His heart beat like mad as he stepped up to Chloe’s porch and raised his hand to knock. This was exactly the kind of behavior he meant to leave behind. This was exactly who he didn’t want to be. And still, he set his knuckles hard to the wood, flinching at the crack of sound.
There was no response from within, not even a murmur of voices or a rustle of sound. “It’s me,” he said, then feebly added, “Max,” as an afterthought, wondering if that would help or hurt. Were they not answering because it might be a journalist or because it might be him?
If Chloe didn’t answer, it would be a good thing. He would walk away, guilt-free. Well, not guilt-free, really. He never walked away from anything guilt-free. But he could tell himself and Elliott that he’d done what he could. He’d made the attempt.
Just as he was sighing with relief, the scarred wooden door opened so quickly it created a breeze.
“Max,” Chloe gasped, and his relief shifted to a sudden, startling pain that stabbed through his heart. Chloe. Eyes swollen and face pale, she shouldn’t look beautiful, but she did. She looked…needy. All the cells in Max’s body strained forward at the thought.
Christ, he was a mess.
“I wanted to see how you were doing.”
She eased her head past the door frame and looked from left to right. “Are they gone?”
?
?They’re gone.”
“Are you sure? They could be using night vision.”
“Yikes. You don’t really think—”
“They’ve done it before,” she snapped, and Max winced in sympathy. “I’m sorry.”
She shook her head, clearing some thought from her mind. “Did you want to come in?”
“Sure, I…” He let the words fade away. He wasn’t sure why he was there or why he wanted to come in, but he did.
Luckily, Chloe didn’t need an explanation. She just swung the door wide and offered him a tentative smile.
Max walked in, waving to Jenn. She finished rinsing off a dish at the sink, then wiped her hands and headed for the front door.
“Jenn, you don’t need to…” He let the halfhearted offer go, both because she obviously wasn’t listening and because he was thinking of his brother.
Jenn closed the door behind her, and Max and Chloe were alone.
“So…” Max tucked his hands into his pockets, took a deep breath and asked the question he’d asked so many times before. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“I USED TO BE THAT GIRL,” Chloe started. “The one you thought I was. I used to be average and normal and happy. I was calm. My boyfriend was average and normal, too. I even thought he was happy.” She flashed a smile at that, though her amusement was admittedly edged with anger. But her anger faded in the face of Max. He looked so sweet, filling up her couch, his ankle propped on one knee, a beer balanced carefully on the other.
Chloe took a deep breath. “He was a good, steady boyfriend. I thought he’d make a good, steady husband. Now I can look back and see that his proposal didn’t make me see unicorns or anything.”
“Unicorns?” He looked baffled.
“You know, hearts and stars. But I didn’t care. We got along well, his mom loved me, and I could picture growing old with him. So I said yes.”
“That seems…unromantic.”
“In retrospect, yes. I’m an accountant. I’m careful. I’m not the freak show they’ve made me out to be, Max. I did everything right. And look where that got me.”
“But how did this happen?”
“I have no idea. We started planning the wedding. It was a little hectic because his mother kept insisting on how everything should be done. I liked her, but she’s got a spine of steel, and I think she supplemented it with Thomas’s spine, because his was obviously missing. Oops. Did I say that?”
He gave her a little half smile. “I didn’t hear a thing.”
“I admit that I wanted the wedding to be perfect. I wanted everyone to have a great time. Maybe I got carried away with the plans and trying to accommodate Thomas’s mom, but I didn’t do half the things the gossip sites say I did.”