Page 96 of Chloé

“So do you, but you’re thinking of going.”

“Yeah, but that’s different. I’m thinking about it because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance for me.”

“And they’re thinking about it becauseyouare the once-in-a-lifetime chance for them.”

Justin winced. “Do I really need to be here for this?”

“Yes.” Shayla eyed him. “You could do with a bit of help in the love department.”

“Uh, this is a tutorial about women. Not really my scene. Plus, I do just fine, thank you very much.”

Shayla arched a brow in her cousin’s direction. “When was the last time you went on a date?”

Justin opened his mouth to respond, but she quickly held up her hand.

“And I don’t mean a hookup.”

“I date.”

“Uh huh.”

Justin rolled his eyes and looked back to Chloé. “And you wonder why I selfishly want you to stay?”

She grinned but totally understood where he was coming from. Truth be told, if this was the other way around, and Justin was the one telling her that he might be leaving the country—she wouldnotbe handling it this well.

“Anyway…” Shayla swiveled on her seat and reached for Chloé’s hand. “What did Ethan and Zayne say when you told them about this?”

Chloé looked between Justin and Shayla and gave a little shrug. “They said they’d come with me, no questions asked.”

“Then you’ve got no reason to feel bad.”

“I have to agree, kiddo. They don’t exactly strike me as the type of men to do something unless they want to.” He quickly turned and pinned Shayla to the barstool with a fierce stare. “If you so much as try to make a sexual innuendo about my sister with what I just said, Iwillhurt you.”

Shayla laughed. “You wouldn’t hurt a fly. But I didn’t have to make one—you already went there.”

“Gross,” Justin and Chloé said at the exact same time, and Shayla tossed her head back and really started to laugh.

This right here was what she was going to miss most—family. Her brother. Her cousins. Her fathers…

She had such abig, close-knit family, and the idea of going off and leaving them? Well, that was one of the reasons she’d never seriously entertained the idea. She just assumed she was going to work and run JULIEN Chicago, but now here was this incredible chance to live and work in France.

She had no idea what to do. No idea what shewantedto do. And while her gut reaction was to immediately jump at the opportunity and throw caution to the wind, her brain wouldn’t seem to let her.

“Chloé?”

“Sorry.” She blinked and stared at Justin. “What did you say?”

“I just asked you what you’re going to do.”

Yeah, that was what she thought he’d said—the problem was, nothing they’d just said had made this decision any easier.

“I don’t know.”

* * *

“DO YOU REMEMBER the first time we pulled up at this house?” Zayne glanced over to Ethan, who had just turned off the engine.

“I do. We dropped Chloé off after her car broke down.”

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