Page 23 of Wild Lies

We’re sitting side by side in the booth, so we can both see the door. My leg brushes against hers as I move to rest my arm on the back of the seat. Something about the heat of her is comforting, even though it has no right to be. “I’ll get a black coffee and the usual, please, Doris.”

She jots my order down, although I know she has it committed to memory, I’m in here often enough. “And for you, sugar?”

Chloe worries her bottom lip with her white, straight teeth before closing her menu and replying, “I’ll have a breakfast tea and the maple pancakes with a side of bacon, please.”

“Coming right up.” Doris collects the menus and then heads off in the direction of the kitchen to put the order in.

I watch Chloe as she looks around. There’s something about her that makes me feel like she belongs here, and that thought gives me just a hint of hope that maybe she’ll want to stay in touch when she leaves, possibly even return at some point in the future.

When she meets my gaze, I offer her a soft smile before asking a question that’s had my curiosity piqued for nearly twenty-four hours. “Yesterday, your mom brought up your job, and you shut it down. What was up with that?”

Chloe chuckles, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “You don’t miss a thing, do you, handsome?”

Apparently not, when it comes to you.

We were talking to the other guests at our table, and her mom came over. She wasn’t as rude as she was when it was just Chloe and her sister in the room, but I could tell that Chloe’s mom was only making small talk because of the other guests. When she asked Chloe how work was going, I felt her stiffen beside me, her body going rigid like she’d been held at gunpoint.

Smoothing a hand down my T-shirt, I reply, “Nope. And I’m still waiting on an answer.”

She leans forward, resting her elbows on the scratched tabletop before turning her face toward me and resting her chin on her clasped hands. The rest of the room fades away behind her, blanketing us in a pocket of intimacy that shouldn’t exist given we’re two people that barely know each other. “What I’m about to tell you can’t leave us.”

I hold my hands up and say, “Your secret is safe with me.”

Chloe inhales, her body moving with the force. “Okay, so I told you that I worked in fashion and that I’m currently unemployed. Have you ever heard of a magazine called Glow?”

I nod, keeping my surprise in check given how big a magazine that is. “I have; my sister, Gracie, used to get it delivered to the house every week.”

“Well, I was a fashion photographer for them for five years before I was laid off. There had been murmurings about something happening. We’d just been bought out by another company, but nothing was announced by the higher ups, so I thought nothing of it. At least until I went into work and they called a bunch of us into a room and broke the news.”

I pull in a breath before slowly blowing it out. “I’m sorry to hear that, Chloe. I get why you didn’t want to speak to your parents about it last night.” I get the sense that Chloe’s parents have pretty high expectations for her, and although I guess it’s normal for parents to want the best for their kids, this feels different.

Doris chooses that moment to return with the drinks, sliding them onto the table with a practiced ease. “Enjoy.”

When she’s gone, Chloe takes a sip of her tea before turning her attention back to me. “My parents don’t know, and it felt easier to avoid the topic than add another lie to the pile, you know?”

“Yeah, I know.” More than she’ll ever understand.

We fall silent, and I’m not sure what Chloe must see on my face, but she reaches for my hand, interlacing her fingers with mine. Her touch is reassuring, and I smooth my thumb over her soft skin, grounding myself.

“What are you thinking?”

I stare at her for a moment, wondering if I can tell her the secret I’ve been keeping for a year. Or if something this big, this dangerous, is better left unsaid. She blinks up at me, nothing but openness in her gaze, and I falter, because she won’t be here for long and maybe it will do me good to tell someone. She can take my secret with her when she leaves.

I open my mouth, ready to come clean, the words on the tip of my tongue before a shadow falls across the table.

“Oh my God, Chloe, Kade. It’s so good to see you two. I should have guessed I’d find you here over eating with the rest of the family.” Liz slides into the seat across from us, the bangles on her wrists clattering against the scratched-up tabletop. “You don’t mind, do you?”

Without waiting for an answer, she moves her focus to the menu in her hand and reads through it, while mindlessly waving an arm for Doris’s attention. Chloe gives me a helpless look, mouthing “sorry” as if she’s giving me an out. But within a heartbeat, I know what I need to do. I got her into this mess by not correcting her parents, so there’s no way in hell that I’m stepping back now.

I pull Chloe into my side, breathing in the scent of her hair, the vanilla and fruity aroma I’m becoming addicted to traveling up my nostrils and lighting up my brain. She rests her head against my chest like she was made for me, a hand on my thigh as she snuggles in. It’s all for show. Nothing more. I need to remember that.

“We don’t mind at all.”

Liz glances up, her face softening when she looks at us. “Aren’t you two just the sweetest? I hope we’ll be at your wedding next.”

Chloe turns her face into my chest before groaning. “God, Aunt Liz, you’ve known him for like two seconds. Chill,” she mutters.

I don’t know if she notices that she’s done it, but her fingers tighten their hold on my hand under the table. It does something to me that I know I shouldn’t accept. How can I when she’ll be gone soon and this will be nothing but a distant memory?