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"I will pass that on."
ChapterFifteen
Chloe wantedto get to the rental house on Monday, but a broken burner on the stove and a sick waitress tied her up at the restaurant. She apologized to Decker, knowing that he wanted to get the junk cleared as soon as possible, but he wasn't too concerned. He was planning to pull permits and drive to the next town to get tile and floor samples for her to look at.
When Tuesday rolled around, she got a flat tire on the way to work and had to deal with that as well as more problems to solve at the restaurant. While she might have been able to find an hour in the afternoon to do some cleaning at the house, she was feeling out of sorts after getting a text from Joel that he'd been delayed in New York City.
She shouldn't have been surprised, but she was. It was her birthday, and she'd thought Joel was planning to surprise her, that he'd set something up with Hannah and her friends, because none of them were available for dinner on her birthday. That had made her instantly suspicious.
But now her suspicions were turning into a pity party. Her friends were busy. Her boyfriend was going to miss her birthday, and she didn't feel like putting on a cheerful face about it.
After picking Leo up from school, she headed home, texting Decker that she would come by on Wednesday.
She wasn't holding up her end of the bargain to deal with Eleanor's junk, but she would get to it. And Decker seemed to be busy with other things. He wasn't just waiting around for her to show up. He could clear some stuff out himself, but she had a feeling he was afraid to find any more worrisome clues about his past.
As she puttered around the house on Tuesday, she still kept thinking that someone was going to show up with a surprise, but aside from getting birthday text greetings from her friends, and a hand-drawn card that Leo had made at school, there was nothing else going on.
She shouldn't care, but she did.
When her phone rang at five, she jumped to answer it, seeing Joel's number flash across the screen.
"Chloe," he said in a rush. "God, I'm sorry. I just remembered it's your birthday. I was going to surprise you with dinner. This trip just threw everything off. I feel terrible."
"It's fine. It's not a big deal," she said.
"I told your friends I wanted to do something for you. Hannah is going to kill me."
Hannah probably would want to kill him when she found out, but she didn't want Joel getting into a war with her friends. "I'll talk to her. How are your meetings going? Are you coming back soon?"
"I'll be honest; they're not going great, but I think I can win my dad over, eventually. He's the one influencing all the other staffers. I need to get him on my side."
"I don't understand why he isn't on your side. You're his son."
"I think that's the problem. He judges me more harshly than everyone else because I'm a reflection on him. I don't want to bore you. I hope you can still go out with your friends."
"Sure," she lied. "Just come back soon, okay?"
"I'm trying, Chloe. I really am."
She could hear the sincerity in his voice. But she'd also heard that same sincerity in Kevin's voice when he'd told her he really wanted to stay, wanted to be a good husband and father, that he was trying… But Kevin hadn't succeeded, and she wasn’t sure Joel would, either.
It wasn't just that he was missing her birthday; it was that his reason was the same one he'd been giving her the past three weeks every time he had to miss something. It was always about work. Maybe this was just an unusually busy time. Or maybe she was kidding herself that he was ready to balance life and work. There was certainly no evidence that he was doing that.
But maybe she was being petty, too needy. She had a job and a kid; she knew what it was like to be busy and sometimes she had to bail on people. Maybe she just needed to relax and let things be what they were going to be.
As she set down the phone, she thought about calling her friends, but then she'd have to get a sitter at the last minute, and they already had plans in a few days. She'd just celebrate then. It certainly wasn't the first time she was alone on her birthday.
Actually, she wasn't alone, she thought, as Leo came running in to ask her to play a game with him. She had the best guy in the world right here.
After a long afternoon and evening of imaginary games, she put Leo to bed, and then settled down on the sofa in front of the television. She searched for a movie to fit her mood. She'd been smiling and putting on a cheerful face for Leo for the past several hours, and she didn't want to do that anymore. She needed something dark and scary, something completely different that would take her mind off things. She wasn't usually a fan of dark and scary, but what the heck…
She found the first in a series of five horror movies and turned it on.
Within minutes, her pulse was racing too fast, and she was feeling a little horrified.
Then the doorbell rang, and she almost jumped out of her skin. It seemed eerily reminiscent of the scene she just watched when the girl had answered the door when she shouldn't have.
Telling herself to get a grip, she went to the door and looked through the peephole, relieved to see Decker on the porch. She flung open the door, more than a little happy to see his smiling face.
