by Diana Nixon
“Don’t think too long, or I might miss you so much I would come back here and make you scream my name right on that couch, so that everyone in the office knew how I much I missed you.”
Blood rushed to my cheeks. “You can’t say things like this in the middle of my workday.”
“Have you written anything this morning?”
“Not a word.”
He smiled. “That’s what I thought,” he said in between his kisses. “And the reason I’m here is to give you a little extra inspiration.”
“Or distract me.”
“Both.”
I took a step back and licked my lips that still tasted like him. “Have you talked to Jazmine?”
“I have.”
“Is she all right? What did she want to talk about?”
He shook his head. “I promised to keep my mouth shut. But…” He took a step forward and I found myself trapped in between my desk and his chest. “She wants to go to L.A. next week and I thought…” His eyes shamelessly slipped down my face and focused on my lips. “You could take her there and see me as well. You can stay at my place if you want. Both of you. So that you didn’t think I’ve invited you for the weekend to fuck the hell out of you.” He touched my chin with his finger and added in a barely audible voice, “Not that it’s not a part of the plan.”
“Like I said, I will think about it.” I looked him in the eye, and I knew I was lost. The fire that burned in his gaze was too dangerous to touch, but too alluring to resist.
“See you in a week, Harlee.” He bent down his head and placed a soft kiss on my lips. It was more like a tease, a promise of something so much more. But to have it, I would have to fly all the way to L.A. first.
Smartass.
“I’ll call you when I land.” It was the last thing he said before leaving my office that morning.
Needless to say, the rest of the day was nothing but a non-stop thinking about Cole’s invitation and how much I wanted to accept it.
That’s why when Jazmine called a few hours later, I was very close to saying yes to everything that put Cole, L.A. and me in one sentence, or in one bed. Ugh, whatever.
“Why do you want to go to L.A. anyway?” Was the first thing I asked.
“Romeo and I have plans. It will be his birthday and I want to celebrate it with him.”
“I didn’t know things got that far between you two.”
“We are not rushing things, and before you start your lecture about safe sex, I want you to know that I’m a big girl now, and I don’t need a babysitter. But mom will never let me fly to L.A. all alone and that’s why I need your help. Please, Harlee, I really need this…”
Jazmine rarely begged or said a ‘please’ word. Which made me believe this trip meant something for her.
“All right.”
She squealed. “You are the best!”
“Come again. I think I misheard you.”
She laughed. “Will call you later!”
That was Jazmine for you. She could be reckless and made everyone believe she was a pain in the ass. But she was my little sister and I loved her to the moon and back.
Later that day, when I was back home, all alone, I had never felt as lonely as I did that moment.
I always welcomed peace and quiet, but tonight, of all nights, I didn’t want to be alone. So, I called mom and said I would stop by for dinner. She was all for it. I knew she’d been missing me, and I felt a little guilty for spending so little time with her.
“My beautiful girl, you are home!” Theo gave me a tight hug. “It’s been almost three weeks since we played Scrabble. I’m offended you have chosen your new job over me.”
I smiled. “I promise to catch up on all the missed rounds of Scrabble with you.”
“After dinner?”
“Right after dinner.”
He nodded, as happy as ever. “Good.”
“Where’s mom?” I took off my jacket and shoes and ran both hands through my messy hair. Thanks to the wind, it looked like I’d been dragged by my hair, all the way from my home to mom’s.
“In the kitchen. She’s making your favorite potato pie with coney and mushroom sauce.”
“Mmm… Sounds yummy.” I followed Theo into the kitchen. My sister was helping mom set the table.
“To what do we owe the honor of seeing you here tonight?” She asked.
“Isn’t the fact that I missed you guys a good enough reason to share dinner with you?” I kissed mom on both cheeks, and she gave me a hug.
“Behave girls. I’m so happy to have you both at home and I don’t want it to turn into another fight. Better tell us, Harlee, how are things at work going?”
“You’d better ask her how things with her new roommate are going.”
Mom gave me a curious look.
Thanks, Jaz.
“The work is great. Willow wouldn’t let me get bored. And my boss is always in demand of something new, so I sure don’t have time to daydream there.”
“And what about the roommate?” Mom asked carefully. “Your sister said he’s a very handsome man.”
“I didn’t say he’s handsome. I said he’s amazeballs and super yummy.”
Mom ignored Jazmine’s comment and waited for me to respond to her question. She knew I hated talking about my ‘boyfriends’ and she never insisted. But I think Jazmine’s story fueled mom’s interest.
“He’s not my roommate, he’s the owner of the house I rent. And he was here for a few days, but now he’s gone. The end.”
Mom and Jaz shared a look but said nothing.
Then Theo spoke to me, “Cole Griffin is a good man.”
My sister, mom and I stared at him in surprise.
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“I called you yesterday, but you didn’t pick up the phone. I wanted to invite you to my sister’s birthday next Sunday; you know she’d be happy to see you.”
Lori was almost fifteen years older than Theo and she suffered memory lapses, but she never once forgot my name or the fact that I was her new niece as she started calling me after mom and Theo got married.
“I still don’t get it,” Jaz said. “What does Cole have to do with all of the above?”
“He must have heard the phone call. He called me back and said that Harlee didn’t feel well. But he promised to take care of her.”
Nice, I thought. “He never mentioned your conversation.”
“It’s probably because I told him I would call you today, but then you said you would stop by for dinner, and I postponed our talk for later.”
“But how do you know he’s a good man?” Jazmine asked.
“If a man cares about the woman he barely knows, it means he has a kind heart.”
“Or that he has a crush on the woman.” My sister never knew how to keep her mouth shut.
“Is that true?” Mom hurried to use this opportunity to know more about my relationship with Cole. I couldn’t blame her for it. She wanted me to be happy after all.
“We live in different parts of the country and I don’t believe in the long-distance relationships.”
“But you’ve never tried it,” Jazmine said. “How do you know it won’t work for you and Cole?”
“If I knew this dinner would turn into this, I would have stayed at home and watched a TV with a bowl of popcorn in my lap.”
“Give her a break,” Theo said, as he wrapped one arm around my shoulders.
“Yeah, that would be great, for a change.”
Mom and Jaz stopped asking questions about Cole, and I couldn’t be happier about it. He was the last person in the world I wanted to talk about now. Didn’t I come to mom’s to avoid thinking about him?
“Does anyone know how dad is doing?” I asked to change the subject.
Jazmine spoke, “I talked to him a few days ago. He’s fine. He wants to redecorate the house and I told him I would help him with it.”
“Tell him if he needs my help, I’ll help too.”<
br />
“I’m sure he doesn’t need anyone’s help,” mom said. “I’ve heard he and his new girlfriend started living together. That’s why he wants to redecorate the house.”
Jazmine’s face fell.
“It’s his life,” I said, touching her hand. “He has the right to do whatever he wants to do, including sharing the place with whoever he wants to share it with.”
She nodded, pretending she didn’t really care, though we all knew she did.
“But it was our home too,” she said after a short pause. “I guess I need a little more time to get used to the idea of seeing a different woman there.”
“He made his choice,” Theo said. “And you made yours.” He never said anything bad about our dad, and I was grateful he didn’t. He did his best to become friends with Jazmine, who refused to accept him for a very long time.
“You are right,” she said quietly. “It’s his life and his choice. Anyone wants tea?”
I nodded and asked to put a piece of lemon into my cup.
After that, we switched our attention to different things, and never spoke about Cole or my dad again.
When dinner was over, Jazmine and I cleaned the table and washed the dishes.
“Will you stay for the night?” She asked.
“No. I didn’t bring my laptop with me, and I’ll need it at work tomorrow. Besides, I know how much you love having our room all for yourself.”
She smiled. “I can’t argue with that.” She looked around, making sure we were alone and asked, “Are you okay, Harlee? It looks like your thoughts are far away from here.”
“I’m fine, really. It’s been a busy couple of days, that’s it.”
“Are you missing him?”
I put the last cup in the cupboard and wiped my hands. “Maybe…”
“I see… You were not so sad last time he left. What’s different this time?”
I sighed, not sure what to say.
“You like him, don’t you?” Jazmine said for me.
“If I say maybe again, you’ll kill me.”
“I won’t. First of all, because I need you to take me to L.A. Remember?”
“How can I not? I’m surprised you didn’t print a banner the size of this room to tell everyone about it.”
She giggled. “I’m so excited about this trip. And so should you be. I’m sure Cole will be happy to see you again.”
I left my thoughts for myself on that.
“I’m sure Theo’s waiting for me to kick my ass in Scrabble.”
We went to the living room and the game began.
***
I knew going back home would scratch out all of my attempts to put Cole out of my mind. And the moment I entered the house a few hours after Theo outplayed me in my favorite game, the feeling of loneliness returned.
I went straight to the kitchen and opened a bottle of wine, smiling at the memory of Cole walking around the kitchen naked. It was definitely a thing to remember, and I bet he knew I would never be able to forget it.
Holding a glass of wine in my hand, I went to Cole’s bedroom. It was packed with the boxes from the sex shop. I smiled. Somehow, I didn’t want to throw them away. Cole left some of his things in the room and it didn’t look so lifeless anymore. But still…
He wasn’t there, and I really wanted to see him now.
I knew it wasn’t only to spend another night in bed with him; I wanted to fall asleep in his arms once again. Despite everything that happened before the night that we spent together, I really missed the warmth of his touch on me.
It was new to me – to miss a man. I told myself to never fall in love again. But it turned out no warnings were worth it because I couldn’t resist him since the very first time we met.
I just needed a little more time to figure out what was going with me.
And I was in love with Cole Griffin…
There were times when I wanted to kill him with my bare hands, and poke his shameless eyes out with a pencil, but there were also times when I wanted nothing more than to feel his lips on mine, kissing away every single thought in my head and just melt into him – in his scent and in the desire to be one with him.
It was stronger than me, now I knew it for sure. As well as I knew there was no future for Cole and me.
Why?
Because he was one of those men who wasn’t looking for a serious relationship, especially now that he knew how painful getting out of one might be. I couldn’t blame him for it. It wasn’t Cole’s fault that his ex-wife was a piece of work.
Still, deep down I hoped I would be able to take a very special place in his heart and in his life. After all, no one could forbid me dreaming, right?
With those thoughts in my head, I put a wine glass on the bedside table and went to bed.
It was the next morning when I realized I had fallen asleep in Cole’s bedroom and not mine.
As if he knew something of the above might happen, he called me when I was still in his bed trying to remember why I never got to my own room.
“Morning, sleepyhead,” he murmured into the handset. “Do you like the view of the ocean in front of you?”
“It’s beautiful,” I said, a little too late realizing he caught me sleeping in his bed. There was a picture hanging opposite from the bed that showed the ocean at sunset and now I couldn’t take my words back.
Great, just great.
“I knew you would be missing me, Harlee. Did you fall asleep dreaming about me sharing that big bed with you?”
“No, I think I drank too much wine and entered the wrong room.” Frustrated, I tossed the blanket away, and hurried to leave Cole’s room.
He chuckled into the phone. “Don’t worry, when you come to L.A., I won’t let you fall asleep alone.”
“I haven’t decided anything about the trip yet.”
“Liar. Jazmine texted me right after she spoke to you yesterday, and she said you agreed to come to L.A. with her.”
Crap… Thank you, sis!
“It doesn’t mean I’ll accept your invitation. We can stay in a hotel.”
“No, you can’t. I promised Jaz to give her a city tour, so you two are staying at my place. And I’m not taking no for an answer.”
I came into the bathroom and grimaced at my reflection in the mirror.
“Fine. Whatever you and my sister say. I don’t think I have a word in this.”
“You don’t.”
“Is there anything else that you wanted to talk about? I don’t want to be late for work. I still need to take a shower.”
“Mmm… Taking a shower with you… First thing in the morning… We should try it when you are here.”
“Enjoy your day, Cole.”
“You too, sweetie…you too.”
I ended the call and put my phone aside.
Scratch everything I thought about the man last night. He was impossible, and I seriously doubted it would ever change.
My phone rang again. Only it wasn’t a call, but a text from Cole.
“You are showing your article about the sex toys to Vivian today. I wanna read it too. P.S. I saw your schedule for the week, xoxo.”
What a jerk.
I didn’t respond to his message. Instead, I turned off my phone and started brushing my teeth, hoping Vivian would approve of the words I came up for the damn article. I swear, it was the hardest thing I ever wrote. But now that she was sure I knew everything about sex toys, I couldn’t let her expectations go largely unmet.
After I was done with my morning routine, I got dressed and applied a little extra blush on my cheeks to cover the signs of my sleepless night. I didn’t want Willow to think I couldn’t sleep because I missed Cole so much. No matter how close it was to the truth. But neither she nor anyone else needed to know about it.
***
CHAPTER 13
By Friday, I was all nerves. I couldn’t stop thinking about the upcoming trip. My sixth sense was telling me it wasn’t going to be as perfect as I imag
ined it. Cole thought Jazmine and I would take an early Saturday morning flight, but she forgot to book the tickets on time, and we had to change our plans and take the one that was scheduled for Friday night. I was going to text Cole and warn him about our early arrival, but Jazmine said it would be better to surprise him, and I went for it. After all, I couldn’t use my chance to pay back Cole for everything I had to go through thanks to his sex shop boxes.
Vivian liked my article so much, she called her personal assistant and made me read it again for the two of them, making me burn from anger with every word I read. The article was great; I would never go for anything but perfection, especially when it came to my writing. But the subject was new to me, and it definitely wasn’t going to become my favorite.
Jazmine once said that I never wanted to write about diapers and cosmetics, now she will laugh at me for writing about sex toys. I hoped mom wouldn’t see the new issue of the magazine, or my humiliation would kill me.
“Just one bag?” Jaz looked skeptically at my luggage.
“Yes. We are going to L.A. for two days. There’s no need to pack a suitcase.”
She stepped aside, showing me her suitcase that was like three times bigger than my bag.
“Are you out of your mind? Why do you need that many things?” I stepped into mom’s house and closed the door behind me. We were going to the airport from there.
“Cole promised a city tour, plus the beach – I really want to sunbathe. Then it’s Romeo’s party – I can’t show up there wearing shorts. I needed to pack a dress for it. And shoes, and my makeup bag. And…”
“Okay, I got it. Next time we go somewhere for longer than two days, are you going to rent a van to take your things there?”
“Ha-ha, very funny.” She made a face. “If I were you, I would take something nice to wear when at Cole’s. I’m sure he wants to see something other than a pair of sweatpants. Or would he prefer seeing you naked?” She giggled.
“Ha-ha,” I mimicked her. “Where are Mom and Theo?” I was surprised they didn’t come to greet me.
“They went to the movies. They started having these Friday date nights some time ago, and they have never missed a single Friday since then. But if there was a place for someone but Cole in your head, you would have known about it. I’m sure Theo mentioned the date thing when you played Scrabble with him.”
