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There it is. That personal part of my life that Cole is slowly sliding inside. “Still good,” I say, stopping next to him and grabbing a cup from the cabinet, my arm brushing his in the process. Heat jolting up my arm and without intending to, I look up at him.
“Sorry,” I murmur, when I’m not, but it’s necessary that I responded as if I am.
“Don’t be,” he says, his eyes finding mine. “We’re all good here.”
We’re all good here. I know what it means, but it’s generic, easygoing. I cut my attention to the task at hand and stick a pod in the Keurig.
“Any gossip on the man she’s seeing?” Cat asks, pulling my attention back to her.
I consider my reply, and the fact that I’m now headed into territory that is personal to Cole and I, but it’s also unfinished business that feels like it needs to be finished. “Actually yes,” I say, rotating to lean on the cabinet next to Cole, to find Cat turned in this direction. “She saw him with another woman in a coffee shop and she’s convinced he’s a manwhore.” I choose the word manwhore precisely because it’s what I’ve called Cole in the past.
“Oh no,” Cat says. “Oh no. She deserved a Prince Charming after all she has gone through. I want her to find a Prince Charming.”
Prince Charming.
What a choice of words.
“I hope she’s going to stay away from him now,” Cat says. “Before he does more damage.”
“Or,” Cole presents. “She could actually talk to him and ask him what’s going on.”
“I agree,” Reese says. “Have her just go at him like Cat goes at me.”
Cat laughs. “I go at you, huh?”
“Hell yeah you do, but a good fight and fix works miracles.”
“But you’re you,” Cat says. “What if this guy is a jerk?”
“Or not,” Cole presents again.
“Or not is what I told her,” I say. “Everything isn’t what it seems. She should talk to him.”
“Is she going to do it?” Cat asks.
“I don’t know,” I say, “but if she does, I hope it’s the right decision. I hope I’m not helping some kind of player play her.” I rotate and lift my cup off the tray, pouring powdered creamer inside, and taking a sip. “I sent you a cheat sheet for tonight, Cole,” I say, trying to get back to business. “It should be in your email.”
Cole sets his cup on the counter. “I need a minute before we go, Reese.” He doesn’t wait for a reply. “Let’s go talk before I leave, Lori.”
Adrenaline surges through me. My “back to business” gave him an opening that I won’t deny I knew would exist, and he’s taken it and quickly. I nod, and ignore my coffee, and trying to seem as normal as I can, I point at Cat. “Send me the file,” and quickly turn to follow Cole.
I exit the kitchen and he motions me forward down the hallway. We pass the bathroom where I took that pregnancy test when I thought I might be the mother of his child. It reminds me of the torment one night had caused me, but it’s not one night anymore. We enter the foyer where we pause on the other side of the wall, a hallway between us and anyone else in the apartment, where we can hear footsteps, and not be seen.
Cole steps around to face me, big and broad, and every bit as overwhelming as he always is, and I like that about him far too much to be his employee. He advances on me and I hit the wall, his hands pressed to the wall on either side of me as they were in the stairwell. His piercing blue eyes fix on me, seconds ticking by where I want him to touch me when I shouldn’t want him to touch me, passing like hours.
“What are you doing, Cole?” I whisper.
“I’m trying not to touch you and it’s fucking killing me.”
He says it with such low, fierce, pained intensity that it’s all I can do not to touch him “Stop.” I say and I’m not sure if I’m talking to him or me.
“I’m not doing this, sweetheart, we are.”
“You shouldn’t call me sweetheart.”
“All right. Lori. Is that better?”
“Not when you say it like you’re thinking about us being naked together again.”
