Beth gave her a big smile in return. “You’re welcome. I know your visit with us hasn’t been under the best circumstances, but I can see how much you mean to Miles. You’re important to him. I want you to feel included, and I look forward to getting to know you better. You can never have too many friends in this world, right?”
Chloe smiled in return and looked out the front window of the car feeling a whole lot lighter than she had since she’d arrived here. She was fitting in. She was being accepted as a part of Miles’s life, and it felt marvelous. There was one dark spot on the horizon, though. The way she’d engineered their meeting. She had to come clean with him and face the consequences of that. She owed it to him. He’d been nothing but up-front with her and he deserved her honesty.
As they neared the house, she spied a different car parked out front. The vehicle was dusty with road grime, as if it had done some miles before getting here.
“That looks like my aunt Piper’s car. We weren’t expecting her,” Beth mused aloud as she pulled up next to the other vehicle.
They got out of the car and Chloe immediately spied the infant car seat secured in the back. Just as she did so, the front door opened, and a young woman holding a small boy, who couldn’t have been more than about four, stood in the doorway.
“Oh my! Harley! Daniel! You’re home!” Beth cried.
Chloe watched as Beth ran up the stairs and enveloped her little sister and her nephew in a big welcoming hug. The two women greeted one another with genuine affection. Another, slightly older woman joined them, and Beth squealed with joy and hugged her warmly, too. Chloe spotted the newcomer’s resemblance to Ava almost immediately. She must be the aunt that Beth had mentioned lived in Dallas. When she’d spoken of her, it had been with much warmth and love. More so than when she spoke of her own mother. Beth turned back to Chloe and gestured for her to come on and meet everyone.
“Chloe, come up and meet Harley and her son, Daniel. And this is my aunt, Piper Holloway.”
Chloe proffered her hand and smiled at each of the women as she drew up in front of them. “Hi, I’m Chloe Fitzgerald. A friend of Miles’s. Lovely to meet you.”
“Does Mom know you’re back?” Beth asked her little sister.
“Not yet, and I’m not in a hurry to cross paths with her, so our visit here is short. Piper picked me up in Dallas and brought me down, but I’ll be staying with an old friend back in Royal.”
Beth wore a small frown on her face. “It would have been wonderful to have you here.”
“I know, but you know what things are like between Mom and me. I don’t want to expose Daniel to that any more than necessary. But I hope to see a lot of you, though. I’m going to need your help.”
“Anything,” Beth said quickly. “I’m just so thrilled to see you. You’ve heard about the mess that’s going on.”
“Yes, I gathered things were bad when Mom called me in Thailand to tell me the income stream from WinJet to Zest had been frozen. It’s why I came straight back. I need to find alternative donors and quickly before it starts to impact on the work Zest does. But we had a good flight back to the States and then on to Dallas, didn’t we, Daniel?”
The little boy shyly nodded, then turned his face back into his mother’s neck.
“He’s a little jet-lagged,” Harley explained. “Or he’d be talking all our ears off.”
“And I was overdue a visit so I offered to drive them from Dallas. It made for a good opportunity to catch up.” Piper said. “Besides, there’s a new artist just outside of Royal I’m hoping to persuade to give me an exclusive showing at my gallery.”
Beth turned to Chloe with a laugh. “Piper has an art gallery in Dallas. We like to tell everyone it’s her substitute husband.”
Piper chuckled. “Hey, with my gallery I have everything just the way I like it. No crumbs on the breakfast bar in the morning and no socks on the bedroom floor. I’m quite satisfied with my life just the way it is, thank you.”
Chloe could see the genuine affection that wove these women together and felt a pang of envy. Even though she wasn’t estranged from her mom, they’d never had the kind of relationship the Wingate sisters appeared to have with their aunt. While none of the Wingate children appeared to be emotionally close to their mother, it looked as though they had a strong surrogate in Piper Holloway.
They all went inside and gathered in the family room. There were a few toys already scattered on the floor, as well as a couple of children’s books on the coffee table that hadn’t been there before. Chloe could see the other women were itching to catch up together, so she suggested she mind Daniel for a bit so they could spend some time alone. At first, Harley looked a little dubious.
“Chloe is an elementary school teacher,” Beth filled in for Harley. “Daniel will be quite safe with her, I’m sure.”
“Honestly, I miss my class kids so it would be a delight to spend some time with him,” Chloe said.
Once Harley had explained she’d just be in another room nearby with his aunts, Daniel accepted that he was being left with Chloe. She kicked off her shoes and joined him on the carpet, helping him put together a wooden track on which he could roll the toy cars he’d brought home with him. She lost track of time and was startled to hear the front door slam closed and the sound of footsteps coming toward them. Chloe looked up to see Miles with a quizzical expression on his face.
“Uncle Miles!” Daniel shouted.
The little boy scrambled to his feet and launched himself at his uncle from about six feet away. To his credit, Miles dropped the briefcase he’d been carrying and caught his nephew in his arms and whirled the giggling child in a circle. Chloe watched him with the boy and felt something shift inside her. What would it be like, she wondered, if the scenario was different and it was her child running to his or her daddy. And just like that, Chloe knew she had fallen even harder in love with Miles Wingate.
Thirteen
Miles looked over his nephew’s head at the woman sprawled on the floor amongst the toys. She looked just as comfortable there as she had at his side at the engagement party last weekend. More so, in fact. Seeing her like this made him appreciate that there were so many more facets to Chloe than he realized. He’d never gone out with anyone before who didn’t think twice about getting down to a child’s level and simply having fun with them.
“Miles!” Harley squealed from the side door and came rushing through the room to give her brother a big hug.