Chapter 181: Chloe

By the time Tommy was ready for bed, she was on tenterhooks. Since her son had asked Dawson to read him the next chapter in Where the Red Fern Grows, she didn't even have their nightly ritual to distract her from the dread consuming her.

Telling Dawson no was going to be unpleasant, to say the least. When he found out she wasn't going to sleep with him after their earlier encounter had worked him up, he might fly into a rage.

Actually, she realized as she thought about it, pacing around the kitchen, scrubbing everything in reach, she really had no idea how he would react. She just didn't know him well enough. She wished for the hundredth time that she'd had the common sense to realize she didn't know him very well nine years ago, before having sex with him.