“She wasn’t laid off,” an achingly familiar voice said from the doorway. “She was put on maternity leave.”
I whirled around, no longer caring about Janie, Kayla, or my employee, and stared.
Cora looked like shit.
She looked so bad that I frowned.
“Are you okay?” I asked, taking a hasty step forward.
She frowned and turned, looking at herself in the hubcap that used to be on a Volkswagen Vanagon.
“I don’t look like shit,” Cora said. Then she turned and surveyed the three women. “Do I look like shit?”
“I told you that you looked like shit last night,” Janie said, not looking up from her computer. “You have dark circles under your eyes, your skin is pale, and it looks like you haven’t combed your hair in a week. My guess is you haven’t.”
“I haven’t,” Cora admitted. “But when your hair is curly like mine, unless you’re going to straighten it, you don’t brush your hair. Otherwise it’ll knock all your curls loose.”
Cora’s eyes cautiously slid to mine, and I felt my heart hitch.
God, she looked beautiful, even if she looked sort of tired and well…rough.
“Why are you here?” I rasped.
She looked down at her fingers. “Will you believe me when I say that I was in a bad place, and now I’m not?”
I shook my head.
“Coke, you scare the shit out of her,” Janie supplied, finally looking up. “You represent everything that she wants, but you also come with your flaws. She wants kids, and you can’t have any. She also thinks she’s going to smother you when you find out that she loves you. She thinks you’ll hate her just as much as your crazy ex-wife…which also scares her. She’s an introvert, and you come with baggage that’s going to cause her to see people she doesn’t necessarily want to see.”
Cora looked annoyed. “I can speak for myself.”
But she didn’t deny any of it.
Not even a little shake of her head.
“I can’t have kids,” I said softly. “I had that vasectomy, and honestly? I’m done raising kids. My daughter is seventeen!”
She looked away. “A person like me—who has problems like I have? I probably shouldn’t have them anyway.”
For some reason, hearing her admit that fuckin’ hurt.
She should be able to have kids. She should be able to do all of the things a normal woman does—including having a baby.
Yet, I didn’t want any more kids. That ship had sailed for me, and it wasn’t fair to her to continue a relationship with her if she actually did want kids.
However, I was a selfish man.
These last five days had been a living hell.
I hadn’t realized how starved I was. I hadn’t realized exactly what I’d been missing…until she wasn’t there anymore.
I wanted…no, I needed her.
I needed her in my life, and I was selfish enough to be with her despite knowing that she wanted a family that I couldn’t give her.
“Honey…”
“But that’s not it,” she continued. “I decided that…I’m okay with not having any. I’ve had five days to think about it. And I can’t miss something that I’ve never had. But I have had you. I had you, and I spent these last five days without you. It made me realize that I don’t want to live without you. I don’t want to live the rest of my life how I was living. I know, deep in my heart, that you’ll give me everything that I need. And I can pour my love into you. I can give you everything that you’ve been missing, and you can have me…if you want me.”
I looked at her like she was crazy.
“I’ve spent five entire days trying to get you to come back. How could I not want you?” I whispered fiercely.
“Awwww,” Kayla sniffled. “That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard you say, Cora. And oh my God. Are y’all going to get married?”
Janie leaned back in her chair and cried out in frustration. “Shit! Shit, shit, shit! I almost had her!”
Kayla, June, Cora, and I all looked at her curiously.
“Almost had who?” Cora asked.
“This Beatrice bitch.”
“What?” Cora and I both asked at the same time.
“She’s getting money from somewhere, and I want to know from what,” Janie said, looking determined.
“She’s likely getting money from her father,” I offered. “He may not like her, but he also gives her things despite her awfulness.”
“Like a corner office at a business that he owns where she doesn’t do a damn thing?” Cora teased.
I winked at her and pulled her closer to me, dropping a kiss on her forehead. “Yeah, kind of like that.”
“I don’t think that’s how she’s getting it,” Janie admitted. “I see his account, and though he is giving her a paycheck, he’s not giving her anything extra. Do you know how much she paid those men to ‘abduct’ her daughter?”
“No,” I admitted.
“A hundred thousand.” My brows rose at Janie’s words. “Each.”
I whistled.
“Though that’s a lot of money, I’ve seen Beatrice blow a hundred grand on a shopping trip to Dallas,” I explained.
“Well, since you left, Daddy hasn’t been paying her enough to shop like that,” Janie murmured distractedly. “I can see your ex-father-in-law’s account, and then there’s this different account. I can track it to the Cayman’s, but it’s under a dummy corporation. It’s listed under Bright-Light Productions.”
“Sounds like a movie company,” I frowned. “Did you look up the company?”
Janie gave me a glance that told me exactly what she thought about that question.
“Hey,” I held my hands up. “I was just curious.”
She pointed her finger at me, then went back to typing away.
“I have to leave in about twenty minutes to pick my daughter up from Rafe. He has a meeting with a potential client in an hour,” Janie explained. “But I’m really close. I may have him look at this tonight and see if he can find anything. Every time I get a lock on it, or think I do, I find one more fake name or company.”
Cora’s hand went to my belly, and I momentarily forgot what we were discussing.
“We’re going to lunch, anyway,” Cora said. “And, from what I heard, to an auction.”
Janie held up her thumb. “I’m on it, Captain Cora. Once I figure something out, I’ll call and let you know.”
Just then, the alarm on my phone rang, signaling it was time to go.
“I gotta go. The auction is in less than twenty minutes, and it takes twenty-five to get over there…you ready?” I asked.
Cora offered me her hand. “When you are.”
I winked at her, then tugged lightly on her hand to guide her back outside the way she’d just come. Once we were next to my bike, I reached for the helmet and offered it to her.
She didn’t hesitate in putting it on and straddling the bike.
When I mounted in front of her, she scooted up until her entire front was plastered against my back.
“You know,” I said. “I’ve never had anyone, but you ride with me.”
She didn’t say anything.
What she did do was squeeze tight where her arms were wrapped around my chest.
I rode to the auction feeling better than I’d felt in a really long time—much longer than even I was willing to admit.
***
Cora was bouncing on the balls of her feet, swaying slightly beside me.
“Can I hold the little paddle?” she asked.
I handed it to her.
And before I knew it, she was raising her hand up in the air and bidding on a truck that I hadn’t wanted.
I took the paddle away from her. “No more paddle for you.”
She snickered.
“Going once, going twice! Sold for fifteen hundred!”
I looked down at Cor
a, who was looking as innocent as a person could who’d just forced me to buy a car that I didn’t want.
“What?” she asked, batting her eyes as if that would solve everything.
I was just about to tell her exactly ‘what’ I had a problem with when the attendant came up to me and said, “Sir? Are you paying by check?”
I frowned at Cora hard and then sighed before standing up.
Once I handed her the paddle back, I said, “Don’t buy anything else.”
“Or what?” She blinked innocently at me.
“Or I won’t be able to pay for it.” I laughed.
“Oh,” she frowned. “I was going to pay for it. Here, take my card.”
She tried to dive for her purse, but I left her there looking for it.
I wouldn’t be taking her money.
Fifteen hundred dollars, in the grand scheme of things, wasn’t that much money.
What it was, though, was an eyesore.
Who the hell would want a bright pink Jeep?
Obviously, Cora did.
But still.
After handing the lady my credit card, I signed the slip and went back to the auction only to find Cora’s paddle once again in the air.
I sighed in exasperation.
“What are you doing?” I whispered fiercely, taking the paddle back.
“Sold!” The announcer once again pointed at me. “For fifteen thousand!”
I sat back in my chair. “What the hell, Cora?”
“It’s a 2017 Dodge diesel with two hundred miles.” She shrugged. “And I have that in my bank account…not to mention I was going to buy a new truck soon, anyway. My dad mentioned it when he was here that I needed it for hauling things and transporting. He told me to take care of it or he would. At least this way I can actually drive what I want instead of what he’s provided for me.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “The reason it was so cheap was because it was part of the flood in Alabama last year. Did you fail to hear that part?” I asked. “I’m buying these vehicles for parts…not to actually drive them.”
She waved her hand away. “My dad can get it running if you’re not willing.”
I shook my head and growled at her under my breath. “That’s not what I was trying to get at, and you know it. But…just sayin’…I don’t know much about diesels. I’m more of a gas man. I can do simple things, but anything more advanced, I would recommend that you let your father look at it. Plus, I haven’t worked on anything newer than a 1980s model vehicle in a while. More so, what are you going to do with the bright pink Barbie Jeep?”
I didn’t mention that it was physically impossible to drive both.
I was sure that she’d already considered that.
“I’m going to drive it.” She shrugged innocently.
I groaned and took the paddle back. “I’m more than willing to get your truck running…if I can.”
She winked at me. “That’s ‘cause you like me.”
She was wrong about that. I didn’t like her.
I loved her.
Though similar, this love business felt like something that was going to rip its way out of my chest and cause my heart to explode.
If Beatrice had done what Cora had just done, I would’ve fucking lost it.
Cora, though, could likely get away with murder with me as long as she flashed that smile of hers.
“I really am done,” Cora promised.
That was why we left an hour later, I had to come back tomorrow morning and find out a way to transfer eight trucks to the salvage yard, and two to Cora’s place.
Luckily, I knew someone with a damn big trailer.
Chapter 24
Every day I try to do something good for those around me. Today, for instance, I put on deodorant.
-Text from Coke to Cora
Coke
The next day, after getting the help of Parker, Rafe and a few of the men from Hail Auto Recovery, all the vehicles were where they were supposed to be.
And, surprisingly enough, Cora was able to drive her new truck home. From what I could tell, there wasn’t a single thing wrong with it.
From what the pick-up coordinator at the auction house said, the water from the flooding had never gotten over the axles. However, since the truck and about forty others on the lot had been involved in the flood, they’d all been totaled by the insurance company regardless of whether they were actually affected or not.
Which led us to now, at a restaurant, getting dinner with Janie and Rafe, Kayla and Parker, Johnny and June, and Reagan. Reagan, I’d come to know slowly over the last couple of weeks.
She was soft-spoken, shy, and honestly a very hard person to talk to—mostly because she didn’t talk back. No matter what you did to get her to say something, she just didn’t have much to say—and if she did have something to say, it was very little.
Cora had explained to me that Reagan, despite her beauty and openness with her friends, was very shy around new people. But once you got “in there” with her as a friend, she opened up.
She was still cautious around me, but I knew I wasn’t the only reason she was shy.
That likely had a lot to do with the other men at the table—Rafe and Parker.
I’d seen Cora and Reagan gabbing outside the door of the restaurant when I’d pulled up in my company truck, trailering Cora’s old car. On my way home, I’d drop it off at my yard where she assured me that it’d look ‘pretty in a corner.’
I didn’t plan on putting it outside. I had a massive fifty by a hundred-foot shop where I put all the cars that might be actually worth something, and that was where I’d put Cora’s car…just in case the truck she was driving decided to poop out on her, and the water actually did affect something internally in the truck.
Cora’s hand sneaked out and ran along my thigh, and I leaned back and wrapped my arm around her chair.
We’d just ordered an appetizer, and I was hoping this time we had dinner would be a lot different from the last time we were in the same place.
This time, I was very conscious of what made Cora, Cora. I was also hyper-aware of everything I said or did, not wanting to make this place one that she associated with bad memories, but instead with good ones.
Especially when they had some of the best steaks that I’d ever tasted.
I wanted to come back, therefore, I was on my best behavior.
“Coke?”
I turned my attention back to the woman at my side. “Yeah, baby?”
The restaurant had a live band, and my eyes kept drifting to the stage where a woman in a flowy dress kept stomping around in her boots, making my head start to pound. They’d started the set about five minutes before, and I was already over it.
Why couldn’t people just play good music? Why did they have to fuck with it and add their own unique ‘flair’ to a classic? If you want to play something new and edgy, don’t fuck up “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Fuck up your own song.
I’d had a long fuckin’ day, and that wasn’t including the even longer fucking days before that—when Cora had refused to talk to me.
“I’m sorry.”
I turned to survey Cora’s face and frowned. “For what?”
“I’m sorry for not trusting you, and I’m sorry for making you feel uncomfortable. I’m not going to break. You can talk about whatever you want to,” she explained.
I sighed and let out a breath I hadn’t been aware I’d been holding, not realizing that she’d caught on to my hesitation that evening. I’d thought that I’d been hiding it well.
“I don’t want to hurt your feelings. We’ve had a good day, and this place may already bring back bad memories…I want you to have something sweet. Not something blighted with not-so-great every time you come here,” I murmured.
She smiled. “I’m fine. I promise.”
Or she was until Beatrice walked in with her mother.
“Shit,�
�� she sighed. “This place…what’s with it?”
I had no idea.
Out of all the things that could’ve come up, there were two people in this entire universe who could’ve fucked with my good night with their mere presence, and that was Amadea, my ex-mother-in-law, and Beatrice.
Beatrice was bad, but Amadea was worse.
Way, way worse.
At least Beatrice was half raised by her father. Amadea was a silver spoon baby that was never once told no.
Her husband never hesitated to get her whatever she wanted, and her parents had given her whatever she wanted before she’d gotten married.
Needless to say, if there was anyone more selfish in this town than Beatrice, it was her mother.
Cora growled under her breath, causing me to turn and study her.
“What’s…oh.” She opened her mouth, and then closed it.
I reached for her hand and squeezed it. “With any luck, she won’t notice us. There’re a lot of people here, and we’re sandwiched in here like a couple of sardines.”
Yeah, fucking right. I should’ve known better.
Not only did Beatrice know who Cora was, but so did her mother.
Not to mention they came right up to our table and looked down their noses at us.
It didn’t help that the woman on stage had finally stopped butchering “Bohemian Rhapsody,” leaving it strangely silent in the corner we were occupying.
“I guess you think you won, didn’t you?” Beatrice started.
I groaned and let my head fall back to my back as I tried to search for some calm.
Cora looked over at me worriedly, as if she was about to do something that she was going to get into trouble for.
It didn’t take me long.
“My lawyer told me that you weren’t testifying against me,” she sneered. “We think you filed false charges now. That’s a crime. We’re talking to my lawyer tomorrow.”
I studied the ceiling in an attempt to control my temper.
“Considering that there were five trained men who rescued her from her kidnappers, I’m going to go with a no, they do not think she faked it,” Janie supplied, crossing her arms over her chest and looking pissed. “And furthermore, the men who actually committed the crime for you are going to testify against you, not Cora. At their trials, Cora would testify. But since they entered a plea bargain, admitting their guilt, they will serve prison time without Cora having to show up and do that. I think you need to get your facts straight, my dear.”
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