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After thanking Caroline and Ten for providing the food, I snagged the Long John and a napkin, then bypassed the chair that seemed to be reserved for me, and I backpedaled until I was leaning against the island counter next to where Luke was also leaning and eating an apple fritter with Trick on his other side, downing a glazed donut.
My arm brushed Luke’s, and he sent me a curious sidelong glance but then went back to eating.
“Does anyone know how Lucy and Ava Grace are today?” I asked before biting into my pastry.
“Yeah, we stopped by there on our way here,” Caroline spoke up. “And they’re doing well. They’re just fine.”
I nodded, grateful to hear that.
“You should’ve seen the way Vaughn was doting over both of them.” Teagan lifted her brows, eager to impart some juicy gossip. “I think those two are going to hook up before too long.”
I smiled sadly and looked down at my donut. “She told me she was in love with him,” I said. “Last night. Right before Dax showed up.” My chin trembled, and tears filled my eyes as I added, “And I dropped her baby.”
“Oh, sweetheart,” Mom scolded softly, coming forward to take my arm. “That is not on you. It—”
When I gasped and wrenched away from her touch, I bumped into Luke again, and he set a hand on the center of my back to steady me. He said nothing, but his hand leveled out my emotions until I felt balanced enough not to have a panic attack in the middle of my parents’ kitchen.
“I…I’m sorry,” I choked out, my eyes still welling. “Maybe I wasn’t ready for this after all.”
And I took off, racing from the kitchen.
Once I returned to my room, I spent the rest of the day in bed, and the only two people who bothered me were my parents when they brought food.
13LUKE
After getting booted out of the Ryan house within thirty seconds of Chloe fleeing the kitchen in tears, I went home and tried to take a nap before I had to go back in to work later that night. But sleep was elusive.
Every time I would begin to drift off, I only jerked awake again, breathing hard and sitting up, looking around for Chloe to make sure she was okay. I tried to watch some television, but every show made me feel sick to my stomach. I tried to play a game on my phone, but then my heart would start to race for no good reason, and I’d have to get up and walk around.
There was plenty of chatter in the family group chat, and I read some of what they were saying, mostly about Dax Freston. Apparently, he was still in jail and waiting for a hearing first thing on Monday morning to go in front of a judge to either get his bail set or denied. A handful of the family planned on being present for that.
I tossed the phone down and paced some more, wishing Pick hadn’t made everyone leave. I’d even sworn to him that I wouldn’t bug her or talk to her; I’d just needed to stay close and look in at her every so often to convince myself she was fine. It was a compulsory need I couldn’t seem to control. And it frazzled my nerves down to nubs that he wouldn’t let me even do that.
What’s worse, she never responded when I privately texted her, asking,you doing okay?
Pick did call early in the afternoon, but only to ask me to go in to work early and make sure the bar was ready for opening since he didn’t plan on going in at all. I readily agreed and then tried to ask how Chloe was, but all he answered was, “She’s working it out. Just give her some time.”
That evasive response irritated me and told me nothing. So I stopped by Lucy’s house on the way to work, to make sure at leastsheand her kid were okay.
There were a ton of people there.
Her brother, Beau, opened the door for me as I was walking up. We nodded silently to each other, and he stepped back to let me in. I scanned the new door and patches on the drywall as I did, remembering how it’d been hanging from one hinge the night before.
And just like that, I remembered the basement and the frightened look in Chloe’s eyes again.
Shaking my head, I looked up and pulled back in surprise to find Lucy immediately coming in to hug me in greeting before I could even pull my hands from my pockets. “Thank you for finding her,” she said into my ear before pulling away.
I nodded solemnly and glanced around at everyone talking in hushed voices so as not to aggravate the baby’s head wound.
The conversation here wasn’t much different from that in the group chat. They were all talking about ways to make sure Chloe’s psycho ex paid for his crimes—some were legal ways, and some were not-so-legal.
I kind of preferred the not-so-legal suggestions myself, but those were just wishful thinking, so I turned toward Lucy’s mom who was rocking with the bruised baby on her lap.
“Have you heard any word from Eva today about Chloe?”
Aspen glanced up and sent me a sad smile. “She said Chloe hadn’t left her room since this morning. She’ll eat when they force her to, but I can tell Eva’s worried. It definitely hit her hard today.”
I nodded, the itch in me to go see her only growing stronger. “Yeah, she was pretty skittish this morning.”
