Page 53 of Catching Trouble

My gut rolled. “She was. Valerie was twenty-two.”

“And you were?”

“Thirty. And yes, I should have known better, but…”

Chloe didn’t wait for my excuses. “So, you’re forty-two?”

“Yes.” I wasn’t sure why it mattered to her, but I didn’t want her to think I’d taken advantage of Valerie.

Instead, she gripped her lip in her teeth. “I’m sorry, you must think I’m nosey. But family dynamics go a long way in explaining a person.”

Her words sent a prickle over my neck. Was that what she was doing? I could understand with Sophie, but was she trying to get a read onme?

“And is that how you met Luc? Through Valerie, I mean. I’m don’t mean to be rude, but the two of you don’t seem like a natural fit as besties.”

I huffed a laugh. “Luc and I aren’t ‘besties’, as you say, but yes. We met at parties that Valerie took me to. We had mutual interests—cars and motorbikes. I knew he had property in Furze, so when the opportunity to buy Méduse came up, I tracked him down and made an investment offer.”

As silence settled between us, the breeze blew tendrils of hair around Chloe’s face, and she worried her bottom lip with her teeth. Finally, she turned her head towards me, her brows drawn. “Okay, feel free to tell me to mind my own business… a lot of people would, but what happened with you and Valerie?”

My gut rolled gently. Yes, I could tell her to mind her own business, but I didn’t want to. Something about Chloe knowing where I came from and who I was, filled me with a strange kind of relief.

“When we found out about Sophie, I was so happy. We were so happy.”

Chloe tensed beside me. “So, you carried on as normal? Her family didn’t fire you?”

“No, but they didn’t welcome me with wide-open arms, either.” I swallowed a bitter taste. More like they didn’t want their daughter’s dirty little secret to become common knowledge. But Chloe didn’t need me unloading my angst onto her. I straightened.

“Understandably, I wasn’t what they considered a good fit for their daughter.” I ran my hand through my hair, pulling at my old T-shirt. “We weren’t living a Disney movie. Valerie and I were never going to get our happy ending. She broke things off just before Sophie was born.”

“I’m sorry,” Chloe murmured, nudging her arm against mine, like a silent message of solidarity. “But sometimes even painful things work out for the best.”

I sought her eyes, and Chloe grimaced.

“Oh, sorry—was that too deep? I get all Dalai Lama when I’m anywhere near a good view.”

I huffed a laugh, her joke shattering the tension.

“But you still have Sophie,” she said, “and that’s the main thing.”

I nodded. “To Valerie’s credit, no matter how mismatched the two of us were, she still kept me in Sophie’s life.”

Chloe turned to face me. “Youareher father!”

“Yes, but it would’ve been easy for her to cut ties completely. She held all the power. She had—still has—so much more to give Sophie than I do.”

“Money isn’t all it takes to be a parent.”

“No, you’re right, but it helps.” I let out a shaky breath. “Time with your child helps too. That was the one thing Valeriedidration. She’s made it hard for me to see her.” I closed my eyes. “I’ve missed so much of her life. First words. First steps. First nightmares I wasn’t there to soothe.”

After a long beat, I found Chloe’s gaze again. “If I’d been somebody else, maybe we could’ve been happy. But, regardless of what she or her family think of me, between the two of us, we made the most incredible thing.”

Chloe slowly blinked. Her focus travelled around my face, as if taking in every detail.“You did,” she whispered.

Then she smiled that big, sunny smile of hers, and I longed to wrap my arms around her and soothe the ache in my chest.

But I couldn’t. Our circumstances hadn’t changed, and if I acted on the impulse, she’d think I’d gone insane. Or she’d run for the hills. Instead, I picked up a rock and threw it over the cliff, into the sea. When I turned back, she was still staring at me.

“Youdoknow how much Sophie loves you, right?”