Page 34 of The Promise Of You

“She’s not a slut!” I snap and register my sister’s victorious look.

Instead of basking in her I-was-right attitude, she provokes me further by adding, “Anyone who would have a one-night stand with you is a slut.” She makes a disgusted face, totally trying to get a rise out of me. Or information.

I clench my jaw. “Haley.”

“Then prove it. Tell me who she is. Bring her to Emerald Creek.” Then she heads outside, and Moose worms his way through the door with her, leaving me alone in the pub.

My brain is a mess, my thoughts raging with anger.

‘Bring her to Emerald Creek.’ The irony.

I can’t believe what just happened. I can’t believe I found Clover, only to lose her again. Clover is Sullivan’s daughter.

Shit.

Fuck.

The words she told me in the elevator, the ones that made me want to punch the wall, surge back in my memory. “Sometimes it feels like whatever I do, it’s never good enough. Or worse, it’s wrong. I try and try and try to please, to do the right thing, but I end up rejected anyway.”

And now I’ve done this to her.

And why is Clover running her family’s restaurant? Is that her trying to please? Fuck, she came to the pub, and Haley said she was so nice. Trying to please again. And she ended up being rejected again. How could I mess up so spectacularly?

I’m too fucking angry to stay at the pub now. I turn around to go back to Chris’s. Maybe I can help him fix his relationship. One that took almost six months to build. He has something solid.

Not like me.

As I hit the sidewalk, I see Haley and Grace, who is Chris’s cousin and also Colton’s sister, knock on the door of the restaurant. Haley purses her lips at me and turns her head to Grace, who gives me the stink eye.

Of course the girls are going to meddle.

Well, hell.

twelve

Chloe

Ideadbolt the restaurant door, lean my back against it, and slide down to the floor, closing my eyes. My heart thumps loudly.

Justin. His name is Justin.

Ohmygod. What a mess.

What did he say in Boston? ‘Tomorrow, we’re two strangers again.’

So we’re strangers. Okay. Oh god. I just need to keep it together when I see him. It won’t be hard, given what just happened.

And he also said, ‘I don’t have a girlfriend. Never did, never will.’

Okay. That’s good, right? I won’t have to see him in town with another woman. If it’s true. After what happened with Tucker, can I even trust him? Maybe he lied to me. But also, I need to forget about having anything with him now. What am I thinking? With what just happened, there’s nothing to be had. He couldn’t get rid of me fast enough.

What do I care anyway? He was a rebound, a one-night stand.

Right?

A big fat tear rolls down my cheek.

I wished I’d never seen him again. I could have kept fantasizing.

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