She no longer loved him. The road she was traveling down led nowhere...

Still, just because she was over him didn’t mean that it wouldn’t be nice to know that he had regrets. That she’d meant as much to him as she’d thought she had. Once.

“If we’re going to help with Jeff and Chloe, we need a plan.” His voice, the practicality of his words, put an end to her wayward thoughts.

“Okay.” Plans were good. Solid. But how did you make one when people’s lives and hearts were at stake? How did you plan to get someone out of denial?

Other than change his life so drastically he’d have no choice but to acknowledge he needed help?

Which was what they’d already done. The drastic life change—Chloe living with her—was in effect.

And from what she’d gleaned during the little bit she’d heard between Chloe and Brett when she’d returned from the sandbox with Cody, Jeff was still firmly in denial.

He’d admitted to the fights. Admitted that he’d started them. Because of tension from work. But he had no real idea why Chloe had left.

“A good plan starts with a goal, and I need to make certain that we’re on the same page here before we go on.”

That was why he’d wanted her to stay back and talk to him? She was relieved.

And disappointed, too.

Which only went to prove that hope died last.

“Am I to understand that your goal, like mine, is to see Chloe and Jeff back together in a healthy relationship?”

He sounded like a counselor in a classroom.

“Yes. Definitely. They love each other. I’ll do anything I can to help them save their marriage. But my primary goal, first and foremost, is to see that both of them get and/or stay healthy.”

“Agreed.”

So...good. They shared a common goal. There was something in that.

“Do you know if Chloe’s had a checkup lately?” he asked.

“Medical, you mean?”

“Yes.”

She frowned. Glanced over at him for the first time since they’d set out, but couldn’t make out his expression in the darkening evening. She’d already told him there was no documentation of Jeff’s abuse.

“Why?”

Jeff had admitted that the fights were his fault. They were just one step away from him admitting to the escalating physical violence that was accompanying those fights.

Before it was too late and he did something that would require outside attention. Medical, as well as legal.

“I just wondered about her overall...stability.”

“It’s not great, based on everything that’s going on, but Chloe’s not the one we need to worry about. She’s in a position to get help. It’s Jeff who scares me. It’s like, over the years, he’s stretched himself so tightly that now, when something pulls on him, he breaks. And then as soon as it’s over, he goes back to his old self again. And hates himself for breaking.”

“This is based on what Chloe’s told you.”

“Yes.” And the bruises she’d seen the day after the last fight when she’d taken her sister-in-law’s phone call and hightailed it to Palm Desert to get her and Cody out of there.

“You’ve never witnessed this...change in him.”

“No.”

Ella wished she had. She might know better how to help her brother if she could see him in action.

They walked in silence for a minute or two.

“You didn’t answer my question regarding her medical care.”

“Why? Did Jeff say something about her being unstable?”

“Just that she suffered some depression after Cody was born.”

“Postpartum. Yeah, she did. She took medication for about six weeks and has been fine ever since. Why? What does that have to do with anything? Is Jeff putting this on Chloe? Saying she’s depressed?”

“He’s looking for explanations,” Brett said.

“And you? Do you believe him? Is this why you wanted to see Chloe? To judge for yourself if she’s emotionally stable? In one dinner?”

“I’m not taking sides here, El. I just want a full picture so that I can be of assistance. Come up with a clear plan.”

Of course. She’d forgotten who she was talking to. The modern Brett, not the emotionally vulnerable man she’d fallen head over heels in love with the day she’d met him. The robot, not the man.

“Chloe gets regular medical care. I know this because she’d had an appointment the week before she came here to get her birth-control prescription renewed. On top of that, I’m an RN. I live with her. I’d notice if there was anything amiss.”

“It’s getting late. We’d better turn around.”

They’d come about half a mile, and darkness had fallen. The sidewalk, however, was lighter than it had been due to the old-fashioned lamp poles that lined it. They turned on automatically at seven o’clock every night, and they’d just come on, bathing them in a kind of boardwalk glow.

Ella didn’t argue, though. She and Chloe had a movie to watch. And another day off tomorrow to fill with fun things.

“Our goal, then, is to see Jeff and Chloe in a happy marriage again.”

She wanted to shake him up. To see if he was shakable. But she avoided the temptation. Jeff respected Brett. He’d listen to him.

He was the only person she believed could reach her brother, help him see the truth before it was too late.

Because Chloe was going to go back.

Ella didn’t kid herself on that one. She was married to Jeff for better or worse. In sickness and in health. She adored the man.

She needed him.

Ella just prayed, every day, that she could keep her sister-in-law in Santa Raquel long enough for her brother to get healthy.

“Yes,” she said. Yes, their goal was to see her brother and his wife in a happy, healthy marriage.

“Obviously I’m the Jeff part of the plan, and you are the Chloe side. Seeing that Jeff won’t put you in the middle, and he and I are good. And Chloe’s staying with you.”

“Which Jeff doesn’t know.” She couldn’t have Brett going all solitary man on her and disrespecting Chloe’s choices.

“I’m not going to tell him, Ella. Not without discussing it with you and Chloe first.”

She relaxed. One thing anyone could count on with Brett Ackerman was that he kept his word. The value of the Ackerman watermark on any nonprofit organization spoke to the power of Brett’s word.

He was a good man to the core.

Remembering that was okay.

“I intend to keep in close contact with Jeff.”

To “work” on him, of course. Ella read between the lines of what Brett was saying, because with the Brett of today, that was the only way to understand his true meaning.

“I think it’s also important that you and I stay in regular contact,” he said.

“I agree.” Her answer was instantaneous.

“I also think it would be good if the four of us, you and me and Cody and Chloe, met up another time or two. I stand to gain more with Jeff if I can tell him I know for certain that Chloe is fine, and I can only do that if I know firsthand that what I say is true.”

“How do we tell him that, let him know that you’ve seen her, without him figuring out where she is?”

“She has friends in LA. I’m there on business every week. I travel frequently. For all he knows, I saw her in Palm Desert over the weekend. I could arrange to meet up with her anywhere.”

“What if he asks you where she is?”

“He won’t. Just like he’s not asking her. He’s respecting her wishes. Again, this is your brother we’re talking about. You know him.”

He’d shoved his wife into a doorjamb so hard it left a bruise all the way down her back. “And if he does ask?”

“I’ll tell him the truth. That I agreed not to share that information.”

Brett had an answer for everything.

She would do well to remember that.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

BRETT HAD ONE more stop to make before he went home for the night. He called Jeff on his way. Assured himself that Jeff was fine, for now. Jeff had had a good day out on the course and was buzzing about some stock that had just taken a larger upswing than he’d predicted, meaning that he was going to have a busy but good week. He was at his computer, working already, when Brett called.