Chloe headed to the lawyer's office but stopped at Dave's coffee shop on the way over. She had been putting off the reading of the will as long as possible, and she couldn't come up with any more excuses. She had promised her father-in-law that she would meet him there this afternoon and so that is what she had to do.
She turned to head out of the shop after getting her coffee, the best in town, and almost smashed right into a tall solid wall of man. She looked up from his scuffed brown derby shoes and took in his expensive gray suit that probably cost at least that of one of her new outfits. His silk navy tie was tucked into his vest, and his strong jaw was accessorized with a five o'clock shadow. He towered over at just over six feet, and she could sense his thick dusty brown hair was just as wildly all over the place as always, but she forced herself to stop before she got too close to being sucke
Mr. Harris walked quietly with Chloe until they reached the entrance to the building. He turned to her and stood for a moment looking over her shoulder before finally talking. "He was my boy, and I loved him probably best of them all, but you have always been good to me, and I hope to keep you as a daughter after this if you let me." He was still looking over her shoulder. He cleared his throat and looked into her eyes before finishing. "I'm sorry for how he has treated you even in death." "Thank you." Chloe looked into her father-in-law's eyes and saw the conflict and sorrow that ate at him. "I'm not sure how I feel about all this, but I loved him since I was fourteen and even before. He has been an important part of my life, however, imperfect it turned out. I will honor the good times and move on from here with my life. Jerrod
"How do you not know where Screaming Brain Freeze is?" Chloe asked."Never had a need for a brain freeze." He said keeping his eyes on the road and adjusting the seat at the light."Even as a kid?""Didn't spend a lot of time here as a kid." He answered now adjusting the rear view mirror."Oh." She wasn't sure if it would be rude to ask why. Maybe his parents had a messy divorce. Maybe he was sent off to boarding school. Maybe he had witnessed a heinous crime and was put into witness protection and given a new identity and finally after years and years all those involved had died someway or another, and he was free to return to his life. No, there's no way that could be it.
Chloe shook her head and just let Liam drive. At the rate in which that slushie was coursing through his veins, she didn't think she could stop him anyway."What exactly do you plan on doing?" She asked as they pulled into her driveway."Well, investigate of course." He said getting out of the car and walking up the steps to her front door. "I am a detective after all. I must make sure the items in question are up to proper safety standards. Your safety is of the utmost importance.""How chivalrous of you." She mumbled as he fumbled with her keys. She took them from him and unlocked the door and before she could open it all the way he was already in the house and down the hall."I am here to serve and protect in any
Chloe opened the door to find her best friend, Kendra standing there with a duffle bag thrown over her shoulder. Kendra waved at some guy in a sleek black Lincoln MKT and then stepped in past Chloe who was looking between Kendra and the guy driving off in the Lincoln."Um, who is that?" Chloe asked as she closed the door. "And what are you doing here?""That was James, my Uber driver," Kendra said rummaging in the fridge for a bottle of water. She hated when anyone did that in her fridge unless they were family but she considered Chloe family, so she never gave it a second thought."I'm here because we have a date today and I'm on my way to the East coast for work. But that you already know." Detective Liam Johnson came into the room, and Chloe froze looking back and forth between L
The next morning Chloe woke up still in her dress on the spare bed with her heels tossed across the room somewhere. Kendra was snuggled under the comforter and didn't seem to have any clothes on at all, which wasn't surprising, nothing ever was with her. Chloe got up, got washed and dressed, and soon Kendra followed. Not long after, Kat was at Chloe's door and the three of them went off to yoga together. When Kat headed home after their yoga class, Chloe and Kendra headed to the grocery store to get supplies for their next list item. Kendra drove and on the way she got pulled over. "Were you speeding?" Chloe asked. "No. It's Pike." Kendra responded as she watched the officer approaching the car in the rear view mirror. "Fu
"Hello, Liam. Do you always just come in without an invitation?" She asked mostly out of curiosity since she was still having a hard time figuring him out. She was quite exhausted and a bit tipsy though with no energy for his confusing looks and flirting or whatever it was he did. Plus she was supposed to be avoiding him."Huh? Oh, you definitely invited me in." He said darkly looking her up and down. She realized what she was wearing and tugged a bit on the hem of her shirt. "What's that you got there?" He asked, nodding to the gift in her hand."Oh. Kenny left it for me. I forgot to open it until now.""A late funeral gift? Nice!" He grinned as if just the idea was highly entertaining. "Well, are you going to open it? The suspense is killing me."
Liam entered the spare bedroom and pushed the comforter aside exposing the satin sheets underneath. He sat her down on the bed and kissed her softly sucking on her bottom lip before pulling away. Then her shirt was being lifted up over her head; he grinned at what he saw. She had lost most of the fifteen pounds that had been annoying her when on vacation with Kendra since she was forced to work out every morning with Kendra and had made friends with a French workout partner by night. Liam pushed her back gently onto the bed, and with his knee between her legs, he kissed each of her nipples softly then her belly before standing back up. She watched him unlace and step out of his shoes. He began unbuttoning his shirt from the top down all the while his eyes focused on hers. She saw his hard chest with perfectly trimmed hair come into view, and she thought it was like a really sexy strip show sans the
Chloe stared at the phone until the screen blinked off and even then she kept staring at the black screen in disbelief. She shook her head a bit and cleared her stinging throat. She really needed to find some sort of will power when it came to that man. She finally queued the phone back to life and dialed the number to the insurance company.An operator answered the phone and Chloe was surprised not to get an electronic prompt system of some sort. She told the woman who she was and gave her account information. She was transferred to another office where she waited on hold for about a minute."Kawasaki's office. Heather speaking. How may I assist you?" A friendly voice said to her. Chloe was not expecting the service to be this pleasant and was slightly taken aback. She had put off calling for so long because she assumed annoying robots would send