by Summers, MJ
Drifting off quickly, he dreamed about Claire. It was a hot, summer day and they were sitting outside together on a picnic blanket playing with a baby. The baby looked like Tomas but was Claire's child. Cole watched her lovingly as she laid on her back with the baby sitting on her tummy. She held the baby's hands and talked and laughed. She looked so happy and his heart was full of warmth.
She looked into his eyes with a smile and said, "Let's get this little guy to bed early so we can have some grown-up time together."
"Oh, just how grown up are we talking?" he asked.
"NC-17 rating stuff," she grinned.
"My favourite kind," he said, leaning over and kissing her.
Suddenly, they were in bed together, it was night time. Claire was dressed in a black bra and panties. She was straddling his body, massaging his chest and arms. She leaned her face down and kissed him sweetly, parting her lips and letting her tongue glide across his mouth. He reached up and cupped her breasts in his hands, loving their fullness. She kissed his neck and moved her body down slowly over his, finally reaching his rigid cock. She looked up at him as she held him in one hand and traced the head of his cock with her tongue.
"I want you to come in my mouth," she purred. There was something strange about her voice but he couldn't quite figure out what. She pushed her lips over his length, drenching him. He laid on his back, excited by her sucking him firmly.
"Oh Claire, yeah..." he heard himself say.
She suddenly lifted her mouth off of him, "Meu amor, there is no Claire. She left you."
Cole woke with a start. He suddenly realized that there really was a woman under his covers. He scrambled out of bed and flipped the light on. Gabriela was there, completely nude and looking annoyed and lustful at the same time.
"Gabby, what the fuck!?!" he exclaimed, grabbing his boxer briefs and pulling them on.
Tomas woke with the light and the noise and started to cry. Cole walked over and patted his back, pulling his blanket up over his shoulders and shushing him. Gabriela quickly turned the light off and laid back with a frustrated sigh. After a minute, Tomas went back to sleep.
Cole put on a t-shirt and his pyjama pants and motioned for her to get up and meet him downstairs.
He walked down to the kitchen and turned the light on above the stove, leaning against the counter. He was fuming, feeling both manipulated and guilty at the same time. Gabriela came down the stairs a moment later in his bathrobe, clearly thinking she could convince him to let her stay. She had a naughty grin on her face.
"Cole," she laughed, "I'm sorry I startled you. It is just that you have been so sad and I can make you feel so good."
She crossed the kitchen as she spoke, reaching out to touch his lower abs with her fingertips. Cole took her hands and removed them, placing them by her sides and letting go.
"I didn't invite you into my bed. I'm not ready for any of this, Gabby and we woke Tomas. He was right in the room with me for God's sake!"
"Cole, he would have slept through the whole thing if we had been quiet. But if you aren't comfortable, we could just stay down here for a while... I seem to remember us making good use of this counter before," she undid the belt on the bathrobe, letting it fall open to reveal her nude body.
Cole took a deep breath and then reached out and closed her bathrobe. "Thank you for trying to cheer me up, Gabby. But I just can't. Give me some time, okay?"
Gabriela sighed and looked down at the ground, filled with humiliation. She had never in her life been rejected like this before and it stung.
"Am I different to you now that I've had a baby?"
Cole looked at her with surprise, "Of course that's not it. You look exactly the same, but you have to think of what the last month has been like for me. My whole life has been turned upside down and I need time to sort everything out and to learn to trust you again."
"Okay," she said, tearing up with embarrassment more than remorse. "I'm so sorry Cole. I hope someday you will forgive me for what I've done. I just want you to know that I'm here waiting for you."
She wrapped her arms around his neck, "You've forgotten how good we are together."
She kissed him full on the mouth and then turned to go back upstairs to get dressed, hoping he would change his mind and ask her to stay. When he didn't come upstairs, she returned to the kitchen, fully dressed.
"I'll come by and get Tomas first thing in the morning," she said stiffly.
"You can leave him here as long as you like, really. I have the day free and we had a lot of fun together. I could bring him by in the evening if you want."
"Well, maybe lunch time then," she said with a little nod, walking out the door and closing it behind her. She walked back to her cabin with a feeling of panic in her chest. She needed to have Cole wrapped around her little finger before Trey came back for Christmas holidays. If she couldn't do that, he would ruin everything.
Chapter 10
On Monday morning at 9 am sharp, Janet's assistant put a call through to her office, "It's a Cole Mitchell, he said it is about your sister, Claire."
Janet put down her pen, "Really? I have a few things to say to him. Put him through."
A moment later the phone clicked and she was on the line with Cole, "Janet Hatley speaking," she answered with a distinct edge in her tone.
"Janet, it's Cole Mitchell calling. I'm so sorry to disturb you at work. I promised Claire I wouldn't try to contact her and I had to know if she's okay."
Janet had been pissed right off at Cole until she heard his voice. He sounded so worried that now her anger dissolved into pity. He had just taken all the fun out of being mean to him.
"Hi Cole, she's not too great actually."
She heard him sigh heavily on the other end of the line, "Right. I guess that makes sense. I just had to know if she was safe. All this time, I assumed she made it to your place but then tonight a horrible thought occurred to me that maybe she hadn't made it and that you wouldn't have known she was coming even. I can't believe I didn't think about that possibility before."
"She made it here two weeks ago," Janet replied, not sure how much she should say, "What time is it there, anyway?"
"Two am," his voice was quiet and thick with emotion.
"Can't sleep either? Claire's having the same problem."
"Is she eating at least? She wasn't eating at all the days before she left."
Janet was annoyed that he wasn't giving her a reason to lay into him, "Not really. She seems to have replaced food with booze for now."
"Oh shit. I am so sorry," he said, "I can't believe how badly I fucked this all up. I keep replaying the last two weeks before she left in my head, wishing I could change so much of it."
"Well, you were dealt a rough hand, but you definitely didn't play your cards right either."
"Oh, I know I didn't. I don't think I'll ever stop regretting that. I just can't stand the thought of her being angry at me."
"She's not angry with you. If she was, it would actually be a lot easier for her to move on."
"Janet, I would do just about anything to make this better for her. I just wish there was something I could do."
"If I could think of anything, I'd tell you. But not contacting her is a good plan. It would be much harder for her to hear you like this, sounding all considerate. I don't think I'll tell her you called."
"Thanks, Janet, I appreciate it. I would hate to make things any harder for her than I already have. I just needed to know if she was okay. I'm sorry to have bothered you at work. I'll let you go."
'Okay, good-bye, Cole."
"Good-bye, Janet....Janet, wait. Please take care of her."
"I will, Cole. You take care too."
"Thanks."
Cole hung up the phone, wishing he could stay on the line with Janet a little longer, to somehow have some connection to Claire. He wandered over to the window. It was snowing out and the moon's reflection on the fresh snow lit up the night, giving the sky a reddish g
low. He watched the snowflakes falling softly on his deck, his heart breaking. He stood there for a long time and then resolved to find a way to help Claire.
* * *
On Wednesday morning, the day before Thanksgiving, Janet and Ted got up early to catch a flight to New York. They had booked the trip to visit Ted's family for the holiday several weeks earlier. They had planned to surprise Claire in Colorado as well, but now were staying on in Syracuse, New York for a few extra days. Claire got up to see them off, having not slept again.
"You look like shit, Claire," Ted said, giving her a hug. "You have got to get out and have some fun. And for God's sake, eat something."
"Thanks Ted, but I already know how I look," she replied. There were dark circles under her eyes and her face looked gaunt and pale, her hair hung down limply around her shoulders, needing to be washed.
"Are you sure you are going to be okay on your own?" Janet asked, giving Ted a dirty look, "You really are welcome to come with us or I could easily stay home."
"Thank you but I'll be fine, I promise. You should definitely go, you haven't been across the pond for a while and I need to stay. I'm not in any condition to go visiting people right now."
Janet gave her a concerned look, "I could just stay here and feed you all day for the next several days."
"I'll eat. I'll eat. I promise. Just go already so you don't miss your flight," Claire replied giving her a big hug.
* * *
Later that day, Claire wandered around the house, looking for something to do. An unbearable loneliness had set in as soon as her sister and Ted had left. She took a shower and then decided to find ways to keep busy. She had already cleaned out the fridge, washed the floors and put away her laundry. She decided to walk down to the grocery store, buying some fresh buns and the ingredients to make a minestrone for supper so she could have leftovers for a few days. The cold weather made her want soup.
Her cell phone buzzed just as she was unlocking the door to the townhouse. She dropped her keys and the grocery bags on the counter, then dug her cell phone out of her coat pocket, swiping the screen to read the text. She felt the breath leave her body. It was a message from Cole, but it wasn't for her.
It read, "Hey babe, last night was terrific. Can't wait to see what you have planned for tonight..."
* * *
Cole sat in his office, his heart pounding. He was immediately filled with regret upon pressing send. It had taken him two days to decide to go ahead with his plan, hoping it would help Claire to move on without him. It was all he could do not to call her right then and tell her why he sent it. He sat at his desk, his eyes trained on his cell phone in front of him. He hated playing games and this seemed like an awful one to him. His fingers drummed restlessly on his knee as he watched and waited for some response.
* * *
Claire sat on a stool at the kitchen counter, draining the last drop from the bottle of wine she had opened an hour earlier. She stared at the message for the fiftieth time since she had arrived home. The wine was numbing the pain by now and her initial shock had turned to rage. She could picture him, sitting at his desk, smiling smugly to himself that he was going to get laid again tonight.
She hit reply and tried to draft a message back that would cut him to the core. Coming up blank, she put her phone down on the counter and picked up the bag of buns she had bought earlier. She pulled one out of the bag and slowly ripped off tiny pieces, eating them one at a time. She weighed her options carefully. She could call him over and over again until he picked up, then scream and swear at him. That would certainly feel good and would hopefully ruin his day. But it would be completely devoid of dignity, so that was out. She could go to a bar, pick up some random guy and pretend to pocket dial him while they made out - too obvious. She could take the high road and do nothing, which would feel like shit for now, but would make her proud later. Fuck that.
Claire's mind raced, 'If only Janet was here. She would know how to play this. Fucking hell. How the fuck could he move on so quickly? He's an asshole, just like the rest of them. Fuck Cole. Fuck Gabriela. Fuck Antonio. Fuck them all.'
She picked up her cell phone again and typed a reply, "I see you and Gabriela are making it work. Congratulations. Maybe don't rub it in my fucking face though. Delete my number from your contacts. It's Claire, by the way, in case you forgot who I am."
She read it over a couple of times. "Fuck him," she said as she pressed send. She turned her phone off and went to her room to put on her cosiest pyjamas. She added a fluffy bathrobe and pink fuzzy socks for good measure and then went back to the kitchen to make her soup.
The next two days Claire neither showered, nor dressed. She had taken to sleeping on the couch and left the TV on all day and night to keep her company. She drank wine from the moment she woke up until she passed out at night. No reply came from Cole, which didn't surprise her. Part of her burned with anger at his thoughtlessness and but a tiny part knew he would feel very bad about sending that text to the wrong woman. She hoped she had managed to wreck his Thanksgiving. He had moved on within a few days of her leaving and it hurt like hell. Everything that they had said and done together, the promises they made, the dreams they had, she herself, meant nothing to him. He was back in Colorado with his new little family and she was an ocean away devastated and utterly alone.
The third morning, Claire woke up with a splitting headache and an aching body from laying around so much. Her eyes refused to open completely as she tried to focus on the clock across the room. She walked down the hall, feeling a little off-balance as she moved slowly to the bathroom. When she got there, she flicked on the light and stood for a moment with her eyes closed, preparing herself to see her own reflection. Finally she opened her eyes to see a pale, thin face with sunken eyes and greasy, matted hair. She hardly recognized the woman she saw in the mirror. How could she have let herself spiral down so far?
"You done?" she asked the woman staring back at her.
She knew she had to stop feeling sorry for herself. It was time to let go and move on, to find her strength. She couldn't let losing a man destroy her like this. So what if he was with Gabriela already? Big fucking deal. There were people in the world with much worse problems. She had survived losing her parents as a teenager, she had started her life over twice in six months, and somewhere inside that pathetic looking woman was someone strong and sexy and vibrant.
Claire stripped off her pyjamas and stepped into the shower. She stood under the spray of hot water for a long time, washing away her self-pity along with the vile build up she had accumulated over the past forty-eight hours. Thirty minutes later, she was clearing out all the empty wine bottles and cleaning up her mess. She wouldn't sit around wallowing for another minute. She needed to be productive, useful, and find a purpose to her life.
Chapter 11
Back in Colorado, Gabriela was in her cabin, folding laundry on the couch with the TV on in front of her. Tomas was playing on a blanket near her. She realized that up to now Cole had been the one making all the moves to be named legal father of Tomas and that she should have been trying to push things forward as quickly as she could. If the paperwork was all said and done before Trey got back, there would be a better chance that she could convince him to stay quiet about their one night stand.
Colorado - Eighteen Months Earlier
It had happened three days before she went back home to Brazil and was one of the reasons that she had left. Cole was out on a cattle drive for a week and she was feeling miserable and bored to tears. Trey invited her out with a group of his friends for a pub crawl. She decided to go along, thinking Cole wouldn't mind if she was out with his younger cousin. Trey's friend picked them up on his way into town and they met up with a large group, going from nightclub to nightclub, dancing and drinking heavily.
Trey kept a careful eye on Gabriela, fending off the advances of the many men that hoped they would have a chance to take her home that night. As the evening wore on, G
abriela started to get a little thrill from Trey watching over her. By the time they reached the third bar, the pair found themselves pressed together on the crowded dance floor. What had started out as innocent fun, turned quickly into a dangerous flirtation.
When Trey's friend had dropped them off back at the ranch, he grabbed Trey's arm before he got out of the car, "Buddy, you better cool it with your cousin's girlfriend before you both do something you'll regret."
Trey brushed it off, "What? Her? Don't worry about it man, she's like a sister to me." He stumbled out of the car after Gabriela.
She turned to him as the car pulled away, "Walk me home, my big, strong bodyguard."
Trey stared at her for a moment, weaving from side to side a little, "Oh, you are trouble."