11. Mike

11

MIKE

"To what do I owe this lovely visit?" Chloe asked, a smirk tilting her mouth as she exited the automatic hospital doors.

"I can't visit my cousin at work and bring her lunch?" I held up a paper bag.

"You even brought lunch? Aren't you on shift?" Her brows pinched as she stepped toward me.

"I'm coming off the night shift. I clocked out an hour ago." I motioned to the benches next to the parking lot. "This is your usual break time, right?"

"You came all the way here to spend my break with me?" Chloe scrutinized me as her eyes thinned to slits.

"When I bought breakfast for myself, I picked up that chicken cutlet sandwich you like so much and figured I'd pay you a visit. But if you don't want it…" I said, dangling the bag in front of her.

She snatched the bag out of my hand and rushed over to the bench.

"That is very thoughtful. Suspicious, but super thoughtful. I only have a half hour, so hopefully that's enough time to eat and whatever else you're here for."

For all our lives, I could never hide anything from my cousin. She was a year younger than me but was always a step ahead. Even when we'd spar over video games, she'd always find a weird way to beat me when I was sure I'd win.

Her annoying way of reading a situation better than I ever could had led me here.

"You even got my black cherry soda." She gasped as she dug through the bag, unwrapping her sandwich with a laughable vigor and taking a bite.

"Sooo good," she said, her eyes fluttering. "Now, tell me," she mumbled, her mouth full. "Why am I going to be mad at you, or what's on your mind that you didn't want to just go home and sleep?"

"Hey, Mike."

Before I could figure out how to answer, Leo, my uncle, came over to greet us. "Everything okay?"

"Hey, Leo. Just paying a friendly visit to my cousin," I told him, shooting Chloe an exaggerated smile. "I told her to meet me out here, so no one panicked at me hanging around in uniform. Just signing in?"

He laughed and crossed his tattooed arms. Leo was a part-time nurse at the hospital and fire lieutenant at the only Kelly Lakes fire station.

"Yes, my first day of a three-day shift. At least in this job, I get to stay in air conditioning all day. You'd think people would learn not to buy these monster gas grills that catch on fire if they don't know how to use them right, but that's been my week."

"Hopefully, we don't see the aftereffects of that today," Chloe quipped. They now worked together in the ER, which I'd always thought had to be a little weird.

Calling Keith "Chief" at the station was odd enough, but it would be strange to work alongside one of my parents for a living.

"Nice to see you, Mike. And see you inside, kiddo," he told Chloe, kissing the top of her head. She smiled, but I spotted a guilty frown when he turned his back.

"What was that about?"

"Nothing," she said a little too quickly. "Just a little strange when we're on shift together."

I nodded, skeptical, but as selfish as it was, I let it go for the moment because I needed to get this off my chest to someone. Dad was off-limits because he was Lila's boss.

"So, back to why you're here," she said and tipped back her soda bottle.

"Well, I didn't do anything to make you mad. Not that I'm aware of anyway." I rested my elbows on my knees. "I think I'm in a little trouble."

"Trouble?" Chloe stilled, squinting at me.

"Lila. Dad's new office manager," I started, running a hand through my damp hair. "She was with me at the festival."

The heat and humidity were brutal today, and I'd sweated through the night shift, but that wasn't the reason my skin was so clammy.

"I remember. You like her." She said it like a statement, not a question.

"So much for keeping that to myself."

"Oh my God," she breathed out, giving me a slow-motion eye roll. "I saw it in two seconds at the festival. You're usually nice to girls but distant enough. You were stuck to her side like glue."

She laughed and leaned forward, turning her head to me in my periphery, while I kept my gaze on the grass.

"Why is this bothering you enough to bring me my favorite sandwich? Is it because she works for Uncle Jake?"

"No. Well, yes. I think Dad has an idea of how I feel, but it's a little dicey to date someone who works for my father."

"Mike," she sighed, putting a hand on my shoulder. "In a town this small, everyone has dated everyone's employee, brother, ex." She splayed out her arms and shrugged. "The list goes on. Unless you go on one of those apps to find someone out of town, the dating pool here is limited."

"I guess. I don't think she's in a place to date anyway."

"Is she coming off a bad relationship or something?"

I tensed at my cousin's question, not wanting to give away anything Lila had told me, even though I knew Chloe would never say anything.

"Something like that."

"And it bothers you that you can't because of that…" she prompted, tapping her foot. "I want to help you, but I only have twenty more minutes to figure out how."

I sucked in a long breath through my nostrils and fell back against the bench.

"I've never wanted someone enough to scare me."

The words came out in a rush after swirling around my head for the past few weeks. That incredible kiss we shared, the one I knew I shouldn't take but just couldn't help my damn self, made it that much harder to stop thinking about her every fucking second of the day.

Chloe's face softened. "I get it," she said, scooting closer. "It's something I fight against too, despite all the therapy Mom sent me to after my parents divorced. I try to remember how sickeningly happy she is with Leo, but the bad memories are hard to shake."

Aunt Kristina and her ex-husband had had a rough divorce, and Chloe had seen and heard all the ugly fights between her parents before her father had moved out.

My younger cousin Emma had been too little back then for it to mess with her head like it had—and sometimes still did—with her older sister's. But years later, their parents had learned to peacefully co-exist and their father had turned out to be a mostly decent guy.

He'd never intentionally put his kids in the middle or made them suffer—back then or now.

Chloe and Emma could move on from what the divorce did to their parents because they hadn't had to actively see it on a consistent basis like I had.

"Even though you feel like shit, I'm happy for you. I'm glad you found someone to make you feel like that."

She crumpled up the waxed paper and stuffed it into the paper bag.

"And maybe get my friends off my back to set them up with you."

I let out a chuckle. "I've had a few cops ask about my hot nurse cousin." I cringed.

"Oh yeah?" Her brows shot up. "Which ones?"

"None that I'd tell you." I bumped her shoulder. "I know it doesn't have to be like that. Dad and Peyton are that sickeningly happy too. And I realize that my mother has her own issues?—"

"That you deal with enough. Far too much than you ever should have had to. So don't let this be another concession you make because of her. You really want Lila?"

I dropped my head into my hands and pinched the bridge of my nose before I turned my head.

"Yeah, Chlo. I really want Lila."

Those four words had become my entire damn personality this summer.

Sure, Lila was beautiful. But it was more than that, even more than the quiet strength underneath all the fear she dealt with.

To her, I was just Mike. Not Jake Russo's son, not someone to win to spite someone else, not a cop too "wet behind the ears" to take charge. Just me. As I was. It was as foreign as it was intoxicating.

Maybe if I'd thought it was only one-sided, I could let it go. She'd been as into our kiss as I had, but after we'd broken apart, I'd followed her home and had told her good night, no matter how much every cell in my body hadn't wanted the night to end.

A smile broke out on Chloe's face as she draped an arm around me and pulled me in for a half hug.

"So, once you make peace with it and separate it from the shitshow we both saw as kids…go for it."

I laughed, leaning into her as I nodded.

"I wish it were that simple."

"Who knows, maybe it is. You won't know until you try."

"I guess," I said, scooping up my untouched egg and cheese sandwich.

Chloe stood and tossed the remnants of her lunch into the garbage can beside us.

"You came here for my opinion, and here it is."

She bent to put her hand on my shoulder.

"You can't let what happened to our parents stop you from something you want this badly. And, that night I saw you two together, I watched her watching you."

I'd caught it too, not only that night but so many times when we were together. Giving in, even for only a moment, had made it all complicated as hell, but I still felt the relief after all the torturous buildup.

"She was sticking that close to me because she didn't know anyone. A festival in our town is rough even when you do know everyone there."

She lifted a shoulder. "Sure, a night of meeting our entire fucking town had to spook her or else she wouldn't be normal. But I saw something between you two even back then. And dancing around it is just making you miserable."

I laughed at the arch in her eyebrow.

"It is," I allowed.

"So," she started, patting my knee. "If you want Lila, go get her."