Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92547 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92547 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
But when we got to the drive-thru, I ordered an extra meal in case Chloe hadn’t eaten anything since our bowls earlier, which I suspected she hadn’t.
When we walked in at home, Chloe was standing in the kitchen, biting her nails. I didn’t have to guess why she seemed nervous.
“Your girlfriend came by,” she announced.
“I know.” I dropped the bag of greasy food on the counter.
Effie’s eyes were like saucers. “Did you scare her away?”
Chloe’s jaw tightened. “Basically.”
“She called me,” I admitted.
“She wasn’t happy,” Chloe said.
“Yeah.” I opened the bag and took a waffle fry.
She placed her hands on her hips. “Why didn’t you tell her I was staying here?”
I shrugged. “I figured I’d let things play out before I made an issue of it.”
“It’s always better to get ahead of things, Evan.”
“I realize that now.”
Chloe sighed. “Well, what did she say to you?”
I started to unpack the bag of food. “She offered to give up her apartment so you could stay there.”
Her eyes narrowed. “And where would she stay?”
I stilled for a moment. “Here.”
“I don’t want Naomi to stay with us,” Effie chimed in.
“I told her no,” I said, looking down at my daughter.
“How did she react to that?” Chloe asked.
“Not good, as you might imagine.”
I set my daughter’s food on the table. “Come sit, Effie.”
I then pulled Chloe aside and lowered my voice. “I’d prefer not to go into it anymore in front of Effie.”
“Sure.” She nodded. “Of course.”
As I brought the rest of the food over to the table, Effie looked up at Chloe’s hair. “I didn’t know you had a French braid, too!”
“How do you think your dad learned how to do it?” Chloe grinned. “He practiced on me last night.”
Effie giggled. “Wow.”
Chloe patted the top of her head. “I took a shower, but I kept it in so you could see it. Yours held up pretty well, too.”
“He did good.” Effie grinned.
I smiled proudly at my daughter.
“I was going to do it for you,” Chloe added. “But I figured it would be better if he learned how to braid, since I won’t be around forever.”
My chest constricted. Chloe’s statement reminded me I didn’t have unlimited time to make things right with her. Despite the words in her angry letter a decade ago, I knew her feelings had come from a place of hurt. But I had to be careful not to complicate things between us. I certainly didn’t want Effie to fall for another woman who’d leave her behind. I could already see my daughter getting attached to her new friend.
“Anyway…” I shook my head. “I realized I didn’t have your damn number, so I just guessed what you might want. Hope you’re okay with the chicken sandwich.”
“What’s not to like?” She opened the cardboard box. “It smells delicious. Thank you.”
“I assumed you hadn’t eaten since earlier today.”
“You’d be right.”
“We got you waffle fries, too!” Effie squeaked.
“Oh, thank God. Now I don’t have to steal yours.” Chloe winked.
“I would’ve shared,” Effie offered.
“You’re very sweet. Thank you.” Chloe looked over at me and smiled.
The three of us had a pretty quiet dinner, considering my daughter usually liked to run off at the mouth during meals. But she loved Chick-fil-A so much that she barely came up for air.
Almost as soon as I’d had that thought, though, the questions started.
“What’s something fun you guys used to do when you lived with Chloe’s parents?” Effie asked.
I looked over at Chloe. “Actually, you reminded me, Effie, that I have a waffle maker in my truck that Chloe and I used to make homemade waffles back in the day. We should make some this weekend.”
“Yay!” She bounced in her seat. “I love waffles.”
“I know you do. We just never make them from scratch, only the frozen ones.”
Effie turned to Chloe excitedly. “Will you still be here this weekend?”
Chloe nodded. “I think so…yeah.”
“She will,” I added.
“I will?” Chloe arched her brow.
“You’re not going anywhere. Not that soon, at least. I feel pretty confident in that.”
“You’re probably right.” She flashed me an impish grin. “I can think of something else fun we used to do. At least it started out that way.”
“What are you getting at?” I narrowed my eyes.
“The Challenge.” She smirked.
It shouldn’t have surprised me that she’d bring up our little game. It’d been a huge part of our lives back then.
“We used to play this game, Effie. We called it The Challenge, and it was a little competition we had going.”
If this was her way of trying to break any remaining ice between us, she’d just taken a sledgehammer to it. But while that old game was partly what bonded us, it was also what had ended us.
“A little competition is putting it mildly.” I sighed as I looked up at the ceiling. “That game was…something else.”
Effie looked between us. “How do you play?”