Stu grinned at Cole. “He’ll ignore that, Steely. I know him too well.” Cole barely responded with a mysterious smile and a half shrug. “And will it be the fair . . .” Stu frowned. “Fuck, what’s her name? Jessica, is it?”
I immediately wanted to bury my head in my files. I really didn’t want to know anything about the fair Jessica, but Cole stopped me from turning away by flicking an enigmatic look at me before answering.
“Nah.” He glanced back at Stu. “Broke up.”
I stopped breathing.
“Ah, and what happened this time?”
“You’re a nosy bugger,” Steely ribbed his friend.
Stu ignored him. “Well?”
“She started redecorating my flat in her head after only two weeks of dating.”
Stu shuddered. “Cling-on.”
“Oh God, yeah.”
Cole’s pained expression stayed painted across my mind’s eye as I bent my head and started pulling out the files I’d last been working on. I still hadn’t come anywhere near to finishing the digitization of them. As I began to work, all the warm and fuzzy feelings I’d been afraid to admit to developing since Cole called a truce for the day dissipated upon new evidence that Cole really and truly was the kind of bad boy I needed to avoid.
I felt sorry for Jessica.
She’d probably only suggested Cole get some cushions for his sofa or something, and he’d misinterpreted it as a threat to his bachelorhood.
Arse.
I lifted my head to wave Stu and Steely a temporary good-bye as they disappeared into the back to get to work on Steely’s new tattoo, and then I looked back down at the files.
But I could feel Cole’s gaze on me.
Steadying my nerves, I looked up at him and somehow I managed to unstick the words blocked in my throat. “Thank you.”
Cole’s lips twitched with amusement. “See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“I still don’t like you.”
The humor left his eyes. “The feeling is mutual.” He shook his head, his expression unreadable now. “You really are the biggest disappointment, Shannon MacLeod.”
Without another word he followed our boss into the back, leaving me reeling.
His words had almost sounded . . . sad.
*
At that point I’d really thought the worst was over for the day. Cole and I had put on a united front and Stu seemed happy enough. However, I was wrong.
I knew I was wrong when Stu showed Steely out after he’d finished the tattoo and then turned to me once the door shut behind his friend. He scrutinized me in a way that made me squirm as I scanned photographs of a guy’s tattoo Stu had done fifteen years ago. It was of a muscled naked chick riding a motorbike toward the gates of hell. It was disturbing, but the artwork was awesome.
“Glad to hear you’re getting on so well here, Shannon.”
Was that a question? It sounded like a question.
I tensed.
“Yeah, it’s going great.” Cole suddenly appeared and walked toward me.
Weirdly, I’d never been happier to see him.
Stu looked at us both and then nodded. “Great. Glad to hear it. So I’ll see you at Cole’s birthday party, then?”
Birthday party?
Say what?
Panic. Yes, that was definitely panic causing my heart to do that horrible fluttery thing in my chest. “Uh—”
Cole reached me and slid his arm along my shoulders, pulling me into his side. I tried my best not to stiffen, in fact allowing myself to relax into him. I flushed, feeling his lean, hard body pressing into my soft one.
My head barely reached his shoulder.
I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I chanted in my head to remind myself as I quickly grew heated and turned on.
“Of course she’ll be there.” Cole gave me a squeeze and my left boob was crushed against his chest.
Oh boy.
I tried for a grin, but I was pretty sure it came out tremulous because Stu got this suspicious look on his face. However, the suspicion melted into a gleam of delight that quickly made me realize he’d gotten the wrong impression about what was going on between Cole and me.
“Oh.” He nodded and tapped a finger against his nose. “I got you.”
No, he did not get us! He did not get us at all.
“Have fun, kiddies.” He laughed and threw open the entrance door. “See you soon!”
The minute Stu was out of sight of the front windows, I wrenched away from Cole’s embrace, my hands flying to my hips. “Birthday party?”
Looking beleaguered, Cole nodded. “My friend Hannah is on maternity leave. She’s bored. Extremely bored. I am not telling my bored, pregnant best friend that she can’t throw me a birthday party no matter how much I don’t need that shit right now.”
There was a lot in that sentence I did not want to deal with. “I don’t think I should go.”
“That’s entirely up to you, but Stu will be there and he’ll wonder why you’re not there since the two of us get on so well. Everyone I know will be there.”
I growled in frustration.
Cole raised an eyebrow at my reaction. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. It’s not likely that we’ll cross paths at this thing. I’ll barely even know you’re there.”
And once more the irritant walked away with the last word!
CHAPTER 7