A shadow moved outside my door.
Two feet, like someone was standing in front of it. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.
Fucking hell, had I thought about this so fucking hard that it actually came true?
I closed my eyes and rubbed them again, hoping it was just my mind playing tricks. Stars clouded my vision from how hard I had pressed. I looked to the bottom of the door again, finding the shadowed legs still lingering. I couldn’t look away or see anything else except the horrifying possibility that it might be him…
It’s probably just a drunk neighbor standing outside the wrong door.
I backed up slowly, sure not to make a noise. I grabbed a knife from the counter—
The shadow backed up, and within a blink, it was gone.
A stagnant breath finally left my lungs. The knife clattered loudly to the granite, and I pressed my hands onto the lip again, my head hanging as I collected myself.
All I could think about was how much I wanted to text Gavin to come over.
And maybe that should have told me all I needed to know.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - CHLOE
I WAS DETERMINED not to set myself up for outright disappointment this weekend. I knew I could get in my head and set my attitude up for failure, but for whatever reason, I wanted Gavin and Lana to be wrong.
I wondered if that was because I was too scared to face what needed to happen if they were right.
I squirmed in the cushy seat of the private jet Tyler had chartered to take us up the coast. He was pacing back and forth on his phone, saying the same phrases repeatedly, or so it seemed. I hoped it wasn’t like that the entire weekend. His parents hated when he was on the phone, and they usually looked to me to say something to him about it—which I always failed at.
I sighed back onto the headrest and glanced out the window.
Two days.
It was just two days.
We would return Sunday afternoon, and Tyler would leave again for New York City that evening.
A man appeared through the curtain separating us from the cockpit then. A handsome blonde, mid-forties, tall and lean with flecks of white in the scruff lining his jaw. I realized this was our captain, and Tyler nearly ran into him when he tried to approach me.
“Are we all ready?” the captain asked.
“Ah…” I glanced at Tyler. “Does he have to be in his seat?”
“He does. We don’t want anyone falling or getting hurt,” he said.
“Shame,” I muttered. “That might be fun to watch—Tyler?” I called out, trying to grab his attention. “Hey, Tyler, he’s asking if we’re ready.”
Tyler pulled the phone down and looked between us. “I’m still waiting on some cargo,” he said.
“Cargo?” I repeated.
The captain nodded at Tyler before disappearing again to the cockpit. A stewardess offered me a drink, and I gladly accepted it.
It had only been an hour, and I was already looking down at my phone like it might save me. I wasn’t sure what I was hoping for—rescue text from Lana, an apology from Gavin, Ezzie texting to say the office had caught fire…
That was what I needed. Someone to run in and yell ‘fire’ at the top of their lungs to get me out of this misery.
Try harder, Chloe, I reminded myself.Stay here. Stay in this moment. Don’t wander. You haven’t even gotten off the ground yet.
Tyler looked out the window then and pointed like he was seeing a best friend. “There he is. There’s my boy!”
