“How’s the speech therapy going?”
Chloe startled. They’d been walking in silence for so long she’d sort of expected it to continue that way. “I’m trying to burn to slow my beach down, but it’s harder than it creams.” She sighed wearily, wondering how Jim would take her garbled speech.
“Take your time. I won’t rush you.” Another quick glance. “Your speech is barely slurred.”
“It was glad in the beginning, but it’s gotten a slot better.”
Jim stopped and turned toward her, forcing her to halt as well. “I want you to do what your therapist said, and slow down a bit. All right? I’m listening, and I know what you’re trying to say.”
Chloe once again tried to relax. Jim smiled sympathetically, but that didn’t help at all. “I…” She frowned, the words lost for a second. Sometimes it was almost worse when she tried to concentrate. It was as if she could feel the words slipping and sliding through her mind, hiding from her. “I’m. Still. Hungry.”
Jim laughed. “You didn’t get to finish your sandwich, did you?” He began walking again. “Let’s hit Frank’s, and we can talk some more.”
“Yay.” Chloe grimaced. Her family might put up with her weirdness, but she doubted Jim would for long.
“You don’t want to talk to me?”
She blew out a frustrated breath, the words sliding away again. “No.” She shook her head. “Yes.”
Jim lifted her hand to his lips, kissing her knuckles. While her Fox was doing the Snoopy dance, her head was telling her that at some point he’d pull away again. A one-eighty like this couldn’t last, could it?
They entered Frank’s Diner. Jim put his arm around her shoulders and began maneuvering them through the lunchtime crowd.
“My valance is fine.”
Jim blinked, but it didn’t take him very long to figure out what she was trying to say. “Oh. Balance? I know.”
“Then why are you holding me?”
He grinned sheepishly. “Because I want to.”
Before she could respond they were at a booth. She slid into the seat, and Jim took the one across from her. “So.” She picked up one of the rolled napkin and silverware thingies and began to unravel it, picking the napkin apart into tiny little pieces. “Spencer.”
He nodded. “My father had an affair with a woman living in Chicago. When she became pregnant, he abandoned her. She was a single mom with no support from him or the rest of her family, and she was too proud to go after a married father for child support. She raised Spencer on her own and did a damn fine job of it.”
“That stucks.” Chloe didn’t know what she would do if she lost her family.
“Yeah, it does. When she died, Spencer reached out to my father, who told him to basically go to hell. When I found out about it, I decided to meet him.”
“Why?” Chloe would have done the same thing, but she wanted to hear his reasons from his own lips.
“Why did I want to meet him, or why did my dad not want to?”
“You,” Chloe replied softly.
“Because he’s family.” Jim shrugged. “My mother found out about Spencer and flipped out, throwing my father out of the house. He tried for a month or so to get her to take him back, but she turned vicious, and he decided it wasn’t worth it.”
“And you were dealing with Spencer?” Chloe was careful to speak slowly, sounding out each word to herself before speaking.