Chapter 9 #2
“He must love games. There’s a lot of them in there.”
All three of them nod. “He does,” Cole says.
“He says most of them are too kiddish for him now, though,” Finn says, smiling. I can already tell he cares about his nephew.
“He’s more like a mini adult than a six-year-old kid,” Theo laughs. “He’d rather play Yahtzee than Candy Land any day.”
Six… Cole has a six-year-old son. He’s been a dad for six years, and I had no idea. Not that it’s any of my damn business. It shouldn’t matter to me at all.
“Is that why you’ve been glued to your phone?” I ask Cole as some pieces start to click into place in my brain.
He freezes with his glass halfway to his mouth. He blinks, then brings the drink the rest of the way to his lips.
As much as I wish I didn’t, I know Cole. If he didn’t know his son was okay, it would drive him crazy.
Cole isn’t a horrible person; he only has the capacity to extend his big heart to the people he truly cares about. I didn’t make that cut.
A fresh slash of pain sears through me. I take a deep breath, trying to calm the ache in my chest that’s still present despite how many years have passed.
“I haven’t been able to talk to Abby since the storm got worse yesterday.” The weight of not talking to his son’s mom is clearly sitting heavily on his shoulders.
Theo rests his hand on Cole’s shoulder. “I’m sure she’s fine. Abby’s a badass, so she’s probably handling things just fine.”
While I was getting the game, Theo and Finn must have switched spots.
Finn smiles at me when I stare at him in confusion.
“We have to sit opposite our partners.” He pauses for a minute, letting me worry about which one of his brothers is going to be my partner.
“Cool your jets. We wanted to avoid World War III, so you and Theo are together. I’m with grumpy Daddy over there. ”
“Don’t ever fucking say that again,” Cole says, taking another swig of his drink. He stares at his brother like he can’t quite fathom how they share the same blood. Then, he takes another drink.
I guess that’s a good thing for Theo and me. If Cole’s too hammered to play well, we’re going to dominate.
Finn chuckles as he pulls everything from the box, getting it set up. “Ladies first,” he says, handing me the purple box with all the cards loaded into it.
I look at Theo. “Ready?”
“Go for it.”
Finn has the buzzer in one hand in case he sees me say a word that I’m not supposed to. In the other, he has the timer.
“Ready, set, go,” he says, flipping the sand timer over and setting it on the coffee table. He leans over so he can see the first card as I flip it up.
The word is clouds. I need to get Theo to say that word without saying any of the buzz words, which are fluffy, air, sky, fly, or white.
“Cumulonimbus.” I pause, trying to think of other types of clouds, but before I get the chance to say anything more, Theo says the word.
“The fuck?” Finn says.
I smile, flipping up the second card. The word is olive. I look over the words, thinking about how to get him to the answer. “Martini garnish.”
“Olive.”
Cole drops his head back against the couch. “Fuck me. I’m going to need to get drunk to make it through this game.”
Theo and I continue in the same way for five more words until the time runs out. When the last grain of sand falls, Finn presses the buzzer far more than is necessary to get the point across. Even Cole growls at him to knock it off.
Finn grabs the cards, counting them. “Seven?” He looks up, dumbstruck. “It has to be beginner’s luck.”
Theo winks at me. It causes a slight shiver to cascade down my arms.
Finn and I switch roles so that he can have his turn. I take a sip of my drink before counting him down. He flips the first card. Galaxy.
Finn starts babbling. “Black, sparkly, big, learn, school.”
Cole leans forward, his elbows resting on his knees, like being marginally closer to Finn will help him decipher the nonsense spewing from his mouth.
Finn gawks at Cole like he can’t believe he hasn’t gotten the answer yet. “Like really big, like big… big.”
“Finn… I don’t even have a fucking guess right now,” Cole says.
I want to laugh so badly, but I don’t want to piss Finn off. I couldn’t care less if Cole was upset, but Finn is adorably serious about this game right now. I don’t want to ruin his mojo, even if it isn’t really working now.
“Just skip it and go on to the next one,” Cole says.
Finn groans but turns over the next card. Helmet. “No concussion here. No. No. No,” he says.
“I’m pretty sure you have a concussion with these clues you’re giving me,” Cole says, running his hand over his stubble in exasperation.
“Fuck you,” Finn snaps. “Think better. Oh… umm… bicycle helmet,” Finn shouts.
I cringe but hit the buzzer. Unlike Finn, I only press it once.
Finn’s head snaps in my direction. “I didn’t say any of the buzz words.”
I snort out a laugh. “No, but you said the word.” I point to the word helmet on the card.
He growls in frustration.
“Really?” Cole snipes.
Theo’s barely keeping himself together with the way these two are carrying on.
I glance at the timer, seeing that their time is already up. “Time’s up,” I say gently.
“No,” Finn says in complete and utter shock. “There’s no way.”
“If you didn’t fuck around the whole time, then…” Theo says with barely contained amusement.
“Whatever… Let’s see if you can do any better.” He hands the cardholder over to Theo.
Theo does, in fact, do better… a lot better. In fact, he and I get at least five words each time either of us gets a turn.
Cole and Finn are lucky if they get one or two words each time. After a few rounds, I think Cole’s going to blow a gasket.
“I need another drink,” Cole says after spending a whole minute giving decent clues, but Finn only got one of the words right.
“I do, too,” I say, grabbing Theo and Finn’s empty glasses before following Cole into the kitchen.
We make another round of drinks in silence, but it isn’t awkward or tension-filled. There aren’t even any glaring or harsh looks.
The alcohol must be smoothing our edges because we are both tolerating each other. We each carry two glasses back into the living room.
“We need to switch up the teams,” Cole says.
Finn glares at him.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Cole tells him. “I love you, but this isn’t working, bro.” Cole gestures between himself and Finn.
Finn glares for a solid minute before giving a shrug of defeat. Then, somehow, in the mix of everyone not wanting to change spots, Cole and I become partners. Thank goodness for alcohol making me feel light and airy because I don’t even really care.
It could be worse. I could be sitting next to him. Yes, that would be worse. Then, I would smell him and feel his leg pressed against mine.
Get. Your. Shit. Together. Graham.
See? It’s a million times better.
Finn rubs his hands together in excitement. “I’ve got smarty pants over there,” he points at Theo, “so good luck.”
“Are you calling me dumb?” I ask.
“And me?” Cole adds.
“No, I’m not. Just pointing out that Theo is smart… er.”
Cole and I lock eyes. Our determination to prove Finn wrong outweighs our feelings toward each other, at least for the duration of this game.
They have me start things off again. Partner. “Tonight, Theo’s was mine first, and now it’s you,” I say.
“Partner,” Cole says.
Finn growls, but Theo laughs.
Birthday. A memory of my birthday we celebrated together careens through my mind. I don’t want to dredge up more thoughts of that time.
But I also want to prove that Theo wasn’t the only reason I was winning before.
Fuck it.
My voice is quieter this time. “Truck bed, vegetable sandwiches, sour candy.” The change in his face tells me he knows exactly what I’m talking about. “Thumb ring.”
He swallows. His Adam’s apple visibly bobs. “Birthday,” he gets out. I can barely hear him, even though the only other sound is the crackling of the fire.
My fingers freeze on the next card as Cole and I are locked in a trance, both of us seeming to relive that day.
“Happy birthday, sweetheart,” Cole says, swinging me around in a circle.
“You already told me that this morning.” I’m smiling at him like an idiot.
My sandals touch down on the gravel.
“Doesn’t mean I can’t tell my girl ‘happy birthday’ again.”
I keep smiling at him because what the hell else am I going to say to that?
“Let’s go. I have a surprise for you,” he says, pulling me to his truck.
He helps me into the seat, then drives outside the city limits. I don’t know the area well, but I know we’re far enough out of town that we aren’t going to run into any other people.
“Is this my birthday surprise? You’re going to murder me in the woods?”
“Why are you always thinking about murder?”
I shrug. “Too many true crime podcasts, I guess.”
In truth, they are where I got the inspiration for my own podcast. The content I want to focus on is vastly different, but it’s still where I got my inspiration.
While murder and mystery are fascinating, I want to dive into people’s love stories. I’ve always loved love, and spending my career surrounded by it sounds like a dream come true.
He rolls his eyes. “I promise I won’t murder you today. It’s your birthday, after all.”
With my hand in his, he guides me to the back of the truck, where he has an entire cozy paradise set up. There’s even an air mattress in the bed of his truck.
“Cole, this is so sweet.”
“Anything for the girl who drives me fucking crazy, but who I want to kiss all the time anyway,” he says, pressing a kiss to my forehead.
“You want to do more than just kiss me,” I say with a wink.
“Abso-fucking-lutely,” he says with a firm nod. His hands grip my hips, lifting me onto the tailgate.
We take off our shoes and snuggle up to the pillows. He pulls out sandwiches that look homemade. Peeling back the plastic wrap, I realize it’s a grilled vegetable sandwich with some creamy-looking spread.
“Did you make this?” I ask in awe.
He nods, seeming a little embarrassed, or maybe worried. I told him a few weeks ago that the one food I missed from my college cafeteria was a sandwich just like this.
“Try it,” he says, unwrapping his own sandwich.
It’s delicious, even better than the cafeteria sandwich. While the food is to die for, I love it even more that he made it just for me.
He listened and made something he knew would be special. He could have picked up food from a restaurant in town, but he did this instead.
Fuck. I think this guy is the real deal.
We devour our sandwiches, then snuggle under the blankets together. We talk for what feels like hours.
Some stories have me laughing. Other times, I have tears springing to my eyes, like when I told him about my mom handing me off to my grandma when I was little because she couldn’t handle being a mom anymore.
The tears rolled down my cheeks and onto Cole’s shirt when I told him my grandma passed a few years ago while I was in college.
He holds me close, a quiet comfort as I tell him about my grandma. She was my favorite person in the whole world, and I miss her so damn much.
Eventually, my voice trails off. His hand moves up and down my back for endless minutes.
“Here,” he says, handing me a small box with a blue ribbon tied around it.
“You didn’t need to get me a present. All of this was enough,” I say, waving my hand around us.
“But I did anyway. Open it.”
Inside the box is a beautiful ring. My eyes pop wide.
“Oh shit,” he says, moving to sit up. I do the same. “I’m not proposing. It’s a thumb ring.”
“Oh,” I say, letting out the breath I’d been holding. I love being with Cole, but we are nowhere near that step.
“Sorry… you wear a lot of rings, and I thought you’d like this one.”
I do like it. I love it. It looks like thin strips of metal that have almost been braided together.
It’s more of a gray color than silver because it’s matte rather than shiny. It’s unique and different. I couldn’t love it more.
I slide it onto my left thumb. Somehow, it’s a perfect fit.
My arms wrap around his neck. “Thank you. It’s perfect.”
Sliding that ring off my finger was almost more painful than driving past the city limits when I left.
I still haven’t been able to get rid of it. It still sits in the corner of my jewelry box. I’ve gone to throw it away more times than I can count over the years, but I’ve never been able to.
For closure’s sake, I should get rid of it, but I don’t know if I ever will.
“Well… I don’t know what the hell just happened to you two, but time’s up.” The glee in Finn’s voice feels out of place given where my mind ventured to for the last few minutes.
I look back at Cole, who’s still staring at me. We both exhale at the same time.
All I can think is… I really wish I didn’t hate him.