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“Yep,” I agreed and stepped into the room. “Just like a bad penny.”
As Chloe continued to stare straight ahead at the wall, I lifted my gaze to her mother. “Been a good day, huh?”
“It could’ve been better.” Eva’s voice was hoarse as if she’d been screaming for hours.
“Can you get my mother to go to bed?” Chloe asked, still staring at the wall. “She’s dead on her feet.”
I lifted my brows and transferred my gaze back to Eva, who was already shaking her head as if she wanted to object.
Being a smartass, I answered, “Doesn’t look like she’s on her feet at all to me.”
Chloe sniffed bitterly but didn’t reply.
Damn. She hadn’t taken the bait and smarted off some scathing reply. She reallywashaving an off day.
I met her mother’s weary gaze and tipped my head toward the door as I kept walking to the bed. “Why don’t you take a break? I can sit with her grumpy ass for a bit.”
Chloe reached up without looking and gripped Eva’s hand. “Please, Mom. Get some sleep.”
Eva looked as if she wanted to cry, but she couldn’t seem to say no to Chloe. Releasing a defeated breath, she kissed her daughter’s hair, not stopping even when Chloe shuddered from the unexpected contact, and then she slid from the bed. “I’ll try,” she promised, smoothing her hand over the spot she’d just kissed. “You try too, baby girl.”
Then she turned my way, and her soft smile dropped into a devastated, pleading stare. And she passed by, she touched my arm and leaned close. “If you can get her to rest again like you did last night, you’ll be my favorite, I swear.”
Grinning, I turned my face down and winked at her. “I was already your favorite.”
Eva chuckled good-naturedly and patted my arm. “Get me if you need anything.”
“Will do,” I answered as I turned to watch her walk from the room.
After she was gone, I turned back and immediately started for the bed. Waggling my brows, I said, “I think your mom likes me.”
“She’s just delirious from lack of sleep,” Chloe deadpanned without moving, without stopping her fixated stare at the wall, without changing her expression.
“Bet you ten bucks she has a dirty dream about me tonight,” I challenged, trying yet again to get a rise from her as I toed off my shoes and crawled onto the mattress to take up the space where Eva had been lying.
Chloe made a sound in the back of her throat as if she didn’t care either way.
I exhaled and then got comfortable next to her so I could stare at the same wall she was. But when I looked, I saw that the big oval mirror over her vanity set had been shattered.
My brow knit curiously. “Have a brawl with your mirror?” I asked.
“Didn’t like how it was looking at me,” she slurred lifelessly.
I laughed, only to immediately sober up. “Wait. Did you really break it?Why? You’ve had that mirror for as long as I can remember.”
“I just told you; I didn’tlikewhat I saw,” was all she said.
“Christ, Chloe.” I turned to look at her face. “You seriously don’t look that bad.” Furrowing my brow in concern, I stroked a hand down her arm. “The bruises and scratches will fade. And the eye will heal.”
Finally, she tore her gaze away from the mirror. “It isn’t about the eye or bruises or scratches.”
“Then what is it about?” I asked. “Because if you think you’re ugly, you’re just fucking whack.”
She shook her head, but her eyes went moist and her nose went red as if she’d already been crying for an hour, even though she hadn’t even started.
Heaving out a breath, she looked up at the ceiling briefly before returning her gaze to me. “It’s because I’m an idiot, and I can’t seem tostopbeing one. I have obsessed over every little detail about how I’ve looked foryears, freaking out and going on extreme diets and working out twice as long whenever I think my cheeks look too puffy or my arms have extra weight. All because of some stupid irrational fear that I’m just going to revert to the insecure, chubby teenager no one would pay attention to.”
When a single tear trailed down her cheek, I reached up and tenderly tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, unable to keep from touching her in some way and hoping to comfort her.
