know."
Emma leaned forward. "What are you going to do now? Being a social worker helping will foster kids is all that has ever mattered to you."
Chloe ran her fingers over a crack in the table. "I'll find another position. There will be more."
"Didn't you say that it was a statewide budget cut? That over fifty social workers in the state were laid off?"
Chloe lifted her chin and met Emma's gaze. "I'll find another one."
"Or maybe it's time to do something else."
Chloe gaped at her friend. "Something else? I don't want to do something else —"
"That moment outside, when you were talking with Blue, was the first time I've ever seen that kind of sparkle in your eyes. Did you ever stop to consider that as much as you thought you loved Ronald and your job, that maybe they were sucking the joy of living out of you? That maybe the best thing in the world for you was to get yanked out of that life? Maybe that's why you're happy? Because your life was killing your soul?"
Chloe stiffened defensively. "I liked my life."
"But did you love it?"
"I made a difference. Look at you, for heaven's sake. Without me, you wouldn't even have Robbie and Mattie. How can you ask me to walk away from that?"
"It's not your job to save the world."
Chloe folded her arms across her chest. "Someone has to."
"It doesn't have to be you." Emma held up her hands at Chloe's glare. "Okay, fine. I'll back off. I just love you, and I want you to be happy."
"I am happy. I will be happy. I'm fine. The fact I kissed Blue and that he makes me laugh isn't a sign that my life is a great disaster, okay? I'm good. Really, I'm good. I'm not going to date Blue. I'm not going to date anyone. I'm focused on my life, and getting it back together, okay? You don't need to worry about me."
Emma searched her face for a moment, and then nodded. "Okay, but if you ever feel like you need anything, you'll let me know."
"Of course."
A light knock sounded at the door. Blue was standing there, holding seven bags. "Where do you want these?"
Chloe jumped up, pointing to the wall by the door. "Right there is fine. I can figure it all out tomorrow."
Blue nodded and set them inside the door. He glanced around at the small shop, and Chloe wondered what he saw when he looked at it. Did he see the stories and the conversations that had once happened? Or did it just look like an old building to him? She had a feeling that nothing ever looked like just an old building to Blue. He was too complex for that.
"One more load, and they'll all be in." His gaze settled on Chloe for a long moment, then he turned and strode out of the room, his boots almost silent as he jogged down the front steps.
Emma raised her brows. "You might want to let Blue know that you're not going to date him, because he looks like he wants to have you for an all-night dessert."
Heat rushed to Chloe's belly as she stood up. "Trust me, he's got his own baggage. I don't think he's looking to fall in love either."
"I didn't say fall in love. I said dessert." Emma looked at her and sighed. "You heard me say fall in love, but all I said was dessert. What does that tell you?"
"That I didn't think my best friend would reduce me to a one night stand." Yeah, yeah, that was it. It certainly wasn't that she was still perseverating on that elusive, heart-breaking thing called love.
Emma sighed. "Admit you're not okay, sweetie. Ronald broke your heart, and not just last month. He's been breaking it since you met him, refusing to love you the way you deserve. You don't want to be dessert. You want to be loved. Blue's not that guy. He's here because he's going through some sort of personal crisis, not because he's some sane, stable guy with the capacity to value you the way you deserve. Don't let Blue drag you into something that will break you."
Chloe's throat tightened up, both for whatever Blue was enduring, and her own personal journey with Ronald, but she lifted her chin and refused to let any tears threaten. "Stop being so melodramatic, Emma. Seriously. I'm fine —"
"You're not fine, and I know it, Chloe, because I've been there." She squeezed Chloe's hand gently. "I know what it's like. If you keep pretending it doesn't matter, you'll never heal."
Chloe took a deep breath and met her friend's gaze. "I admit that life with Ronald wasn't good for me, and losing my job so soon afterward wasn't the best timing. But wallowing in what I lost isn't going to get me anywhere. I'm moving forward, and that feels good." She waggled her index finger at Emma. "So, stop worrying so much. I really will be fine. I don't need a man to love me to be okay, and I certainly don't need to sit around crying in order to get my life back on track."
"Last load." Blue appeared in the doorway
Chloe turned away from Emma, eager for a chance to end the discussion with her. "Thank you so much." She quickly walked over to him. "I think we're even. Move-in duties negates heart-palpitation issues."
He set the bags on the floor and looked at Chloe. His gaze flicked to Emma, and then back to her. "We're not close to even," he said softly. "I'm sorry as hell. I really am."
Something in his voice caught her attention, and she cocked her head. "Would you have shot me? Was there a chance of it?"
"Hell, no." His response was so quick it was clearly automatic,
but then he paused. After a moment, he swore. "But I would also have staked my life on the fact that I would never pull a gun on you either, so maybe I'm wrong about that, too." He ran his hands through his hair. "I don't know, Chloe. At this point, I don't even know, and that scares the living shit out of me."
The anguish in his voice made her heart turn over, and instinctively, she reached out and hugged him. He locked his arms around her, holding on so tight she could barely breathe...in the most beautiful way, of course.
He didn't try to kiss her. He just held her, until Emma cleared her throat.
With a low curse, he released her and stepped back. "I'll get your car into town tomorrow," he said. "Don't worry about it."
A part of her wanted to accept his offer and let him take over, but she didn't. She needed to handle her own life. "It's fine. I'll take care of it." She touched his arm. "Thank you."
"For what?"
She hesitated. "For driving me over here." It wasn't what she'd wanted to say, but the words she was searching for eluded her.
He cocked his brow. "My pleasure." He nodded at Emma. "Great to finally meet you, Emma. I'll see you guys around." With one more intense look at Chloe, Blue turned and walked out, moving almost silently in the night.
Chloe took a deep breath, and then turned back toward Emma. "So —"
"Damn. That man is compelling, isn't he?" Emma let out a deep breath. "You are so in trouble with him, girlfriend."
Chloe couldn't help but grin. "It's not just me?"
"No. It is most definitely not just you. You better hope he leaves town soon, or you are going to be ensnared in his tangled web before you know it."
The sound of his engine turning over filled the night, and Chloe walked over to the window, watching as he drove away. "Would that be so bad?" she asked softly.
Emma came to stand beside her. "You tell me."
Irresistibly Mine Page 4