Page 38 of Spark
“Okay,” Tara said, lifting her hands.“Let’s bring her in.I can deliver the news, if you’d like.I’m used to being the bad guy.”
“No.”Chloe dressed up the word with a smile.“Thank you for offering, but bringing Esme down here will only get her even more defensive.The news will go over better if I tell her privately in her own space, where she feels a little safer.I can go right after we’re done here.”The sooner she ripped off this Band-Aid, the better.
Tom winced.“I’d like to go with you—strength in numbers, and I want to be sure Esme knows we’ve got her back—but I’ve got to be in court in an hour for a custody hearing.It’ll probably take most of the day.”
“Ugh, and I’ll be tied up with the investigation,” Addison said, but Chloe waved off the concern.
“That’s okay.I’ll be fine on my own.”
To Chloe’s dismay, Tara shook her head.“No.I can get on board with not telling her here, but like you said, she’s going to be upset.She might take the news better with someone else there.Plus, like Tom said, we need her to know we’ve got her back.”Her gaze slipped from Chloe’s, landing a few feet to her right, and no, no, no—“What about taking Gates?”
Tyler exhaled his shock.“Me?”
Tara nodded, her mind clearly made up.Damn it!“Yes.You’re an expert, and Esme’s going to need emotional support.You know how to keep people calm when things go sideways, and if she sees that the RFD is taking the fire investigation seriously, it’ll go a long way toward reassuring her that we’re doing all we can.Nat, can you spare him?”
“Sure,” Nat said, killing any last hope Chloe had of flying solo.“We’ve already done an initial briefing, and I’ve got his scene report.I’m sure there will be some follow-up, but like you said, the investigation is going to take time.”
Tara smiled.“Perfect.Then it looks like you two are a team.”
12
Tyler’s head was so full of swirling thoughts that he was eighty percent certain it might detonate.He’d tried like hell to bring them to order, but somewhere between the idea of a thirteen-year-old kid witnessing a violent murder, the evidence in said murder having been potentially destroyed in a fire that had almost roasted Tyler’s goose, and the fact that he was currently on his way to go with Chloe—asemotionalsupport, of all goddamn things—to tell Esme about the fire at the lab?
Yeah.It wasn’t even ten in the morning, and Tyler was elbows-deep in feelings and very much alone with the one person he’d been trying not to have feelingsabout.
In other words, he was significantly fucked.
Put on your seatbelt, start your car, and get your shit together.Not in that order,he commanded himself.Okay, so Tara had voluntold him to go with Chloe, and he had about as much experience dealing with thirteen-year-old kids as he did with rocket science or crochet.But this was a job with a clear objective.He’d teamed up with Chloe on party planning, and he hadn’t expired—or, worse yet, kissed her again.Anyway, he was only going with her in an official capacity.He and Ryan had been brought in on the case for a reason, and if he could help Chloe reassure Esme that the authorities were doing everything they could to investigate and salvage the forensic evidence that would keep her safe, then he’d stuff his fucking feelings aside and do it.
No matter how much he wanted to kiss her again.
“Sorry you got stuck going with me for this,” Chloe said, breaking the silence between them.“I’m sure you’d rather be doing pretty much anything else.”
Tyler considered all the ways he could dodge the truth, slap a smile on his face, and cram his unease into the nearest hidey-hole.But none of that was going to help Chloe or Esme and, fuck it.
“It’s not exactly in my wheelhouse, no.Do you have a strategy in mind for how you want to tell her?”
Chloe’s red-gold brows lifted, a laugh chasing her surprise.“A strategy.”
“Yeah, a strategy.”Tyler kissed his remaining pride goodbye and said, “Look, I’m not even going to pretend I know how to deal with a teenager, especially one that’s about to be pretty upset.I may be the expert on the fire, but you’re the expert on Esme, so…what’s your game plan?”
“Esme’s a person, Tyler.Not a game of chess.”
A soft laugh huffed past his lips.“I get that, but I’m a firefighter.It is literally my job to follow a set protocol in order to solve problems.So, could you throw me a lifeline, here?How is this going to work?”
“Oh.”After a slow blink, Chloe said, “Well, I’m going to tell Esme what’s happening with this case.She’s going to get angry and scared and probably confrontational, and I’m going to handle it.”
“That’s it?”Tyler asked, but Chloe simply nodded.
“Well, those are the highlights, but yeah.I think that covers it.”
“So, what do you want me to do?”
Her hesitation should have tipped him off, but it didn’t.“To be honest?Nothing.”
His pride, not normally one to take exception, gave a rare prickle.“Jesus, Ferguson.Tell me how you really feel,” he muttered, and to his absolute surprise, she did.
“I feel like there’s no way this isn’t going to suck.Esme’s a teenager who just experienced a violent trauma and has trust issues the size of a small nation.I need to tell her something that’s going to, rightfully, freak her out, and I need her to listen and let me help her, not shut me down.”
