Cole started to move us toward them, holding tight to my hand.
“What are you doing?” I hissed, feeling very close to having an emotional outburst and not wanting that bastard Marco to witness it.
“Trust me,” Cole urged.
As we approached the table, I managed to unglue my horrified gaze from Marco and his obvious date to see that they shared the table with Leah and an attractive dark-haired guy I assumed was her fiancé, Graham.
My gaze snapped back to Marco.
A double date.
I was going to be sick. Or I was going to kill him. We were only a few feet from the table when we drew Marco’s gaze. His expression softened at the sight of me until his eyes dropped to my hand in Cole’s and that expression instantly hardened.
Seriously?
He was on a double date and I was with a friend and he was pissed?
“Marco.” Cole greeted him pleasantly. “Just wanted to come over and apologize for… well, you know…” My best friend looked at the pretty blonde at Marco’s side. “I hope I’m not interrupting your date.”
Marco’s eyes clashed with mine and I knew he was definitely irritated with Cole. “It’s not —”
“We shouldn’t have interrupted.” I was studiously avoiding Leah’s burning gaze as I tugged on Cole’s hand. “We’ll let you enjoy your dinner. Cole.”
Cole gave Marco a tight grin before sliding his hand around my waist and leading us to the waiting hostess. As soon as she delivered us to our table, Cole sighed and said, “You’re shaking like a leaf.”
“I’m trying not to kill somebody,” I said through clenched teeth. “Let’s just go home.”
“Fuck that.” Cole let the anger shine from his eyes. “He can’t do this to you.”
“He’s not. I am. I’m doing this to me,” I muttered angrily. “I’m sending him mixed signals, he’s sending me mixed signals. It’s a whole bunch of fucked-up mixed signals. And I really just want to go home before I end up doing hard time.”
Cole leaned into me, pressing his forehead against mine so I had nowhere to look but in his eyes or at my feet. I chose his eyes. “I’m sorry for taking you over there. But he knows that no matter how mixed up you are, underneath it all you love him. And he’s here on a bloody date? I wanted to shake him up, not you.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. You’re trembling.”
“I’m trembling with anger. Cole —”
He cut me off by cupping my face in his hands and pressing a soft, sweet kiss to my lips. When he finally pulled back, I stared at him wide-eyed and more than slightly alarmed. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Reminding him he hasn’t won you yet and unless he fights harder he’ll lose you to someone else. He doesn’t need to know that someone will never be me, sweetheart.” He grinned unrepentantly.
I loved my best friend. Totally. I leaned up and pressed another soft kiss to his cheek. “You’re the best, but part of the reason I’m so messed up is because I don’t want him to fight harder. I want us to be over. I just don’t know how to let go.”
Cole leaned into me again, lips almost touching mine as he said quietly, “You need to stop lying to yourself, Hannah Nichols. You love him. You know you do. Otherwise you wouldn’t be in such a state.”
Before I could respond in the negative, a shadow fell over us and we pulled slightly apart to look to our right and into Marco’s furious face. Anger danced in his exceptional eyes and it was all directed at Cole. “You’ve got two seconds to move away from her before I fuck you up a million times worse than I did at the site.”
I jerked back from Cole instantly, hating the idea of them fighting again. Anyway, if anyone was going to be throwing a punch tonight, it was going to be me. At my movement, Marco’s gaze flicked to me, along with his anger. “Nothing going on between you, huh?”
Indignation riled me even more. “What about you?” I leaned into him. “This is you fighting for us? A double date with some blonde and the mother of your child?”
His jaw clenched and he forced the words out between his teeth. “It’s a favor for Leah. It means fuck all.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me last night about it?”
“Because according to you we’re just dicking around, so I didn’t think it would matter all that much to you.”
Oh, my God, how on earth had I gotten myself into this convoluted emotional craphole? I pressed back against Cole, silently telling him it was time for us to leave. “You’re right. It doesn’t matter.”