Chapter 21 Nora
NORA
The dining room was opulent with six windows on the south side of the house, and in each one, someone had placed a lit candle. With the garland and holly draped above each pane, it gave a regal feel to the space.
“Ah, there they are.” A man sitting at the end of the long table stood and walked over to us. He had Colson’s eyes and hair, although his was thinner and much lighter. Otherwise, he was fit, and while he did look older, maybe in his fifties, he was rather attractive.
He slapped Colson on the back while eyeing me salaciously.
“Who do we have here?”
His eyes dropped to my cleavage and traveled over my dress and down to the rather long slit. His gaze made me want to pull on a heavy trench coat to remove anything for him to look at.
“I’m Oliver Hanes, Colson’s father.” He reached his hand out for me to shake.
Colson brought his hand to my hip, gently nudging me behind him as he walked past his father.
“Everyone, this is Nora, my girlfriend.”
He settled into a seat and pulled me down next to him. I still wasn’t used to that introduction, but it helped ease some of the awkwardness as the eyes around the table widened with curiosity.
Three other men sat at the table across from us. Each looked relatively younger than Colson.
“Nice to see you big brother, glad you could…finally join us.” He bit his lip, trying to hold back a laugh.
“Brock.” Colson sighed, exasperated.
The seventeen-year-old looking kid snickered.
Which garnered another warning from Colson. “Trevor, don’t even think about it.”
The last one raised his glass to us and added, “Seriously though, we miss you, asshole.”
“Nate.” Sherrie scolded him with a glare that aged her by about ten years.
Colson’s brother glanced at the woman, but didn’t seem to give her any credence.
“Very funny, let’s move on,” Colson said.
Trevor snapped his fingers as if he had just thought of something. “Nora, do you surf?”
I gave him a warm smile. “Actually, I did learn when I went to college here a few years back. I’m not very good, but I had an instructor, and he seemed to think I had promise.”
Colson’s hand tightened on my thigh. The guys across from me all seemed to give each other a secretive smile as they smothered coughs.
“So, Nora. You live in Oregon then?” Sherrie asked, sipping her wine.
“Yes, in Macon. I’m Colson’s next-door neighbor.” I attempted to be civil, but couldn’t suppress a bite to my tone.
Sherrie flicked her gaze to me, then Colson, and then set her glass down. “Well, how charming.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I sipped my water and tried to focus on the décor.
In front of us, the spread was beautiful, with white and gold plates and crystal glasses. But there was no food. I looked around, a tad confused, and unfortunately my gaze collided once again with Sherrie’s.
Wincing, she shifted in her seat. “Sorry, we weren’t sure how long you two were going to be, so we had the kitchen staff stay late and keep everything warmed up. I suppose I can let them know you’re here now.”
Bitch.
I shoved the knee jerk reaction to apologize deep-deep down and instead stayed quiet.
Why wasn’t anyone else talking?
Sherrie glared, then pushed away from the table and walked away.
Damn, this sucked, I hated feeling like I was the reason everyone had been waiting to eat dinner. Not that anyone seemed to be put out by it, but still. How incredibly rude.
Colson’s hand landed on my back, rubbing circles in soothing strokes, but as soon as I sat back, Oliver’s eyes were on me. I felt like a snake had slithered around my neck, cutting off all the circulation.
“So, Colson.” Oliver started, and I could feel the hand on my thigh move higher, almost as if he was trying to calm himself. “Tell me where you’ve been working again?”
“I work at Petrov Construction. It’s actually owned by Nora’s father.”
“For now, he’s selling it.” I added, although I wasn’t sure why.
Oliver looked intrigued as he leaned forward.
“Really, now that is interesting. So tell me, son, did you put in a bid?”
I peered over at Colson, but he remained unfazed.
I had never asked if he had plans to try to put a bid in for the company, but last I had heard, it was a different company who had offered to buy it.
“Okay, dinner is ready and—oh good!” Sherrie came out, beaming while staring somewhere behind us. “You made it!” My head swung around to see a young woman near my age standing in the archway of the dining room.
The woman hugged Sherrie briefly, but her gaze stayed glued to the man at my side. I turned to catch his reaction, but his eyes were on the woman as well.
Oliver leaned back in his chair, watching his son…not the newcomer.
The woman made her way to the table, slowly.
She wore a smart yet flirty business suit that seemed to age her past her twenty-some-odd years, she had silky dark hair which I assumed she got from Sherrie, but she looked like Colson…they had a similar eye shape, and the same nose…which reminded me of Oliver’s.
Oh my God.
“Hey, Cole,” she said tentatively, carefully pulling out the free chair next to me.
Colson didn’t reply.
Servers filtered out of the kitchen, wearing nice ties and aprons.
They moved meticulously as they set trays of food in front of us and refilled everyone’s glasses.
I was slightly geeking out; I had never been waited on like this outside of a restaurant or big event.
“Thank you.” I tried to catch one of the servers eyes, but I was met with a grim expression.
Awkward.
I faced forward, digging into the delicious meat and potatoes, seeing the woman next to me push her food around.
Feeling self-conscious and not sure if I was supposed to hate her or not, I finally gave in and turned to her.
“Hi, I’m Nora,” I whispered.
She lifted her head and returned my smile, with a bit of what seemed like relief.
“Haley. It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too.”
“Yes, my gosh. Where are our manners?” Sherrie said, back in her seat at the head of the table. She sipped her wine and then cleared her throat.
“This is our daughter, Haley.”
I watched the guys across from me, keeping to themselves, two of them had cell phones they were looking at from under the table but none of them seemed to notice or care that their little sister had arrived.
Although…as I looked at the youngest, he was clearly younger than Haley.
“Only girl,” Haley said, filling in the silence.
I chewed my food slowly, absorbing and trying to arrange everything like a million-piece puzzle.
“So Colson was just telling us about potentially bidding on Nora’s father’s company,” Oliver said, making Colson’s eyes dart over.
I could feel Colson’s body coil tight, his hand cinching the dress on my thigh in his fist.
Haley butt in, talking while she chewed. “Oh my gosh, I forgot to tell you guys about this guy that totally hit on me today. It was the worst!”
“Haley, not now, we’re talking.” Oliver scolded her sternly.
“Colson, tell us—” Oliver started again, but Haley interjected, speaking over him.
“The guy was like all over me.” She put her hands out in front of her. “It was so gross. I was like, ‘dude, stahhhp.’”
Silence followed, Sherrie’s gaze bounced to Oliver and then to Haley.
“Haley, honey, I think your dad is trying to talk to Cole.”
“Oh, stupid me…” Haley shook her head and drained the rest of her glass.
Oliver cleared his throat and opened his mouth, but Haley made a sound again.
“Buttt, here’s the thing,” she interjected, pointing her fork with a speared potato toward the room. “He was sorttta hot, so do you think I should have given him a shot?”
Oliver’s hand came down in a hard slap against the table.
“That is enough, Haley.”
“Haley, it’s fine…” Colson finally addressed his sister, and I wanted to pinch his leg because why did it take him so long to say something to her? She was over here doing the Lord’s work, trying to stop Oliver from asking Colson annoying questions, and no one was throwing her a line.
“You know what,” Sherrie said, slowly standing from the table, “I think we should go out on the veranda and have some hot cocoa. The lights are really beautiful right now, and we have the chimineas going.”
“Mom, no.” Haley quickly responded, freezing with her fork in her hand.
Oliver, Brock, Trevor, and Nate all stood. “Hales, stop it. You’re embarrassing yourself.” Trevor snidely commented.
I slowly slid out of my chair, my heart desperately trying to reach out to Haley, unsure why she was so uncomfortable.
Colson was behind me as we all headed toward the back of the house, but Haley turned, trying to catch Colson’s eye.
“Cole, don’t…you can’t go out there,” she whispered, but Oliver brought up the back, putting his hand on Haley’s shoulder.
“Come on, dear, let’s go prep the cocoa.”
I watched as Haley’s eyes begged for us not to go outside. I slowed my steps, my gut telling me to heed her warning.
Colson didn’t, he pushed me on.
“Come on, I want to show you my mother’s garden,” he whispered, encouraging me to walk.
Tugging his arm, I whispered in his ear, “Maybe we shouldn’t. Haley seems worried.”
He shook his head. “Haley is a spoiled brat who likes attention.”
Oh. Well, that wasn’t the impression I got at all…but okay.
We exited, stepping down through French doors. Candles glowed inside lanterns that lit up the walkway to a massive paved patio. Lights were strung up overhead, and as Sherrie mentioned, there were four little chimineas set up facing patio chairs.
“Wow, this is…” I looked up, staring at the beautiful night, but Colson had stopped walking.
I turned to see what had stopped him, but his eyes were over to the right, where there were no lights.
It looked as though a separate batch of concrete had been poured over a large square, and all that was set up on it were two sun loungers.
I turned, gently tugging Colson’s arm, but he refused to move.
Oliver walked out behind us, clapping Colson on the back as if nothing was wrong.