39. Cole #2
She doesn’t move or even say anything at all. She just stands there staring at it, and I can feel my own pulse starting to kick up while I watch her take it in. After a few seconds, her eyes shift to the little card beside it, and I watch her read her own name.
“What is this?” she asks.
“Thought you’d recognize your own painting, Prescott.”
Her head turns toward me, her eyes widening. “Cole,” she says, looking at the painting, then back at me. “You did this?”
I keep my eyes on her, shove a hand into my pocket, and shrug.
She shakes her head, her lips parted in shock. “When?”
I drag a hand over the back of my neck. “Before we… ended.” I swallow. “I was gonna tell you that day. On our date.”
Her throat moves when she swallows, and her gaze drifts back to the painting. I don’t think I breathe while I watch her take it in.
Aurora finally drags her gaze away from the painting and looks at me. “I’ve wanted this since I was a kid,” she says. “I can’t believe you did this.”
I shake my head. “I’d do anything for you, Aurora,” I say, forcing myself to stop there before I say too much. Before I tell her I love her. Before I tell her she got under my skin so deep I don’t even remember who I was before her.
Her eyes search my face for a second before she looks away. “God, I wish that day had gone differently.”
Yeah.
Me too.
“I know why you did it,” she says before I can answer. “I know what happened with your sister. I understand it.” She swallows and drops her gaze for a second before looking back at me. “That doesn’t change the fact that you ripped out my heart.”
Her voice cracks and it fucking guts me.
I glance around the gallery, suddenly too aware of the people drifting past and the fact that we’re standing in the middle of all this with too much still sitting between us. Too much I haven’t said. Too much I need to say.
“You want to get out of here for a minute?” I ask.
A faint flush creeps into her cheeks, and she nods.
I lead her out of the gallery and down toward the river, where a bench sits a little off to the side, far enough from everyone else that it finally feels like I can breathe. Once we sit, I turn toward her and reach up, brushing my fingers along her jaw until she looks at me.
“I need you to know that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” I say. “What I said to you. Pushing you away like that. It fucking killed me.”
I drag in a breath and look away for half a second, out at the dark water, because even now saying it out loud makes my chest feel too tight.
“When Sophie showed up at my door that night, hurt because of my dad, opening the door and seeing her standing there like that… It messed me up. Because all I could see was everything I failed to stop. All I could think about was what happened in high school.”
I let out a breath and rake a hand through my hair. “Do you remember that party the Westbrook Falcons threw senior year?”
She nods slowly, her brows pulling together, no doubt remembering all the shit that went down that night.
“Earlier that night, I had found out all my money was gone. Every single cent I was saving up for an apartment to live with Sophie once custody had been approved was just…” I clench my jaw.
“Fucking gone.” I shake my head. “I was livid and went to the party just wanting to get drunk and forget about the fact that I was going to have to start from scratch. I was close to getting approved and needed a solution to finally get myself and Sophie out of that house.”
I pause, my teeth grinding. “But there was this guy there. Westbrook’s center forward.
Hated him from the second I met him. He walked around acting like he was better than everybody, like the whole world existed to stroke his ego.
” My jaw tightens. “And that night, I saw him with his girlfriend. It looked like they were arguing about something, and normally I wouldn’t care, but then he wrapped his hand around her arm, tight enough that I saw the look of pain flash across her face. ”
Her breath catches.
“All I could see was my dad. All I could think about was him hurting Sophie. Hurting me. I felt so angry, so hopeless, and I just lost it. I almost beat him to death,” I say, swallowing hard at the reminder. “I couldn’t stand the sight of seeing him hurting a woman, and I saw red.”
I finally make myself look at her, and the second I do, I wish I hadn’t, because the guilt on her face hits me right in the gut.
“His girlfriend, the one I was trying to protect, called the cops on me.” I watch her try to hold herself together, her nostrils flaring slightly as she fights the tears. “After I got charged, I knew there wasn’t a chance in hell a judge was ever going to let Sophie stay with me.”
I know she probably wondered why I hated her so much for so long. And now she finally knows why.
Her bottom lip trembles. “I didn’t know,” she says, shaking her head. “I swear to God, I didn’t know. I was just trying to protect my boyfriend.”
“I know.” I shift closer, lifting my hand to her cheek. “I hated seeing him put his hands on you,” I tell her. “I didn’t give a shit that you were his girlfriend. I didn’t care that I barely knew you then. I just knew I couldn’t stand there and let him touch you like that.”
Her eyes lift to mine, glassy with tears. “Chase had never hit me before,” she says quietly. “He was drunk, and he wanted to have sex, and when I said no, he got angry and I just…” She squeezes her eyes shut, and a tear slips down her cheek.
“Fuck,” I murmur, brushing it away with my thumb. “Don’t cry. It breaks my heart seeing you cry.”
Her mouth trembles. “It’s all my fault Sophie got hurt.”
My chest twists. “No.” I tip her chin up until she has to look at me.
“That wasn’t on you. Me getting arrested was on me.
I blamed you for a long time because it was easier than blaming myself, and that wasn’t fair.
None of it was your fault, Aurora. You didn’t make me punch Chase.
I don’t regret a single second of that night, because even if it cost me everything, he deserved to get his ass kicked. ”
Her eyes are glassy, filled with tears. “Is Sophie okay now? Is she still with you?”
I shake my head. “The cops came a few days ago, and she’s in emergency foster care right now,” I say. “I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but…” I let out a breath and look away for a second.
“I’m sorry,” she says, her voice slightly shaky.
“You have nothing to be sorry for.” I look back at her. “I should be the one saying sorry for pushing you away when all I wanted was you right there beside me.”
Her brows pull together. “I thought you didn’t want me anymore.”
“I know.” My thumb traces slowly over her cheek. “I know, baby.”
“I needed you that day, Cole. All I wanted was for you to pull me into your arms after my dad said he wanted nothing to do with me.” My stomach twists at those words, but she keeps going before I can say anything.
“But then you told me you were done with me, and I felt so stupid when I—” She cuts herself off, biting her lip and looking away.
My heart pounds against my chest. “When you what?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t want to say.”
“Why?”
Her eyes flick back to mine, hurt and scared in a way I’ve never seen from her before. “What if you don’t say it back?”
I slide my hand down her arm and lace my fingers through hers, my thumb moving over her knuckles. “I will.”
She holds my gaze, breathing fast. “It broke my heart hearing you say you were done with me when I…” Her throat moves. “I loved you.”
My chest cracks wide open so fast it almost feels like pain.
“Loved?” I manage, because it’s the only word I can get out.
She holds my gaze, her eyes shining. “Love.”
I break apart.
That’s the only way I can explain it. My chest just cracks and opens, and before I can think of anything smart to say, before I can even catch up to what’s happening, I’ve got both hands on her face and my forehead pressed to hers because I need to touch her or I’m gonna lose my damn mind.
“Fuck,” I say, because it’s the only word I’ve got. I lift my head just enough to look at her. “Aurora…” My voice cracks on her name. I swallow and shake my head. “I love you so fucking much.”
I lean in and brush my mouth against hers, and any thought I had about taking this slow disappears the second she kisses me back. She slides her hands up around my neck, and the soft, needy sound she breathes into my mouth goes straight through me.
I’ve been without this for days, and now that I’ve got her again, I can’t make myself rush it. I kiss her slow and deep and hungry, taking my time, needing to relearn every inch of her all over again.
I kiss her until my chest aches with it, until I can feel how badly she wants me in the way her fingers tighten at the back of my neck, and all I can think is how much I missed this. Missed her. Missed having her in my hands so badly I’ve barely felt like myself without her.
When I finally pull back, we’re both breathing hard.
She looks a little dazed and breathless, and when her lips curl into the prettiest smile I’ve ever seen, it makes me want to kiss her all over again.
“You love me?” she asks, grinning so hard it pulls a laugh out of me.
I nod, my thumb tracing over her cheek. “More than I ever thought possible. Didn’t think I had room in my heart for anyone but my sister.” I grin and tug lightly on her bottom lip with my thumb. “But you bit your way in anyway, like the little viper you are.”
Her lashes flutter when I kiss the corner of her mouth, and she smiles against me, so damn pretty it makes my chest pull tight.
I still don’t know how I’m going to get Sophie back. I still don’t know how long any of that is going to take, or how ugly it’s going to get before it’s over. But I know now I was wrong to think I had to choose. Wrong to think loving Aurora meant I was failing my sister.
I can have both.
And with Aurora smiling up at me like that, it feels a whole lot easier to believe everything might actually be okay.