her, but she just couldn’t turn her back on him no matter how much he wanted her to.
She loved him so much, which is why she had to do this, Melissa reminded herself as she released a shaky breath and reluctantly climbed out of the car, preparing herself for the battle ahead. When she hesitated, she reminded herself that Chase had always been there for her.
He’d held her when their parents died, walked her down the aisle when she got married, was by her side during every pregnancy, and held her hand from the first contraction to the last, and she knew that he would have done whatever it took to help her if their roles were reversed.
Praying that this didn’t make him hate her more, Melissa forced herself to head to the front door even as she had to wonder how she was going to fix this. When she’d hired Sloane, she’d hoped the threat of putting him in a nursing home would be enough to get him to finally care whether he lived or died, but apparently, it had only bought her enough time before the next time that she was forced to lie to him.
Melissa couldn’t put him in a home. She just couldn’t do that to her brother, but that didn’t mean that she was going to stop trying to help him. She had no idea how she was going to make him listen, but she was going to try. She needed to figure out what he did to run Sloane off and why she’d told the agency that he wasn’t going to need another aide and Melissa needed to…
“I hate you!” came the gasped words followed by laughter that had Melissa frowning.
“Ah, what’s the matter, Pookie?” Chase asked, sounding…happy?
Curious, she stepped off the walkway and found herself wincing in sympathy when she spotted Chase tickling Sloane, who couldn’t seem to stop laughing long enough to counter-attack through the large living room window. Yeah, this wasn’t going to end well for Sloane, Melissa thought, unable to help but smile when she saw the grin on her brother’s face as he tormented the woman who was supposed to be taking a leave of absence.
“Say it, Pookie,” Chase said, laughing when Sloane tried to climb off his lap only to give up when he upped his tickling assault and wrapped her arms around him and held on tight in an attempt to make it harder for him to tickle her.
Amateur move, Melissa thought with a pitying shake of her head.
“No!”
“Say it! Say that I’m your favorite patient,” Chase said, laughing as he ran his fingertips down Sloane’s sides and
“Fine! You’re my favorite patient. Are you happy now?” Sloane asked, pulling back just far enough so that she could glare at Chase.
Chase looked like he was thinking it over as he leaned in and kissed Sloane’s forehead before pulling back with a sad shake of his head and a mumbled, “I just don’t feel like you really mean it,” as his hands moved back down her sides and
“You’re so mean!” came the laughing response that had Melissa walking away, unable to help but smile because it looked like the old Chase was finally starting to make his way back.
*-*-*-*
“What the hell are we doing here?”
“I’m making all your dreams come true,” Sloane said as she dropped down on his lap with a satisfied sigh and gestured for him to roll them toward the large one-level house with the huge driveway and an “Open House” sign staked in the front yard. Knowing better than to argue with the little bully, Chase rolled them toward the house, thankful when the woman that he was assuming was the realtor opened the door for them.
“Welcome,” the realtor said with a warm smile as she handed them a face-sheet for the house. “My name is Natalie and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Thank you,” Sloane said, settling back to get more comfortable as she gestured for him to continue.
Sighing, he rolled them into the large foyer and
“Oh, my god, this living room is huge,” Sloane said in a reverent whisper, making his lips twitch as he rolled them to the room in question so that the little bully that had decided that they were going house hunting could properly admire the large room with patio doors overlooking a large side yard lined with citrus trees.
“If this house isn’t what you want, we’ll keep looking,” Sloane mumbled absently when Chase plucked