My Sunshine (27 page)

“How did you know then?”

He shrugged. “I knew you had that card and I just assumed it was you, especially when it wasn’t used again.”

“Why didn’t you say anything to me yet?”

“What’s there to say, Chloe? I think there are bigger things going on right now than a measly ten grand.”

“But you knew about it days before you even went to LA.

Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Are you wanting me to get mad at you? Do you want to
fight about this?” He paused and shook his head. “What did you need the money for? What could you not come to me about?”

“My mother. She said she saw us together so she knows
about you. She came to my office and demanded the money in cash. If I didn’t, she was going to tell the press I had schizophrenia.”

“And you were trying to protect me.”

“Well, I was trying not to lose you. It was purely selfish. I was just thinking that if she went to the press, the you would be done with me.”

“What makes you think she’s not going to now?”

Chloe shrugged. “I don’t know what she’ll do, but I was desperate. What if she does?”

“Well, if she does, she does, and we’ll deal with that. I
don’t care what people say about me, but I hate to see you dragged though the mud.”

“That’s the same way I feel about you,” she said. “Listen, I
have the money to pay you back. It’s in the bank in Canton.

I just couldn’t get it in time.”

“You don’t have to pay me back. Keep your money.” He ate a French fry. “We’ve got to make a deal, Chloe.”

She swallowed hard. “What kind of deal?”

“Complete honesty. No keeping anything from each other.

I don’t like to be blindsided.”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

“Deal then?”

“Deal.
”
I can try

He took a big bite out of his hamburger. “Your mother
must be the stupidest person alive.”

“Well, yeah, but why are you saying that?”

“Ten thousand dollars? Come on now. If she really knew who I was, she should have asked for ten times that at least.”

“Well, she’s not
Smith.” She picked at her cafeteria food.

“Have you told your parents about me?”

“What about you?”

“You know, that I’m in the crazy house.”

“Quit saying that. And no. It’s none of their business.”

Chloe
nodded and picked up a French fry. She brought it to her mouth, but put it back down. “Has anyone else, the guys, the girls, said anything about me?”

He shook his head. “No. I mean, nothing other than total
support and wanting you to get better. Who are you thinking about specifically?”

“I think you know who.”

“Shannon?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I mean, I don’t mean to be petty or
whatever, but last night Dennis came to see me by himself.”

“He did?”

“You didn’t know? You were gone to do that radio interview and he just showed up. I just wondered why she didn’t come.”

John
sighed. “I don’t know. I haven’t really talked to her. Did you ask Dennis?”

She shook her head. “Yeah. He said she was working. I
get the feeling that she doesn’t like me very much.”

John
frowned. “I don’t know. I like her and all, she’s my friend, but she can be a real bitch at times. But I assure you Chloe, if Shannon has a problem with you, it’s her problem, not yours.”

The jeweler escorted
John into a private room. “Wait right here,” he said. He returned a few minutes later with a covered tray. He sat the tray down in front of John and lifted the fabric covering the rings. There were five rings on the tray and John picked each of them up and examined them one-by-one.

They were all beautiful, and he couldn’t decide. He looked
at his watch. He had asked Christine to meet him at the store, but she was running late. He really needed someone to help him decide, and because she was the one who knew Chloe the best, he had to confide in Christine the secret of the engagement.

Picking this ring was not a decision he wanted to mess up.

Another store associate showed Christine into the room.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said. She saw the rings on the table. “Oh
John, those are beautiful!”

He nodded. “I know. How am I supposed to decide?”

Christine sat down and picked up one of the rings and slipped it on her finger. “What do you think?” She took it off and did the same with each of the other four rings.

John
shook his head. None of the rings were really

speaking to him. None were sayin
g
I’m the one! Buy me!

“You don’t have anything else? Money is not an object,
remember.”

The jeweler shifted from one foot to the other. “Well, I do
have something. Let me get it.” He left the room and returned a few minutes later with a box. He handed the box to John.

John
opened the box and sucked in his breath when he saw the ring.

“Oh, goodness!”
Christine exclaimed. “That’s the most beautiful ring I have ever seen.”

John
looked up at the jeweler. “You were holding out on me.”

The jeweler smiled. “I was merely testing your seriousness,
sir. This ring is a one-of-a kind.”

Christine
slipped the ring on her finger. “She’ll say yes to this, for sure!”

“She’s already said yes,”
John said. “So I could buy her a twenty-dollar ring if I wanted.” He held Christine’s hand close to his face so he could examine the ring.

“How much is this one?” Money was no object, really, but
he didn’t want to go broke buying it.

“Three-hundred thousand dollars.”.

“Wow,” Christine said under her breath.

“I’ll take it.” He slipped it off
Christine’s finger and put it back in the box. “I brought one of her rings with me. How soon can you have it sized?” He handed over one of the rings that Chloe wore most of the time.

“I can have it ready in a couple of hours,” the jeweler said.

“Of course, I need a deposit.”

“Of course,”
John said, pulling his wallet out of his pocket.

Chloe was released from the hospital the next day. Jane came to spend the afternoon with her since John was busy with rehearsals. When Jane left that evening, Chloe went to the laundry room to fold the towels that were in the dryer. She could tell that since she had been in the hospital, Mrs. Potts had done the only one doing any housework.

John
didn’t call out her name when he came in the door, suspecting that she might be sleeping. The new medications were more powerful and made her tire easily. He found her in the laundry room folding towels. Her back was to him, and she had the radio on. Her ponytail swung side to side as she bobbed her head in time to the country music she loved.

John
watched her fold the towels for a few seconds. He suddenly got the feeling that he didn’t know her at all. There were so many things that she had hid from him. How could he ever believe that she was who she said she was? He loved her, though. It scared him how much he loved her because, before now, he had never been in a situation that he couldn’t just walk away from.

He could feel the bulge of the ring box in his pocket, but
before he gave her the ring, there were things he needed to know. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about Eli?”

Chloe
jumped, clearly startled. “John!” She put her hand on her chest and took a couple of deep breaths. She shook her head. “Eli? Who told you about Eli?”

“
Daniel.” He crossed the room and sat on the table where she was standing with the basket of clean towels. He turned off the radio. “Why Chloe? You were engaged. You were going to marry him. He was murdered. How could you keep this from me?”

She shrugged, as if they were discussing something as
simple as forgetting to pick up the dry-cleaning. “I didn’t keep it from you. I just didn’t tell you. I didn’t think it was something you would want to hear about. Besides, he was just an angel.”

“I don’t know what that means,
Chloe. Daniel said you called him your angel. What does that mean?”

“He was there to help me get better. He helped me see that
there was something worth getting better for. Once his job was done, he was gone.”

John
turned this over in his mind. She seemed distant and removed like she was telling him about a movie. He didn’t want to bring up old memories and make her sad, but he had to know about this part of her life. “Did you love him?”

“You mean, did I love him as much as I love you?”

John shook his head. “That’s not what I’m asking. I’m not trying to make this a competition. Did you love him?”

Chloe
dropped the towel she was holding. “Well of

course I loved him,
John. I was going to marry him, for goodness sakes. If he hadn’t died, we’d be married now.”

“I’m sorry. It must be really hard to lose someone you love
so much. I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.” He reached for her hand.

She allowed him to pull her to him. “Why do you love me?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. How do you explain love? I just do. Why do you love me?”

“Because you love me.
”
I don’t deserve this lov
e
.
If he knew the real me, he'd run as far away as he could get.

John
squeezed her tighter. “I do love you, Chloe.”

She felt a tear trickle down her cheek. “I love you, too,
John.” She pulled away from him. “Complete honesty, right?”

He nodded. “That’s the deal.”

“How come, then, I feel like it’s always me doing the

confessing?”

“Do you want me to confess to something?”

“Do you have anything? I thought you were all out there,
what-you-see-is-what-you-get, and that kind of thing. Do you have any secrets?”

He shook his head. “Not really. I slept with a married

woman and got her pregnant. How’s that?”

“It’s okay, but I already know that. You don’t have any
rehab stories, or drug use, or homosexual stuff you want to confess to?”

John
shook his head. “No rehab, no drugs, and definitely no man-on-man action. Now, there was this one time I was with these two chicks and…”

“Never mind.” She looked down at her feet.

John lifted her chin with his fingers. “You can tell me, baby girl.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I can’t do this,”
she sobbed.