“He’s out there,” I finally answered. “The right man for you.” I held up my glass and clinked it to hers as the curve of her mouth widened into that heart-melting grin.
“And she’s out there for you, too. I can’t wait to meet her and eventually force her to be my best friend, too.”
I set my glass down and held up my hands. “Whoa, wait a minute. When I get a girlfriend, you’re just gonna dump my best friend status for her?”
Chloe rolled her eyes and snorted. “Do you know nothing about women? Chances are, she’s not going to trust our friendship at all. I’m going to have to prove to her that we’re cool. And in order to do that, I’ll need to first befriend her. Earn her trust.”
“And you think your future boyfriend will just be totally fine with our friendship?”
She shrugged. “I’m just saying we’ll have some work to do to prove they have nothing to worry about.”
I couldn’t speak for Chloe, but whomever I ended up with would have a lot to worry about. Because I couldn’t see a world where there was anyone else I’d rather spend my time with than Chloe. And if I had to choose? I’d choose her.
Every. Damn. Time.
17 Chloe
I slipped inside my front door, waving to Liam as he drove off in the food truck after dropping me off. Since it was kind of an eye sore, we kept it parked at Beefcakes when we weren’t working.
I barely had shut the door when I spun to find Elaina standing there behind me, hands on her hips, glaring daggers down the hallway at me.
I gasped, pressing my palm to my heart. “Jesus! Don’t do that! You scared the shit out of me.”
“Don’t do what?” she asked, her voice just a little too quiet. Dangerously quiet. Damn. I was hoping I’d get home before she saw the news broadcast. “Stand in the foyer?”
I sighed and walked past her, dropping my purse onto the counter. “You know what you were doing. You were lurking. Waiting for me to come home so you could lecture me. Look Elaina… I know what you saw, and before you say anything, just know he didn’t actually kiss me. I stopped him before—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa… who didn’t kiss you?”
I pressed my lips together, my eyes going wide. Shit. Why did I have to open my big mouth, assuming she saw the news when clearly she hadn’t… yet? “Umm… no one?” I said, my voice getting high-pitched and squeaky. “What are you talking about?”
“Kyra called me and said that Liam got in a fight with Nick yesterday outside his pizza shop… that you two were stealing his business.”
I snorted and rolled my eyes. “First of all, Nick called me a bitch. That’s why Liam punched him. Second, we weren’t stealing his business. We were trying to work out a way to cross-promote.”
Elaina crossed her arms, her blue eyes growing steely in the exact same way mine do when I’m mad. “What’s this about a kiss?” Even though it was a question, she seemed to already know the answer and was opting to make me squirm anyway.
“There was no kiss. There was an almost kiss…”
“That was on the news?”
I pressed my lips together and nodded. “Yes.”
“And who was this almost kiss with?”
I closed my eyes. “Please don’t make me answer that,” I begged.
“Tell me,” Elaina whispered. “I need to hear you say it. I need to hear you say that you broke our promise.”
“But I didn’t break my promise!” A single tear slipped from the corner of my eye and I quickly swiped it away with the back of my hand. “I stopped the kiss before it happened. Liam tried to kiss me, not the other way around. And I stopped it, even though the stupid news footage doesn’t look like it. Ask him yourself, he’ll tell you!”
Elaina’s face twisted, and as she shook her head, her eyes filled with moisture. “I’ve never asked you for much, have I, Chloe? I’ve been a good big sister… I’ve taken care of you. I’ve been your friend. This is the one thing I’ve asked—no, needed—from you. Not to date my ex-boyfriend’s brother. And you couldn’t even do that. You’re so incapable of being alone, so needy for male attention, you just had to get involved with Liam!”
I sniffed as more tears spilled down my face and took a step closer to my big sister. “Elaina, I swear to you… Liam and I are not together.”
She countered my movement by taking a step back. “Oh, I believe you that you’re not fucking Liam Evans. But you want to be. And without me, you probably would be. Even without the romantic component, you still entered a business with him. You could have gotten a job anywhere. You could have just started a consulting business and had Beefcakes as a client—even that would have been fine. But starting a food truck with my ex’s little brother? You’ve never expressed interest in working in the food industry before and now, because one guy suggests it—bam! You’re a food truck entrepreneur. This is just like Dan all over again. A hot guy tells you to do something, and because it’s shiny and new, Tasmanian Chloe jumps right on board.”
“Don’t say that,” I cried, my voice hoarse. “This is different. And it wasn’t Liam asking me to do it, it was the other way around. It was my idea. I practically had to force Liam into the food truck idea—”
“That’s even worse!” Elaina erupted, pacing back and forth across the kitchen. “You don’t think the fact that you sought out his friendship and partnership is strange?”
“I like Liam! I like him and yet I’m keeping him at arm’s length for you!”
“This is arm’s length? Almost kissing him on the local news and apparently some sort of weird act of chivalry where he
