Page 108 of Day Break

“What do you think of moving in here?” I asked, looking around.

Chloe’s eyebrows shot up. “How do you feel about that?”

I looked around for a moment, then shrugged. “I think it’s what my grandfather would want. What he expected.”

Chloe smiled and then nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay?” I asked.

She wrapped her arms around me. “Okay.”

Just like that, we were making this place our home.

After lunch, we started to move our things into the main bedroom. Since I didn’t have the heart to get rid of any of my grandparents’ things just yet, we moved everything of theirs into my old room.

“George told me that he had downsized in the past year. He hated the thought of you having to go through his things, throwing out stupid little trinkets that meant nothing to him any longer,” Chloe said as she remade the king-sized bed with clean sheets. “The first week I was here, we hauled more than a dozen boxes of what he called junk to a shelter on the other side of the island. Most of it was your grandmother’s makeup or handbags and shoes. Some of it I kept. The rest we got rid of.” She finished making the bed. “Now, just one final touch.” She left the room and returned with the picture of me and Sherry. “This belongs in here.” She set it down next to the picture of my grandparents.

The picture frame had been destroyed during the break-in. Now, it sat in a new silver frame.

“I found this frame in a closet. We’re lucky it was the right size,” she said, standing back. “It’s perfect.”

“We need one of the three of us,” I suggested, motioning to Byron, who was happily snoring in his dog bed.

Chloe laughed. “I’ve never had my picture taken. At least not when I wanted it taken,” she added with a frown.

It still shocked me any time she mentioned that she hadn’t done or experienced simple things that I took for granted.

“Then we’ll have to dress up one day this week and head to the beach to take some,” I suggested, running my lips over the spot just below her ear.

I felt her melt against me just as my phone rang in my pocket. Groaning, I pulled it out to see my father’s face on the screen.

I’d known this call would come sooner or later. Now was just as good a time to deal with it as any other.

“I’ll go get the rest of my things from the bathroom and put them in ours,” she said with a smile.

I nodded and answered my father’s call.

“What’s up?” I asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“What’s up?” my father screamed into the phone. “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“My job,” I answered, knowing that he’d finally been served the paperwork. “I am a lawyer.”

“Your job?” he screamed. “You’re ruining my career. Throwing me under the bus because of what the family decided.”

“The family?” I asked, flipping on the television. This was bound to have hit the news by now.

Sure enough, the first news channel I found had a picture of my father on half the screen and one of Elliot Meyer on the other. The words, “Local judge being sued for failure to follow the Code of Conduct for allowing dangerous felon out on bail” scrolled underneath their faces.

“My decision was well within the law,” my father growled out.

“You allowed a dangerous man out on bail, one who was not only a flight risk but proven to be stalking Chloe, a woman you knew and currently had legal proceedings against. The man didn’t even waste a single day before coming up here with a gun and trying to get to her,” I said in a calm tone. “Did you know he held me at gunpoint?” I asked, knowing that part wasn’t on the news.

“What?” My father’s tone changed.

“Yes. When I let Byron out, he came at me from behind. He was leading me to the beach so he could kill me to hurt Chloe. He was going to leave my body where she’d spent a few nights sleeping back when she’d been homeless, before saving your father’s life.” I felt a pit in my gut for the man who had raised me.

My father remained silent for a moment. Then he asked, “Are you okay?”