been a housewarming present from her brother Ethan. She was touched, because her cat had died shortly before her move. She’d planned to get a new pet but she needed time to mourn Chester.
She smiled, thinking of Ethan picking out a spoon rest for her. She couldn’t imagine he bought it in person, but even the thought of her brother googling something like that made her giggle.
There had been an Ethan years ago that would have easily charmed his way into some kitschy boutique to look for a present for her.
But that was before the accident. Before he’d taken their sister for a ride in his fancy new sports car. Before he took a turn going too fast, showing off. Before the tires slid on gravel and the whole car flipped.
Before Samantha Talley died of a broken neck and Ethan landed in the hospital recovering from third-degree burns, leaving him covered in scars.
That had been over two years ago and Ethan spent every single day since then beating himself up with guilt. Chloe understood the guilt, but it was an accident. She wished Ethan could see that. She loved her brother, always would. She knew he’d never be the Ethan he was before, but this one was hard to bear sometimes, the guilt often visible in every line of his face.
Her cell rang from its spot on the counter. She glanced at the screen and thought about ignoring it, but she knew her mother would just call again. Chloe worked from home, so she didn’t have much of an excuse, even if it was a Saturday.
She picked it up and answered, settling it into the crook of her shoulder while she began to clean up from preparing the soup. “Hello?”
“Hey, Chloe, it’s Mom.”
She pictured her mom sitting at the kitchen table, staring out her large bay windows at the backyard, where she had just about every bird feeder known to man. “Hey, Mom.”
“Did you do anything last weekend?”
Well, last weekend, she’d been dressed as a warrior princess, getting screwed in a hotel room by a stranger. Her face flamed. “No, not much, just worked.”
“And are you settling into your apartment okay?”
She glanced around. It was small, but she didn’t need anything big. The complex itself was fairly new. The walls were painted a nice cream and the wood floors were a warm honey color. She’d found a blue braided rug on sale, which went well with her blue-and-tan checked couch. Admittedly the couch pattern was a little ugly but it was the most comfortable damn couch she’d ever sat on. “Yeah, Mom, I really like it.”
“You know, you could have moved closer to us instead…” Her voice trailed off.
Chloe dug her nails into her palms until the pain focused her. This was the problem, and had been the problem since Samantha died. Her parents refused to admit they blamed Ethan for Samantha’s death, but it was evident in the way they treated him. Ethan did blame himself, and exiling himself from their parents was this self-imposed punishment. He’d been the driver; he was the one who’d lost control of the car.
He’d told Chloe he didn’t want to repair the relationship. Ethan didn’t want to see the consequences of his actions any more than her parents wanted to forgive one of their children for the death of another. No one was at fault and yet everyone was at fault.
Or really, it was just one stupid accident.
Either way, Chloe was caught in the middle of a tug of war that was never-ending. Samantha had been the effervescent daughter who held the Talley family together. She’d been the one to smooth everything over with charm and class. With her gone, there was no glue and the Talley family members were all loose orbits, spinning off into space. No matter how hard Chloe tried, she couldn’t bring them together, couldn’t ground them. She’d never been able to.
And after her sister’s death, it had never been more apparent that Chloe was never and could never be Samantha.
Chloe wanted to fill that hole for her family, but it was becoming rapidly apparent no one could, because that hole had grown larger than life. Her sister had always been the prettier one, the outspoken one. And now that Samantha was gone, she was frozen in time as the beautiful, charming, utterly perfect woman.
Chloe struggled in this weird new role as the remaining Talley daughter. She’d known who she was before, quiet sister to her gregarious older siblings.