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“When isn’t she? And I disagree. I happen to be a bit of fun,” he corrects, a little smile on his face and then his voice drops lower, “Isn’t that right, Chloe?”
My face burns. I stare at the elevator lights.
Grace barks out laughter and it’s so animated, my body shakes with hers as she’s still got my arm linked with hers. “Wow. Who are you and what have you done with my brother? Girl…” She bumps me with her shoulder. “If you think about leaving my brother, I will kidnap you and bring you back. I love your dress.”
Derek busts up laughing again and as handsome as my crazy stalker always looks when he laughs, my eyes are now pointed at his sister who looks both shocked and delighted to watch her brother laugh.
She follows us to Derek’s SUV, and I’m grateful for the distraction of having her along for the ride.
I try to get into the back seat, but she denies me the distance from her brother, and he mutters, “Nice try,” once I’m in the passenger seat, buckling up.
“Everyone coming?” Derek asks as he gets onto the interstate.
“Yep,” she says. “It’ll be strange this year, won’t it?”
Derek doesn’t answer right away so she prompts, “Without Thad.”
My eyes bounce to his face.
“This is the first anniversary party without him,” Grace adds, for my benefit.
Seeing no change on Derek’s face, I twist to make eye contact with Grace. “I’m sorry for your loss,” I tell her.
“Thank you, Chloe,” she replies softly.
“I might not be happy to be here, but I sure know how strange and hard first everythings are after losing a sibling,” I add.
Grace doesn’t look distraught or upset at this comment, which I find strange.
“I don’t know that hard is the right word,” Grace finally says.
“You’ve still got five other siblings,” Derek says nonchalantly.
My expression must betray my horror at how blasé he’s being because Grace speaks up.
“We all had a complicated relationship with Thad. He wasn’t well-liked by anyone in the family other than our mother. In fact, of course… I mean… it was a shock that he was murdered, but Thad’s nickname was Thorn. He was a thorn in everyone’s side. He was quite… disturbed.”
I’m frowning. Not because of what she’s said, because if it’s rumored that he killed two wives and these two didn’t like him, none of them liked him, does that mean nobody will help me? If they’re all supposedly afraid of Derek, my plan might not go anywhere.
I deflate and stare out the window. I may need an alternate plan if today proves fruitless.
Do I defy Derek and share details about the stalking, the invasion of privacy, the threats?
I feel his hand wrap around mine. His thumb caresses the back of my hand, then grazes my naked ring finger. I stare at it for a minute realizing once again that it doesn’t feel strange that the ring is gone. How strange that it doesn’t feel strange. Maybe that’s because it seemed so easy for Adam to let me walk away. A lump forms in my throat; stinging hits my sinuses, but I push away the emotion. I don’t need to cry right now. I don’t need to ruin my makeup before getting to Derek’s parents’ place, not that I want to go, but I certainly don’t want to look like a non-credible walking disaster if I do manage to find someone I can talk to about helping wrangle their son or brother.
My eyes rove from his hand on mine up to his face as he drives one-handed, sunglasses on, looking devastatingly handsome in his dark suit, black and blue tie. The blue in the tie matches my dress.
He told me I looked gorgeous just before we left as he backed me up and caged me against the wall. He tried to make out with me, but I ducked under his arms and escaped back into the master bedroom closet to choose some earrings and a necklace from the selection of items Nicola the shopper sent.
“Chloe?”
I’m abruptly jerked out of my thoughts by Grace. I pull my hand back out of Derek’s grip.
“Hm?”
“I was asking you about what happened to your sibling. Is that too painful to talk about?”
“Oh, yes, it’s still painful, but… my brother died when we were teens.”
