Cocksure (The Cochrans of Cocker County)

by Walker, Shiloh

  It was time to start multi-tasking.

  I fumbled for my Bluetooth, getting it into place just as Kelly’s face came on the screen.

  I didn’t feel better knowing I was right. Her hair shot out in a hundred different directions and her lipstick, if she’d ever put on any, had long since been chewed off.

  “Hi,” I said weakly.

  “Don’t you hi me,” she said. I could tell by the way the tablet framed her image that she was on her phone, all but holding it right in her face. “Start talking. Now.”

  So I did.

  My phone chimed again, but I ignored it. “Luke’s mom is sick.”

  “I saw that. Not what I want to hear about.”

  “Yeah, it is.” I held up a hand to cut her off. “Kelly, he panicked. She got to talking about how she worries that something will happen to her before she gets to see her kids settled and happy...especially him. She’s always worried about him a little more, and you know that.”

  Her brows dropped lower. “I thought they’d mended all those fences years ago.”

  “They did...but she still worries.” I didn’t tell her that I could understand why Joanne worried. There were things Luke kept buried deep inside—things he needed to let out, so he could heal. Those were his secrets, though. He’d done a good job hiding them. It wasn’t my place to force those secrets out of him. Forcing a smile, I added, “You know he hates it when she worries. I guess he started panicking that maybe this is his fault. She’s had several small heart attacks and he’s sick with worry, and he just blurted it out without thinking.”

  Kelly’s eyes went wide.

  “We’ve got millions of people tweeting about you two being engaged because Luke went and lied to his sick mother?” she demanded.

  I winced. “I know it sounds bad...”

  “It sounds fucking horrible!” She shoved both hands through her hair. “Who in the hell knows the truth? How many people?”

  I held up three fingers. “Just us. You. Me. Him. That’s it.”

  “That’s it?” She gave me a skeptical look. “I’m not buying it.”

  “That’s it,” I insisted. “I swear. His sister Bella walked in while he was telling her and she freaked. She spent about twenty minutes gushing to me about it. Swears she always saw this coming.”

  My face heated as I remembered how Luke had tried to cover. Hoping to hide my reaction, I looked down at the phone, which had buzzed yet again. Kelly was still quiet, so I swiped my finger across the screen and groaned when I saw how many questions Luke had sent me—and he was growing increasingly more frustrated, too.

  I texted him back.

  I’m talking to Kelly, Luke. Can’t wait. Give me five minutes.

  He didn’t immediately respond, so hopefully he got the point.

  “Sabrina.”

  I looked up to find Kelly watching me and I almost breathed easier as I saw that some of the frustration was gone from her eyes. But once I realized it had been replaced with worry, I decided it was too soon to breathe easy.

  “What?” I managed, through years of experience, to keep my voice and face neutral.

  “You can’t keep up that act forever. Not playing a game like this...not with Luke.”

  “What act?” My heart skipped a few beats, then started to speed up.

  Her eyes softened. “Honey. I know how you feel about him. You do a hell of a job hiding it and he’s completely clueless about it. But while maybe we can weather this storm without it reflecting too badly on him, you are not going to come through unscathed.”

  I waved a hand. “Women always end up looking like the heel in these things. I can deal. It’s not like I have much of an online presence outside of working with Luke anyway.”

  “That’s not what I mean, and you know it.” But her jaw went tight. “However, that will be a factor and I’m not overly happy my client is setting my best friend up for it, either.”

  I averted my eyes.

  “Sabrina.”

  Kelly’s low, soft voice urged me to look back at the screen, though, and after a couple of seconds, I did.

  “What are you going to do when this is all over?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  She hitched up one shoulder. “Luke’s mom will probably—hopefully—get better. This whole...engagement thing will pass. Breakups happen. We can weather that. But what about you and Luke? What are you going to do?”

  I racked my brain, trying to come up with an answer that would satisfy Kelly.

  “I don’t know,” I finally said, each word coming slowly. My throat ached and my chest burned but I managed to keep going. “But...Kelly...I couldn’t just ignore him. I couldn’t. Hell, what would you have done?”

  Kelly lowered her gaze and pressed her fingertips to her brow. After what felt like forever, she looked back at me.

  “What do you want me to say?” she asked softly.

  “You don’t need to say anything,” I told her. I hitched up a shoulder. “I already know what you’d do in my position. You’d do exactly what I did, if it all came down to it...and you know it.”

  “I more than likely would have,” she said, obviously choosing her words slowly. “I’ve got a soft spot for Luke, and you know that. The two of us started out in the business together. I took a chance on him, but he took a chance on me as well. There’s very little I wouldn’t do for him.” She leaned closer to the screen, her eyes solemn. “But there’s a big difference between you and me. And you know what that it is, Sabrina.”

  I started to look away.

  “Don’t you do that, Sabrina,” she said sharply. “Don’t even try it. You hear me?”

  Sighing, I swung my head back around and glared at her. “Fine.” I flung out my arms wide, palms up. “What do you want me to say? I’m a pushover when it comes to him. We both know this.”

  “You’re not a pushover.” Her brows beetled together. “You’re in love with him. There’s a difference.”

  A knot lodged in my throat as she pointed a finger at the screen. Although she was a couple of thousand miles away, I could practically feel the shiny red tip of her fingernail poking me in the chest. “You’ve been in love with him for years. I suspected it for a little while, but for the past few years?” She shrugged. “It’s not just a suspicion. It’s a plain fact.”

  “So?” I demanded, staring at her.

  “So...you’re not going to be able to walk away from this without it affecting you.”

  I waved a hand. “I’ll deal with it when it happens.” Summoning up a smile, I tried to reassure her. “Come on, Kel. It’s not like I haven’t had to navigate rough shit before. You know that.”

  “But that’s the thing...” She touched her fingertips to the screen, sighing. “You’ve navigated enough rough shit. I don’t like Luke throwing you right into an entire sea of it.”

  “He didn’t,” I told her. I gave her another smile, one that was hopefully more confident. “I can handle this, Kelly. It will be fine.”

  My phone started buzzing after that. One text after another. Kelly’s phone was ringing, too, and as she looked at the screen, she said, “I’ll work up a statement, okay?”

  I nodded at her and waved my fingers bye. She did the same and the screen went dark.

  I barely noticed, already focused on the screen of my phone.

  Twelve messages.

  All of them from Luke.

  Sighing, I opened the app and scrolled straight to the bottom.

  They’re transporting Mom to Louisville. We need to get an apartment there—no, make it two. One for us and one for whoever else wants to come in and stay when they can. Make sure there are extra bedrooms and try to figure out some sort of grocery delivery, okay? We won’t have time for that shit.

  I tapped my tablet and hit the microphone. “Search for furnished apartments in Louisville, Kentucky.”

  As the search results filled the screen, I went to the next message.

  Can you do
some research on this stuff they want to do on Mom? You heard what the doctor said. They’re talking about cardioversion or something like that. Bella says it’s fairly routine, but I want to know more about it.

  I sighed and opened the note app on my phone, tapping in a quick note about what I needed to do. I understood the concern. I’d learned, firsthand, the need to be your own advocate—or your family member’s advocate—when it came to medical emergencies, but Luke had Bella right there and if he thought she wasn’t researching the hell out of this stuff...well, maybe I knew his sister better than he did.

  But I knew him, and I knew he’d feel better once I did some basic research, so I resigned myself to learning more about human anatomy and heart conditions.

  By the fifth message, I was about ready to reach through the phone and grab Luke by the front of his shirt and shake him.

  I had just finished reading the last two messages—detailed texts about what hospital they were transferring her to, what time, who the doctors were going to be, and just how much he wanted me to look into their backgrounds—when another text came in from him, followed immediately by two more—and the last one?

  It read:

  Any luck on the apartment search?

  I hit the phone icon and called him.

  He answered immediately. “How’s the apartment search going?”

  “Well,” I said, staring at the tablet I had yet to even look at. “It would be going a lot better if you would stop texting me every two minutes.”

  “You called me to tell me that?” he demanded.

  I was silent for a few seconds as I debated how to answer. I admitted, of my own free will, that I was a pushover when it came to Luke—under certain circumstances.

  But that didn’t mean I was a doormat.

  “Luke?”

  “What?” he asked in a testy voice.

  “Unless you want to handle all of this by yourself, I would suggest you back the hell off and give me some room and time to work.”

  I hung up and put the phone on silent, then grabbed my laptop. I almost left my phone on the bed, but in the end, my sense of responsibility won out and I took it with me to the glassed-in back porch. I put my things down and went back into the house and opened the wine cooler under the counter, studying the bottles of wine.

  I needed a drink and I had a feeling Joanne would understand.

  I selected a bottle of red from a local winery and opened it, finding the biggest damn glass I could find. After filling it almost to the top, I recorked the bottle and put it in the fridge then headed back out to the porch so I could get to work.

  I was tempted to just take the whole damn bottle, but I was tired, I’d barely eaten all day and I didn’t trust myself not to fall asleep if I had more than a glass.

  I’D BEEN THROUGH THIS routine before—locating a furnished apartment on a moment’s notice—and I knew how to cut through the bullshit, and I knew when I was wasting my time.

  That made it easier to eliminate quite a few of the options, narrowing my choices down to a workable five, with three possible alternatives if the first five didn’t work out.

  The sales manager wasn’t in when I called the first one, and wouldn’t be available for the next two days, so I just drew a slash through that name.

  The second was in a meeting, so I left my first name and a number, but the disinterested tone of the assistant’s voice left me wondering whether or not the message would be passed on.

  But the third time turned out to be the charm.

  It was actually one of the long shots, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask, so I put the call in anyway, tapping my earpiece to adjust the volume as the woman’s voice faded out on me.

  “I’m...can’t hear you?” she said.

  “Hold on,” I said. “Let me switch to speaker.” As I did so, I tapped my phone and saw that two more messages have popped up from Luke. I smothered a sigh and shifted my attention to the phone call. “Hi. Sorry about that. Technology, you know.”

  “Oh, no problem,” she said with a laugh. “Technology can really suck sometimes, I know. Trust me, I know. How can I help you today?”

  Still distracted by Luke’s new texts, I said, “My name is Sabrina Maxwell and I—”

  A sharp gasp interrupted me. “Sabrina Maxwell?”

  “Ah, yes...” I frowned, glancing at the phone. “I’m calling for my employer and I wanted to know—”

  “Okay, I’m probably grasping at straws here, and I’m so sorry for interrupting, but is this the Sabrina Maxwell? The one who just got engaged to Luke Cochran?”

  I closed my eyes and rubbed them before looking back at the phone. Had I fallen into the twilight zone?

  “Ma’am?”

  “Yes,” I said slowly. “Ah, I’m here. And, yes, that’s me. I’m calling for Luke. He’s going to need a furnished apartment in the Louisville area. Actually, two of them—”

  “Oh. Oh, wow. I can’t believe this.” Her voice had that giddy, bubbly tone that had become familiar to me since I’d started working for Luke. “Wow. Okay, give me a minute. I’m usually not like this. I mean, we’ve had celebrities stay here before—one of the bigwigs for a local distillery likes to have parties in his place and he’s always...oh, crap. I’m rambling. It’s just...well, I love Luke and...”

  “It’s okay,” I told her. I’d had these conversations so many times, it had become second nature. “Let me just tell you what I’m looking for and you can let me know whether or not it’s anything you might be able to help me out with. Luke has personal business that’s going to have him in Louisville for a few days, maybe even off and on for a few weeks. I’m not yet sure of the time frame.” I mentally groaned as I considered the PR tour coming up next week, and the opening for the next Sword movie. “I don’t have a specific timeframe, I’m afraid. But he’s looking to rent two furnished apartments and he’d like them both to have several bedrooms. Do you have anything that might suit those needs?”

  She blew out a shaky breath.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping she had gotten a little more focused.

  “As it would happen, one of the property managers is right here, Ms. Maxwell. Can you hold for just a minute?” she asked.

  “Of course, Ms— I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

  “It’s Celeste, ma’am. Here, let me talk to Meka real quick and update her.”

  In her excitement, Celeste didn’t actually hit the mute button, so I heard a few low murmurs but I didn’t catch any of the words.

  Still, when Meka came on the line, I knew Celeste had told her enough. I could hear it in her voice. “Ms. Maxwell, I understand you’re in need of a short-term lease on at least two furnished apartments?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She made a low noise under her breath, then asked, “I have three different units that would work. One, the seller just wants to sell, but she’s already told me she’s open to long or short-term leasing until I can find a buyer. The other two units are available for subletting for the next six months. I assume that will work for your needs?”

  “That should definitely work. I don’t anticipate needing either unit more than a month or two, at most. Probably less than, but we can come to an arrangement, should the owners only want to rent out on a month to month basis.”

  “Excellent. When would you like to come in?”

  “The sooner the better,” I confessed, shooting my phone a dirty look. I was surprised I hadn’t already heard from Luke again, to be honest.

  “Well, if you can be here by eight, we can do a walk-through of both units tonight.”

  “Ah...” That caught me off guard. I looked at the time and did the mental calculation. I’d been to Ulysses with Luke often enough that I knew the travel time between Louisville and the small town just outside of Madison to the minute. It wasn’t even four, so I could easily make it to Louisville, assuming I borrowed one of the vehicles. The Porsche 911 had worked to get me from here to the
hospital, but it worried me, driving a car that cost almost as much as some houses. It wasn’t a problem, though. I doubted Joanne would mind me using her SUV. At least Luke hadn’t bought her the new Mercedes Benz yet. I’d freak out over driving that one, too. “I can do that.”

  “Can you give me a time frame?”

  “I’ll be there by five-thirty, unless traffic ties me up. Thank you...Meka, correct?”

  “Yes, Ms. Maxwell. Ah...will anybody be joining you?”

  I had to appreciate her smooth subtly there. I suppressed a smile as I responded. “It will likely be just me, although my plans are often subject to change.”

  It took me another ninety seconds to get off the phone, then I was off the bed, all but vaulting into the bathroom. My phone buzzed again as I was shucking out of the black capris I’d worn to the hospital. I skimmed the messages and huffed out a breath, then put the phone down, the little pop-it thing on the back serving as an easel to prop it up.

  Tapping the icon on the screen, I dialed Luke’s number. As I turned away, I could hear the phone ringing. I unbuttoned my shirt and slid it off, my mind already on the tasks ahead.

  If, by some slim chance, they were able to put a rush on the paperwork—and the apartments worked—it was possible Luke could get settled in the next few days.

  I needed to work out grocery delivery but that wouldn’t be too much of a hassle. I’d also have to start dealing with the very real possibility that he might miss some of his meetings and interviews in New York next week.

  Sliding out of my shirt, I dropped it on the floor and studied the clothes hanging on the hook on the inside of the bathroom door. I had a system, of sorts, when I traveled. Most of my clothing was the wrinkle-free, easy-to-wear sort and once I arrived at wherever I’d be staying for more than a day or two, I hung it up in the bathroom for at least a day so it could air out.

  I hadn’t had time to move my clothing into the closet since we’d arrived. I’d meant to settle in a bit more, but then Joanne had gotten sick and everything had just gone to hell in a handbasket.

  As I was reaching out to grab the first piece of clothing I saw, Luke’s voice came on the line.