I peek one eye over at her, and she’s picking at her nail.
“Says who?”
She drops her hands into her lap. “I have to move on, Dax.”
“Move on from me?” There’s a panic in my voice as the car swerves a little too hard around the corner.
“No. God, no.” She reaches over and squeezes my armresting on the center console. “But if I keep mooching off you, it’s just going to delay me moving on from your brother.”
I blow out a breath as the sunlight peeks into the cab from the passing trees. “Good. But you know the offer is always there.”
“You’re the best, Dax. Truly. I don’t know if I would have survived these last few days without you.”
“You would have. You’re stronger than you think.”
“I probably would have gone back and married him.” She shudders.
“Well, now you get to find a new place to live and start over.”
“Care to help me look?” Chloe asks.
“Of course.”
That earns me a genuine smile from her. It’s one of the smiles she saves just for me. It has my heart flailing around in my chest. God, why couldn’t I feel this way about someone else? But no matter how hard I tried to move on from Chloe, it was always her. All the way back to high school.
Until I asked my dick of a brother for advice on how to ask her out and he did it instead. It’s around that time I started hating my brother for getting what I wanted. He didn’t deserve her then and he still doesn’t deserve her now.
“Whatever I find won’t be anything fancy. I don’t have much of a budget.”
“And what is your budget?”
“Cheap.”
Chloe plugs in her phone, tapping a few things before the first few notes of an old pop song come on.
“Our playlist?”
She nods, starting to sing along. “I had to recreate it.”
Chloe cranks the volume, bopping along to the song and singing—terribly, I might add.
“I forgot how bad you are.” I laugh.
That only makes her sing louder, dancing in the seat.
“C’mon, Dax.” She pokes me in the side. “You know you want to sing along.”
“I’m the worst singer in the world.”
“I don’t care.” She pokes me again. “C’mon.”
I wait a beat before busting out with the chorus. It has Chloe holding out a pretend microphone to me as I focus on the road and the song.
God, this is what I love about being with her. How it’s always been. Things are light and fun. Right now, it’s just the two of us. There’s no worrying about what’s to come. And I know Chloe has a lot of those concerns right now.
“I forgot how bad we sound together.” Chloe reaches over and turns the volume down. “Remind me that we should never go on tour.”
“Done.” I laugh. “I’m not giving up my day job anytime soon.”
