“Maybe you should ask Jesse.”
“I’m asking you.”
She shook her head.
“Look.” Brendan audibly exhaled and took her hand in his. “Jesse loves you.”
Chloe bit into her lip, her head slowly shaking back and forth as more tears began to fall.
“He doesn’t love easily or recklessly…” He squeezed her hand. “…but when he does, he loves unconditionally and with a depth you cannot even begin to fathom, sweetheart. And yes, he loves you. Do you love him?”
Chloe emphatically nodded, her voice breaking through her tears. “Yes.”
“Then how could you reject him like that just because he’s bi?” His head was cocked, his brows drawn together.
She glanced into eyes of cold blue ice. “I don’t care about that.”
Brendan looked as if he didn’t believe her. “Then why?”
“He loves someone else,” she implored and punched her fist into pink velvet. “I’m not a side-chick, Brendan. I’m the entrée.” Then she wagged her finger in his face. “Actually, no, I’m the entire fucking meal!”
He surveyed her with those same fuck-me baby-blues all the Byrne cousins possessed. “Oh, I can see that.”
“I mean how do you go from…” She dropped her voice to imitate Jesse. “…Chloe, I’m so in love with you…” Then raised it back to her own, but louder and laced with indignation, “…to I love him, huh? Like, why the fuck would he do that, Brendan? Why?”
Maybe if he hadn’t told her he loved her it wouldn’t hurt so much.
“That’s all he said?”
“Wasn’t that enough?” Incredulous, she looked at him like he had ten heads.
His shoulders dropped as he sat back against the sofa. “You need to hear him out, Chloe.”
“What else could he possibly say?”
Brendan reached for a strand of her hair and let it slide between his fingers. “Quite a lot.”
Chloe stopped his hand in her hair. “What?”
“It has to come from him, but he’s been struggling—he’s been trying to confide in you for a long time.” Brendan stood, his hand on her shoulder. “He genuinely loves you. You owe it to yourself to hear what he’s been trying to tell you before you throw him away.”
Her lips parted to speak, but no words came out. Why did she suddenly feel like the bad guy?
Brendan was halfway across the room on his way to the door when he abruptly stopped and turned around. “And one more thing. Jesse has lost so fucking much because of who he is. Who he loves. Keep an open mind, and an open heart, when you two do talk. I’d hate to have to see him suffer again if you turn out to be just another thing he loses.”
He’d waited long enough.
He couldn’t take another minute of this fucking agony he was in.
Taylor told him to give her space. Brendan told him to give her time. He’d done that. Jesse hadn’t seen Chloe since she left him at her front door on Friday. He hadn’t heard her voice or gotten a text. Nothing. Dillon was the only one who had, and she only called him to say she wasn’t feeling well and asked him to cover her shifts for the weekend. She was scheduled off the next two days and he wasn’t waiting until she was back at Charley’s to see her.
If Chloe didn’t want him anymore he’d just have to accept it. Somehow. But she was going to listen to every word first and he’d waited long enough. He was going to see her. Right. Fucking. Now.
It didn’t feel right to him, being closed off from her on the wrong side of that door. Chloe was inside her apartment. Jesse stood out in the hall. He raised his hand and knocked.
She opened the door and it felt like the air was sucked out of his lungs at the sight of her. His rose. Fucking breathtaking. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore no makeup, but it didn’t matter. Chloe was the only woman in the world who could take his breath away.
“Can I come in?”
Chloe lifted her shoulders with a slight shrug, but she took a step back and let him in. That was a good sign, wasn’t it? She hadn’t slammed the door in his face. So yeah, he took it as an encouraging sign and instead of following her down the little hallway, he reached for her and wrapped his arms around her.
She didn’t stiffen like he feared she might, so he lowered his lips and brushed them along her neck until he reached her ear and whispered into it, “I missed you.”
Then he finally heard that sweet voice. “I missed you too.”
And he kissed her.
Jesse held her face gently in his hands and softly touched his lips to hers. He’d been so afraid he’d never get to feel this with her again and he was so grateful she let him in. Chloe parted her lips and their tongues met in a sensual slow dance.
“I love you, Chloe.”
“I love you too, Jesse, but—” She glanced at him tentatively from beneath her lashes.
He took both of her hands in his. “Take a walk with me?”
“A walk?” She pursed her lips. “Where?”
“Wherever we end up.” He smiled. “C’mon.”
“Okay,” Chloe agreed with a slight nod. “Give me five minutes.”
Fifteen minutes later, Chloe reappeared from her bedroom looking much the same as she had when she left him—like the most beautiful woman in the world. Jesse took her hand and they walked in the direction of the lakefront.
They stopped at a food cart to grab some lunch and sat down at a picnic table in the shade. It was an unusually hot day, even for July, and the beach was packed with people soaking up the sun or taking a dip in the cool water to escape the heat of the city.
Jesse handed Chloe a hot dog, chips, and her Diet Coke. He looked out at the lake and chuckled. “You know, when I was a little kid I thought it was the ocean.”
Chloe was about to take a sip of her drink and paused. “You what?”
“Yeah, because it’s so big that you can’t see to the other side—like the ocean.”
She giggled.
“I even had Ky believing it. My mom and my aunts would take us here on a hot day like today while our fathers were at work.” A little boy chased a little girl past their table. He watched them for a moment. It made him smile. “Dillon and Brendan would laugh every time I asked if we could go to the ocean. It wasn’t until first grade, when Miss Crain showed us where we lived on a map, that I realized why. Because it wasn’t the ocean at all—just a really big lake.” He popped a hot dog in his mouth and ate it in two bites.
Chloe had her lips pressed together and he could tell she was struggling not to laugh. That made him laugh. Then she lost the battle and they laughed together. They laughed so hard the little boy and girl stopped chasing each other to stare at them.
Jesse swiped tears of laughter from her eyes and smacked a kiss to her lips. It made him happy to see her laugh, and it made him even happier to share laughter with her. He held her face and rubbed him thumbs across her cheeks. “You see, Chloe, not everything is what we imagine it is.”
She cast her gaze toward the lake and he softly gripped her chin and forced her to focus on him. “I love you, Chloe, more than I can put into words.” He paused. “Maybe love isn’t the way you imagined it would be. Maybe it just looks different—even bigger and better than you ever dreamed of. You think because I love another that I love you less, but that isn’t the way it is at all.”