Peyton jumped and screamed, startled all at the same time. She whipped around in an attempt to send her a glare but, with the tears running down her face, it was impossible.
“What’s going on?” Kate asked, concerned.
“I don’t know.” Peyton collapsed in the office chair behind the desk.
“Did something happen?”
“Not yet.”
“What do you mean not yet?” I mean Colt’s hasn’t slept with my yoga instructor yet, duh!
“Oh forget about it.” She groaned and dragged her hands back over her face, angry, sad, guilty and humiliated.
Kate sat on one of the two chairs along the far wall. “This has to do with Colt doesn’t it?”
Peyton’s blank stare stretched out across the room. “A guy,” she finally said after a long silence. “A stupid guy.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
Kate’s smile softened. “Stop making me ask you questions twice.”
“Nothing did happen. That’s the whole thing. We agreed to obey the game plan because of Dad and Elaine or me and Colt, because of Lauren, I don’t know. But now we are friends and off-limiting us from lust and sexual desires and all that crap.” Why was she sharing all these things? “And I was fine with that.”
“Game plan?”
Keep up. “Colt brought the game plan into our lives because we are like two horny animals who can’t keep off each other whenever we are alone. And the game plan reminds us we are friends. Strictly friends.”
Kate’s face was twisted with confusion. “Horny animals? Game plan? I’m so confused. Who’s Lauren?”
“Welcome to my world.” She threw her hands in the air.
“What has you all fired up right now?”
Peyton let out a huffy breath. “My yoga instructor gave him her number!”
“What? Wait a minute.” See, even Kate was in shock. “Colt went to yoga?” That was not what Peyton was shocked about. “With you?”
Peyton nodded.
A smile crossed Kate’s lips even as she tried to straighten it.
“He didn’t enjoy it,” Peyton snapped. “But he did get a number afterwards. Well done Patterson.” Jerk.
“Okay, so you both agreed to be friends? Right?”
“Yes.” Hadn’t she already explained this part? Her sister was so far back.
“And that’s what you want?”
“Yes.” Isn’t it?
Kate nodded, taking a moment to register the conversation, then she smiled at Peyton. “You like him,” she accused. “You like like him.”
“What? No!”
Kate laughed. “Yes you do.”
“No, I’m just ticked he’s trying to bang my yoga instructor.”
Kate shook her head. “When did this happen?” Nothing happened. “I mean everyone knew you liked him back in the day and sure you slept with him now, but you’ve slept with more than a few men.” Peyton shot her a look. “I just had no idea you let yourself like like him.”
Oh no...she did like like him. She groaned in mortification. “I don’t know.”
“Does he know?”
“What? No! This isn’t some little joke Kate. You can’t tell him or hint or whatever because I’m not interested in him.”
“You’re not?”
“No and neither is he.”
“How do you know?”
“The game plan.”
“Yeah, but when you agreed to the game plan you didn’t like like him. So how do you know maybe his feelings for you have changed too.”
Peyton was shaking her head. “No. I don’t want this.”
“Well, whatever you do or not it’s not fair to Abby you taking your anger out on her. She’s had a hard year with Gran’s death and she’s doing the very best she can.” Kate was giving her that motherly look she used to send her when they were little. “She’d never been very stable and I blame the two of us for running off to college and not sticking around and now without Gran and her living in Gran’s house alone...why do you think she’s at Riley’s every night?”
“You knew?”
“I did raise you all and I suspected as much but I don’t think it’s physical. So you owe her an apology.”
The guilt had already been weighing down on her, only seconds before she saw the hurt she caused. She’d just been too damn mad to settle down and snap out of it.
“I know. But I can’t give her an explanation Kate. Not right now.”
“Don’t think your sisters are so naive. It might have taken me this long to figure out so I’m sure they are right behind me.”
Peyton hated that about her family.
“Are you ready for a brown-nose kind of day?” Kate asked and Peyton knew she was going to be walking on egg shells around Abby for the day. She might be a wild child but she was also a sensitive one.
“No.”
“Too bad.”
Ugh.
“Come on.”
Another ugh.
As they walked to the back door Peyton paused. “I’ve never felt this before,” she said to Kate. “About a guy I mean. And like you said, it’s not like I haven’t been with men before...but with Colt there’s something different. Since that very first time.”
Kate touched her shoulder. “Peyton, it’s called love.” Leaving her with those words, she pushed the swinging door open and Peyton was left standing there alone.
Love? Love?!
What on heavens earth was that woman talking about. Peyton wasn’t in love. She could hardly stand the man. Plus, she’d made it her life’s journey never to fall in love. Never to be stuck in the game that left the losers alone and wounded for eternity.
Oh crap.
Chapter Twenty-One
It was Friday night and, after another long day of bath bomb making, Peyton couldn’t wait to roll up on the couch with a blanket and watch re-runs of whatever until her brain was so numb she couldn’t think past work...or Colt.
She’d done a fantastic job of purposely not coming into contact with him this week. Up early for an unnoticeable escape and sneaking home late practically running to the back door in case he was anywhere to be seen.
Peyton couldn’t face him right now, not when she was mad at him, mad at herself and mad at her emotions and not understanding them.
It was the last weekend before the grand opening and at the end of the day her sisters had all said farewell and taken off for a mini weekend vacation. Kate, Marc and Rosemary flew to one of the other resorts he owned. Sydney, Haylee and Abby rented a hotel up north and were having a girls weekend away. They had all invited Peyton but after her mood she didn’t want to bring her sister’s getaways down. Besides, she craved alone time to sort out exactly what was going on now that they were finished with all their products for the grand opening. She could have her brain back.
Peyton walked into a wonderful smell of supper and a table set for two. Oh great. Elaine was over.
Why were they having supper so late? It was almost nine in the evening. And where were they? She prayed they’d heard her come in and she wouldn’t walk in on their naked bodies anywhere.
She was going to hide away in her bedroom for the evening. She tossed the paper someone had left in her windshield saying something or another about saving your soul or stealing another, she wasn’t sure, but she was too tired to care and tired of them blanketing her vehicle every night.
She tried to sneak upstairs unnoticed as not to spoil their evening as much as to keep from having to talk about Colt.
As if he’d heard her think his name, Colt appeared in front of her from the living room entrance she’d been trying to avoid. Her sneaky feet skidded to a stop. Oh great. He was here too. How flipping wonderful.
And why did he always have to look like he just stepped off the cover of a magazine even if he was only wearing denim and a casual black knit long sleeve shirt?
She suddenly had the urge to pull the sweater across her filthy shirt underneath. I
nstead she placed her notepad in the exact spot she dumped white powder and liquid all over.
“Good evening,” he said and her toes melted. No, they didn’t. Remember the yoga instructor. Who he had likely already jumped into the sack with and it was absolutely none of her business since they were only friends.
“Supper’s ready and warming on the stove.”
“Did you three eat already?”
He leaned forward. “There aren’t three of us here.”
What was he talking about?
“Dad and Elaine?”
He straightened himself back up and stuck his hands in the pocket of his jeans doing a little rock back on his feet. “Actually I’ve been unofficially kicked out of my mom’s house.”
“What are you talking about?” And what did that mean? For how long? Supper? The night? Where was he staying? Here? Here!
He grinned. “My mom was making your dad a romantic dinner and, instead of being uncomfortably stuck in my room, I decided to come here and cook us supper as a thank you for crashing on the couch.” Crashing on the couch? Go rent a hotel room! “Which I ran by your father and he didn’t mind.” She minded! “And I figure you can’t avoid me then.”
“I’m not avoiding you.” Yes you are.
He smiled. “Now that we have that cleared up I will get supper out while you go upstairs and convince yourself you weren’t avoiding me.” He walked past her and into the kitchen.
He was so infuriating she could scream.
“It’s called working Colt,” she yelled after him instead.
“Let the excuses roll.”
Argh!
Maybe she would go upstairs and not come down for the rest of the night. How would he like that? The stupid ox would probably find her and drag her downstairs.
Feeling filthy, especially in comparison to Colt, she showered the day’s oils and powders from her skin relaxing into the warm water as it kneaded her overworked worn body.
When she stepped out of the shower she could have crawled into bed and slept until noon the next day.
She skipped her makeup, instead opting for her new favorite cream from the shop that transformed her skin into the smoothness of a rose petal. She flipped her head over and launched the blow dryer at the damp curls that formed an overload of puffiness that she didn’t normally wear when she let it air dry.
Peyton stared in her closet in a debate that was making her angrier by the second. She’d wanted to come home and put her yoga pants on and curl up on the couch for the night. Alone. Now she was considering climbing into jeans. But her yoga pants called for her and besides what was the point trying to look good for him. He didn’t want her. Game plan.
The black yoga pants and a mauve silk tank top underneath won. Then on her way out the door she grabbed a light pink jersey-knit shirt and slipped it on.
Peyton found Colt in the kitchen leaning against the counter skimming his cell phone.
He glanced up and grinned and she heard him click his phone off. “It did cross my mind you might not come down.”
The aroma of two large bowls of fettuccine Alfred pasta peppered with parmesan and steaming hot teased her hungry stomach. She was starving. She was tired. She was sad.
She sat down and felt all the emotions crash on the chair with her.
“I couldn’t find any wine.”
That was because her dad was a recovered alcoholic. “I don’t keep wine in the house and you’re not allowed it anyways.”
“Good news, this week, while you weren’t avoiding me...” He made air quotes for the word, weren’t. “all the assault charges were dropped and my case was settled out of court.”
That was good. That’s what money could buy.
“But I found this bubbly.” He opened the fridge and pulled out her flavored water. “Strawberry orange.” He was twisting the bottle to read it. “Soda water,” he finished and stared at the liquid looking appalled.
She held her glass toward him.
“And bubbly water it is.” He poured her a glass but had a bottle of water for himself.
Peyton twirled a fork of pasta into her mouth. It was delicious. Colt cooked this? Why was he so amazing? Why didn’t he like her the same? Why did he keep kissing her and then sleep with her yoga instructor? This was what her head had been like the whole week. No wonder she was so exhausted.
“How was your day?” he asked.
“Good.” It was long and hard. She watched her sisters laugh and talk about their lives and she was sulking about hers and they all knew it, which made her day even more frustrating trying to smile and laugh when she was feeling like an emotional train wreck.
“What did you do?”
Thought about you every spare second I had. “Worked.”
He grinned. Why was he grinning?
“What?” It came out as a snap even as she tried to control it.
His face turned serious. “What did I do?”
“Nothing. Why does everything always have to be about you?”
“Alright,” he said slowly. “What happened to you that put you in this delightful mood?”
“I lost my yoga instructor.” It was out of her mouth and she was sending him a you-know look before she realized she’d answered the question she didn’t want to. And she had let him know she cared. Oh for crying out loud! Why did he have to be here?
He nodded. “So it is about me.” It wasn’t a question.
Peyton had let it out now, she might as well stand behind it rather than cowering away. “Why did you have to go and sleep with my yoga instructor?”
“I didn’t.”
“You took her number and that’s what it was for.” She’d been right there, he couldn’t deny it.
“She gave me her number and I have no intentions of calling her.”
Why did that make her so relieved? She tossed her fork down and it made a loud sound as it hit the edge of her plate.
“You’re mad at me because I didn’t call her?” Was he trying to make a joke or was he that damn blind?
“No. I’m mad because it bothers me that you might sleep with another woman.”
Shut your mouth now!
***
Colt watched the horror cross her face as the words came out of her mouth. She was as jealous of him with other women as he was of her with other men. What did this mean?
“There are always going to be women in my life that are going to offer...” he paused, trying to think of a less aggressive word. He failed. “...sex. It doesn’t mean I’m going to sleep with every one of them. It doesn’t mean I will sleep with any.” I only want to sleep with you.
“What are we doing here? Me and you? What is this?” Her hands waved at the dinner he had prepared for them.
He set his fork down and folded his hands in front of him. “We were eating and we are friends, aren’t we?” Did she want more? Did he want more? What was the definition of more?
“Is that all this is...friends?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you still love Lauren?”
The question threw him for a loop. Lauren? Why was she dragging Lauren into this conversation? Wasn’t it difficult enough without his ex wife involved?
“What? Why?”
She shook her head looking angry as hell and pushed herself away from the table. “Forget it.” She stood and stormed out of the kitchen and back towards the stairs.
He practically jumped from his chair. It slid across the floor almost tipping over while he chased her down the hall.
“Peyton. Stop.”
Peyton stopped at the bottom of the stairs, her loose pink blouse falling off her shoulder. Her eyes were drowning in a storm of feelings he couldn’t decipher.
She rubbed her hands across her face. “I’m sorry. You said I could ask you anything and I know it’s inappropriate. I know we are just friends. The game plan, Lauren, my rock heart, your crushed heart and who am I to get upset about who you date or sleep with or...”
<
br /> He didn’t let her say another word. She wasn’t making any sense anyway. He grabbed both sides of her face as a wild thunderstorm played between their lips. How could she think he was in love with anyone else? In love?
The thought should have torn his lips from hers, but it didn’t scare him. He was tired of fighting what was between them. He loved her. He wasn’t sure when it happened but he knew it for certain. He also knew there was so much between them unanswered and he didn’t want another meaningless tumble in the sheets so he pulled away.
Sadness consumed her frowning lips and confusion filled her eyes. He felt the same way.
“Come on.” Holding her hand he settled them both down on the sofa. “I don’t know what we are doing either,” he admitted. “What do you want to do? I’ve never done anything like this before.”
She looked up at him almost shyly. “You’ve been in love,” she accused.
“Not like this. I’m not still in love with Lauren. I’m not sure I ever really was in love with Lauren. If love is what I’m feeling right now, the way I feel about you, then I know I wasn’t in love with Lauren.” He paused. “Because I have never felt this way about another person before. Lauren and I rushed into things and I don’t believe she was ever really in love with me. She liked my title and I liked hers.”
“Trophy wife.”
“Trophy husband.”
“I don’t see you like that.” She touched the side of his face.
“I don’t think anyone has ever seen me the way you do.” He covered her hand with his and moved it to his lips.
“I’ve never looked at anyone the way I look at you. The way you make me feel. I never wanted to feel this much for someone and I’m scared.”
“What are you scared of?” This was the side of her Colt had never seen, the side she kept hidden.
“When my mom died Gran and Dad...they both took it so hard. Gran stopped visiting us for over a year and she was lost her in sadness. Dad took much longer to get over my mom and he went to the bottle to drown all the sadness of losing her.” Peyton looked up at him. “I’m afraid of that pain, that uncontrollable sadness. The hurt from someone I allow myself to love that much.”
“Peyton I would never hurt you. I would never let anyone hurt you.” That was the truth. He knew this spark didn’t need anyone to protect her but he felt the desire to exactly that.
Lakeshore Legend: The McAdams Series (By The Lake Series Book 2) Page 18