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“He’s been checking in every so often to make sure I’m okay,” she added lamely, fiddling with her hands as if she were nervous.
And I just kind of snapped, unable to control the irritation rising inside me. “No,” I barked. “Icheck in to make sure you’re okay.”
Chloe hooked up one eyebrow with an arch glance. “Yes. And so do my mother and father and all of my siblings, plus everyone else in the family. Why does it matter if one more person does as well?”
“You know…” I muttered stonily, feeling like an interloper in her life with Logan. “You’re right. I guess it doesn’t matter.”
But I also couldn’t sit here a moment longer because of him and hischeck-inseither.
Shaking my head, I hissed out a deflated breath and slid off the bed so I could start for the door, needing space and air.
“Wait. Where are you going?” Chloe called after me.
“I don’t know,” I mumbled, roughly wiping my hands over my hair.
I shot out of her room and was halfway down the hall before she said from behind me, “Well, I guess that answersthatfor me.”
I slowed to a stop and then turned to rest my back against one of the walls in the hallway before glancing over to find her standing in the doorway to her room, hugging herself as ifshe’djust been hurt.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
She sniffed bitterly and motioned her arms around the hall. “You’ve been trying to prove all this time that you wanted to start something with me. But honestly, you just wanted to make my dad proud. You wanted to be the good guy who stepped up. You just didn’t want tofailat something you began. You don’t actually give a shit about being with me at all.”
I shook my head, completely lost. “What?”
“It’s just like with Lucy,” she ranted.
And it was my turn to snort. “This is nothing like Lucy.”
“You were all eager and fired up to step in and help her when you thought she needed it. But the moment you saw how Vaughn was there for her, you dropped the whole idea like a hot potato and backed off without a backward glance. Just like you’re doing now because someoneyou don’t even knownamed Logan called my phone.”
I laughed harshly. “That is not at all what is happening right now.”
“And the funny part is that Logan and I arenothing. I never even went on one date with him, and we have no plans or promises to go on another. But that doesn’t matter to you, does it? You can’t get to the door fast enough right now because Chloe no longer needs you for every breath she takes.”
“Bullshit,” I seethed. “The only reason I’m in this hall right now andnotin that room with my head up your skirt…” I said, lifting my voice louder than it needed to be. “Is to keep from saying some really shitty, unkind things after the shitty, unkind wayyoumade me feel when you made it clear just how important it was to ditch what we were doing to talk tohim. I mean, you’re setting me up to fail, aren’t you? You’re purposely sabotaging everything I do so that Idon’tfall for you. Because you don’t want me to. Why don’t you just admit it? You don’t want us to happen.”
Chloe blurted out a harsh laugh. “I’m not setting you up for anything. I don’thaveto. I justknowyou’re going to fail.”
“No, I’m not!” I shouted back and pushed away from the wall to storm toward her.
She stepped out of her bedroom to meet me on level ground, her chin inching higher.
“I was fully into what was happening in there.You’rethe one who couldn’t get away frommefast enough to answer his call and hurry into the hall so I couldn’t hear what you said. You’re the one that kept playing with your hair, primping for him, even though he couldn’t fuckingseeyou.”
“Why are you acting like this?” she demanded, setting her hands on her hips and scowling. “You didn’t pull out the jealous act when Vaughn swooped in and claimed Lucy.”
“Because you’renotLucy!” I roared. “I didn’t survive a traumatic event with her. I never spent a single night wrapped in her arms. I never tried to have sex with her. I was never fuckingin lovewith Lucy!”
“What?” she rasped, falling a startled step back as if I’d just punched her in the solar plexus.
“I said…” I started loudly, still swollen with glorious anger, only to pause and blink at her, finally realizing what I’d just said. “Holy fuck.”
My face immediately went numb, and I had to wipe my hands over my mouth to make sure my lips were still there as I processed what had just happened. Then I repeated, “Holy fuck,” as I looked up at her, feeling utterly poleaxed. “I said I love you.”
But seriously, when the hell had that happened?
Chloe blinked at me with wide eyes. Then she sniffed and narrowed her gaze before shaking her head and harshly laughing out her disbelief. “Sincewhen?”
