“Not at all. That makes it really easy, actually.”
“Great, I’ll have Anna finalize everything with you. And I will have Sasha brought up.”
“Thanks, Doc. I really appreciate it.”
“As do I, Lexie. As do I.”
He gives me a quick side hug and is out the door. I head back to reception to wait for Sasha. When they bring her up she’s clearly doped up and walking lopsided from both the medication and the brace on her leg. The tech helps me get her in my car, and we head for home.
* * *
I sit with Sasha most of the afternoon, just to make sure she really is doing okay. It’s so hard with pets since you never really know what they’re feeling, but, by the time I’m leaving to meet Kat and Remi for dinner, she seems to be resting fitfully and not really needing me at all.
We scheduled our weekly girls’ dinner early in the week since Remi claimed to be more than ready to leave the hospital, that Chance is driving her crazy and she needs a break. Even though I just saw Kat last night, it feels like the three of us haven’t been together or had a chance to catch up for a while.
I get to The Crazy Burro, our normal dining haunt, first; which is not all that uncommon. Kat has a hard time being punctual for anything, and Remi likes to make an entrance for everything. I order a round of margaritas for the three of us and sit back to wait for my besties to arrive.
“I’m starting to think that maybe you just don’t eat at home, sweetness.” I hear the voice before I see the man. The voice that brings a little shimmy to my seat and heat to my belly. I look up and see Cole Mason turning one of the chairs around at my table and sitting his front to the chair back, with his arms resting along the top.
My God, this man is good looking.
Don’t react. Don’t react. We don’t like him.
“Clearly, that goes both ways,” I say dryly.
Good one, Lex. Keep ‘em coming.
“Me?” he asks. “I don’t like to cook for one. Plus, I’ve got a meeting in a bit with a breeder from the Central Valley.”
“What do you mean you don’t like to cook for one. Am I supposed to believe you can cook if it’s for more than one?”
“I cook real well for two, sweetness,” he says.
I’m not sure what to say to that, so I fidget with my napkin instead. The server brings the margaritas to the table.
“I take it you’re pretty thirsty,” Cole says, eyes wide.
I grab mine and take a long pull of the frosty goodness, hoping like hell I don’t get a brain freeze. “The other two are for Kat and Remi.”
He looks at me with a raised eyebrow.
“My two best friends. We meet for dinner at least once a week. For girl talk. Private girl talk.”
He nods, a faint frown on his face.
“Well, I guess I will leave you to it then.”
Don’t go!
Shut up, Lexie.
You shut up.
He stands and twirls the chair he was sitting in back around, pushing it in at the table, before tipping an imaginary hat at me and walking toward the back of the restaurant to another table in the far corner. I can still see him in my periphery. Or at least the outline of him. The outline of him that flirts shamelessly with the server, orders a beer from the bottle, and hugs his pregnant dinner guest when she arrives. I guess when he said breeder, he didn’t mean horse. I laugh to myself.
Where the hell are Kat and Remi?
As if on cue, Remi arrives, picking up her margarita and taking a big draw from the straw before even sitting down.
“Ah,” she says after she swallows. “I needed that.” She sits down in the chair next to me. “I don’t care what anybody says, Lex. Men are babies. Great big overgrown babies.”
“Remi,” I laugh. “He was shot. His leg was, like, shattered by a bullet. He lost a ton of blood.”
“All of which makes him a baby.” She takes another long sip of her margarita. I’m always amazed when she doesn’t get brain freeze.
She’s dressed in a very Kat-like outfit. In fact, it might even be Kat’s. Long cotton maxi-skirt with a tank underneath a loose cardigan and flip flops. Then I realize she’s still having a tough time wearing pants with all the cuts on her legs.
“Hola, mamacitas!” Kat sits in the chair recently vacated by Cole, prompting me to glance over at his table. Our gazes clash and he raises his beer bottle in my direction, winking. His companion laughs and looks in my direction as well.
I gasp and return my focus to the chips and salsa in front of me, shoving two of the salty triangles into my mouth at once. I take a drink of my margarita to wash it down, then notice that our table is quiet.
“What?” I ask, looking up at both Kat and Remi.
“Where’d you go there, Lexie-loon?” Kat asks.
“Were you flirting with the good-looking man at the corner table?” Remi smiles.
“No! I most definitely was not.” I sneak another quick glance to make sure he’s not looking. Except he is. And this time both Kat and Remi follow my gaze. Cole tips his imaginary hat at the three of us. I whip my head back around.
“Quit looking!” I tell them.
“Ohmigod!” Kat’s face lights up. “Is that him? The most shtupable man in the world?”
“Be quiet,” I hiss. “He’ll hear you.”
“He’s not going to hear me from all the way across the restaurant. Besides, even if he did, it’s a compliment. He won’t mind.”
“I mind.”
“Wait, what did I miss?” Remi cries. “Who is the most shtupable man in the world? God. You see what happens? You fall in love, your man gets shot, and all the sudden your best friend is shtuping and telling everyone but you. This is all Chance’s fault.”
“Is he being a baby?” Kat asks Remi.
“Ohmigod, yes. You have no idea.” Remi nears the end of her margarita. “Another round?”
“We haven’t even ordered dinner yet and you’re already finished with your first margarita?” My girls and I are no strangers to drinking, but Remi finishing a large margarita this quickly surprises even me.
“Have you met me and the mess my life is right now?” she asks. “Don’t worry, I’m not driving. Chance’s sister dropped me off and I’m taking an Uber back to the hospital after dinner. My plan is to drink my mess away.”
“Your life isn’t a mess, Rem,” Kat says. “Your life is pretty fucking great right now, all things considered. But Lexie here, her life is a mess. Think about it, Trevor is back. Again. And wants her back. Again. He finger-fucked her in the exam room while her dog was getting x-rays to prove how much he wants her. Not to mention she hasn’t been properly laid in months. And Mavis is obviously the only one out of all of us who cares about that since she’s trying to whore Lex out to Señor Shtupiness over there who’s been giving her googly eyes from across the restaurant all night.”
“Don’t exaggerate,” I say, grabbing more chips. “It hasn’t been all night. We’ve barely been here ten minutes. Did I mention we haven’t even ordered yet?” I pop a chip into my mouth.
“Yet, I’m already prepping for margarita number two, so . . .” Remi says, as she raises her hand and signals to the server.
“Fine,” I concede, swallowing my chip. “My life is a mess. And we need more drinks. Happy now?”
“No, of course not,” Remi says. “I never want your life to be a mess. What’s going on?”
I give Remi the abbreviated version of yesterday with Trevor at the clinic and Cole at the restaurant last night. Then tell them both about Cole’s text messages later in the evening. And grab another handful of chips and begin shoveling them in my mouth.
“I think it says a lot that he wants to pay the vet bills.” Kat scoops salsa on a chip and pops it in her mouth.
“Me too,” Remi agrees. The server comes to take our dinner order and brings our next round of margaritas, I’m barely half finished with my first. I’d suck it down real quick like, but I always g
et brain freeze.
Always.
And then I have to sing “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice in my head to make it go away.
It’s a process.
So instead I pour as much of my first margarita as I can on top of my second and let her take away my mostly empty glass.
“Plus,” Kat continues, “he’s in my line of sight, so I keep ogling him, and that man is one tall drink of yumminess.”
“Six feet four inches and all muscle if you ask him,” I mutter.
“Oh really? And did we ask him?” Kat looks at me and wiggles her eyebrows.
“No, we didn’t,” I say. “He volunteered that information all on his own. He was upset because I called him little.”
“Him or his dick?” Remi asks me.
“Him! My God, why would I be talking about his dick? I barely know him.”
“What does that have to do with it?” Kat and Remi both ask at the same time. They look at each other, smile and point. “Jinx!” both say again. And then, “You owe me a Coke!”
“Why did you call him little?” Remi asks once she stops laughing with Kat.
“I was being patronizing.” I raise my hands in the air and look up to the ceiling.
“My opinion, a man that looks like that is packing,” Kat says.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s not like we’ll ever see it,” I say.
“You never know,” Kat replies.
“Of course, I do,” I say.
“Never say never,” Remi pipes in.
“I didn’t say never,” I pout.
Neither respond.
“Fine. Whatever. Moving on. What do I do about Trevor?”
“What do you want to do?” Remi asks.
“I don’t know,” I say. “That’s why I’m asking you guys.”
“We can’t decide for you,” Kat says.
“Of course, you can,” I say. “All you have to do is tell me my best course of action and set me on the path toward it.”
“Lex, choosing your mate is one of the biggest decisions you can make. Do you really want me, Madame Chemo-Brain, and Lushy McLushiness over here making it for you?” She gestures to Remi with the second nickname.
“Not when you put it like that,” I laugh.
“What’s your hesitation in moving forward with Trevor?” Remi asks.
“This one over here,” I say pointing to Kat.
“Hey, don’t blame me. I told you it’s just my opinion.”
“I know,” I say, “but what if it’s not just your opinion? What if your pinky prediction super power is hard at work here and we don’t know it?”
“But my pinky didn’t tingle.”
After one of Kat’s cancer tumor removal surgeries, she woke up with the ability to foretell bad things. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, her pinky tingles.
“Maybe you just didn’t notice it.”
“Well, that’s never happened before,” Kat says.
“Doesn’t mean it couldn’t now,” I argue.
“True, but it’s still doubtful,” Kat says.
“I agree,” Remi interjects. “And I don’t even know what Kat said. Plus, I don’t have a secret super pinky power. I just know I’m not the hugest fan of Trevor for you either.”
“Since when?”
“Since always,” Remi replies.
“Wow, okay. Thanks for letting me know.”
“I have let you know,” Remi says.
“Well, I thought you’d changed your mind this last time he was here,” I say.
“I did,” Remi says. “Until he left without a word. That wasn’t cool.”
“He ghosted you,” Kat says.
Our food arrives, saving us from any further conversation regarding Trevor on an empty stomach. Which is good for me, I can get particularly sensitive and cranky when I’m hungry, and I don’t want to say something I don’t mean or misinterpret something they say.
I sneak a peek at Cole’s table in the corner and am surprised to see that it’s empty. When did that happen? He couldn’t even be bothered to say goodbye.
What a jerk.
It doesn’t matter, Lex. Let it go.
I’m trying. But I’m still disappointed.
Abort feelings, Lexie. Abort feelings. You aren’t disappointed, you’re neutral. Apathetic even. He doesn’t matter.
The pregnant breeder suddenly appears at my side.
“Hey, I just want you to know that he’s a good guy. Cole. You should really give him a shot. You won’t regret it.” She turns and walks away without another word.
“What the fuck?” I say.
“Lexie,” Kat says in a sing-song voice. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“Nothing, I told you everything, I swear. I have no idea where that came from. Why does she care? Did he make her do that? Ohmigod.”
“Well?” Remi asks.
“Well, what?”
“You gonna give him a chance?”
“He’s a good guy, Lexie,” Kat says mimicking the breeder.
“Can we just drop it, please?” I plead.
They both look at me for a minute. I’m sure to gauge how serious I am about dropping it. Pretty fucking serious if you ask me. I glare at them, they look back to their plates and continue eating.
I rein my feelings-not-feelings in and we finish out our meal with very little additional Trevor or Cole talk, for which I’m grateful.
“The winery renovations are finished, right?” Remi asks me.
“Yes. This Doc Richardson event in a couple days will be the first one there.”
“You nervous?” Kat asks.
“Terrified,” I admit.
“Lex, it looks amazing. I mean I haven’t seen it one hundred percent finished, but what I saw before was incredible. Besides, now you have Mavis as a business partner, how bad can that be?” Kat laughs. Remi and I join her. Although, I’m a little reluctant to laugh. Because I often wonder myself, just how bad can it be?
A while ago, Mavis decided she needed a hobby, so she told me she was going to work in the tasting room. Which I was totally fine with. There’s really not much in this world I wouldn’t give that woman if she asked. Except then she told me she didn’t like the downtown tasting room. That it lacked the character and appeal of a true winery.
That’s when she offered to “buy back” into Lovestone. Her rationale being that it would give me the capital to revamp the house, which did need it, as well as build a new tasting room and lab, plus modernize the other outbuildings on the main property. As an aside, she would sell her house by the ocean and move into the same condo building as Babs and come see me every day at the winery. And since I deny Mavis nothing, she now lives in a condo near Babs, and she takes an Uber to the winery near every day, using my tasting room as a hobby to spend time on.
She and I went a little crazy with the renovations, I fear, but the end result is breathtaking, I have to admit. So, we’ve closed the downtown location, my heart and soul, with my little barrel room and my little lab, and I’ll be there.
All the time.
With Mavis visiting every day.
Christ, Lexie. What were you thinking?
* * *
Kat and I wait with Remi in front of the restaurant until her Uber comes. After which, she goes one way and I go the other, each of us having parked in different directions. I find my Jeep easily, mostly because I always park under a light if I’m coming back to my car at night. Except tonight it looks like someone is leaning against it. I reach in my purse for my pepper spray. As I get closer I see it’s Cole. For just a second, I’m tempted to pretend I don’t recognize him and spray him in the eyes. But I don’t. Instead I ask him what he’s doing there.
“Well, if I’m real honest, sweetness, I’m waitin’ on you,” he says.
Ignore your increased heart rate, Lexie. He doesn’t matter.
“Okay,” I say. “Why?”
“Well.” He looks down at his feet as he shuffles them
. “I want to make sure that Sasha really is okay.” He looks back up at me, his gaze concerned.
“She’s fine. I brought her home today. It’s just going to take a while for her to recover because of her age. I spent the afternoon with her. She’s good. Really. She seemed to be doing really well when I left for the evening. Thank you for your concern.”
“Well, then I also want to make sure you are okay,” he says, reaching out and touching my upper arm. Heat sings through my body. “I know it’s not easy to cope when your pet is hurt. Especially when it could have been prevented. By me. So . . . I’m sorry. I’m going to keep Bette Davis barned until I can train her to not vault the fences.”
“Bette Davis?”
“That’s her name. On account she’s got real pretty eyes.”
I laugh. “I like that name.”
“Much obliged.” He drops his hand and shuffles his feet again.
Do I make him nervous?
The thought makes me giddy. I don’t make anyone nervous.
Ever.
I’m about as intimidating as a Q-tip.
“Also, I really don’t want things to be sour between us, what with us being neighbors and all. So, I’m wonderin’ if we can call it a truce.” His eyes are hopeful. “’Specially since I’m not lookin’ to shtup Miss Mavis and all. That’s the right word, idn’t it?” He says it like there’s a “d” in the word isn’t and not an “s.”
I laugh. “It is the right word. And, okay, a truce it is.” I reach my hand out to him and we shake. A tingle zings through my body at the contact, just like when he touched my back at the restaurant with Mavis. Just like when he touched my arm a moment ago. I pull my hand back, stunned. Not sure what else to do, I quickly climb into my Jeep and start it.
“So, uh, great,” I say. “I’ll see you around, then.” I drive toward the parking lot exit and sneak a glance in my rearview mirror once I get there, surprised to see him still standing there, watching as I drive away. Maybe I do make him nervous, but I’m pretty sure he affects me more.
Chapter 14
Cole
Love Unforgettable: Love in San Soloman - Book Three Page 8