“Well, the hot chocolate isn’t too bad.”
He smirked. “Just don’t use the sugar.” I looked down at the ashtray looking pot of sugar on the table and turned my nose up.
“No danger of that.”
“Are you nervous about court? What are you going to say about him?”
“The truth.” The truth was all I had. No one could trip me up because I wasn’t going to hide anything.
“What if they ask you what kind of a person Max was, you know, in public?”
“Then I’ll tell them he was generous, charming, honest, loyal, and trustworthy. Everything everyone believed. Cole, he played the perfect husband, father, and friend. That was why he was able to get away with it for so long. He was my hero until the age of five, and that’s exactly what I’ll say.”
“How can you say nice things about him?”
“Because it’s the truth, and that’s what makes what he did so much worse.”
He nodded and picked up his drink.
I finished my drink shortly after he did.
“You don’t wanna go back to the club, so I’ll take you home?” Cole said, reading me like a book.
“Thank you. Sorry I ruined your night.”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “Seeing you drunk was definitely worth it!”
I didn’t feel drunk at all any more. The world was moving slightly slower than normal but apart from that I felt fine. Our conversation topic could sober me in a second.
“Well thanks. I can get a taxi back alone if you want to stay though.”
“No, it’s fine,” he replied.
As Cole drove, I snatched a few moments when he turned to really look at him. To me he was flawless. There was nothing I didn’t love about him.
“How did you get that?” I asked, noticing a small, faint scar on his jaw. That definitely wasn’t there four years ago. If I hadn’t been looking so closely, I would have never noticed it.
“Ben. We were paintballing last year, and he shot me in the face. It bled like a bitch.”
“Don’t you have to wear protective gear for that?”
“You’re supposed to but apparently that’s ‘pussy paintballing’. Ben changed his mind after I shot him forehead for revenge.”
“Mature.”
He shrugged. “It’s Ben, and it hurt!”
Cole pulled into Ali’s drive, and I suddenly wished we had gone back to the club.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?”
I nodded. “Definitely. You still want me to view the house?”
He smiled. “I’ll pick you up at eleven.”
“Great.” I bit my lip, staring into his eyes. Cole shuffled on the seat. The air thickened. “Bye,” I whispered, fighting every urge to stay in the car and kiss him.
“Bye, Oakley.”
My heart beat like crazy, and my stomach was in knots. I think we both wanted the same thing, but I knew it wouldn’t be a good idea. I hoped he did too.
As soon as I got inside, I texted Jasper to tell him Cole brought me home, and then I went to bed. All I could think about was seeing Cole again. I had turned into an obsessive teenage girl and although things were about to get hard, I couldn’t have been happier.
Cole and I arrived at the house after picking the key up from the estate agent. The agent was Cole’s uncle’s new wife so we were trusted with the key. Plus the house was empty and in some serious need of some TLC. The window frames needed replacing because the wood was rotting and falling apart, and it needed a new door. I hoped Cole wouldn’t be put off because even from the outside I could tell it was perfect.
The entrance hall was large with an old-style black-and-white-tiled floor. It had a high ceiling and dark, chunky oak staircase to the side. Past the square entrance hall and staircase was a long corridor with three doors off it.
“This is amazing,” I whispered, still looking around in awe. For a second I forgot myself and imagined living here with Cole, walking through this door clutching our shopping or stumbling up those stairs after a night out.
Cole stepped forward; his chest pressed against my back. I bit my lip.
“We’re only in the entrance hall, Oakley. The rest of the house might be a crap hole,” he whispered in my ear.
“So! This room’s huge, just camp in here.”
He chuckled and nudged me forwards, towards one of the doors.
“Let’s go in this one.”
I didn’t pay any attention to what he said; all I could concentrate on was how close he was and how my body felt alive again. Cole reached around me and opened the door.
“Wow,” I said.
We stepped into the most amazing kitchen. It needed a lot of work; the units were old and falling apart, but it was huge, perfect for parties and entertaining.
“Cole, buy this house.”
He rolled his eyes. “You’ve only seen two rooms, and one was a hall.”
“But if it’s all like this…”
“Broken and falling apart?”
“Even the things that look broken beyond repair have a chance at being whole again. It just depends how much you want to rebuild it.”