Page 47 of Still Afraid

“I love you.”

“Love you too.” They said goodbye and hung up.

She lowered the visor in front of her to reduce the glare of the bright sun and turned on some worship music. Quick stop at the store, after that her house, and then she could embrace the man she was going to marry in ten days.

Josh was such a rock for her, and she couldn’t believe it took them so long to move forward with a relationship. Now it seemed like a given. Why had she been so reluctant? But then again, she hadn’t been the only one. As they say, it takes two to tango. They both needed to come to the realization that God had been the one to bring them together. And perhaps it was God’s perfect timing even if it did feel a little late to both of them.

The grief of losing Owen had taken such a long time for her to work though. Had that been her own fault? Could she have moved through it faster and fallen in love with Josh sooner? What if they had? Could they have had kids by now?

Chloe couldn’t quite wrap her mind around what the last six months would have been like if they’d already been married with children. Too many things had come together in a way only God could have orchestrated in spite of sinful people.

“Lord, help me to rest in Your plan and Your timing. It is perfect, and I trust You.”

She turned on to a main road, and felt a tickle on the back of her neck, like someone was watching her.

Rolling her shoulder to dismiss the feeling, she looked in her rearview mirror. Nothing stood out, but she hadn’t been paying enough attention to notice if the same vehicles were behind her as before.

What had that big guy from the dog park this morning been driving? He hadn’t followed her, had he?

A shudder coursed through her body.

Just in case, she took a few unnecessary turns on her way to the grocery store. Not that she had any clue how to lose a tail.

An hour after talking to Chloe, Josh arrived home and was greeted by a demanding dog. Poirot barked incessantly while Josh unlocked the door, then barely let him in once the door was open.

“This is not how you behave for Chloe. We’re gonna have to work on this, buddy. Sit.”

Poirot sat, but his tongue hung out the side of his mouth as he panted with a stupid grin on his face. If Josh ever heard anyone suggest dogs don’t have facial expressions he’d have to only assume they’d never seen a dog. Poirot was exceptionally expressive.

“That’s a good boy.” Josh closed the door and hung his keys on the nearby hook. “Now, Chloe will be here soon, but in the meantime I can get you some food, if that’s what you’d like.”

Poirot barked.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Let’s go.” Josh pointed toward the kitchen, and Poirot jumped up and ran into the other room. “You know, we could leave you with an auto-feeder if you wouldn’t eat yourself to death.”

Josh rounded the corner and found Poirot sitting nicely next to his bowl.

“One-track mind.”

After filling Poirot’s food and water bowls, Josh checked Chloe’s status on the app they’d both installed to help them know where the other one was without having to text constantly. With the fact that she was going into random homes with random people—clients—all the time, it was a safety measure they both appreciated.

Chloe was still at the grocery store, though surely she was almost done. Dinner would take at least an hour to cook, so he moved toward making preparations.

She always fussed at him for not resting for a minute after he walked in the door. But frankly, he often spent the last hour in the office on paperwork. Being up and moving around to fix dinner made sense.

As he was wrist deep mixing the raw meat, onions, eggs, and herbs for meatloaf, a weather alert went off on his phone. But he couldn’t check it.

A moment later, a text came through.

Anxiety spiked. Was the weather taking a turn for the worse?

He quickly finished mixing the meat and formed the loaf on a baking sheet. After washing his hands, he grabbed his phone.

The message was in a group family text from Chloe’s dad:

Storm is building. Stay alert.

The weather notification put them under a tornado watch.