Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Cole
Thursday.
Star moved around the kitchen barefoot, soft steps on tile, pulling a mug down from the cabinet and setting it on the counter with a gentle clink.
The sound shouldn’t have mattered. None of it should have mattered.
But I tracked everything anyway. The way she tucked her hair behind her ear.
The way she leaned her hip against the counter while the kettle heated.
Normal things.
Things that didn’t deserve to be interrupted by the kind of thoughts chewing through my head.
I sat at the small table with my forearms braced against my thighs, phone face-down in front of me like I was daring it to ring.
“You want coffee?” Star asked, glancing over her shoulder.
“Yeah,” I said automatically. “Thanks.”
She smiled at me. Easy. Unforced. Like she wasn’t carrying anything heavier than deciding between cream or no cream.
I watched her make the coffee, set the mug in front of me, and nudged it closer. “Careful. It’s hot.”
“Thank you, babe.”
She looked at me closely. “You’re in a mood.”
“I’m fine.”
She raised an eyebrow and took her mug to the couch, curling up with her legs tucked beneath her. I followed a minute later, sitting beside her, close enough that our shoulders brushed. She leaned into me like it was instinct, like she didn’t even think about it.
That did something to my chest.
She sipped her coffee with her eyes on the TV screen, as if she weren’t actually watching it. “Tomorrow’s Friday,” she said casually.
My jaw tightened before I could stop it. “Yeah,” I said. “It is.”
She glanced at me sideways. “It’s kind of… ominous.”
“It’s just a day,” I said, keeping my voice even. “You don’t need to worry about it.”
She didn’t answer right away. I could feel her thinking.
“You’re tense,” she said finally. “Like, teeth-grinding tense, Cole.”
“I’m always tense.” I had to be to make sure Star was safe. I tried my best to make sure she didn’t know it, and obviously, I had been doing a good job at it.
“Not like this. I know you are worried about this guy, but worrying isn’t going to change anything.”
I huffed out a breath. “We’ve got it handled.”
She nodded slowly. “You keep saying that.”
“Because it’s true.”
“And you believe it,” she said carefully. “Mostly.”
I looked at her then, really looked. Her face was calm, but her eyes were sharp. Attuned. She wasn’t anxious. She was watching me.
I didn’t want to lie to her.
I also didn’t want to hand her the spiral sitting just under my ribs.
What if the guy didn’t show?
What if he’d already figured out he’d been noticed?
What if tomorrow came and went and all we had were more questions and another night of waiting?
Uncertainty was the worst.
I swallowed it down.
She studied my face like she was deciding whether to argue. Then she set her mug down and shifted closer, her knee bumping mine.
“I just want to know that I’m here, and I notice when you’re not okay. You can talk to me about anything.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it again.
She smiled gently. “I’m not asking you to tell me. I’m just saying… I see you.”
That was almost worse.
I nodded once. “Okay.”
Silence settled again.
She leaned her head against my shoulder, and I wrapped an arm around her without thinking. I pressed a kiss to the top of her head and held her there.
She shifted after a minute and sat up straighter. “You want to do something?”
“We are doing something,” I said. “This. Sitting.”
She gave me a look. “You’re vibrating with anxiety, Cole.”
I frowned. “I am not.”
“You are absolutely vibrating,” she said. “It’s like sitting next to a coiled spring.”
I sighed. “What do you want to do?”
She brightened. “Uno.”
I blinked. “Uno.”
“Yes.”
“Why Uno?”
“Because it’s distracting,” she said bluntly. “And I’m going to kick your butt.”
“Not going to happen.”
She laughed. “Oh, it’s happening.”
She hopped up and went to the hall closet and came back with a battered deck of Uno cards that looked like they’d seen some shit.
“I’m dealing, you sit there and prepare to meet your end,” she ordered.
I did, mostly because she was already shuffling. “I didn’t know you were this competitive, babe.”
She shrugged and started dealing out the cards. “You haven’t seen anything yet, handsome.” She leaned in and pressed a kiss to my lips. “Ready to get your ass kicked?”
We played in silence at first. The simple rhythm of draw, discard, shuffle helped more than I wanted to admit. My shoulders loosened a fraction. My thoughts slowed.
Star was trying to distract me, and it was working.
Star trash-talked lightly, nothing serious. Just enough to pull a real smile out of me.
Ten minutes later, she leaned back with a grin. “Uno.”
I glanced at her hand, then at the five I had in mine.
Draw Four was under the pad of my thumb.
I stared at it.
She saw my expression and narrowed her eyes. “No.”
I hesitated.
She pointed at me. “Don’t you dare.”
I played it. “Blue.”
Her jaw dropped. “You absolute traitor.”
“You would have done the same,” I said.
“No,” she gasped. “I would have let you win because I’m kind.”
“That is a lie.”
She flopped back dramatically. “I trusted you.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. The sound felt foreign in my chest, like something cracking loose.
She crossed her arms. “You’re lucky I like you.”
“I know,” I said. “I live dangerously.”
She drew her four cards, glaring the whole time. “The disrespect.”
“Just playing the game, babe. I like to win no matter what.”
She wrinkled her nose and arranged the cards in her hand. “I can still win.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “You can try to.”
She laughed and shook her head. “I don’t know how, but you are still sexy as hell even when you betray me.”
I winked at her and waited for her to throw down her next card.
She then proceeded to kick my ass, but at least it distracted me.
She gathered the cards into a messy pile and leaned in to kiss me, quick and warm. “See? Distraction.”
I kissed her back, slower. “Yeah,” I admitted. “Thanks.” I tucked her hair behind her ear. “I can think of something else we can do to distract me.”
She sucked on my bottom lip and climbed into my lap. “Yeah?” she whispered. “Tell me.”
For the rest of the night, I didn’t think once about tomorrow. All I cared about was Star.