Page 59 of Every Time My Heart Breaks

Instant relief swamped me. But as soon as I exhaled in gratitude, I grinned and had to say, “Hey, it was two forty-five last night.”

My boss chuckled. “Whatever. Just don’t wake my wife. This is the first night she fell asleep before one since it happened.”

“Oh, yeah?” I asked, finishing up my job of clearing the cash register. “When’d Chloe go down?”

Pick sighed. “She hasn’t yet.”

“I’ll be there soon,” I promised.

And that was how the next few days progressed.

Pick finally lifted his ban and started to allow others to visit again, but by the time I would get there after work, the place would be quiet and dark, and I’d slip back to Chloe’s childhood room, where she’d still be awake, unable to sleep, tossing and turning on her mattress.

She’d tell me about family gossip from all the visitors she’d gotten throughout the day, then complain about how her job had forced her to take a six-week leave of absence, and then I’d tell her about my day before we’d fall asleep against each other, holding hands.

And if I had a day off work, I came over to eat supper with the family, then hung out with all the Ryans before Chloe and I retired together for the night.

No one seemed to have a problem with me being her sleep companion and personal teddy bear. They didn’t say a single thing about it. Not until day ten, when Pick called me again at work.

“Hey,” he greeted casually. “Now that you won’t be coming over in the middle of the night after work anymore, why don’t you just leave the extra house key I gave you in my office desk there at the club, okay? In the top, center drawer will be fine.”

“Uh…” I fumbled a moment, my heart racing before I furrowed my brows and just came right out to say, “I won’t be coming over anymore?”

“Well…” Pick stalled, sounding a bit confused. “I figured you wouldn’t since Chloe decided to go home. But, I mean, if you justwantto keep sleeping over…”

There was a teasing quality in his voice, except I didn’t feel like laughing.

“Chloe wenthome?” I burst out angrily. “As in, she’s sleeping atherplace tonight? Alone?”

My boss paused before uneasily saying, “Did she not mention that to you?”

“No!” I growled.

Why the fuck hadn’t she told me? I’d slept beside her every single night since it had happened. By this point, it seemed like a common courtesy to let me know where she was going to be if she decided to suddenly up and transfer locations. Damn, it would’ve been polite of her to even tell me if she didn’t want me aroundat all.

I mean, what the hell?

“Well…” Pick repeated, sounding even more unsettled than before.

“Oh, don’t worry,” I assured him. “I’ll find out why she failed to mention this.” And I hung up on him, fuming.

Clock-out time could not come soon enough.

15CHLOE

It was a quarter after two in the morning, and my brain felt wired and alert to every noise I heard, while my body was absolutely exhausted.

I hadn’t been ready to come home and stay alone at my place, but I refused to admit that now. I was tired of admitting my weaknesses, tired ofbeingweak, just plain tired.

But I wanted my life back, and I wasn’t going to get that until I started actuallylivingit again. I couldn’t do much about work, since they had literally refused to let me return after hearing what happened, but Icouldgo home and sleep in my own bed and fix my own meals and stop leaning on my parents for every freaking thing I did.

Ineededthis.

Except I wasn’t ready, and it was killing me to even admit that to myself. I couldn’t sleep and could barely breathe from all the fear crowding my lungs. I was probably a hot second from having a full-blown panic attack, and I was just about to break down and call Mom and Dad—even if it was merely to hear their voices—when I received a text.

I scrambled to grab my phone, already feeling better just knowing that someone was out there, thinking about me and reaching out to contact me.

It didn’t matter if it was spam, wanting to talk about my car insurance, I was grateful for the message. But my heart skipped a beat when I saw Luke’s name instead.

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