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I crept the car along the private road to Asher’s huge place and parked, relieved to see lights on. Because I had rushed out of Seattle with only a small bag of luggage and no raincoat, I hurried up to the front door in jeans and a sweater and was soaked instantly.
“This is it. The rest of my life starts now.” I heaved a breath and knocked.
Footsteps approached and my nerves became half-anxiety, half-excitement. No matter what happened, I was going to see Asher. Even if he kicked me right back out into the storm, I could tell him one more time that I loved him and that I—
Chloe Barnes opened the door.
We stared at each other; she looked about as horrified to see me as I was to see her. She glanced behind her and crowded the door so I couldn’t see in, and no one could see out.
“Chloe,” I said stiffly, mustering my pride, even though I must’ve looked like a drowned rat. “What are you doing here?”
She crossed her arms and tilted her chin up. “Ilivehere.”
“You…live here.”
“With Asher, yes.”
“Oh,” I said, and lightning crackled in the sky. Or maybe it was my heart cracking right down the middle. “Okay.”
So that’s that.
I waited for the relief to find me. I wouldn’t have to give up Seattle. Wouldn’t have to trade a cosmopolitan life for an endless vista of greenery in the middle of an ocean.
But it never came.
Numbness washed over me, wiping me clean of thought and feeling, leaving only the instinct to flee from the pain as fast as possible.
I nodded absently. “Right. Well. Sorry to bother you.”
And then I turned and walked back to my car, the rain drenching me to the bone. I wished it would just sweep me away.
I came thundering down the stairs, my heart pounding in abject terror. “Kal? Kal, where are you, buddy?”
But I knew in my gut he wasn’t here.
Because he’s gone home.
I hit the living room just in time to see Chloe close the front door. I rushed to join her.
“Do you see Kal? Is he out there?”
“What, no…”
I pushed past her and threw open the door. “Who’s there?”
“No one,” Chloe said, her voice wavering. “Kal’s not in his room?”
I squinted through the dark and the rain and by the light of a lightning flash, there was Faith. I thought for a second my brain must’ve finally snapped, but it was her, golden-haired and beautiful in the rain…
Already bombarded with a thousand emotions per second, I could’ve cried. For the first time in weeks, I felt something besides pain. Relief. As if my beleaguered heart was finally going to catch a break.
Not if I lose Kal.
I whirled on Chloe. “You sent her into that?”
She stammered, but I was already grabbing a flashlight from my emergency kit at the door. “Stay here in case Kal comes back,” I ordered in the same tone I used during a call. The tone that tolerated zero disobedience.
Chloe nodded quickly and I ran out into the deluge. Faith was just about to climb into her car.
