Chapter 6
Lauren
“W e’re going to The Mug And Jug Saturday night,” I told Cole late the next morning. “You should come if you’re feeling up to it.”
They’d finally gotten all of the roads plowed, so I could get back to my house.
Cole wasn’t a hundred percent, but he was getting better quickly. Probably much faster than most people recovered from the flu. No doubt that was because the man was in top physical condition.
He’d explained that he didn’t work out rigorously for vanity reasons. He’d been into fitness for a long time, and staying in shape had always made the long workdays easier for him. Simply put, he did it because he felt better and not because he really wanted to be ripped. He just wanted to be fit.
Cole and I had gotten to know each other a little better over the last two days, and I was really starting to hope that maybe we could be friends.
He’d offered me the use of his gym whenever I wanted to use it, and I planned on taking him up on that offer until the weather got nice enough for me to get back into walking and hiking.
I’d discovered that Cole was far from the jerk that I’d imagined him to be.
Yes, he was antisocial and probably way too blunt, but the more I got to know him, the more I was convinced that trust didn’t come easily to this man.
Knowing some of his history, I knew exactly why he acted the way he did.
Being alone was probably safer for him, but I wasn’t entirely convinced that he was isolated by choice.
Some of the town hadn’t exactly welcomed him with open arms, and that had to be pretty damn uncomfortable at times.
But if he wanted that awkwardness to go away, he needed to show his face in town more often.
If the busybodies finally realized that not a single member of the Remington family thought that Cole and Asher had killed their father, everyone else would eventually accept it.
“That’s probably not a good idea,” he said grimly as he watched me put on my boots.
“Why?”
“The town thinks I killed my father, and I don’t think the two of us should be seen together. You know how people talk here, Lauren. They won’t have anything nice to say if you get friendly with me,” he said hoarsely.
I stood up straight and put my hands on my hips as Cole and I locked eyes.
He hid it well, but God, I really hated the touch of sadness I could see in the depths of those gorgeous eyes.
“Do you really think I care about what some people say? Believe it or not, the entire town doesn’t believe that you killed your father, and I don’t have time for the ones who do.
None of those people are my friends. If they’re that judgmental with absolutely no proof of your guilt, they aren’t people I want to know.
Your cousins, Reese, and Anna will be there.
You know they’re going to be friendly to you. ”
Every member of the Remington family had warmed up to Cole since he’d saved Reese’s life that day not so long ago. They accepted him into the fold even though Cole didn’t seem like he was quite sure he wanted to be there.
“Did you mean what you said about the possible gossip?” he asked in a skeptical voice.
I nodded firmly. “I absolutely meant it.”
“Then have dinner with me at Charlie’s before we go to The Mug And Jug,” he said huskily.
My heart skipped a beat, but it only took that single heartbeat to realize that he wasn’t asking me out on a date.
He’d mentioned last night that he wanted to do something nice for me to pay me back for staying with him when he was really sick.
This was probably that something nice .
Cole Remington would never be interested in a woman like me in a dating sort of way.
Still, I was happy that he’d asked. I liked spending time with him, and it would be good for him to spend some time in town.
I wanted to be able to call Cole Remington my friend.
Yeah, he was still blunt and sometimes came off as a little grumpy, but I was starting to like him way more than I should.
I did find him gut-wrenchingly attractive, but I was sure I’d get over that in time. If I saw him often enough, certainly I’d get numb to his hotness eventually, right?
I honestly didn’t care about the town gossip. Asher and Cole were the hot topics right now, but people would find something else to talk about in the future once the topic got old. They always did.
The silly town gossip was never going to rule my life or make my decisions for me.
It was also never going to make me decide who to call a friend.
“I’d love that,” I said softly as I smiled at him. “I’ll meet you at Charlie’s. What time?”
“Text me your address,” he replied. “I’ll pick you up at six.”
We’d exchanged numbers so he could contact me about his future work projects.
I shook my head. “You don’t have to do that. I can drive.”
I lived in town. If it was warmer, I could actually walk to Charlie’s.
“I’m taking you to dinner,” he said gruffly. “I’ll pick you up and take you home.”
I nodded because I really had no reason to argue. I’d been trying to save him some effort and time, but I had no objections to riding with him.
“Please call me if you need anything,” I said as I put on my jacket. “I know you feel better, but you’re not completely recovered.”
He was still coughing occasionally, and he could use more rest.
He stepped a little closer as he asked, “Do you always worry about men you barely know?”
God, he smelled good. I wasn’t sure what kind of cologne he used, but it was like an aphrodisiac for me. One whiff of Cole’s masculine scent had my brain immediately filled with thoughts about hot sex and multiple orgasms.
And that was very unusual for me.
“I’d worry if anyone I knew was sick,” I told him. “I can’t help it. I guess I’m a worrier.”
A small smile formed on his lips, which made him even more attractive.
It was the first time I’d seen anything even resembling a smile on his face.
“And what makes you want to spend even an extra minute longer than necessary in my company?” he asked. “I realize there’s no proof that I killed my father, but there’s nothing that exonerates me, either. I also happen to be the son of the man who wanted to molest you as a child.”
My body tensed.
Neither one of us had mentioned the only meeting Cole and I had experienced when I was a kid.
I’d been eight.
Cole had been sixteen.
I’d been playing at Millie’s, close to the property line near Cole’s home.
I’d been lured to the barn by Cole’s father with the promise of seeing the newborn kittens there.
There had been no kittens.
Instead, I’d been backed into the corner of that old barn, unable to escape.
I’d been scared, but Cole had come into the barn before his father could do anything really inappropriate.
Cole had pushed his father away from me and told me in no uncertain terms to go home and to never come near their property again.
I ran all the way back to Millie’s house.
My brother, Keith, had been pulling into Millie’s driveway to pick me up by the time I’d gotten back to Millie’s place.
I’d jumped into my brother’s vehicle like my life depended on it, and I’d never gone anywhere near that property line again.
I’d been at an age when I’d only had very minimal knowledge of what sex was, mostly from the vague information my brother had given me as a warning not to let males touch me in inappropriate places.
Maybe I’d been clueless at that age, but I’d known something bad was about to happen before Cole had entered that barn.
His father had been talking to me in a way that terrified me. He had been telling me what a pretty little girl I was, and he’d been pulling my hand toward his thigh when Cole had stormed into that barn.
It had taken me years to realize that he wasn’t pulling my hand toward his thigh. He’d been aiming for his genitals.
I hadn’t known that at the age of eight, but I knew it was something bad .
I looked up and locked eyes with him.
Cole had been my hero , not a person I feared. Things could have been so much worse that day if he hadn’t risked his father’s anger to help me get away.
One heartbeat passed…
And then a few more…
Finally, I answered his question in a shaky voice. “You are not your father, Cole. You were my hero that day.”
He put a hand on the door and moved so close to me that I could feel his warm breath against my face when he spoke. “Was I really, Lauren?” he asked harshly. “I never got to ask, but did that bastard touch you before I got to the barn?”
I had to blink back the tears that filled my eyes as I looked at his tormented face.
I wasn’t entirely sure why he’d moved so close to me, but I had a feeling he was trying to comfort me.
Cole might have bad boy vibes, but there was a heart underneath that bullshit exterior.
Whether or not his father had touched me mattered to him.
I shook my head. “No,” I said honestly. “He was saying some creepy things to me, but you were there before he could touch me.”
“Fuck!” he rasped. “You were so damn young. I wanted to kill him.”
“But you didn’t,” I murmured softly.
It was weird being so close to Cole.
There was nothing romantic about it, but it was somehow…intimate.
He shook his head. “There’s no way you can ever know that for certain. That intelligent brain of yours must tell you that me killing my father is a possibility.”
I lifted my hand between us and touched the left side of my chest. “I know it here,” I said firmly as I placed my hand over my heart. “And it does make sense in my brain, too. You and Asher weren’t even home when it happened.”
Asher and Cole had found their father’s body when they arrived home at the end of the day.
“Allegedly,” he reminded me. “There was no video evidence to prove our alibis. I could have slipped away from school, or Asher could have left work at some point to kill my father.”
I rolled my eyes. “Doubtful. You and Asher would have been missed. You were in high school, and people verified that you were there that day. You didn’t live close to the school, so it would have meant a long absence if you’d traveled to your home and back.
You would have missed at least one class, and you would have been missed by your teacher.
Asher was working in Billings. He would have had to take a very long lunch hour to drive home and back. The police would have noticed that.”
He finally let out a long breath and put a little bit of distance between the two of us.
“I didn’t kill him,” he finally admitted in a graveled voice.
“Not because I wasn’t capable of it, but because I didn’t want to destroy my entire life for scum like my father.
Asher promised me every day that we’d be long gone as soon as I graduated from high school.
I held onto the fact that Asher and I would be starting a whole new life once we could get our freedom. ”
“Millie said her husband asked you if your father was abusive, and you always said he wasn’t. That wasn’t the truth,” I guessed.
“Nope,” he affirmed. “We were afraid of our father, and he threatened us from the time we were little if we ever told anyone about what happened at home. Asher got the worst of it. I think he protected me as much as he could, but he’s never admitted it.”
Cole rubbed the back of his neck like he was uncomfortable talking about his past.
I didn’t want to keep pushing him for more information. He’d shared a few very personal things with me, and I was certain those were things he rarely shared with anyone.
But I had to ask one more question. “Did you get in trouble that day when you protected me?” I queried softly.
I hated the thought that he’d paid for protecting me, but I wanted to know the truth.
“Nothing painful,” Cole said reassuringly. “The physical abuse stopped once Asher and I hit our teens and we were big enough to fight back. We were used to the drunken rants. They didn’t even faze us. We’d been listening to them as long as we could remember. It was our normal.”
My heart squeezed hard inside my chest.
How sad was that? No kid should grow up in a toxic, abusive household like that. Drunken rants and violence should never be a child’s normal.
My heart hurt for the childhood that Cole and Asher had never gotten.
They’d never gotten the chance to be children.
Their younger years had been all about fear, pain, and survival.
It had been traumatic when I’d lost my parents right after my eighth birthday, but I’d had Keith to make me feel secure. And my childhood home had been a place of comfort for me because of the constant love that had been part of my girlhood. I’d always known that I was safe as a child.
Tears filled my eyes, and this time I was unable to blink those tears back. They spilled onto my cheeks as I looked up at Cole, wishing his entire childhood could have been different.
Having the town turn against Asher and Cole after what they’d been through as kids just made me livid.
The fact that they’d had to flee to a different state to get any peace in their lives after their horrible childhood was damn tragic.
Cole took a step forward and gently swiped a tear from my cheek with his fingers. “Don’t cry for me, angel,” he grumbled. “I’m not worth it, and I’ve been all grown up for a long time.”
Before I could think about it, I wrapped my arms around his muscular body and held on tight, giving him one of the hugs he should have had as a kid. “You’ve always been worth caring about, Cole Remington,” I told him adamantly, my head resting on his shoulder and my palms pressed against his back.
I felt his muscles tense for a moment before he finally relaxed and wrapped his arms around my body.
I wasn’t sure how long we silently held each other just like that before we finally said goodbye.