Chapter 27

CHAPTER27

“Idon’t think turkey’s supposed to look like that,” Katie said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she poked the slice of pressed turkey that Chloe wasn’t entirely convinced was turkey with her fork.

“It’s fine,” Chloe said as she pulled off the plastic film from the frozen turkey dinner that claimed that it was the closest thing to a homecooked turkey dinner that you could find in the frozen food section and stuck it in the microwave.

“It’s brown,” Katie pointed out.

“Because it has extra flavor,” Chloe said, biting back a heavy sigh as she glanced at the pan of brownies that she forgot to take out of the oven and wondered if any of it could be salvaged.

“It’s cold,” Katie said as Chloe closed her eyes and slowly exhaled, wondering how much more of this she could take.

“It’s not cold, Katie,” Chloe said, praying that her sister took pity on her and just ate her food.

“It still has icicles on it,” Katie said as Chloe reminded herself that this wasn’t her little sister’s fault that they were in this mess.

If she’d put Katie on that train when she was supposed to…

“It doesn’t have icicles,” Chloe said, opening her eyes as she turned around and forced a teasing smile.

“It really does,” Katie said as Chloe plucked the fork out of her hand and poked the turkey that smelled like hot dog and-

“I don’t think those are icicles,” Chloe said, frowning as she took in the clear flakes on the pressed turkey and-

“Why don’t we make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches instead?” Chloe said, deciding that she really wasn’t in the mood for turkey after all when the clear plastic-like substance attached itself to her fork and refused to let go.

“And the apple juice?” Katie asked with a pointed look at the glass of apple juice that had separated at some point in the last ten minutes so that it looked like a glass of murky water with brown gunk floating on top.

“How do you feel about chocolate milk?” Chloe asked, grabbing the glass of discounted apple juice and dumped it down the drain before focusing her attention on the frozen pressed turkey dinner and tossed it in the trash.

“I’d feel better about it if we could have it in front of the TV,” Katie assured her with a solemn nod.

She’d been hoping that they could at least have dinner at the table like a normal family, but…

“Fine. Just try not to make a mess,” Chloe said, barely getting the words out before Katie was rushing to the fridge and grabbing a jar of strawberry jelly and the milk before quickly closing the fridge door and grabbing the quart of vanilla ice cream that she bought out of the freezer.

At Chloe’s questioning look, Katie said, “I like to save time,” as she placed everything on the kitchen table. Biting back a sigh, Chloe grabbed the bread, chips, and peanut butter from the cabinet while Katie grabbed everything else and set to work making the messiest peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that she’d ever seen.

Once she was done, Katie focused on making chocolate milk, dumped an obscene amount of potato chips over her sandwich and stabbed two spoons in the carton of ice cream with a satisfied sigh. After making sure that everything met with her approval, Katie carefully hugged the carton of ice cream against her chest with one arm before grabbing the chocolate milk and quickly carried it into the living room while Chloe grabbed a roll of paper towels with a heavy sigh and tucked it beneath her arm before she grabbed the plates and followed her sister.

“What do you wanna watch?” Katie asked as she grabbed the remote control and settled on the floor in front of the coffee table.

“Whatever you want,” Chloe said, placing the plates on the coffee table along with the paper towels before going back into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water, and after a slight hesitation, she grabbed her laptop.

“I thought you weren’t going to work today,” Katie said, throwing her a questioning look as she dipped a chip into some of the jelly that fell onto her plate.

“I wasn’t, but I was thinking that we could get something special for Christmas,” Chloe said as she dropped down on the couch and settled the computer on her lap.

“Can we get a real tree instead?” Katie asked, pausing in her search for a movie worthy of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich to throw her a questioning look.

“What’s wrong with the tree that we have in the attic?” Chloe asked as she logged into the computer the school gave her as part of her scholarship package this year.

“It’s missing limbs and it has a candy cane stuck to it,” Katie pointed out.

“Fine, we’ll get a new tree,” Chloe said, deciding not to mention that they’d cut one down from the backyard since it would only encourage her sister to take matters into her own hands.

“And I’ll be in charge of decorating it?” Katie asked after a slight hesitation.

“Go nuts,” Chloe murmured as she clicked on the folder on the right side of her screen and typed in the password that she’d set, scrolled through the list of websites that she’d compiled a few months ago and clicked on the link at the bottom.

Within minutes, Chloe was scrolling through a list of essays, short papers, and term papers, noting the topics ranging on everything from a book report on The Grapes ofWrath to a twenty-page term paper on the effects mitochondrial DNA had on forensics and everything in between. She could get a few short essays done today and make a hundred and fifty dollars or she could repurpose her paper on the Magna Carta for two hundred dollars.

Worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, Chloe clicked on the smiley face icon at the top and noted that there was a little more than five hundred dollars in her account. With a few clicks, she transferred the money into the online bank account that she’d set up after her uncle broke the news to her that they were on their own. She-

“He’s back.”

* * *

“Open the door, brat,”Cole said on a bored sigh as he stepped back and glanced to his left to make sure that their uncle’s truck wasn’t parked behind the house. When he didn’t see the truck parked by the shed, Cole shook his head in disgust. Nick was never here, but Cole thought that he would at least make the effort so that Chloe and Katie wouldn’t be alone during Christmas break.

He really was a prick, Cole thought as he turned his head just in time to see Chloe step out of the house and close the door behind her. For a moment, he didn’t say anything as he stood there, running his eyes over her, taking in her long golden-blonde hair pulled up into a messy bun at the back of her head, the incredibly beautiful blue eyes that were already narrowing on him, and the stubborn set of her adorable chin before he ran his gaze over the rest of her, taking in the Indiana Jones tee-shirt and grey and black flannel pajamas pants that ended with socks with puppies on them and found himself wondering why he ever thought that she was simply cute.

She was beyond freaking adorable.

She was also hiding something from him, Cole thought as he met Chloe’s determined gaze head-on. He watched the way that her eyes narrowed even further, the way that she slowly exhaled as she watched him, mentally preparing herself to lie her adorable ass off to him.

The only thing that he didn’t know was why.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” came the warm welcome that had his lips twitching.

“My mother asked me to bring cookies over,” Cole drawled, holding up the plate of sugar cookies that his mother made for her as he sent the empty driveway a pointed look before looking back at her. “Where’s your uncle?”

“Inside enjoying a lovely turkey dinner,” Chloe said, keeping her gaze locked with his as she pushed her glasses back up her nose.

“And his truck?” Cole drawled, watching as she slowly exhaled again before she answered.

“In the shop,” she said without blinking an eye.

“That’s really unfortunate,” Cole said as movement to his right drew his attention to find Katie standing in the window, watching his every move as she took a big bite out of what appeared to be a really messy peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

“It really is,” Chloe murmured in agreement.

“I thought you said that your uncle was enjoying a lovely turkey dinner,” Cole said with a pointed look at the little girl glaring at him.

He had to bite back a smile when he heard the telltale sound of Chloe slowly exhaling before she said, “He is, but Katie hates turkey.”

“It’s not supposed to be brown,” Katie said with a firm nod as she took a big bite of her sandwich.

Nodding slowly, Cole returned his attention to the teenage girl who was reaching up to push her glasses back up her nose to hide her wince. “It was delicious,” Chloe muttered.

“It sounds it,” Cole murmured absently as he watched her for a moment. “What’s going on, Chloe?”

There was that slow exhale, and then…

“Nothing’s going on,” Chloe said, keeping her gaze locked with his as she lied her adorable little ass off.

“I can see that,” Cole said as he thought about the night that she’d agreed to this deal.

He thought about that night a lot over the past three months.

He thought about the way that she’d walked back into her room looking completely lost, the way that she mumbled, “Okay,” as she crawled back into the small bed without a word and laid her head against his chest, but it was the way that she felt in his arms that he thought about the most.

She’d never fallen asleep in his arms before, but that night, she’d held onto him like she never wanted to let him go and then the next morning…

It was like nothing ever happened.

That was followed by her uncle suddenly becoming stricter overnight. He wasn’t sure what Nick said to Chloe, but whatever it was, it had her following his rules to the letter. She refused to let him in the house and just to make sure that he followed the rules, she kept her bedroom window locked at night along with her sister’s and every other window in the house. She also kept the doors locked and anytime he tried to come over, she intercepted him, making sure that he never set foot in the house. He was only allowed to come over to work on the Jeep and that was only late at night when Katie was in bed.

Every time he came over, Chloe was already there, sitting on the bench with a tray filled with drinks and snacks along with the first-aid kit, wet wipes, extra towels, and a can of WD-40. She always made sure that he had everything that he needed to ensure that he didn’t need to leave the shed and just in case he tried, she watched him while she pretended to study. He could feel her beautiful blue eyes watching him while he worked, leaving him with absolutely no doubt that she was up to something and making him wonder about a few things…

“What are you hiding?” Cole asked, watching Chloe’s gaze flicker to the little girl standing in the window before she reached over and took the cookies from him with a forced smile and an absently murmured, “Thank you,” before disappearing inside and leaving him standing there more determined than ever to find out what was really going on.