Chapter 8
Cole watched Analise leave after her startling statement.
Why would her parents blame him for her pregnancy with another man? It made no sense.
He started to follow her, but something about her hurried steps toward the pier house gave him pause.
He’d felt the way she trembled against him when he’d held her, and he’d seen the pain in her expression even though she’d kept her eyes covered by her sunglasses the entire time.
Whatever had taken place back then with her parents and Ben’s father had hurt her. Savaged her. And despite the pain she’d inflicted on him with the breakup, that… was fifteen years ago and he’d moved on. Lived his life.
He hadn’t had to be a single parent raising a child without a support system knowing there were people out there who could help her but wouldn’t.
And why hadn’t they? It wasn’t like her parents weren’t well off. Ben’s dad might have been broke, but Ana’s parents could have and should have helped her.
Why hadn’t they?
It made him want to seek them out on her behalf.
His gaze followed her retreat to the path leading around the building and out of sight, but when he considered the anger sizzling in his veins, the only reasons for it that he could identify were those of protection.
Maybe she’d tossed him aside fifteen years ago when she’d broken things off, but from the sound of it, she’d been abandoned several times over afterward.
Their relationship might be over, but the man in him wanted to keep her safe from her son’s emotional abuse. And what had better never be physical abuse if Ben knew what was good for him.
Cole had lost his parents when he was sixteen, but he knew for a fact they’d never have abandoned him. Set him straight, sure. Punished him? Yeah. But had he been the one who’d fathered a child, they’d have supported him and helped him become the father the boy deserved.
Ana’s parents obviously hadn’t done that for her, and he had to think it was about appearances and her father’s political image.
They blamed him? He could handle that regardless of the falsehood. But Ana visibly wore the weight of her pain and devastation, and he hated seeing the toll it had taken.
“Cole?”
Cole turned at the sound of the voice and managed a smile at his year-younger brother, Dawson.
Dawson worked as a CEO/CFO for an older businesswoman who’d taken both Dawson and his newly wedded wife, Sophia, under her wings. Sophia worked the nonprofit ventures while Dawson killed it working the woman’s many million-dollar for-profit businesses.
According to family gossip, both were doing extremely well and thriving under the pressure. “Hey, I haven’t seen you two around much,” he said, leaning down when Sophia moved in for a hug and then giving his brother one.
“Working hard. You know how it goes,” Dawson said.
“Who was that you were talking to?” Sophia asked. “She was really pretty.”
A huff of sound left Cole’s chest that was part laugh and part groan.
“She’s the mother of the teen working for us.”
Cole glanced at Dawson and found his brother looking confused.
“That looked like Analise Taylor to me,” Dawson said, ruining everything.
“Analise?” Sophia asked. “Wait, Analise? From high school?”
Cole bit back a groan and lifted his shoulder in a shrug. “Yeah. Her kid got into a bit of trouble and is working at the station and rentals for a while to pay for damages.”
“What happened?” Dawson asked, his surprise apparent in his tone. “And how’s that going with you and Ana? You guys aren’t exactly friendly now. Or are you?”
Sophia’s head and attention shifted from staring up at her husband to staring up at him, and Cole crossed his arms over his chest.
The memory of Ana’s head resting there only moments ago left him as confused as Dawson and Sophia visibly looked. “Ana and I have made amends. We were just kids, and it was a long time ago. As to the boy, it’s a long story and one we’d like to keep on the downlow. He got into trouble, and to avoid the cops, we made a deal.”
“Interesting,” Dawson drawled.
“What does that mean?” Sophia asked.
Cole glared at his brother to silence him. “It means I need to get back to work. You guys enjoy your walk on the beach.”
Cole turned to leave but still heard Sophia’s sharp inhalation.
“They dated? Oooh, I’d forgotten about that. Interesting, indeed.”
Cole walked faster despite the shifting sand beneath his feet and took the same path as Ana because it was the closest. Once he made it to the pier house, he paused, torn in where to go.
Ana was nowhere to be seen, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to head back to the store just yet. He needed time to process his conversation with Ana and…maybe a trip to the gym to work off some of the frustration he now felt when he thought of an eighteen-year-old Ana facing pregnancy alone.
And that comment she’d made about her parents being mad at him? Why? Had they thought he was Ben’s father? That he had abandoned her?
He’d thought their conversation would settle some unanswered questions, but now he had more than ever.
His phone buzzed, and he pulled it out to look at the face, grinning at the name and swiping to answer. “Hey, buddy. You know I don’t do bail calls.”
The man on the other end laughed. “Good thing I don’t need one then. What’s up, Blackwell? How’s business?”
“Going great,” he said, keeping it simple. “What’s up with you?”
“Wondering if you’ll meet up with the old crew? There’s a ball being held at that fancy new hotel in Carolina Cove, so the guys and I are all coming there.”
Cole shoved down a groan and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I…forgot about it.”
“Yeah, well, you might not do bail calls, but I got you. I picked up some extra tickets,” Jones said pointedly. “Come on, Blackwell. Surely there’s one girl in that town who’d tolerate your ugly mug enough to dress up and be your arm candy.”
Jones had texted a while back about attending one of the Marine balls being held all over the world to celebrate the birth of the corps.
Cole had managed to put it off at the time with the excuse of his new business, but with the limo out of service—which would’ve been a moneymaker and something else the boy nixed with his attempted theft—Cole wasn’t sure what to say. “Where is it again?”
“Uhhh, the Lachlan Hotel and Resort,” Jones said as though reading it off the ticket. “Come on, man. No excuses. No one blames you. You gotta know that.”
Cole stared at a seagull gliding down for a water-skimming ride and shook his head. “It still shouldn’t have happened,” he said quietly.
“No, it shouldn’t have. But it did, and he’d kick your ass if he knew you were beating yourself up because of it, especially when you got hurt, too. Look, man, we all know the score. So did Mannix. Now go get yourself a woman and come see us. Got it? I’ll leave the two tickets at the front desk for you.”
His grip tightened on the cell phone. “I’ll think about it.”
“Noncommittal as ever,” Jones said, drawing out the words in a light tone that didn’t exactly disguise his frustration. “Boy, we’ll be in your hometown. You stand us up, and you’ll have all of us on your doorstep. Try us and see.”
“Okay, okay, I hear you,” Cole said again. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Good.”
Jones kept talking for a while, filling Cole in on him and his wife expecting baby number three, the other guys and some of their antics, before ending the call.
“It’s great to hear your voice, man. See you November tenth.”
The ball was only a week away. And even though it was the last thing he felt like doing at the moment, Cole knew he’d better figure out a date. Maybe his kid sister, Isla? That would simplify things.
“Yo! You working today?” Brooks asked.
Cole looked up, only then realizing that during the course of the conversation he’d walked back to the station and rental building without conscious thought. It’s a wonder he hadn’t walked out in front of traffic. “Going in to check on Ben.”
“He’s hitting the bathroom and on his way out to come with me. If you’re free, I could use a hand. Got a tow call, and it sounds like a doozy.” Brooks’s gaze narrowed, and he canted his head to one side. “Are you okay? Who were you talking to? Was it something about the limo?”
Cole pocketed the phone and ran his fingers through his hair. “No, a buddy of mine. Wants me to meet up at the corps ball being held here in town.”
Brooks’s grin widened.
“What?”
“You gonna ask the boy’s mom?”
Cole blinked. He didn’t really want to go and had thought of asking Isla because he wasn’t currently dating, but now that Brooks mentioned Analise…
Would she say yes?
Cole realized he’d said the words aloud when Brooks responded.
“Who knows?” Brooks said. “But you could always say it’s part of the payback plan.”
Cole glared at his grinning brother. “She isn’t for hire like that.”
“Didn’t say that. Just said if she says no, there’s your counteroffer.”
Before Cole could respond, Ben exited the building and ended the conversation. The three of them piled into the huge tow truck for the trip to the far end of the island.
“So, Ben, you like any of your mom’s boyfriends?” Brooks asked almost as soon as they were on the road.
Cole felt Ben tense beside him.
“She doesn’t have boyfriends.”
“Maybe not right now, but what about before?” Brooks asked.
Cole wanted to tell Brooks to lay off, but he turned his attention to the scenery outside the passenger window and let his brother grill Ben.
“She doesn’t date. She just works all the time.”
“Come on, Ben. She can’t work all the time. What about your dad?”
“What about him?” Ben shot back.
“What’d he have to say about you taking the limo? Did he and your mom have words when he found out?”
“I’ve never met him.”
Silence filled the cab, and Cole glanced over Ben’s head to see Brooks gripping the wheel like he wanted to rip it off the base.
Maybe it was losing their parents so young, but none of them took parents or parental figures for granted.
Aunt Rose had given up her life and moved in with them after the car accident that had killed her sister and brother-in-law, and she and Alec, along with Brooks and Cole as the oldest of the Blackwell siblings, worked hard to keep the family of nine kids together under one roof.
It hadn’t been easy, but to this day, they were close. Grief and death did that to families when it didn’t have the opposite effect of tearing them apart.
“S’okay, Ben,” Brooks said softly. “Just trying to get to know you. And if your dad isn’t around, that’s his loss.”
Brooks shifted gears to slow at a light, and Cole pondered Ben’s words. Ana had surely dated, but as a single mom, maybe she’d kept her dates secret? Never brought a man into Ben’s life until she knew it would work out?
But then, she obviously hadn’t brought one around if Ben said she’d never had a boyfriend and didn’t date.
Could it be true? “Do you know a Quinley?” Cole asked, remembering Ana mentioning the name as her emergency check-in.
“Yeah, that’s Mom’s best friend. She was Mom’s roommate in college.”
Cole leaned an elbow on the door and ran his fingers over his chin and mouth, his gut unclenching at the news. Here he’d been thinking Quinley was one of Ana’s male friends.
But why the relief to find out she’s female? It wasn’t like he and Ana were going to ever be together again.
“You and your mom do fun stuff together? Go to the beach? Out on a boat?” Brooks asked, obviously pushing to keep the kid talking.
“No. Well, sometimes with Quinley and her rich boyfriend, but not for a long time. Mom just works.”
“Being a single parent can’t be easy,” Cole said. “And living at the beach isn’t cheap.”
“That’s what she says,” Ben told them. “She worked all the time before when I was little, before she got the store going, but it’s worse now. She never stops.”
“Do you go in and help her out?” Brooks asked. “Might free up some of her time if you did.”
Ben lifted a bony shoulder in a shrug.
“My mom says I have to now because…you know,” Ben said.
“So that brings up another question. Why did you steal it?” Brooks asked. “And where were you going?”
Brooks’s questions drew Cole’s full attention. His brother slowed to make the left turn that would get him to the gate leading to the south end of the island.
Once through the gate, Brooks put the truck in low gear and headed out onto the sand where they bounced across the softer sand to the more firmer stuff closer to the water.
“I was…going to meet my friends,” Ben said in a low voice. “There’s this girl, and…I thought it would be cool if I could pick her up in a limo.”
Ben glanced up at Cole and then hurried to look away.
“And where were you and your friends going?” Cole asked.
“A party, but it doesn’t matter now. According to my mom, I’m grounded for life.”
“Boo-hoo,” Brooks said gruffly. “Let me paint another picture for you, okay? Let’s say you took the limo and didn’t wreck it at the hotel. You go, you pick up your friends and this girl, and you go to the party. You with me so far?”
“Yeah,” Ben mumbled.
“So at this party you drink because that’s what kids your age do. Then you get back into the limo, and you drive your friends and this girl. You don’t mean for anything to happen, but you wreck it, and you hurt that girl you like so much. Not to mention your friends and yourself and whomever or whatever else you hit along the way.”
For all his goofiness, orneriness and outright cluelessness at times, Brooks was a dad. And right then, he proved just how good of a dad he would be to the four kiddos Brooks and Allie had at home.
“You want that girl to like you?” Cole asked.
“Well, yeah.”
“Then be the guy she can count on. The one who gets her and…listens when she talks,” Cole said. “Don’t be the jerk that’s all flash and never there when she needs you.”
A particularly rough bounce left them all reaching for something to hold onto despite the seatbelts they wore.
“He’s right, Ben. Besides, the girls that would want you to steal cars aren’t the ones who’d visit you in prison. They’d just move on to the next guy. Remember that.”
“It was my idea,” Ben said. “Well, mostly.”
“Mostly?” Cole asked, giving the boy a look that dared him to tell the truth.
Benjamin inhaled and grimaced.
“I…told her about my mom’s fancy party and how there were limos. Cam—the girl—said it would be nice to ride in one, and my best friend texted the group and dared me to take it for her. I had to do it then.”
The stuck vehicle appeared on the horizon as a blur of dark metal, and as they made it to the firmer sand, Brooks shifted gears and picked up speed.
“I get it, Ben,” Cole said softly, “but here’s the deal. The friend that dared you to do it wouldn’t be the one sitting in jail right now. Next time your so-called friend throws out a dare, shoot it right back at him that you’ll sit this one out but you’re happy to watch him take the fall.”
“He’d just say I’m lame,” Ben said.
“Yeah, well, back to that earlier conversation we had,” Brooks said, giving Ben a hard glance. “Better you be lame than you and your friends be dead.”
Ben was quiet for several long seconds as they rolled along the shoreline.
“Did you guys ever do anything like that when you were my age?”
Cole met his brother’s gaze over the boy’s head, and they exchanged a wary glance.
“Ah, man, looks like they’ve dug themselves in good,” Brooks said, shifting Ben’s attention to the vehicle bogged down in the sand. “Gonna need the boom for that one.”
Cole glanced out the passenger window to hide his grin at Brooks’s dad ability to deflect and redirect. He had to give his brother credit. Brooks could be a total pain in the butt, but his kids had taught him some skills.