“Not all of us are so good at putting up walls Elaina,” I snapped back.
“Those walls are the only thing that helped me keep it together after Neil and Brad. I will not apologize for them.”
“And what about now? Are those walls helping now with Neil? Because from where I stand, this fight seems like a miscommunication that could be worked out if either of you would bother to just try.” My anger was rising higher and higher to the surface. I loved my sister, but she had no right telling me who I could and couldn’t be friends with. And the fact that she was mad about my friendship and partnership with Liam spoke so much more about her than me right now.
“You are so selfish,” Elaina shouted. “How many breakups have I sat with you through? How many times did you cry in my lap as we watched romantic comedies and polished off gallons of ice cream? What would you have done if I had started dating even one of the brothers of your exes? Let alone the one you most loved?”
A lump lodged in my throat, burning, because I knew what she was saying was true. I would have been pissed if she’d started dating any one of my ex’s brothers. And if I was being honest, I might have even been pissed if she became friends with one of them.
I opened my mouth to apologize to Elaina, but before I could, she spun, grabbing her purse and slapped a stapled document on the counter. “Well, you won’t have to worry about me being in your hair for much longer,” she said. “I put in an offer on a house today. It’s a cash offer, so I’ll be moving out in no time.”
Heat flushed to my face as I swallowed the apology. She was moving out? Already? Was I that unbearable to live with that my own sister couldn’t stay with me for more than a few weeks? Was that part of the reason Dan left me—why he chose another woman instead?
I spun, stomping toward the liquor cabinet and grabbed a bottle of tequila, then pushed past Elaina, heading to the front door.
“Where are you going?” she called after me.
“Out!”
“At this time of night? And what, you’re going to drink and drive—” I slammed the door behind me, cracking open the bottle and taking a swig as I walked into town.
Hell no, I wasn’t going to drink and drive. I didn’t even know where I was going. I just knew that I couldn’t be at home in that big house that was not only a reminder of my failings as Dan’s fiancé… but now a reminder of how I failed as a little sister.
18 Liam
I stood in the kitchen of Beefcakes mixing buttercream for tomorrow. After dropping Chloe off at home, I tried everything to relax and go to sleep, but I couldn’t get her out of my head. And everywhere I looked, I saw her. Smelled her. She lingered and I needed to get out of there to clear my head.
I had no doubt that tomorrow when I was running on fumes I would deeply regret my choice to stay up late tonight… but for now, I couldn’t just lie in bed, rehashing what happened with Chloe tonight. On the surface, it was nothing. We ran into her ex and his new girlfriend… and they assumed Chloe and I were a couple. Clearly, lots of people were assuming that—especially after the story aired on tonight’s news. But that conversation back at my place… How would this work? How could the two of us be friends and also date other people? I couldn’t stomach the thought of Chloe on a date with another man, and she somehow expected the theoretical four of us to all be best friends?
I wasn’t paying close enough attention to the buttercream, and when I looked down, it had curdled in the mixer.
“Fuck,” I grunted, turning off the machine and grabbing the bowl to dump it in the sink.
I tore the apron off my body and shoved through the back door out toward the shop area when I heard it. Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way playing from the parking lot. When I peeked out the window, The Dump Truck’s lights were on.
Holy shit! Was someone stealing our truck? I ran out the door, lunging up the back steps of the van and yanked the door open, ready to fight whoever had managed to break in.
Instead, I found Chloe on the floor of the van, double-fisting tomorrow’s donuts, a bottle of tequila resting against her thigh and tears streaming down her face.
She shrieked as I came barreling into the van, probably looking like a crazed monster ready to punch her. In truth, I sort of had been ready to punch her—when I thought she was a car thief.
“What are you doing here?” she asked between her hiccupped sobs.
“What am I doing here? I’m baking for tomorrow. Jesus, Chloe… what are you doing here? Eating all our inventory for tomorrow?”
“I-I’m sorry,” she sniffled and took another bite of donut, talking with her mouth full. “Elaina and I had a huge fight. The biggest fight of our lives. I didn’t know where to go…”
I winced and lowered to sit beside her on the floor. She wasted no time, dropping her head to my shoulder. Tears saturated my t-shirt as she nuzzled against me. “Your fight… it was about me?”
Chloe nodded. “Some of it was about you. But mostly, I think it was just all the things that had been left unsaid for too long.”
I reached around her for the bottle of tequila, but noticed as I slid it away from her that the cap was still on and the bottle was full. “You didn’t drink any of this?”
She shook her head. “I started to. But then as I walked, I ended up here
