Cole didn’t appear to notice. “Is everything all right with your car? Derek told me your windows were busted out.”
“I called the insurance company and they’re sending someone out. They’re going to cover everything.” I paused, looking down at my hands. My knuckles were bleached white. “It was so strange. They broke out the windows, but didn’t take my laptop, which was right on the backseat.”
“Sounds like a few kids with too much time on their hands,” he replied.
“That’s what your cousin said,” I murmured, lifting my gaze.
His chest rose with a deep breath. Several seconds passed. “Are you okay, Sasha? Really okay?”
Oh God, there it was again. That question. The question everyone who knew who I was always ended up asking, and hearing that question come from Cole was what I had been avoiding for the last ten years. That was obviously why he was here. My spine stiffened. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
Those eyes moved over my face as if he were memorizing every inch. Another stretch of tense silence rolled out between us, and I wondered if he even believed my answer. How could I be okay? I knew that some people couldn’t understand how I could be okay after what had happened and they treated me like I was some kind of broken creature. It was why no one I met outside of this state ever knew about my past.
“I thought about that night.” His voice carried a heavy weight. “A lot.”
“Cole—”
“Should’ve walked you to your car that night,” he continued, gaze unwavering. “Biggest damn regret of my life right there.”
Oh God.
Leaning away, I pressed into the back of the chair. I wanted to run from the room, from what he was saying, but it was too late. His words were burned into my brain, and I didn’t want them there. I didn’t want him to feel that way. “You shouldn’t feel that way,” I said, squeezing my hands together. “What happened wasn’t—”
“It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t do what he did. I know that.” He exhaled heavily. “Doesn’t change the fact that I should’ve walked you to your damn car. We all knew what was going on and—”
“And if he hadn’t gotten me that night, he would’ve gotten me later.” The fine hairs rose along the nape of my neck. It had been so long since I’d talked about it. “And we all knew that he’d been—” My breath hitched in my throat. “He’d been watching me. Like he’d watched all the others. He would’ve gotten me eventually.”
Cole broke eye contact then and his voice was low when he said, “Yeah.”
Uncomfortable, I shifted in my seat. “I’m . . . happy to see that you’re doing well, but it’s late and it’s been a really long day.”
“All right.” Cole’s eyes came to mine. “But I’ve got one more question for you.”
I waited, prepared to take flight as soon as I could.
“Will you have dinner with me?”
My jaw dropped open. Okay, that was not what I was expecting.
“I want to catch up with you, but I get that it’s late and I’ve surprised you. So maybe we could restart this conversation when you’ve had a little time to prepare.”
God, I’d totally forgotten how straight to the point Cole was.
“What do you think?” he persisted when all I did was stare at him.
“I . . . I don’t know about that,” I whispered, almost immediately regretting my answer. I took a deep breath as part of my mind threw its arms up in disagreement while the other clapped its hands in approval. Dinner with Cole was not a good idea. Other than him needing to see that I was of sound mind and body, I didn’t get why he’d want to.
One side of his lips quirked up. “Got to admit, not surprised to hear that.”
I arched a brow. “And why is that?”
He tilted his head to the side and a moment passed. “It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”
“Yes, but . . .” But that wasn’t an answer, or was it?
Cole studied me in the intense way that was familiar yet different now. “It’s okay.”
Confused, I did what I felt like I’d been doing since I saw him in the dining room. I simply gaped at him.
He scooted toward me, stopping just short of his knees touching mine. Our gazes locked, and I held my breath. “I’m going to leave you my number.” He tilted his hips to the side and reached around, pulling out his wallet. A business card appeared. “This has my personal cell and my work cell. You change your mind, call me. Anytime.”
Untangling my fingers, I went to take the card from him, when our hands brushed. I swallowed a soft gasp as a shivery-hot sensation radiated up my arm. It always had been like that, an electric combustion whenever we touched, no matter how chaste the gesture. Shocked didn’t even cover how I felt when I realized that it was still there, at least for me.
“Okay?” he urged gently.
“Okay,” I repeated.
“Good.” Cole rose and then he was right there, his hands planted on the arms of the chair, caging me in. He lowered his head, and a moment later, I felt the brush of his lips against the curve of my cheek, the touch soft and fast. “I’m glad that you’re back,” he said, and I squeezed my eyes shut against the rush of messy, wet emotions. “Call me, Sasha. I’ll be waiting.”
Chapter 6
“You told Cole no?” Miranda sounded like I’d just told her the Ghost of Christmas Past had visited me Saturday night. “Are you completely out of your damn mind?”
There was a good chance that I was, because nearly two days later there was a part of me that wondered if I’d dreamt up Cole’s sudden appearance.
Except the business card I obsessively stared at whenever I was in my apartment proved that he had been here.
“I don’t know,” I said with a sigh, picking up a pillow. “I was just so caught off guard by his appearance.”
Miranda watched me fluff the pillow. It was Monday and she’d come straight from school as soon as she could. We were supposed to have dinner tonight with Jason, meeting at one of the restaurants down the street. “I can understand that, especially after we were just talking about him, and poof! He’s right in front of your face.”
That was kind of like how it felt.
“But this is Cole,” she continued as I grabbed the dirtied linen off the floor and balled it up. “You were all about Cole, Sasha.”
“That was ten years ago,” I pointed out as she followed me into the hallway. Stopping, I closed the door behind us. “That was a very long time ago.”
“So? Give me one good reason why you can’t go out to dinner with him,” she challenged in what I’d deemed was her teacher voice, which was an impressive combo with her demure black sweater and fitted slacks.
Easy. “I didn’t come home to get into a relationship.”
She rolled dark eyes. “And Cole asking you out to dinner to catch up signifies a relationship to you?”