Love Me Gently (Deer Creek #1)

Nine

Cole

Now

* * *

“Daddy!”

I squatted in time to catch June as she flung her body at me at full speed.

“Oof,”

I grunted and picked her up, adjusting her feet so her heels didn’t dig into my hips. Her arms wrapped around my throat, and if she were any stronger, she’d be choking me. “How are my girls?”

“Feral.”

Marie laughed and slipped the strap of their overnight bags off her shoulder. “And they keep getting worse.”

She reached out and playfully pinched the back of June’s knee, making her shriek.

“Mommy!”

“Thanks for bringing them back.”

It’d been my night to go get them from her home, but I had a late call-out. It was nights like this I was thankful for how easy we co-parented.

“It’s not a problem. You know that.”

She grinned down at Ella who was studiously removing her shoes, lining them up against the wall. She’d said hello to me as soon as the door opened and then was practically barreled out of the way by her little sister. Which almost knocked me down the stairs considering the entryway in my split-level home was barely large enough for me alone.

Not that Ella ever seemed to mind. It never ceased to baffle me how Ella looked exactly like me, June like her mom, and their personalities matched us the exact opposite.

“How’s school, sweetheart?”

I reached down and settled my hand at Ella’s head.

She grinned up at me from her crouch on the floor. “Recess is stupid.”

“Oh.”

I eyed Marie.

“What have we said about that word?”

she asked our daughter.

“You said it wasn’t a nice word.”

I hid my chuckle with pressed together lips and flashed wide eyes to Marie. She matched my look with an eye roll. “But I think it’s true because there’s nothing nice about recess.”

“What’s wrong with recess?”

In kindergarten it could be anything from being bullied to taking a dodgeball to the face.

“I can’t sit and read,”

Ella muttered. “Mrs. Lipton says I have to go run and play.”

“Oh…The horror…”

Marie chuckled and quickly covered it, June popped off my shoulder far enough to screech right into my ear. “I love to run and play!”

I flinched at the ear-piercing squeal and gave her a tight hug.

“What’s wrong with running and playing?”

I set June down on her feet and got close to meet Ella eye-to-eye. “Does something hurt?”

“No. My hair gets sticky and gross.”

Behind me, Marie’s muffled chuckle sounded much like a snort. I forced the grin that wanted to break free to press into a frown. Only Ella, my five-year-old daughter going on twenty-year-old fashionista, could be upset with this. “I’m sorry. That has to be hard. What if we started wearing your hair up more? Would that help?”

“Maybe.”

She shrugged. “Do we get dessert before bedtime?”

“Absolutely. Cookies on the counter from Mellie’s Cakes. If that’s good enough for you.”

“Mellie’s!? I love Mellie’s!”

June’s small feet thundered up the stairs, and Ella followed.

For being the older sister, she somehow ended up following after June most of the time.

“Sorry,”

I said to Marie when they were gone. “Couldn’t help myself tonight.”

She shrugged. “Your problem getting them to sleep after a sugar high, not mine.”

I should have known she wouldn’t care. It was my week, and outside of phone calls, we respected the differences, however minor they might be, in how we parented. “Thanks again for bringing them back. I do appreciate that, you know.”

“I know, Cole. You’ve always let me know you appreciate me.”

A flash of sadness hit her eyes that made me cringe. I had appreciated her. I even liked her. A whole lot. But I knew what that statement didn’t say… I didn’t love her, and she still felt the pain of that.

Before I could apologize, she had a wide smile on her face. “Well, I should go. There’s a signed permission slip in June’s bag for a trip with her preschool field trip to go to the grocery store later this week.”

“The grocery store?”

“They do some sort of healthy eating unit, and the kids get to pick their own healthy snacks.”

“I’m guessing Mellie’s Cakes aren’t allowed in that cart.”

She laughed. “Probably not, no.”

“What a dull field trip.”

She slapped my shoulder still laughing. “Shut up. Just make sure it gets turned in, so she doesn’t miss out.”

“On all the fun of picking out a zucchini? I would never deprive her.”

She was still laughing and opened the front door. “Have a good week, Cole. Call me if you need me.”

“I will.”

I always promised but I never did. Sometimes I wondered if that made her sad or upset. June demanded frequently to call me when they were with her, but when they were with me, the girls rarely asked for their mom. I’d like to believe it was because I was more fun, but the truth was, I nipped it in the bud from the very beginning. Maria dug that hole on her own by caving at the sight of June’s crocodile tears.

“Be safe getting home,”

I called out when she was at the door to her Highlander. “Lock your doors. All the smart things.”

“You know I will,”

she called back. “See you, Cole.”

I waited in the doorway until she’d started the car and pulled it back out of the driveway. Once her taillights disappeared down the street, I finally went back inside.

I hadn’t seen my girls for a week. We had catching up to do.

Mellie’s Cakes were a bad idea. It was an hour after Ella and June’s regular bedtime when I finally had them bathed, teeth brushed, dressed in pajamas and ready for bed. And that was after I took them outside and we ran laps around the house in the dark, and I challenged them both to a push-up and jumping jack competition. Ella won the jumping jacks. We all dissolved into a fit of laughter as they watched me struggle with a single push-up while they knocked out a dozen.

A warm bath and two books later, both my girls were snuggled under my arms on both sides of me in Ella’s tiny twin bed.

“You girls ready for sleep?”

I kissed the top of both their heads.

“Not really.”

June snuggled in tighter and let out a loud yawn.

Sure she wasn’t, but she’d fight sleep until the last possible moment.

“I love you, Daddy,”

Ella whispered and squeezed me as tight as she could with her arm over my stomach.

“I love you too. Both of you. Bunches and bunches.”

I gave Ella one last kiss and nudged June with my hip. “Let’s let Ella sleep, okay?”

“Fine,”

June grumbled, but her voice was thicker, her words slower.

She slipped off the bed, and I followed her, tucking Ella’s covers tight around her and then waiting until June climbed into bed to do the same.

I double-checked their window was locked, closed the blinds, and on my way out of the door, I whispered back to both, “I love you girls, sleep tight.”

“Don’t let the bedbugs bite,”

June whispered back.

Only soft breaths came from Ella’s side.

No surprise there.

Back down the hall in my four-bedroom split-level home, I headed straight to the kitchen and began cleaning up. There were three bedrooms upstairs, one larger one downstairs that held a guest bed and dresser for the occasional visitors and my workout equipment. The rest of the downstairs had a full bath and a large playroom-slash-theater room. The girls shared one of the larger bedrooms upstairs for now, but eventually I knew they’d want their own, so it was set up as my office.

As soon as I stepped foot in this house when Marie and I split I knew it was perfect for me and the girls. We could do all our daily living on one floor, which meant the girls were kept close to me at night, but they had their privacy to run and play downstairs. And when I didn’t have them and wanted guys over to watch a game, the ninety-six-inch projector screen I had downstairs was perfect. Also, the girls were small enough that after I had it installed, they lost their minds when we started watching their favorite movies on it.

I was loading the dishwasher and wiping down the counters when my work cell phone rang with an unknown call. My brows pinched, considering I rarely had calls it from someone I didn’t know, but I couldn’t ignore it, either.

“Detective Cole Paxton,”

I said as I answered the phone.

“Wow, you are even more handsome on the phone,”

a woman replied.

My spine jolted straight, and my hand clenched the phone tighter. “Excuse me?”

“Valerie Sutton,”

she said. “We met last month when you were in Georgia. Briefly.”

Like I could forget. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Trina since that day. I’d tried to push her out of my mind and get back to real life as soon as I returned, but whenever I had a slow moment, I was researching Jonathan, trying to find anything I could on him. Every time I blinked, I saw the bruise on Trina’s face.

The fact that he was as rich as he was, and I couldn’t find anything was suspect in itself. Call me paranoid, but I’d seen a lot in my day, and the fact there wasn’t anything, not even a hint of a scandal as he gathered his millions, made me question who he had in his pocket to scrub his history so pristine it shined like crystal.

“I remember. How can I help you?”

“It’s not me who needs help, Mr. Paxton.”

Blood rushed to my ears as her tone changed. “Cole. What’s going on?”

“I heard you tell Katrina you’d be there to help if she needs it.”

“I did.”

“Did you mean it?”

“Absolutely. What happened?”

My tone was getting sharper, but it had nothing on the anger starting to boil my veins.

“I can’t say much, and I’ll need to hang up soon, but she’s at Atlanta Community Hospital. She needs to get free, and right now the only way we can think of is if you’re the man she told me you were.”

The man she told me you were. It confirmed Trina had talked about me. I knew Valerie recognized me last month.

“What do you need me to do?”

“Come get her before Jonathan has her sent out of state to another hospital. Or out of the country. But Cole?”

“What?”

I was already mentally packing and planning calls.

Shit. The girls were here.

My mom would come. Marie would come back.

I’d figure it all out, but nothing was stopping me from doing this.

“Get here quick.”

“As fast as I can, I’ll be there.”

“You better…considering it was your business card that landed her here.”

The call ended and I didn’t hesitate. Didn’t even question it. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what she meant.

Jonathan found the card and lost his mind on his wife.

I’d shoot him myself if I could. Happily. And without remorse.

Grabbing my personal cell, I called my mom.

“Cole? Honey? What is it?”

It was late, and if she wasn’t sleeping, she was almost there based on her groggy voice.

“It’s Trina. She needs me.”

A soft thump echoed. My guess was it was my mom’s feet hitting the floor, and then my mom spoke. “Your dad and I will be there in ten.”