Cole regarded her a second or so too long before putting the car in gear and pulling out of the station’s parking lot. “That the truth?”
“Okay, so things were a little dicey. Because I could tell how disappointed they were. Are. That things didn’t pan out between me and their son. But whatcha gonna do? So. How was dinner with Pop? Or should I say, why was dinner with Pop?”
He pulled on to the main highway that would take them back to Maple River. “Working backward, because he asked. And, to use your own word, fine.” He paused. “This transition...I don’t think it’s easy for him. Which is probably why I think he has matchmaking on the brain.”
“Oh, yeah? And who’s the lucky couple?”
Cole tossed her an amused glance before refocusing on the road. “Us, goofball.” At her silence—because her brain refused to cough up a coherent thought, let alone verbalize it—he said, “I thought you should know. Forewarned and all that.”
“Um, thanks? But...” She frowned. “Why?”
“I’m guessing he wants you to stick around. So...” He shrugged.
“Except you don’t even know if you are. Right? So it doesn’t even make sense.”
“This isn’t about logic, Bree. It’s about...” One hand on the steering wheel, he pressed the other to his chest. And her own cramped.
Sabrina sighed. “Everybody else is right here, for heaven’s sake. Why does he think he needs me, too?”
“Because you’re not everybody else,” Cole said quietly.
And then let that sit there.
So, before her brain exploded into a million gooey bits, she said, “Well, here’s hoping once he gets settled in at Sunridge, things will be better.” Then she grinned. “Maybe we should try to fix him up. It’d serve him right. All those widow ladies over there...” She snapped her fingers. “Hey—how about your aunt?”
“Lizzie?” Cole chuckled. “Other than the fact that she’s old enough to be his mother? She’d eat him alive.”
“You don’t think Pop could handle her?”
“I don’t think Godzilla could handle her,” he said, and she laughed. And God, it felt so good to laugh. To be with someone she could simply be herself around—
“That necklace...wow. Is it new?”
“What? Oh.” She fingered the turquoise and coral bib necklace lying heavily against her breastbone. “I picked it out for Kathryn a couple of years ago, but she says it’s too much of a statement piece to wear anymore. So she asked me if I wanted it.”
“I’m guessing that’s not from Target.”
“Good call. But they’ve got money to burn, and as long as she keeps spending it, she helps keep the economy going. And, yes, it occurred to me that there might’ve been a wee bit of guilt coloring the offer. At least I got a kick-ass necklace out of the deal, right?”
Cole shot her an unreadable look, then said, “So I take it you knew Chad came from money when you started going with him?”
Sabrina hadn’t expected the question to hit as hard as it did. Or for as many reasons. “Since his mother introduced us, yeah. Obviously. Why?”
“Just wondering.”
A beat or two passed before the light dawned. “And I cannot believe you’d even suggest that I’d marry someone for his money—”
“I wasn’t—”
“Although I can certainly see where you might worry about people cozying up to you more because of what you had than who you were. That it might even make someone not want to tell their oldest friend about, say, a game they’d developed that had made them a small fortune? Or maybe not so small, I don’t know.”
Cole gripped the wheel, then released a breath. “Diana, right?”
“Yep. And I can’t tell you how proud I am of you. But there was a moment when I wanted to clobber you, too, that you didn’t feel you could trust me—”
“I don’t tell anyone about my money, Bree. Not so much because it’s none of anyone’s business—although it isn’t—but because it simply doesn’t occur to me. Since having it doesn’t change who I am. I’m still the same dweeb I was before, so it all feels...irrelevant, I suppose. I wasn’t afraid to tell you. And of course I trust you, so you can put that thought right out of your head.” His gaze glanced off hers. “I simply didn’t think it would matter. Not between us.”
Sabrina looked out the windshield again, her eyes stinging for reasons that, really, had nothing to do with them. Even so...
“So why’d you bring up the subject?”
A second or two passed before Cole said, “Because too many people confuse money with happiness. Or the stuff it can buy with being there for the people they supposedly love.”
“And I said—”
“For cripes sake, Bree—I’m not talking about you! So would you get off your high horse, already? What I meant was...” He sighed. “Look, I don’t know this dude from Adam. Or what his motive was in wanting to marry you. But a lot of these guys, they see women as, well, prizes. No, wait, let me finish—you said things hadn’t felt right between you for a long time. And, yes, I know what you said, about his kid. But maybe there was more to it than that. Maybe...okay, here’s my theory. Maybe this Chad person eventually realized you didn’t fit into his plan. Because you’re far too much your own person to ever be bought. So the money issues...they were on his side. Not yours.”
Now her eyes burned for an entirely different reason. One that had everything to do with them. “You’ve obviously been giving this a lot of thought.”
“You might say.”
Sabrina knuckled away a tear poised to escape, then cleared her throat. “It wasn’t like that,” she said carefully, still not entirely trusting her voice. “I swear. But...” Blinking, she glanced out her window, then back at him. “Nobody’s ever said anything like that to me before. No guy, anyway.”
After the mother of all pregnant pauses, his eyes touched hers. “So we’re good?”
“Sure. Although if we ever go out to eat? No way in hell am I suggesting we go Dutch.”
Chuckling, he reached over and squeezed her forearm, his touch warm and firm and lovely, and her dozing hormones jerked awake like a dog hearing the fridge open. “You got it.” Then he grinned. “So...what was that you were saying about being proud of me...?”
God, he was so cute it hurt. “You have no idea, whenever I see somebody playing the game, the restraint it takes to not get up in their grill and say, ‘My friend did that!’ But that would be tacky.” Her gaze slid to his. “It would, right?”
“Absolutely,” he said. But with that look people got when you’ve said exactly the right thing.
“And you know something else?” she said before her heart oozed right out of her chest, “I’d give my right arm to see the faces of all those jerkwads in school who gave you a hard time.” She snorted. “Who are the losers now, huh?”
A long moment passed before he said, very quietly, “Thanks.”
“De nada.”
And that should have been the signal to the universe, as they zipped past a conglomeration of big-box stores and chain restaurants, to let them settle into a silence far more comfortable than it was. Instead, whatever this was shimmering between them reminded her of a time that had practically burgeoned with unanswered questions and thwarted desires. Almost as if the more they got out in the open, the more there was underneath. An emotional Pandora’s box.
Hoping to slam the lid on that sucker, Sabrina asked, “So you said the kids are with their mom?”
“Yeah,” Cole sighed out.
“This is a good thing, no?”
“Wish I knew. Brooke seemed happy enough to go with the flow, but her brother isn’t as forgiving as she is. Or as trusting. Far as he’s concerned, she screwed them over.”
“He is only thirteen,” Sabrina said s
oftly, wondering why she’d thought this would be a safer topic.
“Yeah, well, I’m thirty-five, and I’m inclined to agree with him.”
As she was saying. Thinking, anyway.
“You don’t believe people deserve a second chance?”
No sooner were the words out of her mouth than Sabrina realized what she’d said. And who she’d said it to. As had Cole, apparently, judging from his very quiet “Of course” in response, and her face flamed. “I’d be a pretty big hypocrite if I didn’t. But these are my kids we’re talking about. And Erin hurt them pretty badly. If you’d heard Wes the other night, after she called...”
He shook his head, his jaw clenched. “Obviously I want them to have a relationship with their mother. But only if it’s a healthy one. I know what they say about kids being resilient and all, but...”
“But this age is hard enough when everything’s boringly stable,” Sabrina said, looking at the cars in front of them. “I get it.”
She felt his gaze on the side of her face. “Do you?”
Something told her there were more layers to that simple question—to this conversation—than her mother’s homemade strudel. Shifting in her seat, she fingered the heavy necklace. But the weight crushing her chest had nothing to do with a bunch of metal and stones.
“After Abby was born, my folks didn’t take on many fosters. But there were a couple, around that age, who’d been through the mill. Abused, abandoned, you name it. And I remember Mom and Pop doing everything they could to make them feel safe. To make their world stop spinning.”
Now she faced his profile as he drove. “So, yeah. I get it. Especially that, for a child? There aren’t degrees of suckage. Pain is pain. And as their dad, you’ll do anything you can to make the pain stop.”
He reached across the console again to squeeze her hand. And this time, her hormones stayed blessedly asleep.
Because she knew, now more than before, that the very thing that made him the best man she’d ever known—aside from her brothers and father—was also the very thing that would keep them from making even a more stupid mistake than they’d made the first time.
And eventually, she might even be grateful for that.
Chapter Ten
If he’d had his druthers, Cole would have avoided the big church fund-raising dinner the following Friday like the plague. Especially after that car ride with Sabrina. Frankly, he thought as he drove through the gates to his aunt’s complex, he was surprised the irony hadn’t killed him dead on the spot. Because over and over, all he could think about was her compassion and empathy and sense of justice, that soul-deep goodness that had only ripened along with the rest of her...
Her sense of humor, he thought, smiling.
Dammit, she couldn’t be a more perfect mom for his kids.
Only, with everything they were going through with their mother—whose good intentions had apparently been short-lived, her inattention to the kids over the weekend leaving Brooke depressed and confused and Wes even angrier—the last thing they needed was someone new tossed into the mix. Even if that someone was Sabrina.
Especially if that someone was Sabrina, who’d been through enough crap of her own in the past little while.
Complex gaming codes, he could figure out, no problem. His life? Not so much.
The instant Cole’s great-aunt opened her front door, her blue-lidded eyes scrunched up behind her glasses. “And don’t you look like crap on a cracker.”
“Hello to you, too, Lizzie,” he said, leaning over to peck the old girl on her withered cheek as the breeze from the open patio door made her caftan ripple around her. “I was up all night trying to debug a new game.” A lie, but whatever. “And thanks for doing this.”
Not that his aunt had any intention of showing up to the dinner herself, but she was all for preserving such a lovely example of late nineteenth-century architecture. So she’d volunteered to contribute to the cause in the form of her killer spinach dip. Swatting at him, she stiffly stalked off to the tiny kitchenette wedged into one corner of the living room, awkwardly hauling a large crystal bowl out of her fridge. “You alone?”
Cole quickly relieved her of the heavy, deeply etched bowl. She seemed grateful. “Wes and Brooke are already at the church, with Kelly.” Who’d been only too happy to supervise the meal, as well the dozen or so kids who’d eagerly volunteered to help. “And again, this is very generous of you.”
“My pleasure. Just make sure the bowl gets back to me. Belonged to my mother. Only thing of hers I got left. Heavy, right? Would hurt like a sonofabitch if it should happen to come in contact with your head.” He frowned at her as she handed him a box of Ritz crackers to go with. “Girl troubles is what I’m thinking. And let me take another swing at it—it’s that Sabrina. The cutie you used to hang out with when you two were kids.”
“I don’t—”
“These new glasses, they’re something else. I got like X-ray vision now. Like I didn’t see you looking at her at the wedding. And I think, huh. Because I remember that look from before.” Her mouth turned down at the corners. “Then I think about you and Erin, about how badly that turned out. No, you never said anything about it, but your mother did. Your sister. And you can shut your mouth right now. They love you. They worry. Like family’s supposed to.”
She reached over, rested her delicate hand on his wrist. “You’re a good boy, Cole. You deserve better. You deserve...” Her brow puckered. “You deserve whatever the hell you want. And so do those two great kids.”
Lizzie had always had an uncanny ability to zero in on a person’s thoughts, but this was surreal even for her. “Yeah, well...it’s not that easy.”
“So, what is? You want the good stuff in life, you gotta go after it. ’Cause sure as hell it ain’t gonna come to you. So. Is this gal worth the trouble? You tell me.”
Giving in—or up, hard to tell—Cole sat on the edge of Lizzie’s gold brocade sofa, balancing the bowl on his lap. “Okay, for one thing? She’s just come off a two-year relationship—”
“Better than still being in one.” The loose garment billowed around her legs as she toppled into the upholstered chair across from him. “Go on.”
“Just come off, Lizzie. As in, still hurting. And not looking.” His aunt shrugged. No big deal. “But even more important...”
He explained about the kids and their mother. How emotionally tender they were, too.
“Uh-huh,” Lizzie said, then squinted. “So why do you love this woman?”
“Didn’t say—”
“Hey. Old, yes. Stupid, no.”
“Not so sure about that, since you clearly didn’t hear a thing I said.”
Clearly unoffended, his aunt swatted at him. “I heard what I needed to, trust me. Well?”
He could lie, he supposed. To himself as well as the squinty-eyed woman in front of him. But what would be the point?
Other than self-preservation, that is.
“Because she’s funny and tough and has, like, the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known. Because...the world’s simply a better place when she’s around. Still crazy, God knows. And not perfect. And it’s making me crazy...” He pushed out a sigh. “That I can’t see how to make this work.”
“With the kids, you mean?”
“All of it. Her, the kids, the timing...logistics aren’t exactly working in our favor, here.”
Lizzie lowered her eyes to her veiny hands, tightly folded on top of her knees, before lifting them to Cole again.
“I never had kids—wanted them, but it never worked out—so I’ve got no business telling you what to do on that score. Although I’d like to slap that Erin into next week. But I do think you’re not giving them—or yourself—enough credit, for being able to acclimate more than you think they can. Yeah, I get it, you want
to protect them, give them time to adjust. You’re a good father. A good man. But, honey, when you find someone who makes you feel like Sabrina obviously makes you feel...” Slowly, she shook her head. “You don’t let go of that for anything. Because if you do, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
Cole frowned. “You...?”
“A million years ago, yeah. In my case, it was the guy’s sister. She had developmental issues, I think that’s the right term these days. Greatest guy ever. In part because he was so devoted to his sister.” Her eyes got watery. “But he couldn’t see how it would work, either. Said it wouldn’t be fair to me. And I was young enough—and dumb enough—to believe him. So we called it off. And it kills me to this day that I didn’t fight for him. For us. For what we could’ve had.”
Then Lizzie slapped her hands on her knees and stood, clearly meaning their little chat was over. As she walked him to the door, though, she laid her hand on his arm, making him look down into those frighteningly wise eyes.
“Being cautious is for wimps, Cole. And you’re no wimp.” She smiled. “You never have been, whether you believe that or not. Maybe what this Sabrina needs is somebody who will fight for her. Someone with the cojones not to let anything get in his way. Now get outta here, I got things to do...”
Cole heard his great-aunt’s front door clunk shut as he climbed behind the wheel, carefully setting the bowl and crackers in the passenger side well before straightening.
Then he chuckled—maybe if the old gal had been more a part of his life all along, he would’ve been a little less boneheaded about a few things. But now her words rang loud and clear, giving him a much-needed and woefully well-deserved kick in the pants.
Because, as with a video game, so with real life: there was no getting to the next level without taking some risks. Overcoming obstacles. Which, in this case, were legion.
Meant-to-Be Mom Page 15
