Page 45 of The Library of Second Chances
Chloe snorted. ‘Yes, I was with theboyfrom the library.’
‘On a date?’
The word ‘date’ gave her pause. Was her dinner with Harry a date?
She stayed quiet for too long. Gwen squealed, startling Chloe.
‘Calm down, Gwen. Nothing happened. He only kissed my cheek and said goodnight.’A true gentleman, she thought but didn’t say.
‘That’s it?’ Gwen leaned back into the couch as though she was already uninterested. ‘He sounds boring, to be honest.’
Chloe’s neck prickled. She didn’t feel comfortable with Gwen knowing anyone she was seeing, romantically or otherwise. She knew, partly, that it was silly. The kiss with Liam had been such a long time ago, but . . .
Gwen still hadn’t acknowledged it. She just sat watchingBridget Joneslike it had never happened.
‘I have a date tomorrow, too,’ Gwen said, making Chloe stare at her. Some of the tension in her shoulders loosened.
‘You do? That’s great.’ She privately wondered if the date’s name was Dean, the awful mechanic she had had the terrible first date with, the evening that had sent her into the waiting arms of the library. No, it was likely a millionaire who owned a big mansion somewhere in Derbyshire. She hid her smirk and started to read.
It made her feel better that Gwen had a date.
Chloe went to see Hannah and her daughter Lily at the weekend, and they spent a cold, sunny Sunday morning feeding the ducks. To Chloe’s surprise, Hannah reported that the boy who had tried to rob the café had come in with his mother in tow.
‘She made him apologise.’ Hannah sounded amused as she handed some frozen peas to her daughter. Lily threw them with gusto, jumping with excitement as the ducks raced to peck at thevegetables. ‘She said he had fallen in with a bad crowd and it wouldn’t be happening again.’
‘Well, that’s good.’ Chloe still recalled how the superhero had picked him up with no effort, putting him in his place quite well. ‘Hopefully it won’t.’
Hannah nodded grimly. ‘Just glad Lily wasn’t there.’
It was a pleasant morning with her friend, and Chloe was relieved that the boy had apologised. It made him seem much less threatening, somehow.
Her thoughts wandered to her sister. She wondered if Gwen was in. Her little sister hadn’t come back last night by the time Chloe had gone to bed, so Chloe had finished reading her book, wondering if the date was going well. She supposed it must have. Maybe she wouldn’t see her sister again now until a post on Instagram popped up telling Chloe her sister had sailed to the Bahamas or the Mediterranean on the arm of some middle-aged tycoon.
A small part of Chloe thought it sounded rather fun, dangers aside. Gwen hadn’t run into any trouble so far.
Still, though.
She said goodbye to Hannah and Lily, then pulled out her phone to text her sister. She hesitated, wondering if ‘How are you?’ was too vague and ‘Where are you?’ would be too possessive. She finally settled on, I’m on my way home from town. Do you need anything?
She walked clutching her phone in her hand, trying and failing to resist the urge to glance at it every couple of seconds. That morning, she had been in a hurry to meet with Hannah and Lily before Hannah had to take her daughter to see her dad, and Chloe hadn’t paid attention to whether Gwen’s coat or her bag were in the house. She wished she had checked now. It seemed irresponsible, as the older sister, not to know where Gwen was. Gwen’s words of Chloe never reaching out echoed in her mind.Maybe she was right. Chloewasthe older sibling, and she had never spoken to Gwen aside from the short conversation about the funeral. Not since that night seven years ago.
She hadn’t heard any sounds from her sister’s bedroom in the night or the morning. What if Gwen had ended up meeting someone unsafe? She wasn’t the most cautious of people. Chloe hadn’t even asked her date’s name, hadn’t bothered to find out where she was meeting him.
Finally, the speech bubble popped up on the screen to indicate Gwen was typing, and Chloe almost laughed with relief.
Mint ice cream. Please.
Chloe stopped off at the corner shop and bought every mint ice cream she could find.
She thought Gwen might be in bed, nursing a hangover, but she was wearing sweatpants, theTVon in the background while she straightened her hair.
‘Hi,’ said Chloe. ‘Did you have a good date?’
‘What?’ Gwen turned to her, her eyes glazed over for a second. ‘Oh! Yeah, it was fine. Good, actually.’
They exchanged small smiles. Gwen didn’t offer any more information, and Chloe didn’t ask, not when she was so reluctant to tell her sister anything herself. For the rest of the day, the sisters stayed out of each other’s way. Gwen didn’t even ask Chloe for her help with herCVagain.
Chloe was nervous about going back to work, to facing Eric. She still hadn’t got round to messaging him – what on earth would she say? – because she hated bringing things up. Maybe it would be more comfortable to ignore it and continue as normal.
