Once he was sure that I’d finished, he grabbed the Kleenex out of my hand and threw it over his shoulder before turning and lying on top of me and holding my face gently, so that I had no option but to look straight at his beautiful eyes. I hadn’t been expecting it, and I sure as heck hadn’t been expecting him to then lean down and kiss me, but the second he did I realized how much I needed him. It wasn’t a deep kiss, just small brushes, and I wanted more.
Before I could take it further, though, Cole pulled his head back. “Cliff notes,” he said firmly.
Sighing, I dropped my head back down to the pillow and looked up at him. “My parents are assholes, and I lost my sister.” That pretty much said it all really.
I could almost hear the thoughts whizzing through his mind over what I’d just revealed as he stared down at me and chewed on his lip. After a minute or so, he started stroking my cheeks with his thumbs and then said, “Right, I know that you don’t want to talk about it, but thank you for letting me in.” Huh? Gently pushing my hair away from my face, he continued. “At some point, I’m going to need to hear the details, but for now I know enough. What I’m going to say next though is going to upset you.” Bracing myself, I waited while he scanned over my face, before looking back up at my eyes. “I’ve been an asshole since I met you. It wasn’t intentional, but up until a couple of days ago, I wasn’t sure that I could do a relationship with you. Not that I didn’t want to, trust me I did, but could. I almost lost the chance because of the fire, and I keep thinking what if. So, we’re going to try this between us because life is too short not to, and the fire and your sister are proof of that. I know I have no filter and that I say shit that I should really think about first, but I can promise you, promise,” he stressed, never breaking eye contact. “That I will never hurt you, and I will appreciate every second that I have with you.”
I had no answer to that; I just lay there staring up at him in shock while doing my best fish out of water impression. Was there even an answer to all of that?
“So, we’re going to see where this goes and I’m going to prove to you that I’m not the asshole that you think I am. I mean, admittedly I need to think before I talk, and to make sure that doctors know never to give me pain medication, maybe stay away from unicorns…never watch Harry Potter again…” he trailed off obviously thinking of more of his fuck ups. “No, forget I said all of that. None of that happened, so it’s all good!” Lifting himself up off me quickly, he climbed out of the bed and leaned over to pick me up before carrying me through to the bathroom. “Well, I’m glad we agreed on that. Now, have your shower, and we’ll go to your apartment and pick up what we can,” he finished with a peck on my lips.
I finally got a thought together just as he reached the door to the bathroom. “You’re nuttier than monkey shit!”
Turning back to face me, he gave me a huge grin and then walked out and closed the door behind him.
What the fuck?
Chapter 6
Ebru
W e were in Cole’s new Ford Mustang GT350R heading towards Jilly’s for lunch. The only reason that I remembered the numbers and the R was because he’d made me repeat it, and had kept quizzing me the whole time we’d been at what was left of my apartment until I’d told him to shut the hell up.
When we’d gotten there, I’d looked around feeling numb at what was left of what I’d owned. When I got to my bedroom and saw that I’d unknowingly moved the metal chest with Louise’s stuff in it to under the window to stand on and that the flames hadn’t touched it, I’d almost broken down in tears; she’d saved my life. Then, I had actually cried when it hit me that her stuff was safe. Cole being the great guy that he was, held me and let me get snot and tears all over him again before picking up the box and whatever else he could find that wasn’t burnt, and had then guided me out of the door and down to the car.
“What’s the model?” he asked, handling the car like a pro down the streets towards the center of town.
“Shove it up your ass.”
Tutting, he shook his head as we pulled up to a red light. “Now, now. A car like this demands respect, Tinks.”
Tinks? Fucking Tinks?
“Listen mouth breather, I’m not much smaller than you…”
“Over a foot,” he interrupted, not lifting his eyes from the empty road in front of us while he waited for the lights to change to green.
Deciding to stick to a subject that might just make him a little bit less annoying, I asked him about his beloved car. “You said it was a 2017 model. How did you get it?” No way would I ever let on how intrigued I was by this question.
Setting off from the lights, he quickly built up speed. Unfortunately, he was also one of those irritating people who stuck to five miles an hour below the speed limit.
“Ren knows a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy, who I guess works for Ford. When Ren found out that I was about to pre-order one of these, he had a word, and I got a pre-release model.” He smiled at the dash in front of him as he stroked it.
“I thought the older ones were meant to be their best models?” I’m sure I’d heard that somewhere. Maybe in a movie like Gone in Sixty Seconds.
“That’s because they hadn’t driven one of these yet,” he said. Apparently, I’d found the one thing in life that Cole took seriously - his car.
“Can I drive it?”
“No.”
“What about if it was on one of the fields?” Judging by the look of horror on his face, that was a no too. “How about if I drove it ten feet?”
“No.”
“Five?”
“No.”
I sat back in my chair with a huff. “Fine,” I crossed my arms across my chest. “If you ever need me to drive you to a hospital to save your life, I won’t do it.”
“I’ve seen your driving baby and trust me, you’re doing not only me but the world a favor too!”
“Whatever wee wee whirler,” I grumbled, feeling a bit smug over using the nickname that his Mom had told us she’d given him when he was three and kept doing the dick windmill.
His gasp and the jerk the car gave as he accidentally pressed down on the gas made that smug feeling even better. Hah!
Cole
Oh, she knew that I was glaring at her across the table, but would she look up at me? No! Wimp.
“What’s up with you, limp dick?” Ren asked, taking a seat next to me after making sure that his wife was settled in her chair.
“Which one of you assholes told her?” I jerked my chin in the betraying little pixie’s direction.
“Told her what?” Brett finally looked up from his phone, which he’d been furiously typing on since he arrived.
“Oh, you know what!” They so did too.
Ren and Brett looked at each other, then at me, and finally at Ebru. “He wants to know who told me about him being called wee wee whirler when he was a kid,” she explained loudly.
Brett had just taken a mouthful of his Sprite, which came spraying out all over the table while Ren burst out laughing.
“Oh my God, this is better than Christmas,” Maya squealed.
Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!
Ebru
We were just settling in with our lunch when Maya asked about the apartment.
“Did you lose everything?”
“It was really the spare room, the kitchen and living room that got the worst damage. There was some to the bedroom, but a majority of the damage in there was smoke.” I was about to continue when the sound of heels tapping up to the table followed by the most irritating baby voice interrupted.
“Cole,” we all turned around at the same time, and I saw Cole stiffen out of the corner of my eye. “I…uh…you didn’t answer my text handsome and I…”
I tuned out the rest of what she was saying while I tried to remember where I’d seen her before. She had peroxide blonde hair that was almost white, an orange fake tan and would have been pretty if it wasn’t for whatever that was all over h
er face. Don’t get me wrong, I was a makeup addict. I may not wear much of it every day, but I loved the stuff, but what this chick had smeared on was more of a disaster than makeup.
I recognized her at the same time that Cole apparently reached the end of his tolerance level. “Go!” he barked at her. I was shocked because he was always so friendly and nice to people, but this woman really seemed to have rubbed him the wrong way. What had I missed?
“You need to go, Adele,” Brett said in a no-nonsense tone.
Staring at him a second too long and in a really creepy way, she eventually looked over to Ren and then at Cole again. “I’ll see you around, darling. Call me!”
I watched as she tap-tapped away from us, over swinging her hips and wiggling her ass. I remembered Brett saying she was Cole’s ex and obviously time hadn’t been a healer for him because the look on his face screamed otherwise.
The rest of lunch was mainly just us talking while Cole sat pushing his food around his plate. He wanted us to be something, but how could we when he obviously still had feelings for his ex-girlfriend?
Cole
The following day I was under a car changing the brake when my phone started screaming Sweet Child of Mine, Maya’s ringtone. I knew that she wasn’t alone because Amy had arrived this morning for the birth of baby Townsend. She was staying at Layla’s house, which appeared to have become the visitors quarters for some unknown reason. Maybe that was because it needed less done to it?
“He…” I got as far as before she cut me off.
“Cole, I need help,” she cried down the phone. This pregnancy had her hormones running riot and to heck if anyone could keep up with her emotions. “Ren is stuck in traffic, and I have a doctors appointment, and he said I need you with me for it.”
Well, fucking great. Thanks for that Ren, you big fat asshole. Just what I wanted and needed, to go and get your wife’s vagina and your baby checked over.
Picking up a rag because I couldn’t let her down, I wiped my hands off and headed over to the basin to wash them before I got in my beautiful car. “Okay My, I’ll be there in a bit. What time is the appointment?”
“One-fifteen.”
Looking at my watch, I saw that it gave me twenty-five minutes to get her and then get her to the clinic. I’m sure my shiny baby could do that. Signing off, I washed all of the shit off my hands and then headed in the direction of the doors telling one of the guys where I was going. His smug smile made me want to bring in one of the birthing videos and call it a staff training exercise, again. Maybe I’d just do that anyway.
I’d just walked out of the doors when I heard the one voice that truly made me nauseous.
“Cole!” What was with Adele and that fucking baby voice. Had it always been like that?
“Not now,” I walked past her in the direction of my car.
“But Cole,” she wrapped her barbed claw around my arm. I might not be a nasty guy, but I couldn’t take her touching me, so I snatched my arm away and turned to glare at her. “I know you must hate me, but the truth is that…”
“I don't have time for this,” I cut her off. “I’m off to take my sister-in-law to get checked, seeing as her baby,” I stressed the word, “is due in a week. Then I’m going to go and see my girlfriend.” Another stress. “You do not feature anywhere in those plans.”
She was still standing staring at me with her mouth open as I walked away. In the past, I’d been a pussy and had come to heel every time she told me to. Well, times had changed.
As I got to my car, my heart sank. On the front of it was a massive fucking sticker of a unicorn with: my other ride is a unicorn on it. The fuckers had even stuck it straight onto the car. If that left even a tiny mark I was going to…what the fuck was that?
“You bastards,” I yelled as loudly as I could, not giving one shit who heard me. The loud blast of laughter from inside almost had me turning around to beat the crap out of them, but then I remembered Maya. I didn’t have time to take the fucking rainbow wheel cover and fluffy rainbow chair covers off. The glitter that they’d scattered everywhere…I was going to fucking kill them. Thankfully, I could take the four unicorns hanging from the rear view mirror down, though. Reaching across after I’d thrown them in the back, I went to lift the bobble head unicorn off my dash, but they’d stuck it down. I was going to find out who did this and I was going to kill them.
Then it hit me…Ren had something to do with this; that’s why he was ‘delayed’. Ohhhh I was going to tell Maya, but first I was going to wind the shit out of him.
Turning on the engine, I picked my phone up and tapped out a message to the wrinkled sack.
Me; Wait until Maya finds out u couldn’t get to the doctors appt b’cause u wanted me to find the unicorns. An appt for ur own child. U’re a dead man!
Putting my phone on silent, I drove towards Ren and Maya’s to go and collect the heavily pregnant woman and the annoying ass, also known as Amy. Actually, maybe I should ask if they had anything plastic like a trash bag to protect my seats in case her water broke?
I was still mulling over the upholstery in my car when I pulled up to the house, seeing Amy and Maya standing waiting on the porch. Being the amazing gentleman that I was, I got out of the car and rounded the back to open the do…taking a couple of steps back I stared at the addition that I’d missed the first time round - a rainbow horse’s tail stuck to my trunk. It was so long that it actually brushed the ground, and I’d driven all the way here with it. Groaning and putting my head in my hands as the two evil witches on the porch laughed their asses off, I thought back to all of the people who’d been staring and pointing as I drove past. I thought it was just the natural beauty of my car for fuck’s sake, but it looked like a gay pride version of My Little Pony so no wonder they’d stared!
Looking closely, I noticed that they’d just trapped it in the trunk instead of sticking it on like I’d been scared they’d done. Popping the trunk open, I shoved it all inside and started making plans to shove it so far up Ren’s ass that…
“Thanks, Cole. I appreciate it,” Maya said, coming up and kissing me on the cheek. Like the sap that I am, I followed her around to the passenger side and opened the door for her as Amy let herself into the back.
I’d just started the engine and was driving with the mandatory SUV filled with Coleman’s men behind us when I started the beginning of the end of my brother.
“So, Ren’s not actually stuck in traffic…”
Ebru
Cooper had been in for his check up to see how he was recovering from the injuries that he’d sustained when the bomb at Luke’s house went off, and I was just walking back down to the ER to get back to work when I looked up and saw Cole’s ex-girlfriend walking towards me. Just fucking great. Picking up a chart and staring at the words on it, I did my best to look busy in the hopes that just maybe she’ll walk past me; I was wrong.
“Who are you?” The baby voice was gone, and the one that had replaced it was nasty and matched the sneer that she was now aiming in my direction.
“Pardon?”
“Bitch, don’t mess with me,” she took a step forward until we were almost touching. “Who are you?”
I really didn’t have it in me to play this game, especially not with the girl that Cole still loved, so I made a point of just looking down at my work badge that was pinned to my scrubs.
“Well, Ebru,” she hissed my name, and it took everything in me not to take a step back. Had this chick never heard of personal space? “Cole is the father of my child, and I would strongly advise you not to interfere with what’s going on between us.” My stomach felt like it dropped out of me to the floor. He had a child? “Ah, he didn’t tell you did he? Oh dear, my bad.”
I didn’t give her a chance to say anymore as I turned and walked to the locker rooms, trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do. He had a child? That one word just kept repeating around and around in my head. Why didn’t he say something?
Where was the child? Did everyone else know?
Making the only decision that I could, I picked up my phone and started typing.
Cole
“Cole. Hey, Cole!” one of the guys yelled from the back. “Your phone’s going off!”
Making my way over to where all of the paperwork for the waiting vehicles was, I picked up my phone and smiled when I saw Ebru’s name on the screen. Clicking onto the message, the smile immediately disappeared.
Ebru: Your ex paid me a visit. You never said you had a child?
Fuck me, that bitch! That fucking bitch! I almost dropped my phone as I typed back. I wanted to call her, but she was on duty, so I knew she wouldn’t answer it. In fact, I’d be surprised if she even answered any messages from me.
Me: I swear there’s no kid. Am on my way.
Yelling out to Ren as I ran past him, I headed toward my car desperate to get to her. All I could think of was how she must be feeling, and I was pissed at myself for not explaining sooner.
Thankfully, the hospital was only a couple of blocks away and Ebru’s shift would be ending soon, so I took a deep breath and walked through the doors of the ER. Because they were short staffed, she was on rotation in departments, but this week it was the ER which was great because I didn’t have to go hunting for her.
In front of me at the nurse’s station was Lars who was looking at the screen of a computer with a frown on his face that got worse when he looked up and saw me walking towards him. Shit, did he know too?
“She’s crying.”
“I’ll fix it. Where is she?” I couldn’t stand the thought of her crying, and I wasn’t lying, I was going to fix it.
Nodding towards an accessible toilet, he reached under the desk and passed me out a funny looking thing that I recognized as a key to disengage the lock of the toilet. As I walked up to it, I wondered if I should maybe knock first just in case she was actually using the toilet. I decided against it because what if she didn’t come out?
Providence Series Books 1-4 Page 56