Chapter 12
12
PAIGE
This was a bad idea. I knew that, yet here I was still about to do it. I hadn’t seen Cole in a week, but our conversation in the parking lot at his garage stuck with me. One of us needed to take the first step in trying to fix whatever the hell was going on with us. Plus, after the way he talked to me and the things he said, I was curious if he felt something for me beyond dislike.
So here I was, sitting in his parking lot on a Friday night, holding a bottle of wine and wondering if this was the best idea I’d ever had or the absolute worst, and it was about to blow up in my face.
When he walked out of the garage and saw me sitting in my car, I knew it was too late to back out. Pushing open the door, I stepped out, but not before I grabbed my purse. I was standing and had just closed the door when he started walking toward me.
“Hey,” he called out.
I started toward him, feeling a wave of nerves wash over me, which was an odd feeling. I didn’t usually get nervous, but nothing about my time spent with Cole was normal.
I held up the bottle of wine. “Thought we could start working on your plan.”
He stopped and tilted his head to the side. “My plan?”
Dropping the bottle of wine to my side, I smiled. “Of trying to get along.”
He studied me before I saw the grin slowly grace his lips. “You think we need a whole bottle of wine for that?”
I gestured toward the car. “I actually have an entire case of wine in the back seat. This bottle is just to get us started.”
He chuckled, and my shoulders relaxed. I couldn’t remember a time when I wanted a joke to land more than I did right now. Wiping his hands on his jeans, he looked back at the garage, and it didn’t take a genius to realize he was still working.
“Unless you have work to do, and then we can pretend I never stopped,” I continued.
He lifted the front of his ball cap and scratched his forehead. “I always have work to do, but I can quit for the night.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You sure?”
“Yeah.” He gestured toward the garage. “Come on in.”
“Are we drinking in the garage?”
“I have an apartment above the garage. I’m assuming by the look on your face that you didn’t know.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I guess no one ever told me that.”
We started across the parking lot and walked into the garage. I watched while he walked around and shut off machines before closing the large bay doors.
When he was finished, I asked what I’d been wondering. “Doesn’t living where you work drive you crazy? How do you ever stop working knowing all you’d have to do is walk down the stairs and finish?”
“That’s exactly what I do,” he admitted while he gestured toward the stairs. “Come on, I’ll give you the tour.”
I followed him up the stairs and waited for him to unlock the door to his apartment. I stepped into the kitchen and looked around, surprised at the size. I would’ve assumed it would be small, but it was actually a decent size.
He pointed at the kitchen but kept walking. “Kitchen.” We moved across the kitchen and into a living room. “Living room.” He gestured toward three doors. “Two bedrooms and a bathroom.”
I spun around, appreciating the coziness of his place. “This is nice.”
“It’s good for now,” he admitted. “Not long term, but since I work a lot, this makes sense.”
“Do you work every day?” When he nodded, I continued, “Don’t you get tired of that?”
He shrugged. “Not really. I love what I do, and I want to make my business successful, so to do that, I have to put in the time.”
“Makes sense,” I said, and it made me think about my own life and goals, all of which I’d been questioning recently.
“I’m gonna grab a quick shower.” He pointed at the remote lying on the coffee table. “Maybe find a movie or something. I’ll only be a few minutes.”
“Okay.” I held up the wine. “Do you have glasses?”
“Oh yeah.” He laughed. “I guess you probably don’t want to just drink from the bottle.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” I mumbled but watched him disappear into the kitchen and return with two water glasses.
“This is all I got.” He also held out a corkscrew. “In case you need this too.”
I took the glasses from him. “That’ll work.”
“I’ll be back,” he said, quickly turning toward the doors.
Sitting on the couch, I opened the bottle and poured wine into the two glasses. I heard the water running when I turned on the television and again wondered if this was a good idea. I wasn't sure if he was happy or unhappy I was here. Cole was a mystery to me. Maybe that was why I’d always found him interesting.
When I found the movie American Pie , I dropped the remote, sat back, and took a sip of my wine. In what seemed like only a few minutes, the couch dipped beside me, and I looked over to see Cole reaching for his glass.
“Wow, that was fast.”
He smirked. “I heard American Pie . Didn’t want to miss anything.”
I laughed softly. “I don’t even know why I like this movie except that my brother likes it and used to watch it with his friends. I always wanted to watch it with them, but my mom wouldn’t let me.”
“I didn’t know you have a brother.”
“Yeah.” I giggled at the movie, then continued talking, but my eyes stayed locked on the screen. “He’s eight years older than me.” I glanced at Cole. “I was the oops baby.”
“I’d like to say Harper is the oops baby in our family, but I actually think they planned her.”
I laughed loudly this time. “There’s no way your parents planned to get the Harper they got.”
When he laughed, I relaxed my back against the couch. “That’s probably true.”
“I love your sister, Cole, but boy, does she like to instigate shit.”
“She’s done that since she learned to talk,” he said, and I glanced at him to see his eyes on me. “So you weren’t at their apartment bitching about me?”
I shook my head. “No, I would never do that.”
“Why not?” He tilted his head. “I’m sure they’d join in.”
“They’re your sisters. I think that’s a line I shouldn’t cross,” I admitted. “Plus, you’d be surprised at how protective they are of you. Especially Harper.”
“Why especially Harper?”
I had a feeling he was going to ask that, and I wanted to kick myself for saying anything. I looked down at my glass before facing the television again. “She was ready to kick me out of her life when she found out I said I hated you.”
He made a humming sound, and I decided to do what was right. Honestly, I should have done it a long time ago, but I was holding on to my anger, using it like a shield, and I didn’t want to do that anymore. Tonight was an olive branch, and I needed to show him that I was serious when I showed up here.
I exhaled softly and looked toward him again. Once again, his eyes were locked on me, and shivers raced over my skin. “I don’t hate you. I told your sisters that too and not just because I didn’t want to lose their friendship. When I said that, I was drunk and angry and embarrassed.” I rolled my lips together. “I’m sorry.”
He studied me for a long moment, so long I wondered if I should just look away, but I was glad I didn’t when he spoke because I could watch the grin slowly spread across his face. “That seemed really hard for you. You don’t apologize too often, do you?”
Smiling, I reached out and slapped the side of his arm playfully. “No, I don’t. That’s probably only the second or third time in my life.”
“Wow.” His eyes and smile widened. “I’m the proud recipient of a Paige apology. I’m not even sure what to do with that.”
“Appreciate it.” I shifted to look at the television again. “It’s unlikely you’ll ever get one again.”
When I heard him laugh again, warmth embraced me. Why did making Cole laugh turn this into the best Friday night I’d had in as long as I could remember? At that moment, I chose not to question it. I wanted to enjoy this. I had no idea how long it would last.
When my phone beeped, I grabbed it off the coffee table and looked down, smiling when I read the text.
“Something important?”
I shifted my gaze to Cole and saw his eyes on me, and that damn expression I couldn’t read was back on his face. “It’s your sister.”
“Which one?”
“It’s Friday night at almost ten o’clock. Which one do you think it is?”
He chuckled. “She wants to go out.”
“Yeah.” I glanced back down at my phone before meeting his stare again.
“You gonna go?”
I studied him, and for a moment, I thought I saw disappointment in his expression, but he cleared it before I could be sure. “Do you want me to go?”
“No, I’m having fun. I never really do this shit anymore,” he answered, and I appreciated that he wasn’t one of those guys who told me to just do what I wanted to do as if they didn’t give a shit if I stayed or left.
“Then I’m staying.”
He smiled. “What are you going to tell Harper?”
“Just that I have plans."
“Wanna mess with her?”
I nodded and returned his smile. “Absolutely.”
He reached out. “Give me your phone.”
I watched while he typed out a text, assuming he would show me before he sent it, but when he finally handed my phone back to me, I saw he’d already hit send.
With wide eyes, I read what he wrote.
Me: Can’t. Fucking around with Cole.
Looking up, I saw the smirk playing around his lips. “Do you have any idea what this is going to do?”
He snorted out a laugh. “Yep.”
When my phone beeped, I looked down, read it, then showed it to Cole.
Harper: What? Are you serious?
I was just about to reply when Cole yanked my phone from my hands, and laughing, he typed out another text.
Me: Yeah, I’m fucking serious .
“Cole.” I grabbed my phone, read what he texted, and stared at him. “Stop doing that.”
Harper: Okay, I know you don’t text like that. Who’s actually texting me right now?
After my phone beeped, I read what she wrote and showed it to Cole, but this time, when he tried to grab it, I pulled it away. What I didn’t expect was that Cole would lean over me when I held the phone out to the side.
“Cole!” I squealed, laughing when he practically lay on top of me to reach the phone.
I was distracted when my phone started to ring and looked toward it, but that gave Cole an opening to grab it. Lying across my lap, he saw who it was and answered it immediately.
“Hey.”
“Oh my god.” I heard Harper exclaim when Cole put her on speaker. “Why do you have Paige’s phone?”
“She already told you.”
“Where’s Paige?”
“She’s literally underneath me right now.”
When there was nothing but silence, I looked down at Cole to see he was staring at me, still smirking.
“Harper, I’m right here. And nothing is happening.”
“That’s not exactly true,” Cole said. “Am I lying on top of you?”
“Yes, but only because you wanted to grab my phone from me so you could mess with Harper.”
When there was still silence, I shared another look with Cole, then called out to Harper. “Harper, are you still there?”
“Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on right now, but you two are freaking me out,” she answered. “Why aren’t you fighting?”
“We called a truce.” Cole grinned at me. “For tonight anyway.”
“Okay, I’m gonna go. I need a drink or something. I’m out of sorts.”
Laughing, I stared at the phone. “What do you mean?”
“This is weird. It’s like up is down now or black is white. You two fight. That’s what you do. If you’re not fighting, then you’re doing the opposite.”
“Told you we were fucking around,” Cole stated.
I laughed, but Harper spoke. “You coming out with me tonight, Paige?”
“She already told you no.” Cole answered for me. “She’s hanging out with me tonight.”
“Yeah, but after that.” She continued. “You’ll be going to sleep soon so you can get up at four and go back to work.”
“Not tonight.” He propped his chin on my thigh, and only then did I really consider how close we were. Up until this moment, I was so wrapped up in the conversation I overlooked that he was still lying across my lap and how much I was enjoying it. “I might not sleep at all tonight.”
“Gross,” Harper replied with a laugh. “See you later, guys.”
He handed me my phone with a smile gracing his lips. I pretended to be cool, like this was just us being friends for tonight when, in fact, I was doing everything I could to keep myself from running my hand through his messy hair.
“That was fun.”
“She’s going to get you back for this. You know that, right?” I told him.
He pushed to sitting but stayed close. “She's too easy to mess with. I can’t help myself.”
Leaning forward, I grabbed the wine bottle from the table and poured more into our glasses. Lifting them, I handed Cole his and tapped mine against his. “Here’s to Harper’s revenge.”
He laughed and sat back, his thigh touching mine, but we didn’t say more. Just settled in to watch the movie, neither of us doing anything to put distance between us.