“Oh my gosh! I’ve missed you. When are you coming back?” I ask, pulling my legs up on the chair and wrapping one arm around them.
She laughs. “Wow, I should stay away more often. It’s good to know you missed me. What’s up? You and Stormy Eyes still having naughty sex all over the place?”
I choke on a laugh. “We haven’t had sex yet. And no. It’s been a little crazy over here.” I tell her what happened when my dad found Cole’s beanie.
“Holy shit! I’m sorry. I can’t imagine how hard it is for both of you. I haven’t seen Simon for a while and it’s driving me insane,” she says in a soft voice. “Your dad is such a dick. What’s his deal?”
“Other than that he has some sort of misplaced prejudice against Cole because his brother was deaf, I have no idea. Do you think it has something to do with his relationship with Cole’s mom?” I ask, since I already told her what Grandma told me weeks ago.
“Do you think?”
I sigh.
“Do me a favor, okay? Text Cole. Go out and have fun. Don’t let your dad spoil this for you. You two are the happiest when you are together. Life is too short. Promise me you’ll do that.”
I smile at her words. “I will. I’m just scared for him. But. . .ugh. I miss him so much.”
“Text him. Babes, I have to run. Text me and let me know how it goes. Love you.”
“I love you, too.”
After ending the call, I scroll down my phone contacts and stop at Cole’s name.
Me: I want to break some rules. Want to join me?
I stare at the phone, waiting for his reply, But nothing comes through. I head to the window to check if his car is in its usual spot. It is. Could he have gone for a run? As far as I know, he runs every morning. Or maybe he’s working on his drawings or something.
I bound downstairs and slip on a pair of blue flip flops and head out of the house. Stopping in front of Cole’s front door, I ring the bell and a voice yells that the door is open. I step inside the house and see Nick playing on the game console in the living room. He pauses the game and waves. “Hey Nor. You want to play with me?” Nick squints up at me, jiggling the controller in his hands.
“Where’s your brother?” I ask, walking toward him.
“Which one?” he asks. “Cole is in his room and Josh went to Portland to visit Uncle Ray.”
I smile at him and sneak a glance toward the stairs, eager to surprise him, but Nick turns those cute blue eyes on me and my resistance crumbles. He hands me the extra controller and adjusts the settings for two players. He explains the rules, which buttons to press for what action, the world he created. He looks at me with one eye closed and asks, “Got it?”
I grin and nod. “I’m about to kick your butt.”
“Hah! In your dreams, Snowflake.”
I blink at him, shocked to hear him use that name.
“What? Cole calls you that. It’s cute. I like it.” He grins and turns back to focus on the screen. He moves the toggle around emitting a crashing sound from the screen. “Are we going to play or not?”
“Yeah. Sure.” He kind of threw me off for a second.
We begin playing. He whoops and pumps a fist in the air after our team annihilates a few of the guards from the other team we are playing against. We continue playing. The sounds of swords boom as a wizard swings his magic wand and points towards another wizard.
He says something like “I like you,” but I’m not sure I heard him correctly.
“What?” I shout so he can hear me over that noise.
“I like you!” He shouts at the top of his voice, his eyes never leaving the action happening in front of us.
I take a quick look at this adorable nine-year-old with dark hair and blue eyes. I’m three seconds from floating on air. I hadn’t realized how much Nick’s opinion mattered. “I like you too.”
“Can I come and play with Elon?” He blinks up at me. Nick is crushing hard on Elon and uses any excuse he can to come over. Unfortunately, I don’t think she feels the same way.
“Maybe you can call her to check if she’s home first, yeah?”
He nods. “I’ll take some of Mom’s cookies. She’ll love them.”
“I’m sure she will.” I peek at the stairs again. “Hey. I’ll be right back.”