“Still don’t buy it,” Maddie said firmly.
“I also told him if he thought we were ever having sex again, he was oh-so-wrong.”
Maddie snorted. “I used that one myself…”
“I may have said I shouldn’t have let him near me with his thing.”
“His thing.” Maddie burst out laughing. “Did you really?”
“Yes,” Chloe said miserably. “I’ve been out of control, Maddie. And now he’s gone.”
“Honey, it’s going to be okay.”
Chloe nodded, even though that was stupid because Maddie couldn’t see her. She swiped angrily at a tear that had escaped. She wanted to believe her sister, with all her heart she wanted to believe. But she wasn’t sure she did. “Gotta go,” she said.
And then she put on the beautiful locket and pretended that it was from Sawyer after all.
Chapter 2
The next morning, there was only one thought on Chloe’s mind. She wanted Sawyer right here next to her, all six feet of testosterone rumpled from sleep, eyes hooded and sexy, that raspy morning voice of his telling her to “c’mere”…
But he was gone.
In the old days he never left the bed before having his wild, wicked way with her. He’d flash a mischievous bad-boy smile and tug her over the top of him. And then roll her beneath him. After he’d had his way with her, he’d carry her to the shower and then give her yet another slow, delicious orgasm until she was begging for mercy.
Damn it. She scrubbed her hands over her face. She’d give anything to have him here so that she could tell him she was sorry she was such a PITA. That she loved him, more than life itself.
But he was gone, and she was a big girl who would have to deal with that.
With a sigh, she got up and stared at herself in the mirror. She could swear that she’d doubled in size since last night. “You’d better be cute,” she told the baby, who kicked, making her laugh. It was that or cry because she spent the next two hours trying on everything that she owned, and nothing fit for the Christmas party.
She could almost hear Sawyer saying “Then be smart and safe and stay home,” but she was tired of her own company. Come hell or high water, when that party started this weekend, she was going to be there.
The Bean kicked again and Chloe nodded. “I like your spirit,” she told her daughter. “And the answer is yes, there will be dancing and, God willing, cake.”
She texted Jax. She could’ve called either of her sisters, but they were on Sawyer’s side and would come up with excuses to keep her home. Maddie’s hubby, Jax, had a soft side for Chloe, and she used it ruthlessly.
He showed up in five minutes flat, a little breathless. “What’s wrong?” he demanded, stepping close, hands going to her shoulders to look her over. “The Bean—”
“—is fine,” she said. Jeez, would it kill anyone to ask about her first, just once in a blue moon? “I need a ride.”
Jax got her in his Jeep in two seconds flat, quite the feat given that she was the size of a house. She knew he assumed he was driving her to the doctor, but she directed him to her friend Olivia’s vintage clothing shop.
When Jax pulled over in front of the store, he swiveled his head and narrowed his eyes at her. “What. The. Hell.”
“I need a dress for the Christmas party,” she said. “Nothing fits.”
He tore off his dark sunglasses and stared at her. Jax was hot. Super hot. But he wasn’t as scary when he was pissed off as Sawyer or Ford, so she offered him her most charming smile.
Didn’t work.
“You got me out of a client meeting not because you’re in labor but because you wanted to go shopping?”
This wasn’t really a question, more a statement of disbelief, so Chloe went on the offensive. “Tara and Maddie want me to sit on my ass. And my ass is sore from sitting, Jax. I’d have called Ford, but I was pretty sure he would’ve just hung up on me.”
He stared at her.
She started to slide out of the truck, heard him swear like a sailor, and then he was there to help her.
“I’ll only be a few minutes,” she said.
A lie. It took her and Olivia an hour to go through each and every dress in the store.
None fit.
Chloe sat in the dressing room, just she and the Bean filling the entire space, and stared at herself in the mirror. She was too tired to put her own shoes back on and get outside to Jax’s Jeep. Plus she couldn’t even see her feet.
“You okay in there?” Olivia asked.
“Peachy,” Chloe said with just the right amount of snark to have Olivia leave her alone.