Okay. I’m not asking you out. But I have no plans for tonight. And we could do something together, unless you still hate me.
She sighed.
I don’t hate you.
So, not a date. Just two people who get hungry at the same time who happen to eat together?
She couldn’t help it. She laughed. Cole did have a way of making her smile. She sent him a smile emoji. All right. But I’m driving. I’ll be at your house at six.
Deal.
Chapter 13
Cole waited in the chair by the window. He was full of nervous energy, like he needed to go lift weights or something.
Her car pulled up and he jumped out of his chair. Despite the tension they’d had this morning at the fun run, he was looking forward to spending the evening with Amanda.
He climbed into her car, and she turned to him. “How are you feeling?” she asked.
“I’m fine. The doctor said my attack was brought on by the exercise. I just have to keep my inhaler with me now.”
“And maybe not sign up for any more fun runs.”
“That, too.” He grinned at her. “I’m sure tonight will be asthma attack-free. Unless you have some night sprinting planned.”
“Absolutely not.” She turned onto Second Street to get downtown, then stopped in front of Grind it Up. “Is this okay? I like their sandwiches.”
“This is fine.” He climbed out of her car. It felt a little strange that she was driving, but it wasn’t horrible. He could do this.
He and Amanda walked into the coffee shop together. The place was busy, with most of the tables full of couples and groups of people eating. He glanced at the menu while they waited in line.
“How did you find out you had asthma as a kid?”
Cole shifted his weight. It wasn’t a pleasant memory. “My dad wanted me to get some exercise, so he made me sign up for baseball as a kid. I had an attack during one of our games.”
“Did he take you to the hospital?”
“Dad wasn’t there.”
“So, he made you join a team, but didn’t go to the games?”
Cole nodded. “But he wasn’t a terrible father. I know that’s what you’re thinking. He worked a lot, but he didn’t abuse me. He hired nannies to take care of me. I had everything I ever wanted.”
“Except a father,” she said under her breath.
Yeah. He didn’t want to get into it with her, though. “Tell me about your mom. Where does she work?”
“She sells insurance. Says that’s as boring as heck, but she gets paid good money, so she keeps doing it.”
“Hey, if it pays the bills, it’s not a bad thing, right?”
“Yeah.” Amanda said it like she’d rather eat mud than sell insurance.
“What’s wrong?”
She looked up at him. “Nothing. It’s just…my mom hates her job. I don’t want to be like that when I’m older. Stuck in a going-nowhere job that I hate. That’s one of my biggest fears.”
He knew she feared the future, and so this totally made sense. Another piece of the puzzle now in place. “Amanda,” he said softly. “I can’t imagine you ever stuck doing anything you don’t want to do.”
She blinked, as if his words affected her. “Why do you say that?”
“Because. You’re obstinate.”
“Hey.” She whacked his arm.
He chuckled. “Let me finish. You’re stubborn, but you put that towards the things that really matter to you. You have convictions. You care about people. And when you get your mind set on something, you never waver. Not even for a second. Does that sound like someone who will be stuck in an office job her whole life?”
She let out a breath and stared at the menu on the wall. “You make me sound much better than I really am.”
“Just telling the truth.”
“Well, you’re lucky. You know what you’re going to do after high school.”
He sure did. Cole had his entire life planned for him. But he couldn’t say that because that would totally give him away as her secret texter, so he just sighed. “Yeah.”
The line moved and they came up to the counter. They ordered their sandwiches and found a spot to sit. Amanda looked wistfully out the window. “Looks like it might rain.”
“Yeah, the clouds are sure dark.”
“Why did you really come on the run this morning?” Amanda turned and stared at him, her brown eyes intent.
Why did she think? What did she want him to say? To admit that he liked her? That he wanted to be around her? He shrugged. “It was something different. That’s all.”
She looked away from him and picked up her sandwich. Fail. Again. He was going to fail with Amanda from now until eternity.
He wanted to get rid of the tension between them. Wanted things to be more like Thursday when she was in his arms, dancing. “I’m sorry about last night…getting caught on Main Street.”
“How long have you known?”
The question didn’t make sense to Cole. “Known what?” He took a large bite of his sandwich.
“That your father was going to knock down the opera house?”
Her question shot a pang of guilt through him. He chewed and stared down at his plate. He’d known about the parking garage plan for six months. His father bought the opera house shortly after the plans were finalized. He swallowed. “A while.”
“So, when I talked about saving the opera house at lunch, you knew your father was the one knocking it down.”
He didn’t want to admit it, but yes, that’s pretty much what happened. “Yeah.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“How could I? You would have gone off on me. Like you did at the dance.”
“I would have appreciated your honesty.”
“Even though I don’t agree with you?” Cole gave her a flat look. “I highly doubt that.”
She closed her eyes. “Look. I can be passionate about some things. I get it. But you have to admit, tearing down the opera house is destroying a piece of history.”
This was an argument he knew he couldn’t win. There was no solution to it. His father would never budge. And he couldn’t side against him, even if he did think the opera house was worth saving, which he didn’t. He rubbed his temples. “We’ll have to agree to disagree.”
Amanda slowly nodded. She didn’t look like she wanted to agree to disagree. She looked determined to get him to see her side of things. He hated this. Even if she managed to convince him it was best to save the opera house, no matter what, his father would never let him have a different opinion. It was his way or the highway.
They ate in silence, the painful tension growing between them. Why could he never seem to get rid of the distance? Why did he always say the wrong thing, or do the wrong thing? Maybe he and Amanda were not meant to be together.
They finished their food. He was about to tell her he was sorry, that two people who were both hungry at the same time probably shouldn’t have eaten together. That he was wrong and would be forever. But Amanda spoke before him.
“Come with me.”
He must have had a strange look on his face because she said, “Stop looking at me like that.” She grabbed his hand. Her touch sent a shiver through him. “Can you stop being your father’s son for just a few minutes? Do you think you can do that?”
He was so tempted to tell her yes. That he would be whatever she wanted him to be. That he would walk around the world barefoot for her if it meant she would not hate him anymore. But he was who he was. “I don’t know what good it will do,” he finally said.
“Please? For me?” Amanda stared at him with her large, brown eyes, and for a split second, all the tension was gone and the coffee shop melted away, and it was just Amanda and him. And he knew he would do anything to make her happy.
“Okay.”
She squeezed his hand, and all of his senses came alive. “Then come with me. I want to show you something.”
He stood. He would fol
low her anywhere. They left the coffee shop. He started toward her car, but she stopped him. “No. That way.” She pointed down the street, toward the opera house.
He nodded, knowing what was going to happen. She wanted to try to convince him. That was fine. He wasn’t going to object to her anymore.
They walked down the street. Amanda shoved her hands in her coat pockets. “It’s chilly.”
“It’s November.”
She breathed in deeply. “I love the fall, don’t you?”
“Yeah. I’ve always loved the smell of crisp leaves.”
“Me, too. It’s a promise.”
He wrinkled his nose. “A promise?”
She lowered her lashes, looking embarrassed. “It’s stupid.”
“No, tell me.”
She let out a small laugh. “When I was a kid, Christmas was the best thing in the world. All kids think Christmas is the bomb, right?”
“Right.”
“Well, when it started to get colder and the trees changed, to me that was a promise that Christmas was coming. A promise that I would get the best holidays in a row.”
He chuckled. “You’re right. The best holidays are packed into the last couple of months of the year.”
“Right? Halloween kicks it off. Then Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Of course, Christmas is the best one.”
“Of course.”
Amanda slowed her steps as they neared the opera house. He expected her to point out the great architecture or start to talk about the history of the building. Instead, she kept walking, turning the corner and heading down the side street.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
They walked down the sidewalk to the end of the building. Then Amanda slipped into the shadows behind the opera house. Cole followed her into the darkness. “Uh, Mandy?” he asked when he didn’t see her anymore.
“Come up.” She leaned over the railing. She had climbed up the back steps.
He started to feel uneasy. “What are you doing?”
“Just come up here.”
He started up the steps. But before he got to her, she’d disappeared. He stood on the landing by the locked door and peered into the dark. “Mandy?” he hissed.
“Over here.” She stuck her head out of one of the windows.
“How did you…never mind. I don’t want to know how you knew that window was unlocked.”
“Climb in.”
Why was he obeying her? If his father found out what he was doing, he’d get into so much trouble. Although, it was practically his property, since his father owned it. At least, that’s what he used to convince himself it wasn’t that much of a crime as he lifted himself into the building.
Amanda turned on the flashlight to her phone and took his hand again. Suddenly nothing else mattered. Not that they’d climbed into the window of the opera house. Not that he and she were at odds. And definitely not that they were now alone in an abandoned building. “Follow me,” she said almost reverently.
As they walked, he couldn’t help but notice the intricate woodwork and beautiful arches. The wood looked to be in good condition. The building wasn’t in as bad a shape as he’d originally thought. Maybe his father had exaggerated. Amanda led him up a short staircase to a room behind the stage.
They entered and Cole peered around the room. It looked like a storage room of some kind, filled with costumes hanging on racks and boxes filled with props from performances gone by. Large posters hung on the walls displaying events that had taken place at the opera house. Some looked to be very old. Amanda led him to one of the posters. It had the name Lily Foster in large letters across the top. A drawing of a woman with blonde hair done up in a classic 1920s hairstyle smiled out at him.
“You mentioned her before, haven’t you?”
“Yes.” Amanda touched the corner of the poster. “Lily Foster was a very famous opera singer. Back then, this was a real opera house.”
“What do you know about her?”
Amanda shrugged. “Not a ton of things. My grandma saw her perform here. And these posters are pretty cool.” She pulled him over to a corner of the room and sat down, cross-legged. A stack of papers lay in a pile under a window.
Cole sat next to her. “What’s that?”
“Other documents and pictures I found in here.”
He grew suspicious. “How often have you broken into here?”
Amanda’s face turned pink. “I’ve never taken anything out. I swear.”
She didn’t answer his question, but he let it go. “Why do you come here?”
Amanda shuffled the papers around, then pulled out an old photograph. It showed a cast of actors on stage. Probably the opera house stage, Cole figured. Amanda pointed. “Those are my parents.”
Chapter 14
Amanda knew she needed to get Cole to understand. She didn’t want to share this part of her, but it was the only way. She gave Cole the photo of her parents. He held it close to his face to examine it in the moonlight. “I can see the resemblance. What play were they in?”
“The Music Man.”
“Was this before they were married?”
Amanda nodded. She took the photograph back from him. She stared at it, her desire to tell him suddenly strong. “They met here, when this was being used as the community theater. They got the starring roles, and as their characters fell in love, they fell in love, too.”
“That’s sweet.” His voice had a husky tone to it.
She swallowed, the next part more difficult to say. “I was so young when my father died. I remember crying at bedtime, wanting my dad to read to me. I didn’t understand why he wouldn’t come.”
Cole let out a breath. “Yeah. I remember feeling the same way when my mom died. I didn’t understand, either.”
“One night, when I was particularly inconsolable, my mother snuggled with me in bed and told me she had a story only she could tell. A special story, and I was supposed to calm down so I could hear it. I grew quiet. I wanted the special story.”
Cole leaned closer to her. “What was it?”
“She told me the story of when they met, here, at the opera house. She made the opera house sound magical, like a castle out of a fairy tale. She talked about the play, how my father would take her out for ice cream after practice, and how they bonded and fell in love.
“She would bring me and my sister here, when it was still open and functioning as a theater. I would imagine my parents up on stage. My dream was to see The Music Man on this very stage, but I never got to see it.” Her voice broke, and she realized she was crying. She wiped at her face, embarrassed.
Cole put his arm around her. Warmth and calm enveloped her, and she leaned into him, putting her head on his chest. “They closed this building when the new community playhouse was built, and that was it. Now they’re going to knock it down.”
His arms tightened around her. “So, when they locked the doors, you found a way to come inside.”
“I didn’t mean to break in. The window was open a crack, and I was just going to close it, but then I realized I could climb in. And then I found this room, with all of these photographs, and playbills. I was so excited to look through them, to find the one of my parents. All this time, I’d been hearing the story. And then I got to see it, right here, in these documents.”
He pressed his lips to the top of her head. “What a find.”
“I know. I couldn’t believe it. But I didn’t feel like it was right for me to take them. I figured someone would restore the building eventually. They would want them so they could see how the opera house looked back in the day.”
Her throat closed up, and she forced in a shuddering breath. “When I’m missing my father, I come here. It’s where I feel closest to him.”
“I can see that.”
“But now it’s all going to be lost.” The tears wouldn’t stop coming now. They ran down her cheeks and clung to her glasses. She closed her eyes a
nd choked out a sob.
Cole pulled her onto his lap and cradled her in his arms. “Geez, Mandy, why didn’t you say something?”
“I’ve been trying to tell you.” Her words sounded strangled.
He rocked her gently as he held her close to his chest. She could feel his heartbeat as her cheek pressed to him. He smelled of musk and pine.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t understand. It was just an old building to me.”
“I know.” She clung to Cole, the feeling of being in his arms somehow consoling. It felt comforting. Amazing. But after a while she started to feel self-conscious. She shouldn’t be this close to him.
She pulled back and took in his face. The shock of hair that flopped down onto his forehead. The concerned look in his eyes. He reached to her face and slowly removed her glasses. He wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb. The feeling of his skin on her cheek sent shivers through her. She closed her eyes, her heartrate going a million times a second. She felt vulnerable. Exposed.
Cole. She had been fighting her feelings for him, but right now, they were stronger than ever. He was the strength she needed. He was stability. The rock. He didn’t waver. He was someone she could hold onto.
Cole kissed her forehead and her world tilted. His lips were warm, and soft, and the simple act of pressing them to her skin ignited all her feelings into a raging fire. She’d never been kissed before. Not like that. Not by a boy—a man. She opened her eyes and stared at him. At the lips she craved to have on more than her forehead.
His gaze caressed her. In his eyes, she saw a softness. A longing. And the same feeling was growing inside of her. She needed him. Wanted to feel his lips on her own. He leaned closer, and anticipation filled her.
“Mandy,” he whispered, a silent plea in his voice. She hadn’t expected him to speak.
She pulled back. “What?”
“I’m going to kiss you. If you don’t want me to, tell me now.”
He was asking her permission. He was sweet, but she didn’t need sweet right now. She wanted to finally experience her first real kiss. “Shut up and kiss me,” she whispered.
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