B008DKAYYQ EBOK

by Joyce Lamb

  She obeyed, letting her breath out in a pained hiss.

  Sliding her other shoe on, he made short work of the laces. “So I guess you’re going to hold it against me that Daniel and I are friends.”

  “I already knew that.”

  “We were roommates in college.”

  “Good for you.”

  Cole looked up. “What difference does it make anyway?”

  “That’s a pretty silly question. Men might not talk about their relationships as much as women do, but they still talk. And I know Daniel. He spins a good tale.”

  “What happened between you two doesn’t matter to me.” As soon as he spoke the words, he realized they were a lie. Of course, it mattered. He didn’t think he would ever be able to forget what Daniel had told him. What she’d done struck far too close to home.

  Bailey pushed herself up off the sofa, her hand planted firmly against her side. “I want to go home—” She broke off, closed her eyes briefly. “I want to go to my brother’s. Are you going to let me call a cab or am I hitchhiking?”

  His throat ached, though he couldn’t say why. He had lost nothing. There had been nothing between them to lose. Yet disappointment churned through him. “I’ll take you,” he said.

  “Fine. I’m ready to go now.”

  “You need to eat something and take your medication.”

  “I’ll take them later.”

  “You need them now. Especially the painkiller.”

  Green sparks of temper flared in her eyes. “What difference does it make to you?”

  He stared at her, perplexed. She was willing to endure pain so she could get away from him a minute faster. And, damn it all to hell, the realization hurt.

  “I’ll get dressed,” he said.

  * * *

  Alone, Bailey sank down onto the sofa and lowered her head, the fingers of her left hand curled around the edge of the seat cushion, her right clamped against the gnawing ache below her breast. She wanted to cry, scream, something.

  She liked Cole Goodman. He’d proved himself to be a kind, decent man. And, God, that body. When he’d walked out of his bedroom without his shirt on, all muscled ridges and tanned, smooth skin, she would have goggled if she hadn’t already been struggling with the reminder that he was a better friend of Daniel’s than she’d thought.

  Her throat tensed as she imagined what Daniel had told him about her. He’d made it good, obviously. Something truly heinous. And there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. Whatever she said would sound like she was either trying to turn Cole against his friend or cover her own butt. And, knowing Daniel, if Cole went back to him with her version, the pissing match would begin. She didn’t stand a chance, so why bother?

  “Ready?”

  She opened her eyes to find Cole standing near the front door in light khaki cargo shorts, a half-tucked navy T-shirt and ragged Nikes. He hadn’t shaved, and the light beard that tempered the angles of his jaw made his eyes even bluer.

  “Ready,” she said.

  Before she could stand, he strode a few paces toward her. “I don’t understand why you’re mad at me. I didn’t do anything.”

  She decided to stay seated, preferring not to rise while he studied her so intently. She hated that she had already been weak in front of him. “I’m not mad.”

  “Yes, you are. Your body language is screaming at me.”

  She forced herself to relax, telling her body language to shut the hell up. “Why do you care?”

  “I want to know. Maybe I think I deserve to know after … yesterday.”

  She couldn’t argue with that. He’d chosen to stick with her every time he’d had the opportunity to bolt. He could so easily have left her at the hospital to drown in the horrible memories and her own anxiety.

  She drew in a breath. Once he dropped her at James’, it would all be history, an entertaining story for their co-workers to tell: “Remember that time Bailey got stabbed and Cole ended up holding her hair while she hurled? That was hilarious!”

  “I’m not mad,” she said. “I’m disappointed.”

  He cocked his head. “In me?”

  She lifted one shoulder in a slight shrug. “I know it’s probably not fair.”

  “Damn right it’s not.”

  “It’s not like you’ve been the personification of fair yourself,” she shot back. “You declared me guilty a long time ago. You just accepted what Daniel told you and decided to hate me without giving me the opportunity to defend myself.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “Here’s an opportunity.”

  The arrogance of his stance, the challenge in his eyes infuriated her. She hadn’t been truly angry before, but she was now. She pushed herself up, suppressing a grimace. “I’m ready to go.”

  He stayed put. “I’m not.”

  “I’m not going to do this now.”

  “So I let you off the hook, what are you going to do? Avoid me until I give up and go away like you did with Daniel?”

  She dug her nails into her palms. “He stayed away all by himself.”

  “And what you did had nothing to do with that.”

  “Look, I don’t even know what he told you, and it obviously wasn’t the truth, so it’s stupid for us to—”

  “He told me you got rid of his baby without telling him first.”

  All the blood seemed to drain out of her head in one rush. “What?” she asked faintly.

  “He said you didn’t want the kid because of your career, so you got rid of it. Without telling him beforehand. I get that it’s your choice and all, but that was his kid, too.”

  Bailey shifted back so that she could brace her hand on the woodwork that divided the dining and living rooms. As the reality of what Daniel had told Cole sank in, her shock turned to fury, which she managed to tamp down before it burst out of her. She could deny it for a hundred years, and as long as Daniel maintained the lie, Cole would never believe her. Why should he? She was nothing to him, and Daniel was his good friend whose photo he had on his wall.

  “I want to go now.” She had to force strength into her voice.

  “Of course you do. No one likes to be confronted with the awful truth.”

  She stared at him in stunned silence as her anger returned with slamming force. Fine, if he wanted to go there. She jerked up the hem of her scrubs top. “See that scar?” She pointed at the puckered line of flesh he’d touched so tenderly the day before.

  He glanced down at her exposed abdomen, his derision faltering.

  “You don’t get a scar like that from an abortion,” she ground out. “Ask your buddy about it.”

  Cole raised his gaze to hers, the color that had reddened his cheeks fading.

  Lowering her shirt, she took a calming breath. Swift, Bailey. Real swift. Let’s share our woes with the whole world, shall we?

  Disgusted with herself for letting him goad her, she started to edge by him.

  He grabbed her arms, and she flinched back. He released her, raising his hands and looking beyond frustrated. “Can you just wait?”

  She leaned against the wall, as much for support as for the distance it put between them. “For what?”

  “Will you tell me what happened?” No trace of his anger remained.

  Oh, God. Sympathy was deadly when it came to maintaining her composure. “I don’t want to do this. I’ve already said too much.”

  “I don’t think you’ve said nearly enough.”

  “What difference does it make? You’ll just go back to Daniel, and he’ll tell you something completely different. I’d rather just drop it.”

  “You’re the one who—”

  “Who what? Brought it up? Then that means I get to be the one to decide when to let it go.”

  “That’s not fair—”

  “Fair?” She lost the struggle to keep her voice down. “I don’t need you to tell me what’s not fair.”

  The pathetic way her final words cracked apparently did the trick, because
he backed off and gestured toward the front door. “All right, all right. Let’s go.”

  Chapter 10

  “Bailey!”

  Hearing the joy in her nephew’s voice, seeing it in his face when he saw her, lightened Bailey’s mood instantly. She was able to push back the lingering tension from the silent, uncomfortable ride over and the way Cole had insisted on carrying her bag. About halfway up the steps to her brother’s apartment, she’d been wondering why everyone in Kendall Falls lived on the bloody second floor. But then Austin whipped open the door.

  “Hey, kid, what’re you doing up so early?” She took in his jeans and untucked T-shirt as she entered the living room. She’d expected him to be in his favorite SpongeBob pajamas.

  He wrapped his little arms around her waist and squeezed. “I missed you last night,” he said against her midriff. “I thought we were going putt-putting.”

  “I know. I’m sorry,” she said, stifling a wince as she kissed the top of his blond head. The physical discomfort of his tight hug was nothing compared with the peace that settled over her when she felt the six-year-old’s fingers dig into her back. Everything in her world that the past twenty-two hours had set adrift righted. “I got waylaid.”

  “Yeah,” he said, peering up at her with his head back. “You’re definitely way late.”

  She smiled into his wide, green eyes, so like her own and his father’s. So like his grandfather’s. She swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. “Can we go next week instead?”

  “Sure.” He gazed up at Cole, who’d followed her in and set her bag inside the door. “Who’re you?”

  Cole offered his hand. “Cole Goodman. You are?”

  Austin shook Cole’s hand, as serious as a businessman about to seal the deal of his life. “Austin Chase.”

  “Nice to meet you, Austin.”

  Bailey glanced around the small, two-bedroom apartment that James and Austin had moved into only recently. Chaos ruled. An opened pizza box, containing two slices of congealed pizza, sat on the floor by the brown, faux leather recliner, along with two dirty dishes and an empty glass clouded with milk residue.

  Several newspapers and magazines looked as if they had been shoved off the coffee table and onto the floor in front of the sofa, and the TV was on too loud. A cereal bowl with pink milk in the bottom sat in front of the TV, next to a Nintendo Wii. A recent, cranberry-colored stain marred the beige carpet in front of the couch.

  Dread began to squeeze her chest as she spotted empty beer cans among the litter. James had been drinking around Austin. That contradicted everything her brother had accomplished in the past year. She’d never even heard him swear in front of his son.

  Before she could deal with the mess or James or anything else, though, she decided she needed to rest a minute. Easing down onto the closest chair, she noticed her nephew watching her curiously, as if sensing something wasn’t right with her. Her stomach fluttered. He was so young, so innocent. The need to protect him nearly overwhelmed her.

  She gave him a reassuring smile. “Where’s your dad?”

  “In bed.” Leaning against her leg, he clasped her fingers in his. “Want to play the shoot ‘em up game? I got 300 points last night and hit all the tin cans all three times. It was so cool. Want to see?”

  She brushed wisps of hair off his forehead. “What about the aliens? Did you get all of those?”

  He puffed up with pride. “Yep. I saved everyone. And I got the last ducks, too.”

  Cole chuckled. “You two are speaking in a language I don’t understand.”

  Bailey looked up, startled that she had momentarily forgotten him. The way he was smiling at her almost made her fidget. “Oh, thanks for seeing me up, but I can take it from here.”

  “Your hand is cold,” Austin said. “And why are you shivering? It’s hot out.”

  She gently disengaged from his clinging fingers and patted his shoulder. “I’m fine, honey. Let’s say goodbye to Cole, okay?” She pushed to her feet, not moaning aloud taking every ounce of willpower she could muster. The three steps to the door were among the hardest she’d ever managed. All she wanted to do was curl into a fetal ball and whimper. First, she had to get rid of Cole. All she had to do was get the door open and push him out. “Thanks for—”

  “I’m not going just yet,” Cole said.

  Bailey’s breath hitched with alarm. “You don’t—”

  “Don’t protest.” His voice was low so Austin couldn’t hear as he placed his hand at the small of her back.

  She stiffened at the contact. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m going to feed you, and then you’re going to take a pain pill. And when I’m satisfied that the shakes have gone, I’ll make like a tree and leave.” Flashing a grin at Austin, he said, “What’s for breakfast, big guy? Your Aunt Bailey’s famished.”

  Austin glanced from Bailey to Cole and back again, baffled. “You’re fam-what?”

  She forced a smile. “He meant to say I’m hungry. Sometimes he uses big words where little ones will do just fine. That’s called pompous.”

  While Cole smirked, apparently amused by her jibe rather than offended, Austin brightened. “Hey, I had some Froot Loops. Want some?” He took off for the kitchen.

  Perfect, Bailey thought. That would make for a quick and easy breakfast, ensuring Cole would be out of here sooner rather than later. “That sounds great—”

  “She needs something more substantial than that.” Cole smoothly cut her off and followed Austin as if they were on a big adventure. “What about eggs? You got eggs?”

  Austin pulled open the refrigerator and peered inside. “We got Coke, pickles, ketchup, mustard.” He peered up at Cole. “I hate mustard. Let’s don’t make anything with that, okay?”

  Chuckling, Cole ruffled his hair. “You got it.”

  Bailey paused at the threshold into the kitchen, appalled to see dirty dishes piled in the sink and spread across the countertops. A plastic milk jug with an inch of milk in the bottom sat on the counter, probably left there after Austin had helped himself to a bowl of cereal. She carefully checked her expression, suppressing her building fury, as she lowered herself to a creaky, ladder-back chair.

  Austin stared into the off-white fridge. “Um.”

  “How about peanut butter?” Cole asked. “I bet you’ve got that.”

  “You don’t have to do this, Cole,” she said. “I can feed myself.”

  Austin nodded. “She can. I’ve seen her do it a lot.”

  Cole let out a laugh, surprisingly loud and full, as Austin seized a chair and slid it across the floor to rest flush against the cabinets next to the refrigerator. Clambering onto the seat, he whipped open the nearest cupboard door. “You know what’s really good?”

  “What?” Cole asked.

  Bailey noticed he’d positioned himself so that he could catch Austin if he started to toppled off the chair. As much as she wanted him to go away, she was impressed by his interaction with her nephew. She figured he must have had plenty of practice with the kids she’d seen in the photos on his wall.

  “Waffles with peanut butter,” Austin said. “Bailey loves that. We don’t have waffles here, but we used to eat that all the time when I lived with her.” He shot her a grin over his shoulder as he handed Cole a jar of peanut butter. “Remember, Bailey?” To Cole, he dropped his voice to a conspiratorial level. “She put chocolate chips on hers and pretended it wasn’t against the law.”

  “That’s against the law?” Cole gave Bailey a shocked look.

  She shrugged, resisting the urge to tell Austin to be quiet. She had never discouraged his chatter, and she wasn’t about to start now just because Cole might learn something potentially embarrassing. Besides, there wasn’t anything that could be worse than the lies that Daniel had told him.

  “Yep. Somewhere.” Austin jumped off the chair and retrieved what was left of a loaf of bread from the nearly empty pantry. He paused to think. “Probably in Cuba. Lots of stuff is ag
ainst the law in Cuba. Did you know that?”

  “No, I didn’t,” Cole said as Austin began working the twisty tie on the bread bag. “How did you know that?”

  Having won the struggle with the twisty tie, Austin plunged his hand into the bag and pulled out a piece of bread that he handed to Cole. “Sometimes,” he said, diving in for another slice, “these Cuban people show up out in the ocean in leaky boats and they have to be rescued. It’s because they ran away from home because everything is against the law there. Lots of stuff is against the law here, too. Dad is a lot meaner than Bailey.”

  “How so?”

  Bailey scooted her chair back and stood to open the refrigerator. “Does anyone besides me want orange juice?”

  Austin made a sour face. “Yuck! You’re going to have orange juice with peanut butter? That’s gross.”

  Cole arched a dark eyebrow at Bailey. “He’s right. It’s gross. And very likely against the law in Cuba.”

  Letting the fridge door close, she forced a smile. Cole seemed to be over their earlier argument, and that was fine with her. She wanted to forget it and all the overstuffed baggage that went with it. She wanted to sit back down and just rest. But that wasn’t going to happen, not after seeing the refrigerator’s barren insides.

  As casually as she could, she said, “I’m going to go wake up my brother while you two finish your analysis of Cuban law.”

  * * *

  Cole watched her go, wondering what had caused her growing, and shifting, tension. She’d relaxed when they’d come through the door, as if Austin’s hug had obliterated everything bad that had happened, including their disagreement. But, he reasoned, that could have been for the boy’s sake.

  Austin thrust a butter knife into his hands. “You have to put on the peanut butter. I rip up the bread when I do it. Bailey says I go at it with too much gusto.”

  Cole accepted the knife and began to spread peanut butter across a piece of bread. “Does Bailey like jelly on her sandwich?”

  “Nope. Chocolate chips.”

  “She’s quite the lawbreaker, isn’t she?”

  Austin grinned. “Uh huh.” He gestured at the cabinet to Cole’s left. “They’re up there.”