Fighting Fate (24 page)

He knew what she was going to say before she said it.

“I know.” She was doing it again. She was using a tone that twisted and turned his thoughts around. Tangled them up until there was no straightening them out. She leaned down to drop another kiss onto his mouth. The movement caused her to press into him again, rocking her body just right. She smiled wickedly as he groaned. “That’s what I was counting on.”

He knew why she was asking. He also knew he should tell her no. He should. He’d been telling her no for months. He didn’t want her to go through with something she couldn’t undo, no matter that she’d been insisting that she wanted to. So he should tell her no.

He took a deep breath.

“Yeah,” he said, “let’s go.”

*
*
*
*
*

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“How am I looking at you?” he asked.

She delicately lifted one shoulder as she pulled the sheet up tighter around her. “I don’t know.” Frowning she said, “Did I do something wrong?”

“What? No.” He shook his head. “No. I’m afraid I did. That wasn’t supposed to happen like that,” he said with a frown.

“What was it supposed to happen like?” she wondered. “Or wasn’t it supposed to happen at all?” She had been letting Cole know for awhile that she was more than willing. He always backed away. He said he was doing it for her. But she always disagreed. She wanted to be with him. She wanted him to be her first. She’d be happy if he ended up being her only.

“It was supposed to be somewhere nice. Not in this shitty room of mine. I wanted to be with you all night. Not send you home in an hour so you won’t miss curfew.”

“You’re doing it again,” Sarah said as she flopped back with a groan.

“What am I doing?” he demanded.

“You’re acting like I give a damn about any of those things. I don’t. I just want to be with you. And I don’t care where.” She opened her eyes and narrowed them at him as she turned to face him. She pointed a finger at him. “If you didn’t want this, you should’ve said so. But I wanted it so please don’t ruin this for me.”

His expression instantly changed from one of frustration to one of contrition.2em" al>

“You’re right. I’m sorry. And just so we’re clear, I
wanted
it. I’ve wanted it for a long, long time. I just wanted you to be positive.”

Every now and then, Cole seemed to slip into a dark place and it made her worry about him. Usually with a few teasing words and a few distracting kisses she could pull him out again.

This time, it didn’t quite work that way.

He turned on his side to face her. With one finger he traced a light line across her lips. Then he leaned in to leave a light kiss there. When he pulled away, Sarah had hoped he’d be smiling. He wasn’t. He had that all-too-serious look that he’d been wearing more and more lately.

He pulled her close to him; wrapping his arms around her while she settled her head onto his chest. Even though the actual moment was over, the feeling of skin against skin as he held her felt blissful.
This
was what she had wanted.

“You were right, earlier, what you said about college. I’m not making any promises but I’m going to talk to Mrs. Richards,” he said, mentioning the guidance counselor. “Maybe she can help me figure out what my options are.”

“Really?” she asked as she lifted her head.

“Yeah, but I really don’t want to talk about her right now,” he said with a mischievous grin.

She propped herself up on her elbow. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Me. You.” His hand coasted around her waist and she broke out in chill bumps.

“Go on,” she said with a smile.

“I think I love you, Sarah Heath,” he quietly admitted. “And one day, I want to give you the life you deserve.”

“Well, Cole Montgomery,” she said with a small smile, “I don’t just think I love you, I know I do. And I don’t want you to work for that kind of future just for me. I want you to work for it because you think you deserve it too.”

  ~nt>2e

Chapter Seventeen

“What?”

“Nothing.”

She huffed out a sigh of annoyance. “It’s not ‘nothing’. You want to say something. What is it? Come on, tell me.”

“It’s just that…Well, I think this place needs more work than you think. All of the windows? They should be replaced. Come here,” he said as he took her hand. He led her to the window over the sink, the one overlooking the driveway and the front yard. “If you look at the bottom ledges, you can see that the wood is starting to decay. And this isn’t good.” He walked to the center of the kitchen and tapped his foot. “The beams underneath this floor should probably be replaced sooner rather than later.”

“Anything else?” she asked, feeling defensive.

“Don’t be mad. I’m just saying…it’s an old house. I’m no expert when it comes to the electrical stuff, but if I were you, I’d at least have it looked over. Make sure everything is up to code. Right now? I’m guessing it’s not. Overall, this place needs a lot of work but it can be fixed. You know, if you’re willing to put in the effort. And the money.”

It was a few days after the storm had hit. They had spent all of that day cleaning up the yard. Near evening, Sarah’s dad had driven up, along with a neighbor who had helped Cole clear Sarah’s driveway of the two trees that had fallen across it.

Up until the moment she realized her re0">Cole cldad was there to rescue her, she’d thought that maybe Cole would be trapped, forced to spend another night with her. She realized she wasn’t exactly opposed to that. But once he had a way out, her dad had sent him on his way.

They had both returned the next day. They moved Sarah’s furniture and then they’d all worked on her yard. Now, Cole was back to working on her house again. He had gone back to pulling off the siding when Sarah had asked if he could please come inside for a moment.

The window in the spare room had been jammed and she needed help opening it. It had taken him some shoving and prodding but he’d finally gotten it up.

“I knew it would be a lot of work,” she said resignedly. “But it seems like my list keeps growing instead of shrinking.”

“I’m willing to help. Whatever you need.”

“Okay. I suppose we should start with an estimate. Can you do that? Or do I need to give Tom a call?”

“I don’t think we need to go through Tom. I can give you an estimate on supplies.”

“And what about labor?”             

He tossed an annoyed look her way. “I meant I would
help
you. Not
work
for you. Tom’s going to charge you for this job because he lined it up. But after that I’m happy to just help out.”

“I can’t ask you to do that.”

He grinned at her. “We could always make a trade. I can’t cook worth crap. How about if I work for food? Maybe you can pack me my lunch every day during the school year.” He raised his eyebrows at her. “Huh? What do you say?”

She nudged him and said, “I think you should get back to work. That’s what I think.”

He gave her a look, pretending to be annoyed. “Fine. But the offer stands. I’ll be your own, personal handyman.”

She shook her head, ready to laugh him off. “Wait!” she exclaimed as she thought better of it. “Can I have you look at one more thing before you go back outside?”

“Sure.”

She pointed to the door that led to the cellar. “It doesn’t sit in the frame properly. It always swings open unless you lift the doorknob up just right and wait for it to click. I don’t know what to do. Do I need to buy a new door? It wouldn’t be such a big deal but Penelope likes to sneak downstairs. Sometimes I don’t notice she’s gone down there and I lock her in. She pretty much has full reign of the house and she always wants to be in the one place she’s not supposed to go.”

Such a typical little kitten.

Cole opened the door and closed it again, inspecting it. “When I get some time I might be able to pt ben.

“Okay,” she said. “It’s not a big deal. I mean, I’m not in a hurry. I’ll just add it onto my never-ending list.”

“Hey,” he said, “don’t sound so glum. You’ve done a lot with this place. Do you happen to have a screwdriver handy? Maybe I can take care of this right now and you won’t have to add it to your list at all.”

“
Umm
…” She scanned over the drawers that lined the kitchen. “Maybe in here,” she said as she crossed the room to the junk drawer. She pulled it open and began rummaging through notepads, pens, a tape measure, glue, a wrench, a package of thumbtacks… “Will this work?” she asked as she held up a Phillips screwdriver. It was a bit on the small side.

“I can try it. If not, I’ve got one out in the truck.” He took it from her just as her phone chimed from its resting place near the coffeepot.

She glanced at the screen and saw that it was Liz. “I’m going to take this but I’ll just tell her I’ll call her back.”

Liz had called the day before and Sarah had finally told her about Cole. They had talked for over an hour, both about the Cole of the past and the Cole of the present. Liz had been elated. Sarah was sure her friend was calling to press for more information. She was not going to tell Liz anything about him when he was standing right there.

Cole nodded as Sarah said her ‘hello’.

“Don’t be mad. I did something really stupid last night. But you should know I was completely justified. She was goading me and I just couldn’t take it anymore,” Liz gushed by way of greeting. She sounded frazzled.

“Okay,” Sarah said slowly as she leaned against the countertop. She didn’t dare tell Liz she would call her back. Her friend was too worked up to be put off. “What did you do?”

She could almost see Liz cringing on the other end. There was a moment of silence as Liz worked herself up enough to blurt out whatever it was that she had to say.

“I told Brynn off last night,” she nervously admitted. “And she didn’t take it well.”

“Liz!” Sarah cried. Cole glanced at her over his shoulder and she toned down her annoyance. “I thought we agreed not to do that.”

“She was just being so
awful
,” Liz moaned.

“She’s always awful,” Sarah reminded her. “And completely unreasonable. And that’s why we don’t provoke her.”

“This was different,” Liz argued, ready to state her case. “I was completely minding my own business. We were out with Todd’s family because it was his parents’ annivrenan>
She
approached
me
. She came right up to my table and started gloating about how she essentially ran you out of town. She was so pleased with herself, making a spectacle. She said that she was happy that you had to give up your job, your friends, your house…”

“I chose to give up my job. And that house was nothing but a rental!” Cole had been fidgeting with the hinges but he stopped once again to look at her. Sarah mentally cringed. It wasn’t that he was eavesdropping. It was just that the kitchen was very, very small. She contemplated moving into the living room but decided that would be rude. And also ineffective as it wasn’t that far away. He looked at her apologetically, as if reading her thoughts, and then went back to work. “And she didn’t scare my friends off. My real friends stuck by me.” She had dropped her voice to add on the last part but there was no doubt Cole heard her.

“She said that after everything you took from her family that you deserved to be left with nothing.” Liz’s tone was rueful. “And the only reason I’m telling you what she said is because that awful Shelby Jacobs was there. She was eating up every word. I wouldn’t be surprised if she called you to give you a play by play. I wanted you to hear it from me first because I think I was justified.”

Sarah was silent a moment as she took in what her friend was saying. Finally she groaned. “Liz, what did you say?”

“I may have told her that…” She took a deep breath. “I might have mentioned that you got a new job right away. And you’ll be working in a brand new library. In a brand new school with smaller class sizes. I may have also pointed out that a job like that is every teacher’s dream and that I’m actually kind of jealous. I also told her that you moved into an elegant, old farmhouse.” Sarah shook her head because Liz had never been to the farmhouse. If she had been, she would’ve known just how off her description was. Then again, under the circumstances, she probably wouldn’t have cared. “And,” she said, her tone turning even more apologetic, “I might have let it slip that you’ve reconnected with your high school sweetheart.”

“You told her about Cole!” The words shot out of Sarah’s mouth.

He stopped what he was doing. This time, he gave her a questioning look. He may not have been questioning what she said but perhaps the harsh tone in which she said it. She felt her shoulders droop and though she knew it was futile, she crossed through the kitchen to get to the living room. She dropped down on the couch and pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers.