Page 40 of Cold Case Discovery

“No one will think that I’m moving jobs because I want a different job when my relationship with Jack gets out. They’ll think I’m weak and lovesick,” she muttered.

Carlyle looked at her like she’d grown a second head. “What does it matter what anyone else thinks? Youdowant a different job. And you’re about as weak as a boulder.”

Yes, but that’s not what this was about. It was... It was...something. Carlyle just didn’t... “You don’t understand what it’s like to grow up in a small town.”

“No, but I do understand what it’s like to be a grown up, Chloe. What other people think only matters if you let it.”

It frustrated her because she didn’t know how to argue with it. And with everything else going on, she wasn’t handling that as well as she should. “Well, thanks for that after-school special, Car, but I’ve still got to drive over to Bent County and pick some of my confiscated belongings up.” She didn’t want to wait until morning now. She wanted to get out and away. From everyone. “I’ll deliver Ry back to his room.”

Carlyle shook her head. “Leave him. Cash is going to have him pick out a dog to keep him company inside once he’s got Izzy to bed. We’ll handle it.”

“You don’t need—”

“Chloe.”

“What?”

“Scram.”

“Carlyle, he’s my brother and my—”

“Burden? Cool. We’ll handle it for a while. And if you keep arguing with me, I’m literally going to fight you.”

Chloe glared at Carlyle, but also wouldn’t put it past the woman. And she was feeling so...so...twisted up, she couldn’t find any words to get through to Carlyle. So she left. Left her brother as someone else’s responsibility.

The Hudsons and their extended little network wanted to take over her life? Fine. They wanted to take care of her lying, unpredictable brother? Great. They wanted to watch her every move because of some nonsense threat thatJackperceived there to be? Let them.

She didn’t know why it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Like there was a pressure in her chest, so heavy that she couldn’t even fill up her lungs. It was all too much like impending doom.

Because they couldn’t handleeverythingfor her.Somethingwas going to crash and burn, and then it’d be all up to her again—and then what?

She was going to leave. Right now. Just get in her car and go. Get the scrapbook and then head home.Herhome. She didn’t want to be protected. She didn’t want to be helped. She wanted...

She started to change her route. Walk for the front, where her car was parked, instead of the side door that would lead her back into the house. To Jack.

Jack. Wholovedher for some reason. Who’d asked her to let him take care of her. Becauseheneeded that.

She swore and stopped walking, right there in the middle of the yard, starlight sparkling all around her. She couldn’t be that woman who just took off. Oh, she wanted to be.God, she wanted to be. But it would hurt him if she went off by herself, and even if she didn’t think she was in any danger, all it would take is for one little thing to go off course for her to feel like she’d been wrong.

She turned back toward the house, and then there he was. Stepping out of the side door, the porch light shining a little halo around his head.

She loved him so much, it made her want to run away. Because what he didn’t understand was that for all the ways she presented herself, for all the ways she thought therapy had helped her deal with her childhood trauma, deep down she saw—clearly, for the first time—how scared she was that it all just made her as unlovable as she’d always been treated.

But shehadgone to therapy. Shehadfaced a garbage fest of a childhood and worked on healing from those wounds. Maybe she wasn’t all the way there, but it was about progress. Not perfection.

She walked over to him, not sure what to say or even who to be. It was like Ry unearthing all those bodies hadn’t just caused a major issue. It was like it had turned her life inside out and nothing made sense anymore.

Least of all the man on the porch. No, least of allherself.

“Were you going somewhere?” he asked. Not with accusation. Not with anger. He likely felt a little bit of those things, but he didn’t use them on her. That wasn’t him.

So she told him the truth. No lie would form. “Thought about taking off.”

“What changed your mind?”

She took the stairs, got close enough to him that she could see the way he watched her. Maybe there was a little flare of irritation lurking in his dark eyes, but mostly the only thing on his face was worry.

She leaned forward against him, wrapped her arms around him. “You.”

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