water, trying to focus on the sounds of the waves rolling up the shore, the pounding of blood through his ears, anything to drown out the memories. But nothing could erase the evil side of humanity he’d seen tonight.
Chloe sat down beside him and put her arm around him, resting her head on his shoulder. “Mean people suck,” she said softly. “What will happen to the people they arrested?”
“Hopefully the greedy bastards will go to jail for a long time. The cops think they will. Some people are so messed up, Chloe. They treat animals and people like throwaways, abusing and neglecting them without a second thought. You’ve got to be so careful. I know you think if a guy wears a tie, he’s got to be safe. But, baby, you just never know.”
“I know that.” She sat up and moved her arm from around him. “I owe you an apology, Justin. I didn’t grow up with normal parents, and because of the way I was raised, I misjudged you. I’m sorry. You’ve always been good to me, and I’m just scared shitless of making the same mistakes my mother made. Makes.” She went silent and pushed her fingers around in the sand.
Justin waited to see if she was going to say more, but she looked so sad, he said, “Hey, beautiful, where’d you go?”
Her eyes flicked up, and she said, “Nowhere.”
He turned toward her, though she was still facing the water, and he stretched one leg in front of her, the other behind. He wrapped his arms around her, drawing her side against his chest, and said, “Talk to me, Chloe. What mistakes are you afraid of making? What happened when you were growing up?”
“Let’s just say my mother had her sights set on finding a man rather than actually being a parent. I guess Serena and I were throwaway kids.”
“Aw, hell, babe. You were left to fend for yourself a lot?”
“All the time, from a very young age. My mother worked as a waitress—sometimes at restaurants, sometimes at bars. When she wasn’t working, she was either out hunting for a man or spending time with one. I practically raised Serena, which is why I’ve always been so protective of her. I made our meals, did our laundry, made sure she got to school on time. It was hard every minute of every day. My mother had me when she was only eighteen, so I get that she felt like she’d missed out on a lot. But she was never there. We were lucky that we had friends whose parents were good to us, like Drake Savage’s family. They offered us dinners, things like that. But while Serena was best friends with Drake’s sister, Mira, I always had my own group of friends. I knew if Serena was with the Savages, she was safe. But I just wanted to get away, you know? Away from the constant reminders of what we didn’t have and away from the embarrassment of our friends knowing that our mother sucked.”
“I know all about wanting to get away,” he said, hating that she’d been brought up that way. “What about your father?”
“I’ve never met him. My mother claims that me and Serena have the same father, but I don’t believe it. I’ve never seen pictures of my father, and she’s vague about what she was doing and where we lived when we were little. And look at me and Serena. Serena is short, curvy, and brunette. We look nothing alike. I’m pretty sure my mother got pregnant on purpose to try to keep my father around, and when that didn’t work, she probably tried to wrangle another man, Serena’s father, into marriage. But I have no proof of that, and it doesn’t matter. I’m thankful to have Serena as my sister no matter how we came to be.”
“So you’ve never had a father figure in your house?”
She shook her head. “But don’t worry. I’m not looking for a daddy replacement,” she said a little sharply.
“I wasn’t thinking that, Chloe. I was thinking that you were, as you said, Serena’s protector. You were essentially her mother and her father.”
“Pretty much. That’s one of the reasons I was looking for a certain type of man. I crave stability, Justin, and based on the rough guys my mother has always dated, I assumed my father was just like them. So I’ve looked for the opposite. But again, I don’t know anything about my father. The only thing