Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Cole
“You’re happy to see me, though,” Finn tells her, and she beams up at him.
Riley is a foot shorter than him, so she has to tilt her head back to meet his eyes. “Of course, I am.”
I don’t know why seeing her all smiley with my brother is making me even more furious. I hate this woman, yet for some unspeakable reason, I’m jealous that she’s smiling at him right now.
Stop. I don’t want her smiles.
She broke my heart without even a single word to explain why. She was just gone. I still don’t know what happened.
I want to say I don’t give a shit why she left, but it’s been nagging at me for eight long years.
Breathe.
The only way I’m going to make it through, however long it takes for the storm to pass, is for me to breathe.
Theo pads into the kitchen, his footsteps much quieter than Finn’s.
“Riley?” he asks, his eyes popping wide behind his black-rimmed glasses.
“Theo,” she says, her voice full of warmth that is such a contrast to the way she talks to me.
Now that I think about it, I don’t understand why it seems like she hates me. Shouldn’t I be the one who hates her, not the other way around?
Whatever… I guess there’s enough hate to go around for both of us.
Riley steps around Finn, hugging Theo. He hesitates for a second, clearly in shock, but brings his arms up to hold her close.
“What? How…” He trails off when she laughs against his chest. “I don’t even know what to ask right now.”
“Big bro saved her from being stranded on the side of the road,” Finn pipes in.
Theo pulls back enough to look down at her. “You were driving into Aspen Springs?”
She nods. “I was trying to. The storm had other ideas.”
“Have you been here since…” Theo starts. He’s clearly hurt by the idea of her being in town and not reaching out to see him.
“No,” she says, shaking her head. “I haven’t been here since… well, you know when.”
Theo nods but doesn’t say anything else. He gives her a final squeeze, then steps back.
“So, why were you coming back to town after so many years?” Finn asks.
Riley angles her body so she’s facing both of my brothers but not me. “I’ll be here working on an episode of my podcast for the next month.”
I really tried to steer away from anything Riley-related over the years, but when your ex runs one of the most successful podcasts in the country, it’s hard to avoid.
My mind snaps the other part of what she just said. A month. A whole fucking month. There’s no way she can be here for a month. Based on the animosity swimming between us, we’ll probably snuff each other out before the month’s up.
This is my town. It was mine first.
Wow… okay. That sounded whiny, and I’m pretty sure you can’t call dibs on an entire town. She pisses me off, which I guess was always kind of our thing. Bickering was just part of our love language.
Now, though, our jabs are filled with malice rather than flirtatious lust.
The three of them are still talking about her podcast, but I’m not really listening. I turn to the fridge, pulling out a bottle of water. I down half of it in a few gulps, keeping my back to the rest of the room.
I try to think of anything other than how gorgeous Riley looks. I’ve seen a few recent pictures of her online because her podcast is everywhere, but I chalked that beauty up to loads of makeup and Photoshop.
There’s no denying how beautiful she is now. Even with the wind whipping her hair around and snow sticking to her eyelashes, the sight of her sucked all the air from my lungs.
I was mainly furious. I honestly never wanted to see her ever again. She hurt me, and that time in my life is something I don’t want to relive. Going through it once was more than enough.
I guess I don’t get that option anymore.
Despite my best efforts, there’s a small part of me that’s happy to see her. We might have only been together for a few months, but during that time, I grew to care about her deeply.
I thought those feelings were reciprocated on her end, but I couldn’t have been further from the truth.
I pull my phone from my pocket, scrolling to the weather app. I’m checking the forecast for the next several days because, yes, this storm is going to be this bad or worse for at least a few more days.
Fuck my life.