Chapter 11 Nora #2
Giving them a tight smile, I nodded. “Of course, I will.”
Maybe I could squeeze in with the girls in the back seat.
“Okay, let’s get out of here. If you get lost or fall behind, it’s off mile marker twenty-seven, and then just a mile up, right off the road.” Rae spoke to the group while Davis wrapped his hand around hers.
I broke away, following Colson while Mila and Seraphina each held one of my hands.
“Okay, I have a booster seat for you, Mila,” Colson said, setting the smaller seat in the back. He bent down and then hauled her up until she was situated. Maddy crawled in beside her, then Seraphina. Then Colson handed them each a brand-new blanket roll, tied with ribbon and everything.
The girls gasped excitedly. “Thank you, Uncle Cole!”
They each undid the tie on their fleece blanket and snuggled up with it in the seat.
“Can we watch ‘Frozen’ as we drive up?” Mila asked, brushing the soft material of the blanket against her face.
“Of course, I already have it in the DVD player.”
He shut their door, and I realized I was just standing there next to the truck, watching this entire thing, enthralled by the way he spoke to the girls, and the way he treated each of them with such tenderness.
It was in such contrast with how he handled me, how he spoke to me.
He was a rough piece of sandpaper, rubbing against every single part of me with every interaction we had.
Stepping up into the passenger side of the truck, I set my things on the floor and buckled while trying to ignore the man next to me. At least the movie would be playing so that there’d be something that blocked out the silence or any attempts he might want to make to talk to me again.
Once his truck started, Colson looked behind him at the girls. “Everyone have their headphones on?”
All the girls told him yes in unison and a little too loudly from not being able to hear.
Damn his newer truck and all the fancy bells and whistles it had.
We followed Davis and Rae as they headed out of Macon and up the mountain.
The weight of the sky seemed to lie on every branch as we drove further up Mount Macon.
What was normally a green and lush, scenic drive was whitewashed by the storm.
With a graying sky overhead, and a road completely white, tall road markers helped to navigate where the cliffside started.
The only sound in the car was Colson’s engine as he increased and decreased his speed.
“Look, about last night…” he finally said, quietly.
I refused to look at him, so I kept my face glued to the window, watching the vast white landscape as we made our way up the grade.
“I know what I did was shitty. I didn’t sleep because of how I treated you. I know you probably hate me, but I wanted to apologize.”
“Okay. Apology received.” I muttered rudely.
I was being petulant, but my scalp was still tender from where he’d grabbed my hair, and my mouth and throat were still sore from how hard I’d sucked his dick.
With a normal healthy relationship, those feelings the day after would be welcome, but after he acted like I had invaded his space? Not a fucking chance.
“Is that the same as accepting the apology?”
Not even close.
The silence grew as I continued to ignore him.
“I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you.” He seemed to mutter to himself, while shaking his head.
That made my head snap in his direction.
“You didn’t. If you recall, I asked you to…” I peered over my shoulders to be sure the girls weren’t listening, and whispered, “go all the way.”
He glanced toward me and then returned his gaze to the road.
“But you were drunk, and I pressured you to come to my house…”
Scoffing, I adjusted in my seat. “Well…yeah, you were just as drunk as I was, and yes, you did pressure me into coming over. That whole bit is getting annoying.”
The dam had burst and I wanted to yell at him for everything he’d done to hurt me.
“You insulted me by telling me I can’t do anything on my own, then you kissed me, and then you”—I paused, looking again over my shoulder—“kissed a part of me that you hadn’t ever kissed before…and then you kicked me out of your house.”
“I didn’t kick you out.”
“You did! I offered to rinse off…together, and you acted like I was a stranger and told me to get out. You didn’t even walk me to my door.”
I moved my head again, watching the window that had started fogging up.
“You know what…it’s my fault.” I pointed to myself. “I keep letting you help me, and that’s the problem.”
“You can accept help from people, Nora, that doesn’t make you weak.”
Davis hit his brakes in front of us and put his blinker on, which was a relief because that meant we were almost there.
“It is a problem when the person who keeps offering to help tries to kiss you, or make you orgasm, then gives you whiplash by pulling back and acting uninterested.”
“What’s an orgasm?” Maddy asked from the back seat, and my face caught fire.
Colson held back a laugh as he watched her in the rearview mirror. “Organism. Nora said it wrong, and that’s an animal, plant, or single-celled life-form.”
“Oh, okay.” Maddy put her headphones back on and continued watching her movie.
“You’re right. I think you should be able to accept help from a friend without the lines being blurred, and I can promise you that I’m done blurring them.”
At this point, I was tired of him apologizing. And the fact that he’d taken what happened last night and was now trying to shove it in the friend zone angered me.
I didn’t want to be his friend. I wanted him to want me the way I had for the past year. I wanted him to fall for me the way I had stupidly fallen for him.
The silence expanded between us, growing into something we’d never come back from. I could feel it.
So, I did the only thing I could think of.
“I think we should just go back to how things were before you suddenly decided to play savior. Go back to ignoring me and being completely apathetic toward me. I think that was easier.”
He didn’t respond, and I was too much of a coward to look over and see what expression he was wearing, or if there was anything at all that would indicate that he agreed or not.
A few minutes later, Colson was pulling in behind Davis and putting the truck in park.
Feeling like a dagger had been jammed into my chest, I exited the truck as quickly as possible and made my way toward Rae.
“I’m so sorry about Colson.” Rae apologized for the millionth time as we walked toward the tree line.
Davis and Colson were up ahead with the girls, the clearing was beautiful, covered in deep snow, but undisturbed and quiet.
Colson had thought ahead to bring sleds for the girls, and the men ahead of us were pulling them behind them, creating this insanely unfair image for anyone with eyes.
“It’s fine, there’s nothing you can do about the fact that Davis and Colson love each other almost as much as we do.” I laughed, bumping shoulders with her.
“I feel like there’s stuff you’re not telling me about you two. Did something happen?”
Guilt heaved somewhere behind my belly button. Normally I would have already told her about everything, but when she had called me last night, it was to spill that she’d gotten engaged. There wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to ruin that moment.
“Yeah, kinda…I mean, I told you about him inviting me with the girls that one day, but yesterday he found me walking home from my parents’ house.”
Rae lifted her knees to clear the snow, while peering over at me with worry etched into her features.
“Yeah, they are leaving me their house. They’ll continue to pay the mortgage while I live there, you know…since I’m broke and have no way of supporting myself.”
Rae stopped walking, which forced me to turn and the wind was blowing west, so a gust of snow flurries hit me in the face.
“Are you joking, they actually offered you their house?” Her eyes tightened while her mouth popped open.
Wiping my lashes and face, I resumed my trek forward. “Yep.”
Rae made a sound of exasperation, but the distance was closing between us and the men, so I rushed the story to go over everything that happened, including our conversation in the truck.
Setting her gaze on the approaching group, Rae whispered, “I’m not even in the relationship and I’m confused.”
“It’s not a relationship.” I muttered before we were within earshot of the guys.
“Okay, Nora, we’re heading up this way to find your tree first,” Colson said, acting like nothing had happened in the truck.
Stubbornness stirred within me like a tornado.
“No, I can find my own, thanks.”
Colson turned to glare at me.
“Are you fucki—” His gaze dropped to the girls briefly, correcting his cursing. “Are you freaking kidding me?”
I didn’t reply because I didn’t feel his rudeness warranted one.
“Colson, chill with the tone.” Rae cut in, her arm looping through Davis’s while her gaze narrowed on the man in question.
With a muscle in his jaw jumping and a scowl cut my way, he challenged.
“You do realize you’ll have to cut it down yourself?”
Crossing my arms and staring him down defiantly, I said, “I know how to cut down a tree.”
He tilted his head back and let out an exasperated sigh. His annoyance was obvious, but I didn’t care.
“Okay, then here.” Colson handed me a long axe, not the little hand saw he had, or the chain saw. “Go get your own tree.”
Rae’s eyebrows rose as she held her hand out and argued. “She most certainly will not. She can’t drag the tree all the way through the forest.”
“I’m honestly fine, I can get one that’s closer to the road.”
Colson made some scoffing sound and turned away, pulling both sleds behind him.
I tried not to cave and run after him when little Mila gave me a sad wave, or when Seraphina looked like she might cry.
Fucking hell, had I ruined everyone’s day?