Love Redone in Hidden Harbor (Island County Book 2) (22 page)

“Oh. My. Word. I totally forgot about that,” Tori said, laughing so hard she almost fell off the bench.

I shot Cole a nasty look and he grinned wryly.

“What am I missing this time?” Mason asked, taking a swig of his drink.

“Sophie threw the most epic graduation party in our senior year. It was a costume party.”

I held my head in my hands as Tori continued. “It was incredible. One for the history books.”

“Okaaay.” Mason’s brow rose.

“Anyway, I came dressed up as the Angel I am.”

“Of course,” Mason agreed.

“And Natty came dressed up as her own version of Foxxy Cleopatra from
Austin Powers
. Except that she called herself Foxy Lady.”

“It was unbelievably hot,” Cole said, his arm wrapping around me.

Mason and Anthony laughed as Tori forged ahead.

“Well, as with many high school parties, it got out of hand. Police showed up about the time Natty was dancing on Sophie’s pool table, eyes closed, clutching her red solo cup of god knows what inside. Cole came running into the basement trying to get Natty to get off the pool table and hide, but she was so out of it she just kept dancing.”

I let out a groan. “And being that it’s a small town, the sheriff knew my dad and gave him a call. He explained the situation, and of course, those two devised a plan to scare the shit out of me before I went off to college,” I told Mason.

“They pretended to arrest her,” Tori continued. “They made her pose for a mug shot and everything. By Monday, it was all over school that Foxy Lady got arrested.”

“And you still didn’t learn your lesson?” Mason laughed, clanking his bottle with mine.

“I’m stubborn like that.”

“I’m sure very few people remember,” Tori added.

“Okay, onward and upward. Mason, you’re first.” I pointed at the lane as Cole slowly ran his fingers up my back.

“I’ve been practicing in my living room,” I informed Cole, trying to shake the feelings his fingers were conjuring. How could someone’s touch do so much?

“How does that work?” he murmured, coming in closer.

“Not very well.”

Mason threw a strike and Tori jumped up cheering.

“Take that,” she said.

“It’s not always about winning.” I stood up and took my shiny new ball with me. Cole was right behind me.

“That’s not fair,” Tori said, chuckling. “That’s cheating.”

Cole’s arms wrapped around me, and I suddenly didn’t care what she wanted to call it as he pressed himself against me.

“Cole…”

“Too much?” he whispered, moving his arms with mine.

“Not enough.”

Needless to say by the time we’d finished bowling with friends, I didn’t care what the scores were. All I wanted was to get to my house and pull Cole inside with me.

There was just one slight problem with that plan and his name was Anthony.

Cole walked me up to my door and saw me inside and that was almost where it ended.

“I really enjoyed spending time with you tonight,” Cole said.

“Me too.”

Anthony honked the horn and Cole rolled his eyes.

“Its hard to believe he’s the older brother.” He took a step forward, and I glanced over his shoulder to see Anthony flashing the lights.

I waved at Anthony but yanked Cole inside as he shut the door and locked it.

“In case he’s more ambitious than I realize,” Cole laughed.

I traced my fingers along his chest.

“Would you believe I still have my Foxy Lady costume?”

Cole’s smile deepened. “I’d like to see that sometime.”

“You just have to hang around long enough…” my voice trailed off as his lips touched mine.

He softly slid his tongue along my lower lip, and I became heady with desire as I parted my lips. Cole tasted so good, so sweet as his kisses intensified, and he carefully walked me backward to the wall.

Pressing his body against mine, I softly sucked on his tongue and a soft moan escaped his lips.

Oh, yeah. Way better than eighteen.

Cole slid his hands up my bare stomach, and my heart hammered in my chest as his lips slowly parted from mine, and he placed soft kisses along my neck as his fingers skated under my bra.

My body trembled as he knelt in front of me and began placing slow kisses along my stomach and my fingers ran through his hair.

“Cole,” I breathed in.

He stood up and grabbed my hands, pinning them above my head.

“Yeah?”

I slowly opened my eyes to see him watching me and another wave of pure delight drilled through me.

“Maybe we should…”

He interrupted my train of thought by swiping another kiss along my lips before unfastening his hands from mine. He took a step back, and I tried to gain my composure.

“Thank you for an amazing evening,” I said, hoping the wall would continue to hold me up because my legs felt like they were about to give out on me within seconds.

“See you soon, Foxy Lady.”

“You wish.”

“You have no idea.” His eyes darkened, and if it weren’t for the threat of Anthony, I wasn’t sure where I’d be right now.

I closed my eyes as Cole let himself out, my lips still tingling, and I wondered if I’d ever allow myself more.

 

I spotted Cole in the far booth with a bunch of guys, and my heart literally lifted like the world suddenly lacked a little thing called gravity. He looked so relaxed, and it made my heart tug a little that I couldn’t be part of it this morning, but I was off to the shop. I had a couple orders to fill for the afternoon, and I also hoped to sneak off to the book festival.

“Hey.” Cole slid out of the booth and gave me a hug before pulling me over to the group of guys. They all looked at me like they knew me, which kind of freaked me out a bit because I had no idea who they were.

“These are the people who hold Crimson together,” Cole said. “And guys, this is Natalie.”

“
The
one and only Natalie,” the guy on the end whistled and held his heart, grinning. His blond hair was spikey, and he had several brow piercings framing his attractive features.

I felt so bad that I had no idea who these people were. Were they bandmates? Crew? Managers? No idea.

“Hopefully you won’t go breaking Cole’s heart again,” another one of the guys laughed. This one had a shaved head, but you’d never know it because he had so many tattoos covering it. “I’m Angus.”

As in the meat?

“Nice to meet you, but I’m not sure you heard the right story,” I laughed and Cole slid his arm around my waist. “He was the heartbreaker. Not me.”

“I’m Eliot,” the blond guy said. “And that’s Nils.”

I glanced at Nils and he waved, still chewing his bite of pancake.

“It’s nice to meet you all, but I’ve got to run.” I turned around and almost kissed Cole but stopped short, realizing what I'd almost done. He caught my look, and his lips curled into an amused smile.

Mortified told only half the story so I quickly spun on my heels and booked out of there.

“I can see why you’ve been dreaming of her for so long bro,” Angus whispered behind me, and I literally floated out the door and down the street to my little shop.

I unlocked my store and took in a deep breath of the hyacinths that lined the floor. The sweet smell always made me so happy. Dropping off my bag, I flipped on my order system and checked to see if any other orders came in for the day beyond what I saw early this morning at the house.

It looked like I needed to complete two more spring arrangements to add to the orders being delivered this afternoon, and then I could sneak off to the book fest. I always looked forward to wandering the aisles. I loved discovering new authors. I never left empty-handed.

I grabbed a few blocks of presoaked florist foam and trimmed the green foam to size for the first basket. I jammed in the green foam and nearly jogged to the cooler to grab the flowers. I picked a nice assortment of spring flowers—tulips included—and began slicing the ends off the stems before arranging the flowers in the foam.

An email came over and I placed my knife down and went to take a peek. It was from Cole. He wondered if I was free tonight.

Uh, yeah.

I quickly typed back that I’d be at the house around five o’clock, and he responded just as quickly.

Good. I’ll bring dinner.

Cole’s return had already started turning my life upside down, and I loved to hate every single second of it. Part of me wanted to be angry at myself for letting him back in so easily, but the other part of me wondered why I hadn’t already crawled into bed with him.

I finished up the arrangements and slid them into the cooler with a note to my delivery driver for the day. If no other orders came in, I just might take the rest of the Saturday off. Official shop hours were only ten until three on Saturdays, unless there was a school dance.

Quickly scribbling some last minute instructions for one of the arrangements, I glanced around the shop and wondered if I should invite Cole to the book fest.

Nah. I needed some alone time.

Not that I didn’t already have plenty.

Pickles slowly strutted from the back room and glanced at me briefly before taking a sip of water. Maybe Pickles needed a friend. Her gaze shot over to me, and she hissed. Realizing this cat was also psychic, I slowly backed out of the shop and locked up.

Since the sun was shining, the book festival would be in the park across from the library, which was nice. That didn’t happen very often. I wandered down the sidewalk getting more and more excited as I went. I wanted to get a few mysteries and maybe some more paranormal. Who knew? The options were endless.

I got to the first table, which turned out to be nonfiction historical. There were some interesting titles, but I kept browsing. I found several flower and herb books that I added to my stack and continued to make my way down the first aisle.

I heard a ton of women laughing a couple aisles over and glanced in their direction. And there on crutches was Anthony, chatting it up with our librarians. I chuckled and began making my way over.

“Hey, there she is. The woman of the hour,” Anthony said, balancing on his crutches.

“Well, that’s frightening.”

“How’s my Foxy Lady?” Carol and the other librarians giggled and wandered away. If he didn’t already have one broken leg I just might have side-swiped his crutches.

“Foxy Lady is doing just fine. What are you doing here? Why aren’t you running around with your people?”

“I get to see them plenty. Besides, Cole told me to meet him here.”

“I didn’t know he was coming.”

Anthony shrugged and adjusted his shirt that had started to bunch.

“Hey, is it true about you not dating since Cole?” Anthony’s voice softened.

I felt my cheeks flush and I glanced around.

“Would it matter?”

“No, I was only curious.”

“Yeah. It’s true. I’m not proud of it, but yeah.”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I’m not ashamed. I merely wish I hadn’t allowed myself to get so lost in what could have been.”

Anthony looked across the way, and I saw Cole walking slowly up the lawn. He was checking out some of the tables and making his way over.

“My turn to ask you something.” I kept my eyes on Anthony as he brought his eyes back to mine.

“Shoot.”

“If I hadn’t been the florist, do you think Cole would still be engaged to Cynthia?”

Anthony sucked on his lower lip as he thought about it.

“No. I don’t. He knew he was making the biggest mistake of his life. He didn’t agree to get married on Fireweed for nothing. I think my brother had a plan….even if he didn’t know it.”

I sighed.

“You know this side of Cole you’re seeing?” Anthony continued.

“What do you mean this side of Cole? This is the only side I’ve ever known.”

Anthony shook his head. “This side you’re seeing isn’t who he became, Natty. You’re bringing out the old Cole again. He’s excited about life, his future. He became a walking mummy over the last couple years, and once Cynthia came into his life, I swear to God he died a little inside.” Anthony smiled. “No joke.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You saw Cynthia as his future, and he saw Cynthia as his way out. He could slink into an emotionless state where no one would notice, and he could silently resent a life he hated because he couldn’t have what he truly wanted.”

Anthony’s words slipped their way into my mind, but I refused to believe it. The moment Cole came into my store, I saw the old Cole. I’ve never seen this other side Anthony’s talking about.

“You don’t have to believe me. I’m just saying as his brother, this has been good for him”

I nodded as Cole walked up behind Anthony and patted his shoulder.

“Why the grim faces?” Cole asked, glancing over at me.

“Oh, Anthony couldn’t find the romance section. He asked for my help.”

“Erotica, actually.” Anthony wiggled his brows.

Cole shook his head. “Nice try. So what were you two scheming.”

“No scheming. More like catching up.”

“Now that I believe,” Cole said, rocking back on his heels.