The Trouble With Love (30 page)

Glancing in the mirror on the vanity, Sabrina saw a country girl...perfectly suited to
Bowie
,
Texas
.
..h
er new home.
This outfit should send Cole the message
that she was staying in
Bowie
...with him...
whether he liked it or not.
 
Gnawing
her lip
, Sabrina
unbuttoned a couple more buttons on her shi
r
t
, thinking a little more cleavage might help convince him to listen to her
.
T
hen
she
sat down at the vanity to put on a little makeup.

Since she'd ridden behind Cole to the lake house last time, she hadn't really paid attention to which way they'd gone, so she'd gotten directions from Cassie earlier, and asked to borrow 'Bessie' her old truck.  Cassie had given her the keys and wished her good luck.

It was getting close to sunset by the time
Sabrina got
to the cabin and pulled into the driveway.  Her heart fell to her toes when she didn't see Cole's bike parked there.  Luke must've been wrong, she thought
,
and felt tears sting her eyes.  She dropped her head down on the steering wheel and hugg
ed it, then she heard someone curse and something metallic clink against what she thought must be a wall inside the cabin
, and lifted her head to look around
.
 

A pair of red and teal board shorts hanging over the porch railing caught her attention, then she saw a pair of flip flops next to the door. Her heart rate kicked up a notch and she pulled the keys out of the truck and put them in her pocket, then quietly slid out of the truck and shut the door.
  She sniffed a couple of times as the smell of
barbeque
teased her nose.  He had to
be
out on the back deck, she thought and started around the house.

She rounded the corner and something else teased her.  Cole was standing near the
barbeque
pit in a pair of cutoff jeans shorts, shirtless,
and
sucking the finger he'd evidently burned.  He looked good enough to eat himself,
and
her breath caught as desire slammed into her
like a freight train
, and s
hortly on its heels
was
so much love for him that it almost felt like she was going to choke on it.

Sabrina took a couple of deep breaths, then she made her feet move forward to the stairs.  When she reached the top step, his eyes widened then narrowed and she could see him shutting down on her.  He was about to make her leave.  "What are you doing here?" he asked coldly.

"I need to talk to you...
please
, Cole," she
told him not caring
if it sounded like she was begging.  She wasn't above it right now.

Her heart stopped when he shook his head and turned his back on her.  "I think you've made yourself perfectly clear
,
you don't need to say anything else.  Just leave me alone, Sabrina."

"If you'd just let me explain, Cole..." she said and walked over to put her hand on his back.  His back muscles flinched and he shook off her hand and moved away
from her
.

"Just get the fuck out of here, Sabrina...I'm done with this.  Why can't you just leave me be?  Haven't you carved enough of me up, yet?"

"I'm sorry, Cole.  I didn't mean to hurt you."

He spun around and grabbed her shoulders, "Fine. I forgive you
...
is that what you came here for?" he grated out, and it certainly wasn't forgiveness she saw in his eyes.  He shoved her away from him then said, "Just fucking leave. I don't want to see you again...I'm expecting company."

Sabrina sucked in the sob that was trying to escape, it took her two tries to contain it, then her lower lip wobbled and her eyes filled with tears, "That guy I was with at the Blue
Bird is Kenny's brother,
Wade
," the sob escaped, then she took a deep breath to get a grip on her emotions then told him, "
He was in Dallas and Gabe told him I was here, so he drove over to see me so we could catch up.
  He wanted to check up on me and make sure I was okay.
"

"That's nice, it's good you have someone looking out for you.  Anything else?" he asked her shortly, without an ounce of give.

She felt big fat tears roll down her cheeks
to
plop on her chest, which was pretty exposed in the unbuttoned shirt and bikini top. 
Looking him directly in his angry emerald eyes, she told him in a quiet pain-filled voice,
"I love you, Cole...always will.  Take care of yourself," then turned with a sob and ran down the steps and to the truck.

When she got there
,
her emotions were running so high she couldn't even
see the truck, or
make her hand s
teady
enough to open the door
, so she
put her back against the door and slid to the ground
then
grabbed her knees,
letting it all go
.  H
er sadness over losing Cole,
the stress over her kidnapping,
Kenny's death...everything that was bottled up inside of her picked this time to escape.
  After ten minutes or so she tried to pull herself together, but couldn't see, so she felt her way up the door and opened it, then dug inside her purse trying to find a tissue.

A roll of paper towels appeared over her shoulder, and she grabbed it then tore off several, and blew her nose and wiped her eyes, then handed the roll back over her shoulder without turning around.  She pushed her purse over on the seat then sat down and
closed the door
.  Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the keys and put them into the ignition.
 

She turned it over and it wouldn't catch...so she tried it again and again, until the rotation slowed down and then stopped.  Tears filled her eyes again and she mumbled, "Fucking perfect," then she dropped her head on the steering wheel
, knocking her hat off
.  She sat there like that a minute
just breathing
, then she picked up her purse and pushed the door open
and
got out
, then
slammed
it behind her.

Without even looking at Cole
,
who was leaning on the fender of the truck with his arms folded over his muscular chest, because she knew if she did she'd lose it again, she started walking down the driveway toward the road.  U
nzipp
ing
her purse
, she
pull
ed
out her cell phone, so she could call Cassie to come get her.
 
Before she could dial
though
, t
he cell phone was jerked out of her hand and she
was spun around to face Cole.

"Give me my phone back, I need to call Cassie
,
"
she said
and held out her hand, not able to look into his eyes.

When he didn't give it to her, she finally dragged her eyes up to his and he was studying her intently.  "
Tell me this Sabrina...w
hy should I listen to anything you have to say
?
I can't trust a fucking thing you or Luke have to say.  You lied to me
, or
made my best friend lie to me
,
because you didn't want to see me
," his jaw worked and his eyes were dark and filled with pain.  "
That makes me ask, why are you here now?
  Are you just here to screw with my head some more?  Because if you are, you're doing a damned good job of it, sugar."

"I wanted to apologize, Cole.
..for everything.  Dragging you and Luke into my drama, being hardheaded, running out on you at the hospital, misjudging you when I called and
you were
out with Luke...and especially for coming between you and Luke.  It was wrong of me to ask him to keep that from you.  It's not his fault, it's mine.
"

"I'm dizzy from the merry-go-round you've been pushing me around on
, Bri
...I need to get off and
catch my breath,
"
his voice was breathless and uneven like he was holding back a tidal wave of emotion.  "
I have to let you go, Bri...I can't be what you need me to be. I told you I don't do relationships
, I'm no good at them
."

"You're already everything I need, Cole...I don't want you to change," she told him and felt fresh tears at the corner of her eyes.

A car pulled up in the driveway behind her
,
and she turned around and saw a
lime
green VW bug pull up
and park be
hind
the truck
.  The driver was a dark-haired woman and
Sabrina watched her
pull down the visor to fluff her hair, then
she
slam
med
it back up
, before she
got out of the car. 
The
hot pink bikini top, if you could call the
tiny
triangles
that, barely covered her obviously surgically enhanced
breasts
, and the tiny jean skirt she paired it with,
told Sabrina all she needed to know. 
This was the company that Cole had been expecting.

When the woman walked up to Cole and kissed him then said, "Steaks ready, sugar?" Sabrina wanted to throw up or claw the woman's eyes out.

In a soft whisper she told him, "
This
is
how you take a breather
, Cole
?
,
" the
n
grabbed her phone from his hand and took off running down the driveway, not even seeing it for the tears that blinded her.

Sabrina
had just reached the road, when he roared her name and she heard him jogging down the drive behind her.  Picking up her pace, she ran harder until
a sharp piercing pain sliced through her side
, and s
he stepped to the side of the road, leaned down and wretched
but didn't throw up
, breathing fast and hard. 
Sucking in deep breaths she pulled her
self together,
then
pushed speed dial for Cassie and waited for her to pick up.

Cassie picked up on the first ring,
and asked
with
hope
in her voice, "How'd it go?"

Sabrina sobbed and then
told her in
a choked voice, "Bessie broke down at the cabin, can you
come get me?  I'll be walking..."

Suddenly the phone was jerked out of her hand again, and Cole told Cassie, "I'm bringing her, don't worry about it," then cut it off and put it in his pocket.

Sabrina looked at him a moment in a daze then turned and started walking again.
  He was a crazy man if he thought she was going with him anywhere.  "Go back to your girlfriend, Cole...leave me alone," she said without missing a pace.

"Dammit, she's not my girlfriend, Sabrina," he said walking fast trying to keep up with her.  She knew his injured leg had to be hurting from the effort, but she didn't really care right about now.

"Sure looked that way to me,
sugar
," she told him snottily, then added, "Go back to the cabin Cole, before your steaks burn and your girlfriend cools off."

"Listen to me, dammit! Candy is
not
my girlfriend."

"Neither am I...we're both free to do what we want
,
Cole...
just leave me alone
."