Chapter 13 Cole
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Cole
“Dad, there’s so much snow,” Mav says, leaning against his shovel.
“I know, bud,” I say. My boots crunch against Abby’s snowy driveway. “It was a pretty crazy storm.” I crouch in front of him, holding my arms out at my sides. “Come here.”
His shovel clatters to the ground a second before he falls against my chest. His arms aren’t as tiny as they used to be, but it still feels like I’m holding that same baby in my arms. I press a kiss to the side of his head.
My eyes lock with Abby’s over Mav’s shoulder. “Everything okay?” I mouth.
She nods, adjusting the red beanie she’s wearing. “Are you okay?” she mouths back.
“I am now.” I hug my son a little tighter before he wiggles out of my hold.
I stand, feeling my muscles ache after all the shoveling I did earlier at our place. This storm really was one for the record books. We see our fair share of snow this high in the mountains, but it rarely comes all at one time like that.
I wrap my arms around Abby next. She and I might not be in love, but she’s my best friend, and together we made the best thing to ever happen to either of us.
We thought for one night that we could be more than friends, but we were wrong. We’re far better as friends. That night did bring us one surprise, though: Maverick.
I wasn’t just worried about Mav when I couldn’t get in touch with them over the last few days. I was worried about her, too.
“That was fucking brutal, not being able to talk to you guys,” I whisper in her ear, so Mav can’t hear me.
“We’re fine, Cole. I promise,” she says, patting my back.
I take a deep breath. I knew deep down they were both okay, but until I saw it with my own two eyes, I couldn’t really accept it.
Her gaze softens when she peeks up at me. “I would have been losing my mind if he were with you during all this. I probably would have hiked my happy ass out there through the snow.”
“No, I would have had to rescue two women, then,” I grumble. I regret the words as soon as they fall from my mouth.
She tilts her head to the side. “What other woman did you save?”
Why the hell did I say that? Abby’s like a shark when she catches a whiff of blood. She’s relentless until she gets what she wants.
“That’s a story I don’t have the mental capacity to tell you right now.”
“Interesting.” She draws the word out. “I’ll get it out of you eventually.”
Don’t I know it.
To distract her from diving into this further, I swipe the shovel away from her.
“Hey… What are you doing?”
“Shoveling.”
Her hands land on her hips. “I can shovel my own driveway, Cole.”
“I’m fully aware that you can, but you don’t need to. I’m here. Your little man is here.” I point to Mav, who’s doing a damn good job shoveling the edge of the driveway.
I guess that’s what we get for raising him in a mountain town that receives a lot of snow. He’s also a damn good kid who would do absolutely anything to help other people, especially his mom.
“Let us finish up out here,” I say, giving her my best smile.
She rolls her eyes. “Fine. I’ll go get his stuff packed up for the week.” She marches into the house, like she’s still offended that I’m shoveling for her.
She can deal with it. I’m helping whether she likes it or not.
Mav and I work in silence. My back is going to be killing me tomorrow. I need to take a pain reliever when I get home… or several.
An hour later, I’m parking my truck in the garage. Mav hops out, carrying his duffel into the house. He’s only six, but I swear he acts like a teenager sometimes with how independent he is.
I almost run him over when he abruptly comes to a stop as he steps into the kitchen.
“What…” I start but trail off when I see Riley standing there. There’s an almost guilty look on her face.
Why is she here? I would have bet good money that the view I had of her through the truck window would be the last I ever saw of her, in person at least. It would be hard to avoid her face online altogether.
“Who are you?” Mav asks her. There are never women here at our house on the weeks Mav’s with me, other than my mom or Abby, so obviously he’s a little confused.
It isn’t like my brothers, and I bring a lot of women here, but it has happened from time to time, especially Finn. Now that I think about it, though, I haven’t seen him have any lady friends over in a long time.
“I’m Riley,” she says, giving my son a warm smile.
“Oh, okay,” he says, like her name was all he needed to know for all of this to make sense. “I’m Maverick.”
“Nice to meet you, Maverick.”
He spins around, facing me. “I’m going to go put my stuff in my room.”
“Okay,” is all I can manage to get out. He disappears up the stairs. I can hear him talking to his uncles. Riley and I both stand there silently until Mav’s bedroom door closes upstairs.
“What are you doing here?” I ask. It comes across far angrier than I intend.
I don’t want her here anymore, but I don’t need to be an asshole about it. My desire to have her out of my life for good has more to do with me than it does with her.
Okay… it has a little to do with her.
“The pipes broke at her rental,” Theo says, walking into the kitchen.
Finn steps in behind him. “There was water everywhere.”
What am I supposed to say?
Do I want her to crash at our place any longer? No. Am I going to be a complete dick and leave her without anywhere to stay? Also… no.
If there were any other places she could stay, she would be utilizing those options. She’s here, though, which means she has nowhere else to go.
“Okay, then,” I say, turning and walking up the stairs. I keep my eyes trained on each stair ahead of me, so I don’t turn and look at her.
I just can’t. I can already feel the walls around my heart starting to crack.
I can’t let her back in now, even if it’s just as a friend. I have so much more to lose now than I did back then. I have Maverick to think about now. Mav.
Fuck. I need to call Abby. She deserves to know if someone else is staying in the house with her son. Great. I already know how this conversation is going to go.
I groan, closing the door to my room. I can anticipate the loads of shit she’s going to give me over this. Abby knows exactly who Riley is, and she won’t let me live this down for a single second.
She’s the one person I’ve fully opened up to about all of it. Like I said, she’s my best friend.
Before I can think about it even more, I hit her name on my phone. “What did I forget to pack?” she asks in place of a greeting.
“Hello to you, too,” I say, laughing.
“Hi,” she says, sarcastically. “What did I forget?”
“That’s not it.”
“Cole. What the hell’s going on? Why are you calling me? You were just here, like, sixty-eight minutes ago.”
Wow… that was specific.
“Cole, you need to speak. You’re freaking me out.”
Right… words.
“Riley’s here.” I pause for a second, then add, “At my house.”
“Wait… like Riley… Riley? Your Riley?” she says, piecing things together.
“She isn’t my Riley, but, yes, her.”
“How? Why? When? How?” she asks. She’s shouting the words so loudly I have to hold my phone away from my ear, so I don’t sustain permanent hearing loss.
I take a deep breath, then tell her everything. She’s silent for a minute when I finish.
“First of all… are you okay?” she asks. She might love to give me crap, but she cares about me in the same way I do her.
I shrug like she can see me. “I don’t know. My head’s kind of a fucking mess right now.”
I can’t see her, but I know she’s nodding as she thinks about what she wants to say. “This is wild. It’s like fate dumped her back into your life.”
“This isn’t fate, Abby.”
“It sure as shit seems like it. You met her for the first time when you were rescuing her from a bad storm, even though she wanted none of your help whatsoever. Fast forward eight years and a nasty breakup later, and the same thing happens, minus a lot of degrees.”
Well… when she puts it that way…
“She hates me just as much as I hate her,” I add.
“I don’t think you really hate her,” she says. “I think you were hurt by what she did. But just like you haven’t let go of those feelings, you also haven’t let go of the love you had for her back then.”
I know she’s right, but damn it’s hard to keep the irrational part of my brain in check when Riley’s standing right in front of me.
Abby laughs into the receiver. “And now you must live under the same roof with her for an indefinite amount of time. This is going to be priceless. I should move in, too, and bring some popcorn for the show.”
“Abby,” I say in warning.
“Fine, fine. Try not to kill each other, though. Okay? At least not in front of our son.”
“Abby,” I say, laughing. “What the fuck am I going to do with you?”
“If you haven’t figured it out by now, I don’t think you ever will.”
“Probably why you’re my friend and not my wife.”
“Facts.”
“So… you’re okay with Mav being here while she’s staying at the house?” I ask. I really don’t want to lose my week with Mav, but if Abby isn’t comfortable with it, I would never push for him to stay here.
“I trust you, so if you think he’s safe, I’m fine with it.”
“She might not be my favorite person, but she would never do anything to Mav,” I say with conviction.
“Perfect.”
“Love you, Ab.”
“Love you, too.”