CHAPTER 18 #2
Five minutes before six, I spotted headlights curving up the bottom of the drive.
‘Lil! They’re here, I need you out front. You seen the others?’ I shouted, grabbing my hat as I ran out of my room, right into Cole.
‘Woah there,’ he said, voice low as he steadied me, his hands on my arms. ‘You all right?’
I looked up, startled. His touch set my heart racing, ratcheting up a notch as his eyes grazed my face, rested on my lips.
‘Yeah . . . I just . . . I think so,’ I stumbled, wanting to step into him but also step away; to resist the urge but also feel him again.
‘It’ll go fine,’ he soothed, thumb stroking my arm, sending heat through my skin. Then, as though he could feel it, he withdrew. ‘I promise we’ll do everything we can to make this work, okay?’
‘Right, just two days,’ I told myself, half under my breath.
He nodded, still staring into my face. Then, as if reassuring himself too, he said, ‘Okay. Let’s make this a show they don’t forget.’
‘I forgot to ask, ma’am,’ Jesse said as he approached, shirt unbuttoned at the top and a lazy grin on his face. ‘Are the two of us allowed to wear shirts this weekend, or . . .’
I dead-eyed him.
‘Get outside and charm the fuck out of them with clothes on,’ I instructed. Moving past us, Jesse touched the brim of his hat in response.
Cole said nothing else, just adjusted his hat and strode away with Jesse. I tried to gather myself, hearing Lil calling Bailey over from the kitchen. I hung back, wanting the first introductions to be with the four of them, the true ranch reps.
I stepped out onto the porch to find the two women already out of the taxi, shaking hands with Lil.
Both on the taller side, one brunette, Ashley, and one pale blonde, Kendra, were both staring fixedly at Cole and Jesse.
They were even more stunning in real life, clearly not needing any of the filters on social.
I couldn’t blame them for ogling the cowboys; I’d done the same. But as Kendra approached Cole, doe-eyed and smiling, I felt sick. He smiled in greeting before taking her hand to shake it, ducking his head with the shy smile that pulled on every feeling at my core.
‘Well hey, Cole . . . the videos don’t lie, right, Ash?’ she said, turning back to her friend, hand over her heart.
But Ashley was already preoccupied, giggling as she borrowed Jesse’s hat and tried it on. He looked delighted, indulgently watching as she posed for him.
‘Wait, wait – let me get that,’ said Alix, the guy that’d emerged with them, laughing at Ashley with Bailey and Lil. He pulled out his phone, tapping the screen and moving closer.
I waited, letting them capture the flirting, grateful, despite my heavy, sick feeling, that everyone was playing their role.
Jesse was in his element, embracing the role I’d briefed him on, posing with Ashley, taking his hat but promising her the opportunity to win it back.
Their backdrop was the old, pretty ranch house, the setting sun setting the back of it ablaze in golden reds.
‘Hi there, I’m Lottie. I was the one in touch with your agency,’ I said, introducing myself to Kendra, who was mid-flow, talking to Cole about her hometown.
‘Oh, right, hi,’ she replied, her handshake as insipid as her greeting. ‘Wait, are you on social too?’ she asked, narrowing her eyes as though she recognized me.
I felt my old self, my corporate veneer settle into place. Cole watched us with interest, careful to stay a step back.
‘No, not my scene,’ I said, suddenly sounding more British than I had for some time. ‘But it’s great that you could make time for us this weekend. Lil will show you to your cabins.’
Kendra nodded.
‘Right, great. I think maybe you just look like someone I recognize – the whole dark-haired, light eyes thing, plus the accent . . . Yeah, it’s definitely a look at the moment.’
I raised an eyebrow but smiled, noticing more lights approaching on the drive.
‘That’s our last guest – excuse me,’ I said, taking sure, deliberate steps past them, nodding to Lil to get them moved on. Slowly, she rounded them up, her and Bailey taking their bags.
As the taxi approached and rounded the top curve of the drive, I noticed two people in the back, hidden by the glare of the sunset on the back windows.
Confused, I wondered if perhaps it wasn’t Leo after all, but some other tourist couple, chancing their luck at finding a place to stay.
When it pulled up and Leo emerged, I stopped.
Because emerging from the other side of the taxi was a tall, slim, dark blond-haired man with a sense of style so out of place on the ranch that it was identifiably him from a full mile away.
Kyle.
All of the breath left my body and I stood, rigid, as Leo greeted me.
‘Lottie! Oh God it’s been an age! When I told Kyle I was doing this he jumped at the chance to come and surprise you – said you hadn’t been home in weeks.
It’s shit about your job, eh? I was saying to him that you should do content creation – you’ve got the face for it, he always could pick the hottest woman in the room.
’ He chuckled, waiting for Kyle to walk around the taxi and join him.
‘Oh God, no . . . I’m better behind the camera, I think.
But thanks so much for coming,’ I finally managed, fixing on his face, his wild brown wavy hair swept back.
‘Would you be able to just head over to my cousin Lil? The blonde over there? She’ll show you to your cabin.
I just need to have a minute with Kyle.’
He laughed.
‘I’ll say! After that much time apart,’ he added, winking back at Kyle.
My shock was rapidly turning to rage, a slither of anxiety underlying it.
As Leo walked away, cheerfully calling out to Lil, I looked up at Kyle, his face impassive, eyes all over me and my clothes.
The lack of designer anything, the dirt on my boots, my loose curls and the hat keeping them back off my face.
After one more glance over at the cabins, noting that everyone was now almost inside, I stepped up to him.
‘What the actual FUCK are you doing here?’ I hissed, unable to help myself as I used both hands to push him back.
Steps behind me made me pause.
‘Lottie, what’s going on?’
Cole’s voice was worried; he was still too far back for me to feel his presence, but close enough for me to feel safe.
‘I don’t know, Kyle,’ I snapped, taking in his surprised, submissive expression.
‘What the fuck is going on? Why are you here? WAIT – hold on,’ I said as the taxi started to move away, stopping as I banged on the window.
The driver rolled it down. ‘Could you wait a moment, please? This man needs a ride back into town.’
‘Lottie, we need to talk,’ Kyle said, shaking his head as though I was a toddler, mid-tantrum, that needed to be reasoned with via a firm voice and a guiding hand. ‘It’s all been a misunderstanding.’
‘You’re damn right it’s a misunderstanding,’ I replied, my voice shaking. ‘You were not invited here and have absolutely no fucking right to just turn up uninvited and try and justify what you did.’
‘Lottie, for goodness’ sake,’ he said, taking my arm and moving me away from the taxi. ‘Let’s just talk and—’
‘Get your hand off her.’ Cole’s shadow fell across us both, close enough for me to be enveloped in his scent, and feel the threat in his voice.
‘Get in that car and get off this ranch. If she wants to talk to you, she’ll come to you herself.
Right now, if you don’t leave, I will personally escort you off the property. ’
Kyle dropped my arm, frowning, glancing between us.
‘I’m at the Four Seasons,’ Kyle said, glancing across to Cole but not quite daring to hold his gaze. ‘You owe me a conversation, at the very least.’
‘I don’t owe you shit,’ I whispered, trying to stop the sob lodged in my throat from rising up. ‘I can’t believe you did this.’
‘What was I supposed to do?’ Kyle hissed back, flinching as he caught Cole’s glare over my shoulder. ‘Your dad said you were here, and then when Leo told me he was coming over—’
‘Oh my God, my dad put you up to this?’ I replied, trying to turn but coming up against Cole instead. He held firm, body tensed, ready.
‘Cole, c’mon, let them be,’ Jesse said, his voice just behind us.
‘No, it’s fine, Jesse. Kyle’s leaving,’ I said, willing him to go.
Kyle shook his head.
‘Not until you agree to meet me to talk, tomorrow, when they’re all busy entertaining your influencer guests.’
His eyes flicked over Cole, now pressed against me, my body blending into his. I hesitated, feeling the crossroads we stood at. Taking the wrong turn could end up with the weekend ruined, with Cole knocking ten shades of hell out of Kyle and God knows what else.
‘Fine,’ I snapped. ‘I’ll come to your hotel. Just go. Now. Please.’
He glanced at me, then at Cole, seemingly satisfied; then he climbed into the taxi. We watched in silence as it took off, disappearing quickly down the steep curve of the drive.
‘I’ll stall the guests a little, give you a minute,’ Jesse said, jogging over to the cabins, looking back at us once and nodding to Cole.
I stared blankly at the dust gradually settling back onto the road, trying to grapple with what the hell had just happened.
Without a word, Cole turned me around to face him, holding me tightly for a moment. The relief of touching him was almost too much as I tilted my head up to him, finding his eyes.
‘You don’t have to do a damn thing,’ he said, his voice hard, his expression bleak. ‘Like you said, you don’t owe him anything and I don’t trust him with you, not for a fucking minute.’
The implication was clear. Cole’s fear that Kyle would somehow talk himself back into his previous role, explain away what’d happened and somehow make it all right again was obvious.
An echo of Cole’s pain, from his earlier life, flickered through his expression.
Losing someone he cared for, knowing how that felt. But he didn’t know Kyle like I did.
‘I know. But he’s persistent. If I don’t explain, he’ll just—’
‘I’ll fucking kill him if he touches you again,’ Cole snarled. ‘I’ll drag him out of the Four Seasons by his fucking fancy jacket and send him back to London with my foot up his ass.’
‘Cole,’ I said, daring to break our pact in order to touch his face, my fingers stroking his skin, watching as his anger melted under them. ‘It’ll be okay. Forgiveness is not on offer, not for one second. I just need him to know that it’s finished.’
He scanned my face over and over, desperation in his eyes, his hands grazing my neck, my waist, drawing back as if he couldn’t control himself if he let go.
Jesse’s voice filtered back over to us, talking loudly, as if in warning. They were leaving the cabins, ready for the tour of the rest of the ranch. Kendra’s voice became audible, her laugh breaking the tension around us. This was not what she needed to see.
‘I need to go,’ I whispered, memorizing his face again. ‘Just stick to the plan. Please.’
‘I need you,’ he whispered back, hands on mine.
But I stepped away, walking quickly to the side of the house, taking myself around the back, fighting tears all the way.