Chapter 12 #4
his back. More soft, needy sounds came from his throat, and she clung to him tighter.
He briefly paused to pull back and ask a question. “Are you sure this is okay? I know you just ended things with your fiancé
today.”
“He’s dead to me,” Dell said in a hurry, and felt Cole’s smile when she greedily pressed her mouth back to his. He took a
step to one side, and then the other, as if he were searching for a flat surface to press her up against, but aside from lying
down on the tower, they were out of luck. Dell didn’t really care though. She’d have lain down anywhere if it meant she got
to keep kissing him and maybe do other things too.
Cole’s hands had inched their way higher on the backs of her bare thighs as she squeezed herself as close as possible. She’d
fisted her hands in his hair and was ready to tackle him when a loud ding! pulled their attention from devouring each other.
“What was that?” Dell asked, out of breath, and still squeezing his hair in her fists.
Cole looked down beside them, where his tablet had lit up inside his satchel. Even from a distance, Dell could see the symbol
for a new message alert. Cole frowned at it with a sigh and a look like he wanted to kick it off the bridge and into the ocean
for interrupting them.
Dell unthreaded her legs from around his waist and slid down until her feet met a solid surface. “Wait, does that say it’s from Maxine Vanguard? Isn’t she Robbie’s mom’s case manager?”
Cole let go of her, curious now too. “Yes, she is.”
“What did she say?” Dell asked as Cole bent to pick up the tablet.
He squinted at the message, all the while Dell coming down from the high of their make-out session and remembering there were
important things at stake. “She said Robbie’s mom was thrilled to receive the message and would like to pass along to her
son and father she misses them too and is so happy they have each other. And she’s sorry she’s not there to be part of Robbie’s
life, but she loves him and is extremely proud of him.” Cole’s voice grew thick at the end, and Dell noted the burning sensation
behind her dry eyes once more.
“We have to tell him,” she said with a sniffle of nothing. She turned like she meant to leap off the bridge and go tell him
right then, but Cole reached for her arm.
“Dell, wait. It’s the middle of the night.”
“I somehow expect Robbie is still up right now.”
Cole shrugged like he had to agree. “I think we can wait for a reasonable hour.”
“We need a plan,” Dell said. She pinched her bottom lip with her fingers and began pacing.
Cole watched her with an amused look on his face. “How did I know you were going to say that?”
“Perhaps you remember from some inexplicable sliding-doors reality that hasn’t happened yet,” she said with a teasing grin. “Or maybe you are simply
astute and have realized after spending the day with me I never go into a situation unprepared.”
“Perhaps both,” he said with a shrug and smile.
The quirk of his lips made her want to kiss him again, but she resisted and kept pacing and planning, like a general giving battle orders. “So, we need to get that message from his mom to Robbie, and while we’re there, we might as well have him use his hacker setup to find a picture of you.”
“Great. Two birds. But why do we need a picture of me?”
“To show to Jason to confirm this theory of ours that you’re the guy from the ski trip.”
“Okay, and doing that will confirm . . . ?”
Dell stepped toward him and put her hand in his. She looked up into his face framed by starlight. Her knees weakened for a
moment. “That maybe there’s something about you that’s key to solving my problem. Maybe it’s been our problem all along.”
He looked down at her and seemed to get lost in her eyes. “Would it be all right if I kiss you again?”
“You don’t have to ask.”
Their lips met once more, and Dell couldn’t help thinking he had to be the answer.
The missing piece. The explanation as to why her life had derailed in such a bizarre fashion and led her right to him.
And not simply because kissing him felt like their mouths were made for each other, but also because being close to him had her wanting to open him up and read every page in the story of his life.
She wanted to scribble in the margins, dog-ear her favorite parts, know every single thing about him so she could ask him more.
The feeling had never struck her so hard with another person.
Tommy had been a box to be checked: He was gorgeous, successful, well-connected, murderous as it turned out, but still, he’d been the easy route.
Cole was anything but easy, given she and he existed on different ethereal planes, among many other obstacles.
But for the first time in her life, Dell didn’t want to check a box simply for the sake of checking it.
She wanted to see where this truly bizarre thing with Cole might go, figure out what it all meant even if it unraveled her tidy and routine life, and yes, keep kissing him until the sun came up.