Silent As A Stone: Heart of Stone Series #10

by K. M. Scott

  This made me sad. Ethan didn’t have to protect me like that. I doubted he ever said a word to any boy who liked Tressa. Maybe that’s why she was asked out all the time while I spent most of my nights as a teenage girl at home.

  Cole touched my hand to get my attention, and I looked up to see him smiling. “But we’re not high school kids anymore, so maybe I’d get a few shots in now.”

  “I had no idea he was doing that back then. I feel like some kind of untouchable thing nobody can approach.”

  “Well, I’m glad you caught me just as I was leaving today.”

  His words made me smile, but then it dawned on me. Cole wasn’t staying at the Richmont, so what was he doing there at all? His excuse that he wanted to cool off sounded fishy.

  “What were you really doing in the lobby of my family’s hotel?”

  Suddenly, his closeness to Ethan made his being there this afternoon suspicious.

  I pulled my hand away from his. “Are you here spying on me for my brother? Is that what this is?”

  Cole shook his head. “No. I swear. He doesn’t know anything about this. Trust me. He’d be pissed. He’s never wanted me to be with you.”

  “Then why were you here hanging out in the lobby?”

  He looked down at the table and avoided my gaze as he explained, “I wanted to find out where you lived, so I followed you and Summer back here. But I couldn’t figure out which room in your hallway was yours, so I hung out in the lobby trying to come up with an idea. Then your mother and father came in, which threw a monkey wrench into my plans.” He stopped for a moment before he looked up at me and continued, “By the time you caught up with me, I was leaving after a few hours of failure to find you.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You wanted to find me?”

  Nodding, he answered, “Yep. It wasn’t easy. I had to resort to some pretty shady stuff and half a dozen cups of coffee.”

  Now confusion mixed with my disbelief that anyone would bother to find me. “I don’t understand. Why so much coffee?”

  He smiled and shook his head. “It’s a long story. I promise to tell you sometime in the future.”

  As much as I wanted to know what he was talking about, I liked that he mentioned the future for us. I wasn’t sure what would happen, but I liked this Cole as much as I liked the boy he’d been all those years ago.

  “I can’t believe you would bother to do all of that just to find me.”

  He took a sip of his beer and chuckled. “There really was no other way. I had a whole plan for the next time since I figured I’d failed pretty badly today. It involved pretending to be a delivery guy, and then if they didn’t let me take the flowers to your room, I intended on following the person from the front desk who took them to you so I could find out your room number. Now that I say it out loud, it sounds like a pretty awful plan, but in my head, it sounded like it would work.”

  I sat stunned at what he said. He would have gone through all of that simply to find me? To find Diana Stone? I never thought about making it easy for people to get in touch with me because I figured no one wanted to.

  “There was no one you could ask?”

  His eyebrows shot up into his forehead, and he looked at me like I’d just asked the dumbest thing in the world. “Since I’m trying to avoid letting Ethan and your father finding out, I don’t know who I could ask. I doubt the front desk of the hotel would have given up that information to me.”

  I sighed at the reality I’d created for myself. Even when someone wanted to find me, I was impossible to locate. Cole was likely the only person who ever tried, but I’d made it so hard that he would have been forgiven for giving up after this afternoon.

  “I’m sorry you had to do so much to find me. I don’t know why my family feels like they should shield me from you either. Even Summer warned me against you.”

  Cole’s mouth dropped open in shock, so I quickly explained, “I know we promised we wouldn’t tell anyone about us in high school, but she’s my friend and I needed to tell someone after seeing you this afternoon. But don’t worry. She won’t tell Ethan. She won’t. I made her promise she’d keep our secret.”

  As I talked, he seemed to be convinced that he wasn’t in danger of Ethan charging in at any moment to attack him for something he’d done a decade ago. When I finished, he sighed like he felt bad about something.

  “I never told anyone, but I think I assumed you did before today. I just figured girls talked more than us guys. So Summer told you not to talk to me again? She’s not my biggest fan, I guess.”

  Feeling bad about what I’d said, I quickly worked to make him see she didn’t hate him. “I don’t think it’s that. It’s just that I think she associates you with Ethan being single, and we all know what he was like before he fell in love with Summer. You can understand how she wouldn’t want him to be tempted to go back to that life since they’re planning a future together.”

  Cole waved off my excuses for her. “She doesn’t have to worry. Ethan was lost the moment he realized she made him smile more than anyone ever had. There’s no comparing with that, not even for a best friend of twenty years. Once he decided he wanted that kind of happiness instead of the kind he got from being single, your brother was done for. Whether he knew it or not, I knew it the first time he mentioned he missed feeling that way. I wouldn’t try to ruin that for him.”

  “I think she knows that deep down. She doesn’t dislike you. I had a feeling she felt worried when I mentioned you, like I wasn’t the right kind of person to handle you.”

  “Handle me?” he repeated with a chuckle. “What does that mean?”

  Suddenly, our conversation became too real, and I averted my gaze so I didn’t have to face him when I answered his question. “I’m not like Rachel. I’m probably not like anyone you spend time with, and as much as I wish I meant that in a cool, unique way like I would if I was Tressa, I don’t. I’ve dealt with a lot of things since the accident.”

  He didn’t respond immediately, which only served to ratchet up my fears until I felt certain I needed to run out of the lounge and never look back. But then he finally spoke, and I didn’t even have to tell myself to look at him.

  “You were never like other girls. Not back then, so why would you be now? You’re Diana, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You’re still as sweet and kind as you always were. Whatever happened because of the accident, that didn’t change.”

  I couldn’t help smile as he spoke, coming to my defense against my insecurities. In all the time I’d hidden myself away in that hotel room, every day becoming more afraid of the world outside, I never dreamed hearing words like those could make me feel so wonderful.

  Chapter Eight

  Cole

  I watched as Diana played with a lock of her hair next to her face, and the memory of how she used to always wear it up in a ponytail came rushing back to me. Oddly, all the times I’d thought about her over the years, I’d never pictured her with her hair up in that cute ponytail. As the memory blossomed in my mind, I remembered walking behind her through the woods and watching that ponytail bounce up and down and sway left and right as her head moved.

  When she stopped talking for a moment, I asked, “Do you ever wear your hair up like you used to in high school?”

  My question seemed to rattle her, and she leaned back against her chair like she wanted to put distance between us. Frowning, she shook her head. “Only when I’m at home. Otherwise, I wear it down.”

  The serious tone in her voice indicated she didn’t like being asked that, but I had no idea why. Hoping to smooth things over and make her smile, I quickly said, “Oh, because I was just remembering how it would bounce and sway as you walked. It was cute.”

  My compliment fell flat, though, and she merely shook her head once more. Although I was curious about what I’d said to upset her, I chose not to ask about that ponytail I liked so much anymore.

  “So Tressa’s wedding is coming up fas
t,” I said, instantly regretting my comment when I saw it hadn’t led to a change in Diana’s expression.

  “It is,” she said, almost as if she felt she had to give some answer.

  I didn’t know what had happened, but our conversation had ground to a halt. I didn’t want to talk about Ethan anymore since that would only remind the both of us how unhappy he’d be if he knew we were even sitting together in that lounge.

  Maybe this was a mistake. After all, people changed. Ten years was a long time. We were kids then.

  I’d definitely changed. Back then, I was just a teenage boy lost in a sea of uncertainty about who I was and how to act. My whole life was spinning out of control because of my family problems. On top of that, all the normal teenage male issues had hit me like a ton of bricks by the time I dared to kiss Diana that night after my baseball game.

  Looking back, I had a hard time understanding that version of me much at all. Now, I was a grown man who knew what I wanted from women. I didn’t fear talking to them or leaning in to kiss them. That kid I was then was so unsure compared to me now.

  “Did you go to college after high school?” she asked, tearing me from my thoughts. “I don’t think Ethan has ever told me if you did.”

  I chuckled and shook my head no. “I wasn’t like you, remember? I guess I could have gotten some kind of scholarship for baseball, but things were so messed up at that time in my life that I probably would have failed out my first year.”

  “Oh,” she said quietly.

  I didn’t sense disappointment or disapproval in her answer. More like she’d hoped that would be a conversation starter, but I’d effectively smothered it as soon as I could.

  Trying to turn things around, I said, “I know you went to college. Everyone knew you would. I mean, you were the smartest girl in high school. It was only natural that you’d go.”

  My mention of her time in school made her perk up, and Diana smiled for the first time in nearly five minutes. “I don’t know if I was the smartest girl in school, but I was valedictorian, so I guess that would be right. I loved school. College was so much fun.”

  Happy to see her talking again, I asked, “Lots of partying? I’ve heard some wild stories.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t do a lot of that. I had a goal, and spending time at parties would have made getting great grades impossible.”

  Christ, we really were so different. When I thought of college, all that popped into my brain were keg parties and drunk girls.

  “I know it probably sounds lame to you, but I wanted to be a lawyer. I dreamed of being on the Supreme Court one day,” she said in a faraway voice.

  “It doesn’t sound lame at all. If anyone could have done that, it’s you.”

  Diana lifted her glass of white wine to her lips and took a sip. “That’s all in the past now. I can barely remember my two years in school. It’s like a lifetime ago.”

  Once more, I’d succeeded in bringing up a topic that made the conversation die. Maybe this was a mistake.

  But I didn’t want it to be. Just being around Diana made me feel the same way I did all those times we snuck out to the woods to be together. At the time, I didn’t understand why, but I knew just being around her made me happy.

  Now, as we sat together in that dim lounge, I felt that way again. It didn’t matter how long you were away from the feeling of being genuinely happy. It could be months or even years, like with me. As soon as it came around again, something inside you woke up and instantly started to crave more.

  That something inside me was wide awake now, and even though this first meeting wasn’t going as well as I’d hoped, I still wanted to be around her. I wanted to know more about her. She clearly hadn’t become some hardened bitch over the years, which had happened with more than a handful of the women I graduated with. Ten years out of high school and they looked let down, like life was supposed to give them more.

  But Diana didn’t look let down. She looked sweet and kind, like she always did, but layered over those was a sadness I knew came from all she’d been through since the accident. I didn’t know just how broken she was, but at that moment as I felt something I hadn’t experienced in far too long, I didn’t care.

  “You know what I remember best about those nights we used to hide out in the woods and hang out? How good it felt to just sit and talk. Crazy, huh?”

  She smiled as I finished speaking, and in the dim light, I saw her cheeks grow pink. “You liked just talking? I mean, I loved it, but I thought teenage boys always wanted more than just talking.”

  I nodded, willing to accept that I’d walked into that. “Well, you know how we are. Perfect machines of testosterone and other hormones making us want one singular thing.”

  “Why didn’t you ever want that from me?” she asked so innocently that it caught me off guard.

  For a few moments, I struggled with what to say. I’d been crazy about her from the moment puberty hit me, but she’d been a secret fantasy I never believed I’d get to live out because of her brother. Then when I finally felt brave enough that night and kissed her, taking advantage of no one else being around and the rush of adrenaline pumping through me after winning my game, I didn’t think about anything but wanting to know how it would feel just to kiss her.

  Later, the thought of more definitely came to me, but I never acted on it. But why?

  I didn’t want to lie to her, so I took a deep breath and told her the best version of the truth, as far as I could remember from that time.

  “You weren’t like other girls. You were Ethan’s sister. You were Diana, a sweet girl I probably shouldn’t have been with in the first place considering my reputation. Sleeping with you didn’t seem like something I should even have been thinking of.”

  She forced a smile and mumbled, “Untouchable.”

  “I know it isn’t what you want to hear, but yes, you were untouchable. You were too good for high school boys like me.”

  Diana wasn’t wrong, but she didn’t understand why I had no business touching her then. Or now, for that matter.

  I slept with more girls that senior year than I wanted to admit. I was an athlete, looked good, and took advantage of all the blessings I’d been given. Nothing had changed after high school either. Women were to be conquered. Nothing more. They were a prize in a testosterone driven contest I competed in with other men like me. I learned the techniques that would gain me a win in that competition and used them to my advantage.

  But a decade of chasing women just to sleep with them had gotten old. Maybe I’d grown up. I didn’t know. I just knew it all didn’t mean much anymore. So I could get them into bed. I didn’t want more with any of the women I slept with, but some part of me wanted more than to just get off.

  I didn’t know if that’s what drew me to Diana after seeing her at Tressa’s engagement party. If I hadn’t been worthy of being with her because she was innocent and sweet back in high school, could I say I was any more worthy of her at that moment?

  As we sat there together but saying nothing, I wanted to think I could be worthy of her. That Ethan was wrong now, even if he wasn’t a decade ago.

  “Has your brother ever told you I owned a club?” I asked, my need to impress her pressing on me suddenly.

  Diana nodded. “I knew that, but I’m not sure how. Ethan rarely talks about you at all. He doesn’t talk about any of his friends much.”

  “He probably thinks if he does that you might like one of us,” I said with a chuckle, suspecting my guess about my friend’s motives was right on the money.

  She nodded again and took another sip of her wine. “So you have a club? What kind of club?”

  I wanted to brag to her about what I did for a living. I wanted her to see I’d accomplished something of worth in the years since she sat with me in those woods and told me how impressed she’d been when I caught that fly ball and tagged that guy out at second.

  But would she think much of a nightclub that stunk of a mixture of s
tale liquor and beer, piss, sweat, and cum by the end of each night? Girls who wanted to be respectable lawyers who could someday sit on the highest court in the land didn’t grow up to be women who appreciated the kind of place I ran.

  So I embellished. Just a little. Well, more than a little to begin with since I didn’t own a club anymore.

  “It’s a nightclub, but the clientele is pretty high class. Lots of high rollers like politicians, businessmen, and movers and shakers visit my club.”

  That was slightly more than embellishment. That was a lie, and not only because I didn’t own the club anymore. When I did, I saw people from all walks of life, but my average patron was a guy like me out for a night on the town and looking to get lucky and the woman who came out for the same reason and didn’t try to hide it.

  And if they heard someone use the term clientele to describe them, they’d probably laugh in their face. That sounded like there was ever some type of exclusivity to my place. There wasn’t. There was simply alcohol, room to dance near the bar, and spots to get to know people better, whatever that may be. Dark and slightly seedy, it wasn’t likely the kind of place someone like Diana Stone would ever consider visiting for any number of reasons.

  Hopefully, she never asked Ethan about it.

  Interested by my description, she smiled and asked, “What’s the name?”

  I couldn’t lie about that, so I answered, “The Red Line.”

  Not that I knew what the current owners called the place. I’d heard they planned to change the name, but I had no idea to what. When your creditors came in and seized your assets, it wasn’t like they told you much of anything.

  That was nearly three months ago. Thankfully, Ethan had been too busy being happier than a clam in his life with Summer to notice that I never seemed to have to be anywhere at night anymore. Not that I had been a slave to running the club when I did own it.

  Starting to get the picture what happened? Yeah, it wasn’t pretty. Well, it was pretty fucking ugly. I’d seen it coming, though, and if I’d wanted to stop it all from happening, I could have. I just didn’t have my heart in running a club anymore. For almost six years I’d done it, and by the time the bills started piling up, I just didn’t care.