16. Relationship With Your Brother

16

RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR brOTHER

“ I t’s nice to see you again, Chloe,” Sloane said two weeks later.

She wasn’t surprised to see Dane’s sister coming in for a massage.

Chloe Grey-Kennedy came in once a month, or so it seemed, but not always to see her.

When she looked at the scheduling she’d seen the appointment was made a few weeks ago and seemed to be before Dane had told his sister about their relationship.

“You too,” Chloe said.

“If you’re ready we can head back,” Sloane said. Once the two women were walking down the hall, she added, “We can clear the elephant out of the room too.”

“The bright pink one grinning and dancing?” Chloe asked.

“That one,” she said. “Though I’m not positive it’s pink.”

“Just dancing,” Chloe said, laughing.

“If you think so.”

Sloane liked Chloe’s wit .

They got to the room and Chloe said, “I know the routine. Just like Dane does now too.”

She smiled and closed the door for Chloe to get undressed and on the bed, then knocked a few minutes later.

“Any areas of concern today?” she asked. “Other than my relationship with your brother?”

Chloe was on her back and leaned up on her elbows, the sheet still covering her. “I’ve got no concerns about your relationship. Just that Dane has been through a few very hard years.”

“He’s told me,” she said. “Same scent as always?”

“Yep, you know what I like,” Chloe said. “And back to Dane. We can get it out of the way.”

“We can,” she said.

She went to work on Chloe, her hands sliding under Dane’s sister’s shoulders and feeling around the knots and tension.

“He knows I’m here today,” Chloe said. “No worries. He also knows I’m going to bring his name up because we do those things. But I won’t be too bad. He’s my big brother, but I have to admit he’s never been horrible with the men I’ve dated. He’s always been in my corner and accepts my judgment on things.”

“Judgment?” she asked.

“A figure of speech. I’m not sure what Dane has told you about my past with men.”

“Not much,” she said. “We don’t see each other often and when we are together it’s not spent talking about other people.”

“Good,” Chloe said. “I’m sure he talks about the kids and you’d have questions about Melanie.”

“Melanie?” she asked, frowning .

“Mel,” Chloe corrected. “Only Dane called her that. She got nasty one day when my mother and I did it and asked us not to.”

“That’s interesting.”

“I thought so too. She wasn’t a nasty type of woman. Not that I could see. She just...wanted what she did and then pushed her agenda onto my brother.”

“And he’s a nice guy and wanted to make his wife happy,” Sloane said. “My words, not his. It’s just what I’ve observed.”

“I think you’re a good judge of character too,” Chloe said. “Yes. He wanted to make her happy. Dane is one hundred percent all in when he’s with someone.”

“I figured as much,” she said. Which was something she was coming to terms with.

She’d never been all in with anyone in her life.

Partly because she was afraid to do that and get hurt.

The other part was she wasn’t so sure she knew how to be.

It’s not as if she had any good examples of relationships in her past.

She didn’t have a lot of friends either that she could lean on.

She went by what she’d heard from her clients and what she’d felt.

Most of the time she realized she didn’t feel enough for the men she was with.

Dane was different though.

She’d known that from the first moment.

“His kids are his world. They always will be, but Dane isn’t so single-minded focused that he can’t make room for someone else. Regardless of what he might say about his ex. ”

“We don’t talk a lot about her,” she admitted. “I think he’s told me what I need to know, but it doesn’t come up. They seem to have a decent relationship now for the kids’ sake.”

“They do,” Chloe said. “But I know Dane was hurt by everything that happened.”

“How could he not be?” she asked. “I get the feeling he was blindsided.”

Chloe sighed. “He was. I wasn’t. I don’t think my parents were either.”

“You saw this coming?” she asked.

“Yes and no. I didn’t see it coming like it did or not that soon. I was livid. More pissed than anything. To me—and I know to Dane—they’d gotten through it. Med school and his residency. His fellowship. He was working and going to be in a routine. They could start their life and were. Six months into it and they are in this brand new house she had to have, the kids are in this great daycare.”

“All her dreams were coming true,” she said sarcastically.

Chloe laughed and opened her eyes to make contact with Sloane. There was a smirk on her client’s face.

“Exactly,” Chloe said. “Then she just hits Dane with the whole, ‘it’s not what I thought it’d be even though you gave it all to me.’”

Bitch. But she didn’t say those words and never would. Not her place. She could think thoughts and keep them to herself and planned on it.

“Which had to hurt even more,” she said.

“Yes. Dane didn’t even fight it. I thought for sure he’d ask them to go to counseling and he didn’t.”

“Why bother if she’d made up her mind?”

“That is what I realized afterward. I’m glad he did too. I thought he’d fight harder and, after some thought, I figured it out.”

“He didn’t love her the way he should have?” she asked. “That he did it all for the kids?”

“These are some of my thoughts,” Chloe said. “He loved her. He always will for the kids. But he didn’t feel for her the way a man should a woman. He’d have to give up his career for them to give it a try to have it work the way Melanie wanted it. He wasn’t doing it. He shouldn’t have had to. In the end, he might have thought he didn’t love her the way he should then. The way I do with my husband. Which, by the way, I never thought I’d ever feel and then, bam, there it is.”

“Because of the Fierces?” she asked.

“Ahhh, Dane told you about that.”

“He didn’t have to. You know they come here too,” she said, grinning.

“Which is why I’m going to tell you what he said to me,” Chloe said.

“Would he want me to know?” she asked. The last thing she wanted was there to be some private conversations going on behind Dane’s back.

She’d never been keen on those things and didn’t want to start now.

“He has no problem with it,” Chloe said. “Dane and I are pretty open with each other. He told me to go gentle on you.”

She laughed. “I’m pretty tough.”

“Which he needs in his life. I always thought Melanie was fragile or he felt that way and treated her as such.”

“Which explains why he might have given in so much?” she asked.

She was moving down Chloe’s body and working on her arms now. She was a pro at talking and working, but this conversation had more importance than all the others she’d had with clients.

“I think so,” Chloe said. “My mother does too. We liked Melanie, don’t get me wrong, but I never felt she was good for him. Or right for him. You know he’s adopted, right?”

“I do. He told me on the first date. I’m sure he told you some of my background. Or he told me he told you.”

She didn’t have a problem with it. No secrets in her mind.

Not if she was going to consider this a serious relationship and her mind had been going down that route for a long time now.

“He did tell me a little,” she said. “I think there is a connection there on a level he’d never experienced. You know when you meet that person. I felt the same way with Royce.” Chloe grimaced. “Sorry. Not trying to put pressure on you at all. Just saying that sometimes it’s hard to find someone that understands things you can’t control in your life.”

“Trust me,” she said. “If anyone understands that in life it’s me.”

“I figured as much,” Chloe said. “Which is why I’m not too concerned about having this conversation with you.”

“So what did you tell the Fierce women?”

“I told them that Dane was dating you and that they could back off, he didn’t need their help. He could find someone on his own. That is what he wanted me to tell them.”

She smiled. “It’s true. He did ask me out first. What was their reaction to that?”

“They were shocked,” Chloe said. “Which tells me that they might not have seen it coming. ”

“Oh,” she said. “Don’t let them fool you. They saw it coming.”

“What?” Chloe asked shifting her head. “How do you know?”

“Before I even met your brother, they’d thrown his name around with a few others. You know how they are.”

“I do,” Chloe said. “It’s like dropping bait in the water by the fistful and seeing what comes up first. But it wasn’t targeted right on Dane?”

“Not the first few times it came up. The last time seemed to be more because, in a roundabout way, I was thanking them for their recommendations to my spa and said you’d been here with Tiffani and your mother. I gently had them aim their arrows in another direction after his name came up. Then a few weeks later your brother showed up with his gift card from his kids. I’m pretty sure those women didn’t tell his daughter to put a good word in for the gift. Nor did I realize who it was until halfway through the massage when we were chatting.”

“No,” Chloe said, shaking her head. “I was talking about how much I enjoy these massages and I’m so relaxed afterward. Tiffani said her father needed to relax some. I think the two of them are at that phase where Tiffani is trying to pull things over on her parents and Dane is catching on, but at the same time she wants her father’s attention any way she can get it.”

“Good for him,” she said. “But I’m willing to bet he catches on faster than his children will ever imagine.”

“I think so,” Chloe said. “I found it sweet that Tiffani wanted to give him that gift. I hadn’t known she was doing it. She didn’t ask while we were here, but she kept asking me questions about it. It wasn’t until his birthday when he opened it up that my mother said she’d come back to buy it.”

One of the front desk girls would have taken care of it. She’d have no clue.

“Seems to be working out for both of us,” she said. “Anything else we have to talk about in terms of Dane? Do you want to know my intentions? Because I don’t have any other than taking it as it comes and putting no pressure on either of us.”

“We are good,” Chloe said. “Dane likes to have things planned out and I’m glad to know he’s not now.”

“I’m a planner too. I like to have control over my life for obvious reasons, but like your brother, I’m letting this fall into place. Maybe that is why it’s working out as well as it is.”

“I’m glad he found you,” Chloe said.

“I’m glad he found me too.”