Colton: An Army Wives Novel

by Audra Cole

  And that, right there, was what had my heart climbing higher and higher up my throat as I hurried to get dressed and made up to some impossible standard of what Colton’s family would be expecting.

  There were things I hadn’t even told Colton yet. Things I wasn’t ready to discuss with anyone other than Becca, who knew everything about me. The good, the bad, and the very, very ugly.

  When my makeup was set, I reached for the first of the rollers in my hair, and with trembling fingers, unrolled each section of hair from the now cold curlers and fluffed the gentle curls with my fingers until they were tamed into bouncy waves.

  Colton stepped into the doorway just as I blasted myself with a coat of super hold hair spray. “Holy—Karena!” He choked on the fumes and fanned his hands to clear the air in front of him as he took a backward step into the narrow hallway.

  “Sorry, I’m almost…” I paused, spritzing again, “…done!”

  He coughed again. I set the can down on the counter and looked up into the mirror just as he was staring at the array of beauty products with wide eyed horror. “What?” I demanded. “You think all this just happens?”

  His lips curled into an infuriatingly sexy smile as his eyes slid up my body and met my gaze in the mirror. “I’ve seen you au natural, and I’ll tell ya, you don’t need all this stuff.” He reached for me and I melted into him, my defenses falling away.

  “What if they hate me?” I mumbled against his chest, no longer caring if my makeup smeared.

  Colton chuckled softly and reached for a strand of hair, twisting the still-sticky section around his finger. “They won’t hate you. I don’t think anyone could hate you.”

  He pulled away before I could argue and tipped my chin up to him, meeting my lips with a gentle, but scorching kiss that sent my mind careening into an entirely different set of thoughts. Thoughts that couldn’t have been further from his parents and siblings sitting around a table with raised brows in my direction.

  “Mmmm,” I purred when Colton’s lips left mine, my eyes still closed, absorbing the sensations that danced over my skin. “Maybe we could just stay here…”

  Colton laughed again. “You have no idea how tempting that is.”

  My eyes opened slowly and found Colton’s offered hand. I took it and let him lead me down the hall after he reached around me to flick off the bathroom light. “You look amazing.”

  I smiled. I’d agonized over my limited choices and had eventually gone with a jade dress with thin straps and a form fitting, but not skin tight, cut. I’d accessorized with silver hoop earrings and a small initial pendant necklace that Becca had gifted me on my last birthday. “Not so bad yourself, handsome.” Colton was more dressed up than I’d seen him before, in a pair of crisp, dark slacks, and a navy button up shirt. He wasn’t wearing a tie, but as we headed out the door, he grabbed a jacket that matched the slacks from the back of the couch. His broad shoulders filled the jacket out just right, and I was halfway tempted to ask him if he’d had it tailored or if it just worked that well for him. Colton wore all of his clothes with a casual elegance, that came naturally to him. He wasn’t the kind of guy that took more than five minutes to get dressed, and yet, he always managed to look like he was so put together.

  As someone who spent the majority of her day picking out outfits for others, it was a skill I also shared, but Colton made it look far too easy, and most of the time, didn’t even seem aware that he was doing it. He naturally made good fashion choices without more than a minute of thought.

  I had a fantasy of letting him loose in the Beckham’s menswear department and seeing him come out of the fitting room looking like a scruffy James Bond.

  I’d be his Bond girl any day…

  “You ready?” Colton asked, an eyebrow raised in question as he looked down at me. I realized he’d asked me before and was repeating his question at my blank expression. He squeezed my waist. “You’ll be fine.”

  I smiled and decided not to tell him that I’d secretly been distracted by fantasies of us blowing up bad guys on a high speed chase through Europe.

  There were some things he didn’t need to know.

  * * * *

  We’d been at Colton’s parents’ home for less than half an hour when the hammer fell. After the initial introductions, that were pleasant and generic, Colton’s mother, Cynthia, had ushered the group into the formal dining room before she bustled into the kitchen to retrieve the first dishes. Once everyone was seated, and digging into the meal, Colton’s father, Robert, had turned to me and asked the question I’d dreaded the most, “So, Karena, where did you attend college?”

  My cheeks went pink and my hand automatically reached for my glass of ice water, but all eyes had swiveled in my direction, and I set the glass back down. “I—uh—I actually didn’t attend…um…college.”

  Robert’s face remained unreadable, but I had little doubt what he was thinking. “I see, and what is it that you do for work?”

  A bubble of hot frustration swelled in my stomach, insulted by the way he phrased the question, as though going to college were the only way one could find a respectable job. I knew plenty of people who hadn’t gone to college and had found great careers. Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of them.

  Colton set a hand on my thigh under the table and his touch comforted me. “Karena is a buyer at a high end department store.”

  “Well, actually,” I coughed, “I’m a personal shopper. So, I don’t do the buying…I just help my clients to buy!” The smile at my little joke, died on my lips when no one else reciprocated.

  Tina, Colton’s sister-in-law, chimed in, giving me a warm smile from across the table. “That’s lovely. I’ll have to book a consultation after I’ve worked off the baby weight.” She rubbed her tiny baby bump absently. “Which shop do you work at? Is it Pinkerton’s? I just love their stuff.”

  I flashed a confused look at Colton. He gave a small cough. “Um, Karena actually doesn’t live here. She lives in Seattle.”

  “Seattle?” Cynthia repeated. Her wrinkle-free brow lifted ever so slightly.

  “That’s right.” Colton flashed a look around the table. “She’s just here visiting for another week.”

  The silence that resounded back was deafening. I channeled every ounce of willpower into staying in my seat and not running for the powder room. Instead, I sipped my ice water.

  “I’m confused,” Robert said, commanding every eye back to his end of the table. “Where did you two meet?”

  “We met online,” Colton replied, setting his own glass down with a firm thump on the table. I could feel waves of irritation radiating from him. He’d warned me that his family could be a bit of a challenge, but the tension in the room was something I hadn’t expected.

  Cynthia cleared her throat and all eyes shifted back to her at the opposite end of the table. “What on earth were you doing online, Colton? I’ve tried to arrange introductions to dozens of perfectly lovely women who live right here in Georgia!” She waved a hand in my direction. “No offense meant to you, dear.”

  Right.

  I sucked in a deep breath and started to push away from the table. Colton’s grip on my thigh tightened and I froze in place. “Mother, can I see you in the kitchen, please.”

  It wasn’t a question.

  My eyes flashed to his as he pushed out of his chair, his hand sliding from my leg. I pleaded with him, silently begging him not to leave me alone with the rest of his family. He responded to my plea with a quick kiss. I turned my attention back to the table as Cynthia carefully folded her linen napkin into place and set it off to one side of her plate. “I need to get the hens from the oven anyways.”

  They left the dining room, Colton paused to close the double doors on the way out, and an even heavier silence descended on the rest of the party in their absence.

  “Where are they going?” Sammie, one of the young twins asked.

  “They’ll be right back, dear,” Tina answered, before looking ba
ck across the table at me. “I’ve visited Seattle before. Before the girls came along, I worked for a corporate event planning company, and we did a company retreat there with a tour of Pike’s Place Market and the Space Needle. It was lovely.”

  I smiled and nodded politely, grateful for her attempt to break the tension.

  Jeff, Colton’s brother interjected by asking his father something about a football game that had been on over the weekend, and the rest of the table was content to let them carry on the conversation for the rest of us. I picked at the lettuce leaves on my plate, shoving them from one side to the other, while my mind stewed over what Colton and his mother were off discussing. I knew it was about me, and hated not knowing what exactly was being said.

  After what felt like an hour, they appeared, each carrying a serving tray with plates that contained what looked like a miniature chicken, each dressed and garnished, on a bed of wild rice. Colton set a plate down in front of his brother Lyle, his girlfriend, and then in front of me, before taking his seat with the last of the plates and setting the tray off to the side. I glanced down to his mother’s end of the table as she took her own seat after serving the rest of the guests their tiny bird. Her face was tight and pinched looking, but from what I could tell, that was thanks to an afternoon spent with a plastic surgeon, and less to do with her emotional state.

  “Well, Colton, aren’t you going to share your news with everyone else,” Cynthia said, her voice overly sweet. At her prompting, Colton’s head jerked in her direction, his bite of food hovering between his plate and open mouth. She pointed her stare at him and smiled. “Come on, let us all join in on the celebration of the happy couple!”

  My heart froze at her icy words and I cut a look to Colton, wide eyed and terrified of whatever she was insinuating. Colton didn’t meet my glance. He pinched his eyes closed and took in a long breath, before lowering his fork back to his plate. He opened his eyes and wiped his hands on his napkin as he looked around to each of the occupants of the table, before locking his eyes with mine.

  “Karena and I are getting married.”

  Chapter Twenty: Colton

  “Married?”

  I wasn’t sure who had repeated it first, but the table buzzed with an echo of my announcement. Karena stared at me, her eyes pleading for answers. A hot blade of guilt ripped through me. I hated not being able to explain what had just happened to her, at least not until we got to be alone. Until then, she would feel confused at best, betrayed at worst.

  “What’s this nonsense?” My father boomed, commanding the attention of everyone around the table.

  “He just asked me for my mother’s ring,” Cynthia chimed in.

  My throat went dry.

  “We’ve never met this young woman before, and you come over here and drop this news!”

  Jeff met my eyes across the table, but I knew he wasn’t going to be able to dive in and save me with a sidelining conversation starter. He looked just as shocked as my parents.

  I grabbed her hand under the table. I forced a smile onto my face, hoping she’d play along. There was no derailing the runaway train now. “Karena, I know I wasn’t supposed to spill the beans, but I just couldn’t keep quiet.”

  Karena licked her lips to keep from gaping like a guppy. “A ring?” Karena echoed, finally finding her voice. I wondered if she’d even heard the rest of the commentary, or if her thought process had stopped there.

  My father interjected, “Is this why you haven’t been focusing on your promotion?” He shook his head, not even attempting to conceal his disapproval.

  Every inch of skin heated with the fire rolling through my veins. I squeezed Karena’s hand as I pushed away from the table. “Father, this isn’t up for discussion. Karena and I came here tonight, against my better judgment, and I will not have our relationship thrown under your critical magnifying glass.”

  “Against your better judgment?” My mother repeated. I cringed as her voice reached a new octave. “Just what is that supposed to mean, young man?”

  A cold laugh burst from my lips and my tense jaw went slack as I turned to face her. “It means that every time you invite me to one of these family dinners, I run through a long, long list of reasons why I can’t go, not that it matters, because if I skip out, whether legitimately or not, I’ll be hearing about it for the next year!”

  I exchanged a dark look with Jeff from across the table, waiting for him to back me up. He clenched his jaw. “Colton, come on, sit back down.”

  “Let him go, Jeff,” my father roared, throwing his napkin down on the table. “If he doesn’t want to be here, then let him go.”

  “Robert—” my mother started, but stopped short before she could finish her objection.

  I didn’t wait, I helped Karena from her seat and ushered her from the room, not looking back to say goodbye.

  * * * *

  “I’m so incredibly sorry,” I said, once we were sealed inside the safety of the cab of my truck. Karena was staring straight ahead, up at my parent’s massive house, still shell shocked from the dinner.

  “What just happened in there?” The words rained down on me like taking heavy fire as she whipped to face me. “I thought we weren’t going to tell them anything about the marriage experiment.”

  “I didn’t like the way they were interrogating you,” I started, pinching my eyes closed, wondering how things had gotten so far off track. “All I wanted was to get them to back off. I figured telling my mother about the wedding, would change her mood…”

  Karena scoffed. “Mission accomplished.”

  “I’m sorry, Karena.” I reached across the console for her hand, but she tugged it away before my fingers could reach her. “God, I don’t know what I was thinking. I figured she’d be so overjoyed that I was finally settling down, that she’d spend the entire dinner in a state of euphoria, mentally planning our wedding, and plotting how many children we should have. She tends to set the tone for these things. That whole, if mama’s happy, everyone’s happy. But, obviously that backfired, and my father…well, that I should have expected. He’s very…”

  “Rigid?” Karena offered, her voice flat.

  I smiled softly. “I was going to say pigheaded. But, sure, rigid works too.”

  Karena smiled but it melted away within a moment. “They hated me.”

  “They didn’t hate you, Karena.”

  “Well, it was very apparent that I wasn’t what they expected.” She scoffed, shaking her head.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here. It doesn’t matter what they think.” I turned the key and the engine rumbled to life. All I wanted to do was get Karena to myself and salvage as much of our night as possible, proving to her that I didn’t care what anyone else thought about her, or about our relationship.

  “How can you say that?”

  “What?” I stilled, my hand still on the key, as I looked over at her, surprised by her outburst.

  “How can you say it doesn’t matter what they think? They’re your family. Of course it matters.”

  I shook my head. “They’re just surprised by the news. Karena, I swear to you, this has nothing to do with—”

  “Are you serious?” She interrupted, with a sarcastic laugh. “Your mom just said it, plain and simple, that I’m not what she wants for you. Why else would she have brought up those other girls she has lined up around the block for you?”

  I shook my head. I didn’t have an answer. At least, not one that was easy to explain.

  Karena dropped her gaze from mine, and I watched as her eyes flicked up to take in the large house ahead of us. After a long moment, she shook her head slowly. “Wow. I can’t believe I really thought this was going to work…”

  “What are you talking about? Karena, look at me.”

  She tore her eyes from the house and met mine. Her eyes shone in the moonlight and my heart slammed into my chest, hating myself for making her so upset. “Colton, I can’t do this.”

  “I don’t—�
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  “There are things you don’t know about me,” she interjected. She paused and wiped the corner of her eye with the tip of her finger. “This whole thing is too much. People like your parents are never going to accept me. Or us. And I don’t need another jacked up family situation to deal with. Trust me.”

  I sighed. “Tonight wasn’t the best example…”

  “It’s not just the dinner.” She shook her head and stared back up at the house. “Your parents are loaded, obviously. I mean, I don’t think you get how opposite I am from all this.”

  “That doesn’t matter to me, Karena. I’m not Mr. Moneybags or anything. Yes, they have money, but that doesn’t matter.”

  “But this is what you want? Right? That’s why you posted the ad, you wanted a wife who could help you get ahead and get promotions and follow the path your father has for you. Someday you’ll be a General, just like him, and I’ll be the one planning tea parties for the Officer’s wives club, throwing charity brunches, and schmoozing our way to the top. I can’t do that, Colton. It’s not who I am.”

  “Where is this all coming from? I never said you had to do any of that shit!”

  “Your mom showed me the invitations options she was considering for her next dinner party. And you know what? I couldn’t even tell the difference between the two samples!”

  She buried her face in her hands and I stared at her, utterly at a loss for words. I reached for her, hoping my hands could convey the message I couldn’t verbalize. But she pulled away, and pressed into the passenger door. Her eyes flicked from mine to the windshield. “Can we get out of here, please?”