Wrong Side Girl (The Girl Series Book 1) (22 page)

“What?” she asked when I didn’t go on.

“I can’t wait to see you heavy with our first child. You take my breath away always, as soon as I so much as think about you, but to imagine you pregnant with our baby…I can’t imagine anything more beautiful.”

The tears had come again then. The happy kind that made her eyes glitter with joy and excitement and love. That’s when I had pulled the ring out of its box.

“When did you get this?” she went back to her original question.

I grinned at her. Of course she wouldn’t let this go. “A while ago,” I replied as I started to slide the ring on her finger.

“How long a while ago?” I chuckled at her persistence.

“After our weekend at the cottage,” I said quietly while looking into her eyes. They grew big and round at my words, making me chuckle again. I lifted her hand and laid a kiss on the ring that was now decorating her third finger while my eyes stayed glued to hers. Her face grew even softer at my gesture.

“You knew then?” she whispered in amazement.

“I’ve known all my life, Liz. I’ve just been too stubborn to admit it.” Her tears started running down her face in earnest then and I leaned in to kiss them away.

“It’s beautiful, Cole,” she breathed when she looked down at her hand in mine, at the vintage piece of jewelry sitting on her third finger. I knew it would look perfect on her. I couldn’t resist and played with the bottom of her ring, assuring myself that this was really happening.

“Beautiful,” I agreed, but I wasn’t looking at the ring. I was looking at her. I started kissing her with purpose then and proceeded to show her how beautiful I exactly thought she was to me.

Feeling her warm body pressed to mine, listening to her soft breathing, exhausted after our long love making session, knowing this would be my future until I died, I fell into a contented and deep sleep.

The next morning I got up at the crack of dawn. I couldn’t skip out on work again, but before I had to leave, Lizzy needed to be filled in on the Courtney situation and what I had Max do to resolve the issue once and for all.

No more secrets.

I walked into the bedroom with a coffee for each of us and placed them on my nightstand before I slid back under the blankets. I softly kissed and touched her very sensitive back until she started stirring and grumbling. Smiling to myself at her morning grouchiness, I gently coaxed her from sleep.

“Baby, wake up.”

“Sleepy. Very sleepy,” she mumbled into her pillow. My fiancée was adorable. I kept at her.

“Liz, honey, I need you to wake up. Coffee’s ready.” That got her attention. She slightly lifted her head and turned it in my direction, eyes still resistant to open fully.

“Coffee?” she asked hopefully.

“Yeah, baby. It’s right here.” I kissed her nose, then her forehead, then sat up to reach for her mug and held it close enough for her to smell its aroma. Her eyes slowly opened, then focused on the cup, and her hand reached out while she started sitting up enough to take a sip.

“I should agree to marry you more often if this is the treatment I get.”

Very funny.

“Sorry to disappoint you, baby, but I only intend to get married once. To you. So you agreeing last night means I will never ask that question again. Though, I wouldn’t mind you saying ‘yes’ to me without a fight or argument more often.”

“I don’t argue.” I raised my eyebrows at that ridiculous statement. “Much,” she amended. I chuckled and reached for my own coffee.

“Why are we up so early?”

“I’ve got to go to work soon. No way I can skip out again today,” I stopped when I saw Lizzy’s lips turning into a pout. I couldn’t resist kissing them. “I wish I could stay in bed with you for the rest of my life, but unfortunately, we’ve got important things to do today.”

“Yeah? What is that?”

“You have to start planning a destination wedding. Decide where you want to go and make a list of people you want to invite. I’ll give you Sam’s number and she’ll help you with the arrangements.”

Liz smiled a bright smile at me. “I like that plan.”

“Good. I’ll get in touch with Max today to see where he’s at with the Courtney situation. But before I do that I need to fill you in on exactly what has been going on and what we’re planning on doing. I’ve learned my lesson. No more secrets that can lead to misunderstandings and unnecessary hurt and disappointment.”

“Okay.” I could tell that she wasn’t looking forward to listening to me reiterate the details of Courtney’s actions, but she agreed that she needed to know everything to avoid further confusion and misconceptions. So I told her about every single encounter I had with Courtney after I had told her to lose my number.

Every word that was spoken, every unwanted and unwelcomed touch, every threat.

How I hired Max to get rid of her, what he said to scare her away and what exactly had happened yesterday morning.

Every hurtful and ugly detail.

Then I went on telling her that I had asked Max to dig deep and find anything he could on Courtney, anything we could use to throw back at her, and if he couldn’t find anything, to make stuff up. That I wanted her life ruined. I also wanted the life ruined of the person who helped her, who took the photos of us, and who must have kept an eye out to make sure the timing yesterday morning was as perfect as it was.

“Are you sure all that is really necessary?”

“Absolutely. I will not have anything or anyone trying to take you away from me ever again. Getting rid of Courtney in a way that she is going to stay gone is absolutely necessary. I underestimated her once. That’s not gonna happen again.”

“Okay. I’m just as pissed as you are, if not more. Courtney has been a pain in my ass since she knew I existed. I have no idea why she always had it out for me, but believe me, she has not made my life easy until the day I left that town. She needs to learn her lesson. Definitely. But destroying her life? I think that’s going a bit far.”

“Baby, after everything she’s done, do you really think she is going to give up? That stunt she pulled took a lot of thought, not to say time and determination. She’s like a dog with a bone. She won’t stop until she gets what she wants. Crazy bitch still believes that I will come around and make a life with her. She chose this path and went after the woman I love. Now she has to suffer the consequences.” No way was I going to back down. The time for mercy was gone. “I love you, baby. We’re building a future together and nobody is going to interfere with that. I won’t let them. Anyone who tries will have to live with the consequences.”

Liz was studying me with an assessing look on her face. She was clearly working through something in her head. Then she came to a decision and nodded. “Okay, I see you have to do this. And if I’m being honest with myself, I love you even more for wanting to protect our future so fiercely. I’ll support you in your plan, but I want to be in the loop. I want to know what Max finds and what you’re planning on doing so I know what to expect. Don’t keep me in the dark. And just saying, if she approaches me, I will kick her ass, if you’re around or not.”

I pulled her into my side and kissed her temple in gratitude.

“Thank you, baby. You have my permission to kick her ass if the opportunity arises, but please try and do it when I’m with you.” I said on a squeeze, “I want to watch.”

She giggled. “Of course, you do. Kinky bastard. I’ll do my best to get you first row tickets to the showdown at O.K. Corral.” Her eyes were smiling at me over the rim of her coffee mug as she took another sip. I burst out laughing then kissed her on the forehead while still trying to control my hilarity and murmured, “God, I love you.”

It was time for me to take a shower and get a move on if I didn’t want to be late for work. Sam had rescheduled all my meetings for today, starting with the first one right at seven.

“Care for company?” Liz asked me, anticipation and playful seduction clear in her voice. Another reason why she was so absolutely perfect for me. She didn’t take herself too seriously, always made me laugh. My sexy, playful, fiery, and stubborn as hell soon-to-be wife would keep me on my toes for the rest of my life.

I couldn’t wait.

“It’s gotta be a quick in and out for me, baby. I’m already running behind. You sure you’re up to it?” I teased her over my shoulder, my eyes hot on her as I got rid of my pajama pants on the way to the bathroom to give her a show I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist. Cocky, but true. Sure enough, my pants hadn’t completely hit the floor before I heard her throwing back the covers. The quick footsteps of her naked feet as they patted on the hardwood floor after me betrayed her eagerness. I smiled to myself. My greedy little minx. What I didn’t expect was her jumping me. Literally.

“I can do quick. Question is, can you?” She asked as she nibbled on my neck after jumping on my back and having wound her arms and legs around me. Her unexpected impact made me stumble toward the shower, laughing. “Oh, Liz, you have no idea.” That started an interesting competition that I swore to myself would be repeated at other locations throughout the house.

I was stepping out of the elevator when my phone rang. I checked the display. Max. I answered on the second ring.

“Max,” I greeted.

“Cole. Got some interesting news. Derrick dug deep and found something you’ll both want to know immediately. It shines some light on why that bitch has gone off the rails and is after Lizzy the way she is. It’s a shocker, but this whole thing isn’t really about your irresistible hotness or your money. At least not completely. We need a meet. By that I mean you, Lizzy, Derrick, and me. Today.”

“All right. We’ll have to meet at lunch. Meet me at my office at noon. I’ll get Liz to join us here.”

“Good.” Dead air. I was impatient to know what this Derrick guy had found. It sounded like Courtney’s issues went deeper than just plain jealousy or crazy possessiveness. I called Liz right away to let her know Max had some news for us already and needed to see the both of us.

“That was quick,” she said, surprise in her voice.

“It better be. I pay him enough.”

“You have any idea what he meant? What he could have found?”

“I have no clue, baby, but we’ll know soon and then we can deal with her.” Silence on the other end. “Liz?” I called her name. “Something wrong?”

“No. I don’t know. I don’t have a good feeling about this, Cole. She’s always hated me. I thought it was because she was jealous of our friendship and felt threatened, but if it’s not about that…”

“We’ll get to the bottom of this, baby. I promise.”

She sighed. “I know.”

“So I’ll see you here at noon?”

“I’ll bring lunch.”

“You don’t have to. I can tell Sam—”

“No, I want to. I have a craving for Chinese and the place just down the street makes the best Lemon Chicken in Boston. I’ll bring enough for a hulking P.I. and a nerdy computer geek as well.”

I chuckled. “What makes you think Derrick is a nerdy computer geek?”

“Gut feeling.” I chuckled again.

“All right, baby. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“See you then.”

“And Liz?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too,” she whispered and I hung up, smiling to myself as I walked toward my office.

“Glad to see you’re in a better mood today,” I heard Sam call to me and looked up. I grinned. She smiled at me. “I assume that everything worked itself out?”

“It did. Well, most of it. The important parts. Other parts are still a mystery, but they’ll be resolved soon.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“Got a job for you.” Her eyebrows went up.

“I thought I already had one?”

“Funny. Very funny.” I had stopped at her desk when I announced, “Need you to help Liz plan our wedding.” Saying those words brought an instant grin back to my face.

“Ah, that explains the shit-eating grin. Tell me the specifics.”

I did.

Then I watched, amused, as Sam grumbled under her breath while she picked up the phone and started making phone calls, presumably getting prices and ideas on sunny and tropical destination weddings.

Lizzy

Loaded with bags of Chinese food, I stumbled off the elevator en route to Cole’s office. I had clearly gone overboard. Chinese food was my weakness. Well, one of my weaknesses. There were many. I wasn’t sure what the boys liked, so I got a smörgâsbord of Chinese delights that everyone could choose from. The smells wafting off the food made my stomach rumble. I was ravenous today. Due to all the emotional turmoil yesterday I hadn’t really been up to eating anything all day. I rarely ever missed a meal. I loved my food, so I wasn’t surprised that my body was trying to make up for lost nourishment.

I looked up as someone called my name. A tall, blond, gorgeous woman in her late twenties or early thirties, dressed in an immaculate and sexy pant suit got up from her chair behind a desk and came toward me, a bright smile on her face. Since she was sitting behind the desk in front of Cole’s office, I assumed this must be Sam, Cole’s assistant. I hadn’t expected her to look like she did. I thought—or hoped—assistants were all the middle-aged motherly type.

“You must be Lizzy. I’m Sam,” she introduced herself as she relieved me of two of my filled-to-the-brim plastic bags.

“Hi, Sam. Nice to meet you. I’m sorry about all that drama I caused yesterday.” I felt I needed to apologize. Looking at her and knowing she worked in close proximity to my man every day, I also needed to do something else.

“Oh, don’t you worry about it. Cole told me the gist of what happened and let me tell you, that woman sounds pure evil,” she said before I could continue.

“Listen, I don’t want to offend you in any way, and if I do, I apologize in advance. You’re hot. Extremely hot. And you’re working close with whom I consider mine. I’m not really the jealous type of woman, but I need to know what I’m dealing with. I’m sure you know Cole’s history of loving them and leaving them. Now, did he shit where he works and are we going to have a problem, or are you as nice and professional as he made you sound?” I couldn’t help but be blunt. Sam surprised me by bursting out laughing.