Chapter 16
sixteen
It took a while for the dust to settle. Cole and I only made it about six steps before the manager of the fro-yo shop came sprinting outside to figure out what happened.
By the time everything calmed down, Mitch was already gone—no backward glance, no hesitation.
Everyone else cleared out, too. The manager retreated back inside the fro-yo shop, the bystanders drifting off now that there was nothing left to stare at.
Even Katie ended up catching a ride to a party with a friend she saw at the shop.
The parking lot went quiet, leaving me standing there.
Well. Me and Cole.
I waited for him to walk away, to head back to his car and forget I’d ever been part of this whole mess. Instead, I sat down on one of the benches along the sidewalk and pulled out my phone, scrolling aimlessly while I figured out who to call.
No one knew I was out here, but it wouldn’t be hard to explain—say I’d been out with a friend and she got called away, or her car wouldn’t start, or something normal and boring.
I could call Sebastian. He’d pick up, no questions asked, even though he always got annoyed when I used Uber instead of just calling him in the first place.
I was still staring at my screen when someone spoke.
“Hey.”
I jumped and looked up.
Cole stood a few feet in front of me, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jacket. His car was parked along the curb now, engine off, streetlights reflecting faintly off the windshield.
“How are you getting home?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted, tilting my phone like it might magically solve the problem. “I was thinking about calling my brother, but—”
“I’ll drive you.”
I blinked. “You don’t need to do that.”
“I scared off your date,” he said. “Kind of feels like my responsibility now.”
“You also saved me from him,” I said. “So I think we’re even.”
His mouth twitched. “Still. I’m not leaving you out here.”
I hesitated, then glanced back at the froyo shop. “I’m sorry you got banned.”
That earned me a real smile. “I think I’ll survive. Now come on—you’re freezing.”
I looked down at my phone one last time. Calling Sebastian would be easier. Cleaner. But it would take time, and Cole was already here, waiting. Dragging my brother out on a Saturday night, likely away from his girlfriend, just to save myself an explanation felt… unnecessary.
So I stood and followed him toward the car.
“Yeah,” Cole said. “Let’s go.”
I stopped short at the passenger door, suddenly hyperaware of where I was about to sit. The front seat felt different. Like crossing some invisible line I hadn’t agreed to yet.
I hesitated too long. Cole stepped in smoothly, pulling the door open before I could make up my mind. He leaned against it casually, one arm resting along the top, looking down at me with raised eyebrows like this was the most obvious thing in the world.
“In,” he said.
I exhaled and did as I was told.
He closed the door gently and circled around to the driver’s side. A moment later, we were pulling away from the curb.
“You don’t know where I live,” I said.
“I know,” he replied. “I’ll park down the street and then I can walk you from there. Your family will probably have less questions if I’m pulling up into their driveway, right?”
It hadn’t even occurred to me that my family might have questions.
I wondered whether they would’ve had the same ones if Mitch had dropped me off—if they’d seen the sleek black sports car instead of Cole’s beat-up sedan with the dented door and the rattling engine.
I wasn’t sure if they would or not. I wasn’t even sure if they were home, but I nodded in response to Cole’s words anyway.
“Okay,” I said.
The ride to my street was mostly silent.
I kept glancing over at Cole, half-expecting to realize this wasn’t real—that I’d somehow gotten mixed up in the fight and was actually unconscious on the pavement somewhere.
That this was all just my brain trying to make sense of it.
Something that would explain why none of this felt like it added up.
Cole’s knuckles were scraped raw where the skin had split, dried blood dark against his fingers. There was a cut along his cheekbone too, shallow but angry red, and his jaw was already starting to bruise. He didn’t seem to notice any of it. Or maybe he was just pretending not to.
We drove in comfortable silence until we got to my street. Cole put the car in park, then quickly came around to my door. I sat in silence for so long that he extended a hand to me.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s just… you opened the door for me.”
“I did.”
It was amazing to me that Mitch had tried for so long to get me to agree to a date only to not walk me to the car or open my door, and here was Cole, just giving me a ride home from said terrible date, and his instinct was to help me out of the car.
I smiled slightly and slid my hand in his.
And then it was just me and Cole standing alone on the sidewalk.
It took me a second to realize that he had no idea which house was mine from here, so I started walking.
He fell into step beside me almost immediately.
“Let me ask you something,” he said.
“Shoot,” I replied, keeping my eyes forward.
“I see you walking by the coffee shop all the time,” he said. “You always get out of some guy’s car in that parking lot across the street, then you walk past the shop. You’ve been doing it for months. Weeks.”
My heart jumped at the mention of that car. I glanced at him. “Weeks? You’ve been stalking me longer than I thought.”
He stared back at me flatly. “A little hard not to notice you, Imogen.”
Then, before I could decide whether to be flattered or annoyed, he kept going. “So what is it? Meeting up with the secret lover?” He waggled his eyebrows. I gagged.
“Absolutely not. And if I was, do you really think I’d be going out with Mitch?”
He shrugged. “Perfect cover story.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, that cover story is completely wrong. I’m just meeting up with a—” I paused, knowing I couldn’t exactly say my dad without opening an entirely different can of worms. “A friend my family doesn’t really support me seeing. We meet in the parking lot. Less questions.”
“Huh,” Cole said.
I was surprised by how easily he accepted it. He lapsed back into silence for a few steps.
Then he said, “So who is it really that you’re meeting up with?”
I looked at him in disbelief. “I just told you.”
“Yeah, and I’m not buying a word of that,” he said. “So come on. Seriously. I’m gonna keep guessing secret lover until you admit it.”
“I don’t have a secret lover,” I snapped. “And can we stop using that word? If anything, it’d be a secret boyfriend.”
“Well, clearly he’s not a boyfriend if you’re going on dates with other guys,” he said.
He ran a hand through his hair, stretching a little as he did, and I tried very hard not to notice the way his shirt rode up, exposing a narrow strip of skin at his waist.
Definitely not looking.
“So,” he continued, “if it’s not a secret lover—”
“Boyfriend,” I corrected.
“—then who is it?” he said. “Because I don’t believe the friend thing for a second. Unless it’s, like, a really, really bad-influence friend.” His eyes widened. “Is it your drug dealer?” he whispered.
I laughed despite myself. “Yep. You caught me. Imogen Novak. Total drughead.”
He grinned. “Come on. Tell me.”
I sighed. The answer had been sitting heavy in my chest for months.
The fact that I was meeting my dad in secret, that no one knew except me—and Lavender, who very clearly didn’t support it.
I wondered what Cole would think if he knew the whole story.
If he’d see my side of it. Or if he’d look at me the way my siblings did, like I was stupid for not cutting him out completely.
I swallowed and dropped my gaze. “My dad.”
“What was that?” he asked, leaning in and cupping a hand over his ear.
I sighed again, louder this time. “I’m meeting up with my dad.”
Cole stopped short. “Your dad? You have to meet up with your dad in a parking lot?”
“Uh-huh.”
I didn’t stop with him, both because I wanted to get home after this awful night and because I knew that if I stopped and put any thought into this, I would know it was a bad idea.
Cole was the last person in the world I should be telling about my messy home life.
Heaven only knew what he would do with the information once he knew.
But I was so tired of holding it in for so long, for having nobody to confide in.
Sure, Lavender knew what I was up to and tried to act neutral about it, but I’d have to be blind not to see that she disapproved.
What would it be like to tell someone so disconnected from my world?
Someone who had no preconceived notions, who might understand my point of view?
Unless he didn’t want to know.
“It’s a bit of a long story,” I said hastily, since he hadn’t responded in a while. I turned back to look at him, where he was still a few paces back, looking at me curiously. He hurried forward to catch up with me, matching me step for step again.
“Why would you need to meet up with him so secretly?”
Now would be the time to tell him a sugar-coated version of the truth. To say that my parents were recently divorced and the rest of my family wasn’t ready to see him again. It wasn’t really a lie and it would answer his question enough.
Instead, the full truth came tumbling out all at once.
“Because he cheated on my mom, moved in with his mistress, and none of my siblings will talk to him.” Saying it so plainly felt strange—almost wrong—but also easier than I expected.
“I’m trying to convince him to come back,” I added.
“I mean, I need him to break up with Hilary first, but—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Cole interrupted. “He cheated on your mom, and you’re trying to get them back together?”
“Yes,” I said, glaring at him.
“Why?” he asked, genuinely stunned.