26. Chapter 26
Iwake up pressed against Talon’s warm, bare chest, and I’m pleasantly surprised to find him still in my bed. It’s been a week since my date night with Cole, and since I’ve had a different guy in my bed every night. Last night was Talon’s turn. The grueling schedule he’s kept while recording has relaxed while he rehearses for an impending US tour.
“Why are you wiggling around so much? Go back to sleep,” he murmurs into my neck.
“I can’t. I have to go to work,” I tell him.
“No, you have the day off.”
“Yesterday. I have an engagement shoot today.”
My photography business has grown so much in the last few months that I’ll soon be able to quit the flower shop. I want to have some more put away in savings, and I’ll be ready by the end of the year.
Talon grumbles but releases me, “Fine, then go. I love you.” He rolls over and is back to softly snoring before I can answer. I chuckle at him, then head into the bathroom to prepare for my day. When I’m finished, Talon is still out, and I try not to disturb him. He deserves the rest.
Downstairs, I find Foster in the kitchen, finishing up a smoothie. He hands me a tumbler of coffee.
“Thank you, love,” I take it from his hand and kiss him.
“I figured you’d be dragging ass this morning. It sounded like Talon gave you quite a workout.”
I groan, “Remind me to make sure he has much thicker walls in the new house.”
He chuckles and kisses me again, “Does that mean you’ll be moving into that house with us?”
“Wait, I thought this was all temporary. You and Cole are here until you settle into your new jobs and find your own place. Have either of you been looking?”
“I can’t answer for him, but I haven’t. Why mess with a good thing? Are you looking for a new place?”
I sip my coffee and think. Financially, I’m in a better place than when I moved here months ago. The bills are all caught up. Expenses are minimal, just the small rent that Mrs. Thorne charges Mom plus whatever she needs for food and necessities. I need to have a conversation with my mom.
Foster stands before me and soothes a finger down my forehead, “Stop thinking so hard. I know that Talon is not going to kick you to the curb. Quite the opposite. He’ll probably cuff you to the bed and never let you leave. I hope you have a great day. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
I grab my coffee and walk outside, then stop in my tracks. I left my Jeep in front of the house last night, too lazy to park it in the garage. It’s there, but it’s been completely demolished. Walking in a circle around the car, I gawk at the damage. All the doors are scratched and dented, the two driver’s side windows are shattered, and the windshield is busted. Spray painted, in neon pink, across the hood is “Whore”.
How original.
I open the driver’s side door and find the interior has been trashed as well. The seats have been slashed. The glove box door is hanging open, and its contents are scattered all over. A bottle of my coconut-scented body lotion has been poured all over and the smell is so thick I almost vomit. I’m grateful I didn’t leave any of my equipment in the car because there’s no doubt it would have been destroyed.
My hands are shaking so badly that I can’t hold onto the tumbler of coffee. It falls and smashes on the ground, splashing on me, but I barely feel it. I collect myself enough to turn around and run back into the house. Foster intercepts me in the foyer.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, noticing the mess on my clothes.
“We need to call the police. Someone’s vandalized my car,” I tell him, my voice breathy. My vision starts to black out. Foster moves me to the staircase and gets me to sit down.
“Sit here a minute. Let me go see.”
I rest until I don’t feel so fuzzy-brained anymore. I meet Foster outside, where he’s staring at the wreckage of my Jeep.
Foster’s face is red with fury, “Shit, this bad. We need to wake Talon up. There are security cameras all around this place. He’ll have a video of whoever this is. Did you touch anything?”
“Just the door handle. I left it open.”
He nods, “That’s good.”
We go back inside and rouse Talon out of my bed. He checks his phone for the camera feed. We see Cole’s ex, Hannah, and another woman using a bat, a screwdriver, and a can of spray paint on my vehicle. The scene lasts about fifteen minutes before they take off down the driveway.
“Fuck, we better let Cole know before we talk to the police,” Talon says after we finish watching the footage.
Both Foster and Talon look at me with apprehension, knowing I didn’t miss the most significant revelation on that video.
Hannah’s prominent baby bump.
I’m furious when I bang on Cole’s door. The damage to my car is almost forgotten at this point.
Is the baby Cole’s?
Why else would he keep this from me?
“Come in,” he calls, and the three of us walk in. Foster and Talon have been silent, following me as I stormed up the stairs.
Cole’s standing in his room wearing gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt that stretches over his chest. There’s an empty suitcase on his bed, and he’s putting the rest of his clothes away after coming home from a weekend road trip.
He pauses when we all come in, “What’s up?”
With the video pulled up, Talon hands him his phone.
No words are spoken while Cole watches intently, his expression increasingly angrier. His hand is white-knuckling Talon’s phone, which reaches over and takes it away from him before he can damage it when the video is over.
He looks up at me, “I’ll take care of her and the damages to your car. Please don’t call the police. I’m so sorry that my shit is fucking with you. It shouldn’t have happened.”
I shrug with ease that I don’t feel, “Don’t worry about it. You can’t control her actions. I won’t call the police, but it can’t happen again.”
“I’ll call her right now,” Cole says and looks to the other guys, silently asking them to give us privacy.
“I’m going to change the gate code,” Talon says, and he leaves with Foster trailing behind.
Cole grabs his phone off his dresser and calls Hannah. She answers on the second ring.
“Hi baby,” she answers in a sickly-sweet tone, making Cole wince.
“What were you up to last night?” He questions her, his voice cold and hard.
“I was just at home. There’s not much for a pregnant girl to do.”
Cole looks at me as I collapse on the bed. Seeing it was one thing, but now having it confirmed is hard.
“That’s not what the camera footage I just watched says. Are you that fucking stupid that you think this fancy ass house wouldn’t have cameras? Everywhere has cameras,” he tells her.
She goes silent, which seems quite a feat since she never seems to shut up.
“Your access to this house has been revoked. Don’t contact me again unless it’s for my DNA to do a paternity test–” He starts, but she cuts him off.
“I’m sorry, Cole, but Jenna said she had seen you guys together at that club a few weeks ago, and you kissed her. Then, last week, she was at your game. Do you know what that looks like? Kissing another girl with a pregnant fiancée at home? I just lost it. Blame it on the pregnancy hormones.”
“You can blame your shitty behavior on anything you want, but I promise if you come near this house or Blake again, I will get the police involved. Can you imagine what that will look like for you? I ended our engagement months ago. You have to get over it, Hannah. Who I kiss is none of your business.”
He hangs up on her, throws his phone on the bed, and stares at the floor, refusing to look at me.
“How far along is she?” I ask.
“Six months.”
“How long have you known?”
“About three. I’m sor–”
My anger rises to the surface, overshadowing my great hurt. “No, I’m so tired of the apologies after you hurt me. Is it that much easier to apologize than to not do something fucking stupid, to begin with?”
He finally looks up from the floor, his blue eyes swimming with tears. “Please just hear me out for a second.”
“Fine.”
“Hannah and I are very much over. I broke it off completely before I knew anything about the pregnancy, but I found out just before I moved back here. She has the dream in her head of us playing happy family. I keep turning her down and demanding a paternity test. She swears it’s my son, but I know she was sleeping with at least two teammates around the same time. I chose not to tell you, which I know was wrong, but I honestly had no idea what to say. I hoped we’d do the test. It would confirm it’s not mine, and I would walk away.”
He kneels in front of me. “Please don’t hate me,” his voice cracks on the last word.
“Did the other two know?” I ask, tears clogging my throat.
He nods.
I stand up from the bed, “I need some time.”
“Okay.”
I walk around him and leave the room, trying to pull together my broken pieces…again.