she’d been so successful early on in her career. It wasn’t just
the cooking, even though it was probably amazing. It was all
of Claire. Her personality. Her drive. Her intelligence. Her
many, many talents. “You can stay for dinner.”
Haley couldn’t stop smiling, even though her face hurt from
it. Joy was the best kind of hurt. She hadn’t expected to come
here and find Claire this way. She’d expected to have to beg
and plead her case, probably for hours. She’d expected it to be
frustrating and painful, not to be met with hopeful optimism
the moment she walked in the door.
“I told myself that if you came back here, or if you called or
texted, that I’d listen,” Claire said. “I didn’t want to intrude on
your life. I didn’t want to push in because that would be
hurting you and I promised that I wouldn’t do that. Things got
out of control, but maybe all that control is actually pretty
overrated.”
“What?” Haley gaped at her. “Say that again. I’m sorry,
you’re saying it’s overrated?”
Claire winked and Haley could have died. The surprises
were clearly just getting started. “Not in the bedroom.”
Now she was dying for another reason. It had been over a
month since she’d touched Claire and her body was in a state
of shock. She would have happily locked the kitchen door and
stayed in there all afternoon with Claire while whatever was in
the oven burned and smoldered and alarms and sprinklers went
off in the rest of the house. Haley doubted the kitchen door
actually locked. And she could wait. She could. Because she
wasn’t going to leave here alone again. Even if she left without
Claire, she’d be back. They were going to be a ‘they’. Claire
seemed entirely in agreement with that.