Page 71 of Wanting You

Her shoulders sagged as she asked, “Okay, now what?”

“How are you doing?” Billie asked carefully.

She shrugged. “I’m sad, I can’t deny that, but…it’s for the best.” Then something occurred to her. “I guess I’m confused about why this is such a big deal. People break up all the time—heck, when Evan and I broke up a few months ago, no one staged an intervention about it. I said I was fine and that was that. Why are you all making such a fuss about this?”

“Because there was a huge difference in the way you were with Evan and the way you were with Tanner,” Jade replied. “I think you were fond of Evan, but it never seemed like a relationship you were particularly invested in.”

That was…surprising.

“Really?” She glanced around at her family. “Why didn’t anyone ever say anything to me about that?”

“What was the point?” Ash asked. “You were happy and we just thought it was a casual relationship and no big deal. And apparently, we were right. But you were different with Tanner. It looked serious. Like…really serious.” She gave Chloe a sad smile. “Chlo, you are my other half and whenever you would talk about things with Tanner, I just…I knew. I knew he meant something to you. What happened?”

“Ash, come on,” Levi murmured. “Some things are personal and don’t need to be aired in public like this. As much as you might think this is helping, Chloe deserves some privacy.” He looked at Chloe. “There is literally zero pressure for you to share anything that you don’t want to. We all just want to make sure you’re okay.”

And for some reason, that was exactly the right thing to say, because the next thing she knew, she was telling them everything. From all her doubts and insecurities over teaching and competing with him to the awful PR dinner at Summit Ridge. She’d kept the entire thing bottled up and had said none of this out loud for over a week, and it felt fantastic to just say it.

Seven pairs of eyes simply blinked at her for several moments and she feared that maybe she had overshared. But then…

“What a dick!” Ashlynn declared. “I mean…seriously, what a dick. What was the point in even bringing you along if he was just going to star in his own damn parade?”

“Okay, to be fair,” Reid interjected, “I doubt he knew how that night was going to go. Chloe said that he’d never done anything like that before.”

But her sister wasn’t buying it. “He didn’t have to know exactly how it was going to go. He behaved like a total egomaniac! When everyone greeted him, he should have been holding Chloe’s hand and not letting go! According to her, he let them sweep him up and left her standing there to follow along! I would seriously kick your ass if you ever did anything like that to me!”

“Again with the ass kicking,” Chloe mumbled, but no one was listening. Apparently, they all had something to say.

“It was completely rude of him…”

“Inexcusable!”

“But he apologized…”

“Some people just can’t live if they’re not in the spotlight…”

That last one came from Billie, and Chloe looked over at her and nodded. “That’s the one that was the breaking point for me. It gave me a glimpse into his world and…that’s not me. I’m not a spotlight person, but I’m also not a…shove-me-out-of-the-way-so-you-can-be-in-the-spotlight person either. Does that make sense?”

“Absolutely,” Billie assured her. “I’m so sorry you had to feel that way. Just know that it’s not you. There is nothing wrong with you. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much you care about someone; some things are just…not compatible.”

“Bullshit.” This came from their father, and everyone turned to look at him. Ronan was sitting at the opposite end of the table, his arms folded, his expression stony.

“Dad,” Billie hissed. “What the hell?”

He leaned forward, bracing his hands on the table. “I am tired of that attitude,” he said firmly. “Yes, sometimes people aren’t compatible. I believe that. What I don’t believe in is throwing someone away because things get tough.” Then he looked directly at Chloe. “Do you care about Tanner?”

“Dad…” she whined.

“Do you? Did you see yourself having a future with him or was it something casual like that Evan person?”

Ugh…

“I don’t know,” she said weakly. “I guess I didn’t let myself think about the future because the present was such a mess.”

He looked at her oddly. “What in the world are you talking about? What was messy?”

“This!” she cried, pointing to everything around her. “Mom’s accident! New teachers at school! Moving into a new house and hating the fact that I was trying to do it all on my own! Having to prove myself as a teacher all over again while everyone praised everything Tanner was doing! You showing up and moving back in with Mom! I mean…how can the two of you get along now when you couldn’t do it when it was really important, huh? Why are we all supposed to be happy about you showing up to help now when we all needed you years ago?”

You could have heard a pin drop. The entire coffee house went silent, and Chloe wished a hole would open up in the floor and put her out of her misery.

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