“Do you…” She crosses her ankles and twists her lips, and I can’t tell if she’s nervous or still annoyed with me. Either way, I wait for her to continue. “Do you want to go for a walk?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
It’s unusually warm out for the start of fall, which I guess is a good thing, considering Chloe’s outfit of choice today. Instead of looping the grounds, she leads us out front, past the parking lot, and down a dirt path. A brown fence, no taller than her chest, lines the left side, faded in some places and crooked in others. Beyond the fence is endless land. Tall blades of grass and wildflowers I couldn’t name sway with the breeze. Trees line the distance with leaves still hanging on to their green color, and behind them, rolling hills stretch further than I can see.
Somewhere nearby, birds are chirping in steady conversation, and it makes the lack of talking between Chloe and me seem somuch louder.
“Is it safe to assume you’ve been avoiding me?” I ask, pushing my sleeves to my elbows. Chloe’s gaze flicks down and lingers for a beat too long before she abruptly looks away. I bite back my grin, not wanting to give her any more reason to be mad at me.
“I wasn’t exactly avoiding you when I cornered you in the shower yesterday.”
I let out a soft, amused laugh, dropping my head back, but catching the way she regards me from the corner of her eyes, and I swear the edges of her lips kick up the smallest bit.
“I was talking about the last two weeks before that. But you know, now that you brought that up.” I turn, pinning her with my stare. “You didn’t seem to mind the view.”
Her jaw falls open, and she looks like she wants to argue. Instead, her hand lands on my bicep giving me a half-hearted shove that does nothing but make me laugh again.
“You should probably just stop talking unless you’re ready to discuss our terms.”
“Our terms?”
She stops walking beside me. “Yes, Maverick. Terms. A game plan. Expectations. The rules.” She hits the palm of her hand with a balled up fist, accenting each word.
“You can’t be serious?”
Her little button nose scrunches up as her chin justs out at me. I know she’s pissed, but goddamn, she’s cute. “What did you think I wanted to talk about?” she asks like it’s obvious.
“I don’t know.” I shake my head, being careful not to kick up dirt on my white shoes as I move to stand beside her. “I guess I just assumed you wanted to yell at me for telling Nathan we were dating, and then we could laugh about it and move on.”
“You thought I would laugh at the fact that you told the one guy who I’ve been trying to prove my loyalty to for going on four years now, that I was dating you?”
There she goes again, talking about proving her loyalty. Asif it’s not something that everyone can clearly see. You’re either loyal or you're not. It’s not some time trial that needs to be proven. Within the span of two nights, I could tell you two things for certain: one, Chloe is loyal. And two, Nathan is not.
“What were you thinking?” Her voice is calmer now, but not any less sad.
“I was thinking how hurt you looked that night at my house, and then again on the front lawn.”
“So, what? You’re trying to use me for more hours in your charity case?”
“No. Come on, Chlo. It wasn’t like that at all.” I hold my hands out, almost pleading with her to understand that I didn’t do any of this with ill intentions. I’ve never wasted my time trying to change someone's mind about me, but seeing the way her teeth dig into her bottom lip, and her eyes bore into mine with a slight crease just off center between her brows, has me begging her to see my intentions. “I thought maybe if he knew you were dating someone else, it might give him the kick in the ass that he needed to make the move. To realize that a girl like you won’t wait around for him forever.”
She doesn’t answer right away. Her eyes dart off to the grass beyond the fence and she folds her arms across her chest.
Something uneasy twists in my gut, and I get the feeling that in my attempt to explain myself to her, I might have ended up poking at something she’s already been questioning.
“What’s done is done, I guess.” She shifts her weight from one foot to the other, kicking an invisible rock.
“Do you believe me?”
She looks back up at me with that same expression she wore the other day, like she’s trying to figure out why I care so much.
“I know what kind of reputation I have,” I continue. “AndI know what people say about me. But it’s important to me that you know I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you. Not on purpose, anyway.”
It’s subtle, but she tilts her head, and her eyes study me. Seconds pass when all I can hear is the wind against the grass and a lone bird in the distance. I hold still, nervous that any movement might change her mind—I don’t even know where her mind is at right now, maybe I should be trying to change it. But then her lips twist to the side, and she nods her head once.
My stomach expands before I blow out a deep breath, and we continue to walk.
“Now, don’t think I’m trying to change your mind, but I just want to make sure before we make any rash decisions here, that you do realize what you’re getting yourself into.”
