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If she allowed herself to obsess over it, there wasn’t a doubt that she’d come up with dozens of conspiracy theories on the whole damn thing. With a sigh, she shook her head. “I think it’s just a dumb coincidence. She made the comment to the captain of the fire squad right after the fire, so…”
“Gotcha. So yeah, just crappy timing.”
“Exactly.”
They ate in silence for a moment, before Chloe put her fork down. “Okay, I feel like we need to lighten the mood here. No more thinking about all the negative stuff…”
“That’s not going to make it go away, Chlo.”
“I know, but I think that maybe we should focus on something good and happy and light.” She leaned in close. “Talk to me about Reid! How’s that going?”
Ashlynn couldn’t have stopped the grin even if she tried. Just thinking about Reid was enough to make her feel better—happy.
“Uh-oh…things are serious, huh?”
Her smile fell a little. “What do you mean? Why uh-oh? I would think things being serious would be a good thing.”
Chloe’s shoulders sagged a bit as she let out a loud sigh. “I’m going to say something, and you’re not allowed to get mad.”
“I’m not…you can’t say something like that! That tells me you’re going to say something that’s going to make me mad!”
But rather than argue, her twin simply sat there and calmly looked at her.
“Fine,” Ashlynn huffed. “Just say what you’re going to say.”
“And you won’t get mad?”
“Chloe…”
“It’s just…” She paused and sighed again. “You’ve gotten to this point in relationships in the past, and then you…you know…sabotage it.”
Her initial reaction was to get mad, but…her sister was right.
“I know.”
“You can’t deny it, so…wait. Did you just agree with me?”
Nodding, Ashlynn replied, “I did. You’re right and…I realized that about myself recently and I’m trying to be a little more aware of my behavior so that I don’t ruin this. I really like Reid…like, really, really like him.”
“Aww…” Both of Chloe’s hands covered her heart. “I love that! And he seems really nice.” She nodded enthusiastically. “Of course, he was very nice back in high school too, but then he did that whole horrible thing—according to you, anyway—and I had to treat him like he was the bad guy.”
The fork dropped out of Ashlynn’s hand. “What’s that supposed to mean? According to me. What the hell?”
“Again…you’re not allowed to get mad.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake…”
The frown and look of disapproval spoke volumes. “Ugh, why do you have to resort to that kind of language, huh? Why is your go-to reaction to be mad all the time?”
“Because it just is! And you should know that since you’re my freaking other half, Chlo! This is just who I am! I didn’t choose it and I don’t know how to change it, okay? And you…you are my safety net, my safe place, and when you start giving me crap, it hurts more than anything else!” She jumped to her feet and stormed out of the room and went right to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
She could barely see through the tears as she collapsed onto the bed and curled up in the fetal position. She could handle people around town talking shit about her, and she could handle it when Billie or Levi did it. But when Chloe—the person who gave everyone the benefit of the doubt—starts picking on her? Yeah, that hurt.
A lot.
The room was dark, but she didn’t care.
So was her mood.
