Page 132 of Between Hello and Goodbye

“Chloe…”

“I’m here,” she said, soothing. “I’m right here…”

Her chin tilted up, her eyes went to my mouth, and then she leaned in…

My eyes flared and I tore off the couch. She recoiled as I heaved a breath, trying to keep my emotions under control when they wanted to rage like the storm outside.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “But I can’t do this. You can’t…I should never have asked you to move in. It was wrong and I’m sorry.”

She stared, surprised indignation sweeping over her features. She got up from the couch, arms crossed. “I see. I thought you needed my help with Kal. I thought you couldn’t handle it all by yourself. I thought I washelpingyou.”

“You were. You are. But not like this.”

“You love her,” she said, gesturing at a photo of Faith.

“Yeah, I do,” I said. “I’m in love with her and she—”

“Isn’t here,” Chloe snapped. Her voice cracked and tears flooded her eyes. “You’re grieving and in pain and she’s not here. But I am, Asher. I’m right here and worse…” Her jaw quavered. “I always have been. Always.”

My head bowed. I’d been so stupid. So careless.

“I’m sorry, Chloe. I am. But I can’t be what you want me to be. I appreciate everything you’ve done but…I have to fix what I broke.”

“And Kal? Suddenly you can manage him without help?”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I’ll figure it out.”

Lightning crashed and a few seconds later, thunder boomed, shaking the house.

“I’ll go,” Chloe said.

“No way. Not now. Not in this storm. Let me check on Kal and we can talk more and just…give me a minute, okay?”

She nodded reluctantly, hunching deeper into her sweater. “Sure. Fine.”

“Thank you.”

I took the stairs up to the second floor and knocked on Kaleo’s door. No answer.

“Hey, Kal?” I cracked it open. “It’s getting pretty gnarly out there. You doing okay?”

I pushed the door open all the way. His bed was empty. Desk chair, empty. The room was empty, but the window was open, and Kal was gone.

I’d seen plenty of rain in Seattle, but a tropical storm was another beast altogether.

The rental car guy at Lihue Airport tried to talk me out of driving, especially as someone who’s not used to the weather, but I turned on my considerable charm to convince him and hit the road.

“Because I have considerable charm…for a lunatic.”

My nerves were already shot as it was, wondering how Asher was going to react to seeing me. I drove with white-knuckles, hands at ten and two like they taught us, and took the rain-slicked highway up to Anini Beach as fast as I dared.

Which wasn’t much.

The rain lashed the windshield as if someone were throwing buckets of water at the glass instead of rain drops. My wipers could barely keep up.

“The crazy shit people do for love,” I muttered and then I could’ve wept with relief as my GPS told me Anini Beach Drivewas just up ahead.

Even so, I nearly missed the turn through the torrent. But I was going about eight miles an hour (with no one behind me, thankfully, because no one else was dumb enough to be out in this mess,) and I found the drive.