AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I knew better.
He’d made it perfectly clear on Monday that he wasn’t interested in giving us a chance. I’d given him my first time and he’d thrown it back in my face.
I never would have touched you.
A shudder went through me, one I felt all the way down to my soul.
“Celeste!”
“Coming. I’m coming.” I hurried downstairs, surprised to find Chloe standing on my doorstep.
“Hey.” She lifted her hand in a small wave. “Can we talk?”
“Uh, sure, come in.”
“I’m going out so you two have the house to yourselves.” Max grabbed his jacket off the rack. “Text me if you need me.”
“Okay.”
“Bye, Maxy.” Chloe called after him with a smirk and he flipped her off over his shoulder. “So friendly,” she murmured.
“What are you doing here, Clo?” I asked.
“You’ve been ignoring me, so I thought I’d come and make sure you were okay.”
“I told you, I’m fine.”
“I know, but you see where I come from, ‘I’m fine’ is just another way of saying everything is not fine.” She gave me a knowing smile. “So why don’t you make us both a cup of hot chocolate and you can tell me all about it.”
“There’s really nothing to tell.”
“Okay then, I’ll tell you what I think I know, and you can tell me how I’ve done.”
“Fine. Come on, the kitchen is this way.”
Chloe followed me, ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ at Mom’s expensive wall art. “Your house is like something out of a magazine,” she said. “I mean, I knew this place was big, but I didn’t know.”
“It’s just a house, Clo.”
“You would say that. But I look at this and I see a different world to the one I live in.”
“A perfect house doesn’t mean a perfect family.”
“No, I guess you’re right.” Her expression sobered. “I’m sorry if I’m being weird.”
“It’s fine. I get it. I just don’t like it.” Because this house, this life, my family, was the reason I was so lonely.
It was part of the reason Zane had ended things.
Money didn’t buy happiness; it didn’t buy friends or a happily ever after. It made things easier, sure. But it also tarnished things. It made it difficult to know who to trust. It made it difficult to make friends… and keep them.
I set about making Chloe and I a mug of hot chocolate each with marshmallows. She chatted about her day. Told me all about Warner, the guy she’d chatted to at the diner after the football game, and their first big date.
“You know, Greg told Warner that Zane basically told him to stay away from you.”
“Clo…”
“What? I’m just saying, he’s mightily protective of you for someone who doesn’t care.”
