“I know. We all did. And, when you look at the bigger picture, whatever her initial intentions were, she didn’t betray that trust. People make mistakes, but I believe she loves you, Miles. The way you deserve to be loved. Wholeheartedly. You need to make this right between the two of you.”
“I don’t know if I can do that.”
“Then maybe you’re your father’s son after all,” she said quietly.
Ava rose from her chair and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder before leaving the room. A cascade of thoughts tumbled through his mind. He thought back to the moment he met Chloe, to his instant visceral reaction to her. To his need to ensure she was okay, and not just medically okay but safely home and fed and cared for. Those weren’t his usual reactions on meeting someone. He’d taken her at face value and he’d acted accordingly. Why? She’d admitted she set up the whole thing. Goodness knows how many times she’d lain in wait for him, trying to force a meeting.
But there were no guarantees that even if they’d met that he’d have fallen for her bait and wanted to see more of her. She’d taken a risk but he had the feeling that for all the years of unhappiness she’d endured, she really hadn’t thought the whole thing through. And even if Chloe had released any of the information she’d gleaned from his family during her time here, how much damage could that have done to any of them, anyway? Every dirty, nasty, fact would come out eventually. In fact, he was surprised that nothing had leaked already.
Whoever had been trafficking the drugs stood to gain more by besmirching the Wingate family and falsifying their involvement in all this than whatever Chloe could possibly achieve by sharing details with the media. Which she hadn’t done in the end, anyway. Not even after he’d sent her back to Chicago. A truly vindictive woman bent on revenge would have been on the phone to the papers, selling her story to the highest bidder, the moment she was off the property. Maybe even before that. But Chloe hadn’t.
Miles got up and faced out the window at the darkness, staring at his reflection in the glass. Right now, he didn’t particularly like what he saw. Yes, he was still the same man who always stared back in the mirror when he shaved each day. But his eyes were empty. His soul bleak.
He missed her.
He wanted her.
He had to know if she’d been telling the truth about her feelings for him.
Acknowledging those things didn’t make him weak. It made him strong. And what he decided to do about it could make him even stronger.
The next morning, Miles went into the office before dawn. He ran a final check over the beta security system and decided it was time to hand it over. Just to be certain everything was covered, he contacted one of his best analyst/programmers back in Chicago, apologizing for waking her.
“Steph, I need you here on the Texas job. How quickly can you pack and get on a flight?”
He heard her sheets rustle as she obviously got out of bed, soon followed by the sound of fingers clicking on a keyboard.
“Well, I’ve missed the red-eye but I should be able to be there by three this afternoon. Is that soon enough?”
It would have to be. “Great,” Miles said abruptly. “I’ll have a car and a driver waiting at the airport for you when you arrive.”
“Sure, boss. Um, is everything okay?”
Miles allowed himself to smile for the first time in days. “It’s going to be.”
* * *
Chloe closed her classroom door behind her and made her way out of the building. Normally, she loved this time of year. The anticipation of the classroom filled with new faces. Of the bright young minds waiting to be filled with enthusiasm for learning. But today her feet dragged and her heart lay like a lump of concrete in her chest. She had to pull herself together in the next couple of weeks or she wouldn’t be bringing her best to her students or to her love of teaching. But how was she supposed to find joy when, no matter what she did, she couldn’t stop thinking about Miles Wingate?
Her mom was doing her best to cheer her up, but there were only so many mother-daughter dates you could fit into a week. Loretta had even suggested Chloe give up the lease on the house and come and live with her again. After relishing her independence all these years, she was shocked to find herself considering it. Yes, the commute to the elementary school where she taught would be longer, but she wouldn’t be so darn alone all the time.
She could tell her mom was deeply worried about the cloud of sorrow that hung around Chloe’s shoulders. It worried Chloe, too. Even after her father’s death she’d managed to keep putting one foot in front of the other. She’d needed to, for her mom’s sake. But now it was Momma that was the strong and supportive one, and all Chloe wanted to do was take to her bed, hide under the covers and not come out until her heart didn’t hurt so much anymore.
She’d walked to school today, hoping the much-needed exercise might help to lift her mood, but now, it was growing dark out and the idea of walking home didn’t hold a great deal of appeal. Still, she squared her shoulders and, with her house keys firmly lodged between the fingers of her right hand, she headed for home.
Chloe hadn’t been walking long before she became aware of a vehicle driving toward her. Dark and sleek and all too similar to the one Miles had driven, she felt her stomach lurch as she wondered if it was him. But the car continued on down the street, away from her, and she felt the sharp sting of tears in her eyes as she realized she’d have to be dreaming to think that a man like Miles Wingate would ever forgive her for what she’d done, let alone come and find her.
She dashed the tears away, firmly telling herself to get a grip. She couldn’t spend forever moping about. She had a life to live. Kids to teach. Maybe even someone new to fall in love with.
At the thought of allowing herself to get close to anyone else, her stomach did that weird lurch again. No, she definitely wasn’t ready to consider that again. Not now and maybe not ever. Everything was still so raw. Chloe knew she’d done wrong, and that she had to learn from this and move on. She kept striding forward, knowing each step took her closer to home and the chance to lock herself away in her little house and nurse her wounded soul in private.
The sound of rubber on the road behind her made her stop in her tracks, her fingers clutching her keys even tighter than before. A dark shape drew up beside her. Her heart hammered in her chest. The car’s engine was soundless, which was why she hadn’t even heard its approach until it was right there beside her, but she recognized t
he outline of the sleek machine. The driver’s door was flung open, and the interior light of the car blazed on, revealing an all too familiar male figure before he alighted from the car and stood there, staring at her over the top of the roof. She felt his presence as if it was an emotional punch to her midriff. Seeing him standing there sent her already chaotic emotions into overdrive, leaving her conflicted and confused.
“We need to talk,” Miles said in a low monotone.
She couldn’t say why, but instead of leaping at the opportunity she’d been dreaming of, she just got mad.