It was just after midnight when Chloe decided that she needed a drink of water and wandered down to the kitchen, then over to the kitchen table where she sat to look at the moonlit drenched garden. The house was quiet, and it made her feel lonely. It was clear that her home was back in Savannah. She knew her father loved her. He had written her every week she had been away with the occasional phone call when he was able, and every time he made sure that the focus of all of the conversations had been about her.

Perhaps that was why she had no clue about Doreen.

Even though they had written and talked regularly,  they had still grown apart. It happened with the closest of families that spent time away from each other. Their lives diverged as different people came and went. The truth of the matter was that, while she and her father loved each other, they had nothing in common anymore. At least they didn't as long as he continued to view her as the teenager she used to be.

Twelve years ago, Chloe's life had been all about her father and Valentine. They had been her only focus. Now, having moved away, grown up, and found a life of her own, she realized that it hadn't been healthy. It also hadn't been healthy that she had tried to carry that focus with her to Savannah.

"Are you alright?" Valentine's voice asked from behind her.

Chloe turned to see him leaning against the door jamb in loose pajama bottoms with his computer tucked under his arm. She took her time looking at him, letting her eyes take in the view.

Lord help her, she and her father may have grown apart, but she still had powerful feelings for the man standing across from her. The thought made her give a sad smile.

"Why the sad look?" he asked as he placed his computer on the table and moved to put on the kettle. "Would you like some tea or coffee?" he asked.

Chloe saw it for the peace offering it was. "Tea would be nice."

They were silent for a while as Chloe turned to look out the window on the small garden behind the house once again while he prepared the tea and served it to her.

The action made her smile, but this time it was amusement.

"And now you're amused?" Valentine mused as he sat in the chair next to her and blew on his tea to cool it.

"I wonder how many of your soldiers would believe that you prepared and served tea to an American woman inside her father's house?" Her lip twitched again.

"Very domesticated of me, isn't it?" he asked with a return smile. That smile broke Chloe's heart. It was the first one she had seen since she had arrived.

It made her cry, and she couldn't stop the tears.

"And now you're sad again," he said with a sigh.

That sigh quickly checked her, causing her tears to instantly dry as she stood to leave.

"I'm sorry, Chloe. I lost my patience a long time ago." He reached for her hand and took it with his own. "Please, sit down. We need to talk and have this all out." 

Chloe sat down and wiped the tears off her cheek. "You know what the funny thing is, back home. I'm the stoic one, the one who has it all together and never gets emotional."

"Then why are you different here?" Valentine asked, leaning back in his chair.

"You, it's always you. I'm sitting here thinking about how my father and I have grown apart, so far apart that I don't even know he has someone special in his life. Yet I look at you..." she stopped, not wanting to finish, having said more than she wanted to, but she needed to talk to someone.

"You look at me and?" His voice was gentle.

"As angry as I am with you, as much as I want you to hurt as you have hurt me, I still feel just as strongly as I ever did., especially when you smile like that. I haven't seen you smile in twelve years." Chloe picked up her tea with a shaking hand as she said the words, unable to look at him.

"I don't think I have smiled in twelve years," he said with a frown. It was such a sad and telling statement of just how miserable he had been.

Chloe jumped when Valentine's voice broke the heavy silence that had fallen between them. "I wish I could give you all you want, all you deserve. I wish that my father and brother were still alive, and we could be together in the way we always wanted, but that's not our reality." Valentine leaned forward and took one of her hands in his, tracing the short nails and the veins that ran along the back. "You, Chloe Lockwood, are an amazing woman. I knew the girl, but I never dreamed of the woman you would become. You are sexy and beautiful, strong and fierce, loyal and honest, and so smart."

Chloe's heart sang with his words. They were almost everything she ever wanted to hear from him.

"It makes me glad that I made you leave." His voice became hard, and Chloe tried to pull her hand away as her heart fell as quickly as it had risen. "You would have been stunted here. It would have always been about your father or me and never about you. You would have never found yourself, and you would be miserable."

Valentine's words so matched her earlier thoughts that she gasped a little. How? How could his thoughts match her own? However, he wasn't one hundred percent accurate.

"I have been miserable," Chloe shook her head.

"Those are the words of the girl I knew, not the woman I know. If you had been so miserable, you wouldn't be so homesick now, would you?" He dropped her hand and leaned back in his chair again.

"Why wouldn't you talk to me two years ago when I tried through Silas?" Chloe asked.

"I didn't want you to think that there could be something between us again." He shrugged.

"You mean you didn't want to get my hopes up?" she asked. It was a depressing thought that she had been so desperate, just like the girl he knew. It shamed her.

He didn't respond as he watched her absorb his words.

"What you must think of me," she shook her head as she fought tears.

"I love you, Chloe." Valentine's voice was clear and sure. "I always have, and I always will, but that doesn't mean we can be together. We can't. My life is here, and your life is in Savannah. I don't want you here. I don't want you to know the man I have become. I want you to remember me the way I was."

Oh, how she wished he hadn't said those three little words. They gave her hope.

Valentine reached for his computer and drew it forward, opening it. Chloe was hardly aware of what he was doing until her friends' faces popped onto the screen.

"Chloe!" Lia squealed in her familiar voice.

"Hi, Chloe," Faye greeted in a much more subdued tone.

Chloe could see Silas's office in the hospital behind them. It had to be almost nine in the morning there. 

"Hey, guys," Chloe greeted, attempting to keep her voice from wavering at the unexpected surprise. She quickly hit mute and turned to look at Valentine. "Did you do this?" she asked.

"I reached out to Silas last night. I thought you could use your friends."

Chloe looked at him with narrowed eyes. "For support or because you want me to realize what I am missing back home?"

"Does it matter? Either way, it makes you happy." Valentine gave her face a lingering look as if he could remember a time when he made her happy.

"Hello!" Lia knocked on the screen. "We can't hear you, no secrets! If you can't say it in front of the class, don't say it at all!"

Chloe unmuted the screen with a laugh at her friend's directness. "Who's covering for you while you avoid your duties?"

"It helps to be married to the boss," Faye shrugged.

"Aren't you going to introduce us to your friend?" Lia asked, changing the subject.

"Valentine Juric, this is Lia Emerson and Faye DeGraff," Chloe introduced with a grin.

"Nice to meet you, ladies, and now I will let you talk."

"Ohhh, that accent! Did you hear that accent, Faye!" Lia whispered as if she couldn't be heard. "It's better than Silas's."

Faye rolled her eyes and shook her head.

When Valentine stood to leave, he gave both ladies a clear view of his toned torso, and Lia gave a little squeak as her eyes grew wide.

"So, how's that going?" Lia whispered before Valentine was out of the room.

Chloe's eyes met his. "It's not," she said, letting him know she had heard him, then directed her attention back to the screen.

"How is it seeing your dad again," Faye asked, quickly changing the subject. Bless her.

They spent about half an hour getting caught up. Then Chloe heard Silas's voice in the background, telling them it was time to get back to work. As they left, Silas appeared on the screen.

"Is Valentine there?" he asked.

"No," Chloe shook her head. "Do you want me to get him?"

"No, I only wanted to tell you that if you want me to come and get you, I will. If you recall, it can be a dangerous trip, and it's better if you don't travel alone."

"I remember. Thank you, but I'm going to stay for the time being. It's good to see my father again." Chloe assured him.

"Let me know if you change your mind," he nodded before they both said their goodbyes and ended the call.

It had been good to see her friends again. It had given her the strength needed to finish out her remaining three months. He had sorely misjudged her if Valentine had hoped it would make her rush back to Savannah.