“Try again. You’ve been a mess all week.” He leans against the counter, crossing his arms. “Is it Chloe?”
Just hearing her name makes my chest tight. “She’s pulling away. I don’t know why.”
“Did you ask her?”
“Of course I asked her. She says she’s fine, but she’s not fine, Jake. She won’t talk to me. Won’t touch me. She’s sleeping in my bed every night like she’s fulfilling an obligation.”
Jake is quiet for a moment. “You think she’s leaving?”
The question I’ve been avoiding for three days.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “Maybe. She keeps talking about the teaching position, about needing to focus on her career. What if she’s realized this isn’t what she wants? What if she’s just waiting for the right moment to tell me?”
“What if you’re overthinking this?”
“What if I’m not?” I run my hand through my hair, frustrated. “Rachel did the same thing. Started pulling away, stopped talking to me, acted like she was somewhere else in her head. And then one day she was just... gone.”
“Chloe’s not Rachel.”
“How do I know that? How do I know she’s not going to wake up one day and realize she made a mistake? That she doesn’t want to be tied down to a ready-made family in a small town?” My voice cracks. “That I’m not enough?”
Jake steps forward, gripping my shoulder. “Listen to me. You need to talk to her. Really talk to her. Because right now, you’re spiraling, and she’s pulling away, and if you both keep doing this, you’re going to lose each other over something that might not even be real.”
“What if she’s already decided?”
“Then you fight for her.” Jake’s voice is firm. “You don’t just let her walk away without knowing why. You don’t give up on the best thing that’s happened to you in years because you’re scared.”
He’s right. I know he’s right.
But that night, when I get home and find Chloe’s bedroom light on —her old bedroom, the one she hasn’t slept in since we got together— something inside of me breaks.
I knock on the door. “Chloe?”
“Come in.”
She’s sitting on the bed, surrounded by papers. Applications. Job applications.
“What’s this?” I ask, even though I already know.
She looks up, and there are tears in her eyes. “I need to talk to you.”
And I know —I know— that everything’s about to fall apart.
Chapter 14
Chloe
“I’ve been applyingto other schools,” I say, and the words feel like stones in my mouth. “Not because I want to leave. But because I’m terrified of what happens if I don’t have a backup plan.”
Jonah stands in the doorway, and I watch the light drain from his eyes. “A backup plan?”
“Jonah—”
“For when this doesn’t work out?” His voice is quiet, controlled. Too controlled. “For when you decide this isn’t what you want?”
“No. For whenyoudecide.” The admission tears out of me. “For when you wake up and realize I’m just the nanny who got too attached. That I’m not their real mother. That you can do better.”
He stares at me like I’ve slapped him. “You thinkI’mgoing to leave you, to force you out?”
