Chapter 31

CHAPTER31

“Damn it!” Chloe mouthed with a wince as she carefully, oh, so carefully, shifted, squirmed, and then finally, rolled to the edge of the small bed that her little sister was currently passed out on and after one last look to make sure that Katie was still asleep, she climbed off the bed.

Once her feet hit the floor, Chloe pushed her glasses back up her nose, made sure that Katie hadn’t moved in the last thirty seconds and when she was sure that her little sister wasn’t going to try to follow her, she moved her butt. Really hoping that Cole wasn’t waiting by the back door, Chloe grabbed her shoes and quickly made her way to the hallway, where she stumbled and tripped her way to the stairs as she pulled her shoes on.

Two and a half minutes later, she had a bag full of snacks, her homework, and a throw blanket shoved in her backpack and was rushing out the backdoor, only pausing long enough to lock the door behind her before she was racing through the soft snow covering the backyard and heading for the shed. As soon as she reached the open double doors, Chloe slowly exhaled as she pushed her glasses back up her nose, put her game face on and walked inside.

“Katie asleep?” Cole asked, not bothering to look up from whatever he was doing with the engine as she made her way to the workbench.

“Out like a light,” Chloe murmured absently as she set her bag down on the bench.

“Finally figured out that monster problem?” Cole asked, throwing her a questioning look.

Slowly exhaling, Chloe said, “A few months ago,” deciding that it was probably in her best interest not to mention exactly what getting Katie to go to sleep entailed now.

It had taken some trial and error, but she’d eventually learned to give up all hope that her sister would take pity on her and did whatever it took to get through the day without losing her mind. So, when Katie informed her that she needed to sleep in her Spiderman costume so that she had a better chance of fighting off the monster in the closet, Chloe didn’t bat an eye. She simply made sure that she laid her sister’s costume out every night before bath time along with her wiffle bat and resigned herself to triple-checking every room, closet, and cabinet in the house before they could move onto phase two of their nighttime routine.

“That’s good,” Cole murmured absently as he adjusted something on the engine.

“How was the party?” Chloe asked, still shocked that he didn’t try to use their agreement to make her go. She’d been prepared with an excuse to save them from going and risking Katie saying something that would give them away, but he never asked.

“It was fine,” Cole said as she used the stepping stool to climb up onto the workbench and-

“Damn it,” he said, drawing her attention to find him glaring down at something in the engine.

“What’s wrong?” Chloe asked, swallowing hard as she followed his gaze, praying that he didn’t just find another reason to add more hours on to her debt. She was still trying to figure out how she was going to pay off the radiator.

“I forgot a part at home,” Cole said, sighing heavily as he reached for a rag and wiped his hands clean.

“Do you really need it tonight?” Chloe asked, trying not to panic as her gaze shot to the open doors.

“If you want it to work, I do,” Cole said, taking her by surprise.

“You’re almost done?” she asked as her gaze flickered to the Jeep that he’d been working on every night for the past three months. “Really?”

Nodding, Cole said, “I’ll be right back,” as she and-

“What?” Chloe asked as she quickly moved to climb off the workbench, only to end up groaning when he made his way outside, leaving her trying not to panic as she watched him go. Swallowing hard, Chloe reminded herself that he didn’t know anything and forced herself to focus on the only thing that should matter.

Her plan.

So far, she’d been able to keep their schools from finding out that Uncle Nick left them, but that probably had something to do with the fact that she’d been running interference for years. She forged his signature, intercepted every email they sent, put her phone number down so that when the school called or sent a text that it came directly to her, and did her best to calm Katie’s teachers down whenever she did anything even remotely terrifying. Since he’d left, Chloe had been making sure that their schools had absolutely no reason in the world to contact him. She’d even gone as far as bribing Katie with ice cream to make sure that she was up on time and stayed out of trouble.

For the first time in years, Chloe was able to make it to school on time, pick Katie up right after school, and create some semblance of a routine, giving her time to do everything that she needed to do, from taking care of Katie to writing papers to supplement the social security checks they received every month so that she could pay the bills. And now, thanks to Cole, they were about to have a car to make their lives easier.

They just needed to keep this up for one more year, and then, she could file for custody of Katie. After that…

She’d figure out the rest when the time came, Chloe thought, slowly exhaling as she slid off the bench and began pacing the shed as she did her best not to think about all the things that could go wrong with this plan. She just needed this plan to work, which meant that she was going to have to make sure that Cole didn’t find out what happened. She-

“Here,” came the murmured words as something metal was pressed into her hand.

“What’s this?” Chloe asked, frowning as she looked down at the key in her hand.

“It’s all set,” Cole said, stepping past her and released the hood.

“Thank you,” Chloe mumbled softly, unable to help but smile as she looked up from the key and found herself throwing her arms around him and hugging him before she realized what she was doing.

“You’re welcome,” Cole said, wrapping his arms around her and-

Made her feel safe for the first time in months.

Slowly exhaling, Chloe closed her eyes even as she told herself that this was a mistake, that she needed to let go before she did something stupid like tell him everything. She-

“Goodnight, Chloe,” Cole said softly as he pulled away from her as she told herself that this was for the best.

“Goodnight, Cole,” Chloe said, forcing the words out of her mouth as she watched him head back out the doors and-

“What the hell is wrong with me?” Chloe muttered, shaking her head in disgust as she glanced back at the Jeep and swallowed hard.

She needed to stay focused.

With that in mind, she gave the key in her hand a gentle squeeze before she grabbed her bag and headed for the door, turning off the lights before she closed the doors behind her and headed back to the house as she ran the next part of her plan through her head. She needed to get her permit, which she could take online and with the extra papers that she’d sold, she could afford driving lessons now.

She didn’t have anyone to take her driving to practice, but if she sold a few extra papers a month, she should be able to afford extra lessons. This could work, Chloe told herself with a firm nod as she made her way to the front porch, pausing by the door to make sure that Cole wasn’t around before she switched the key in her hand for the one in her pocket and let herself inside.

As soon as she closed the door behind her, Chloe locked it and placed the house keys back on the hook by the door and moved to place the key for the Jeep there, only to rethink that decision and placed it above the fridge and out of Katie’s reach. Once she was sure that her little sister wouldn’t be able to find it, Chloe made her way upstairs and checked on Katie before heading to her room and-

-forgot how to breathe when she spotted Cole sitting on her bed.

“Start talking.”