Fighting Fate (4 page)

“You were just a kid,” he said. He narrowed his eyes at her. “Wait. I’ve seen you in here before, haven’t I?”

“Um…” She cast a guilty look Sarah’s way. Sarah shook her head in disbelief. Gretchen not only knew that Cole was back in town but that he hung out at Lucky’s Tavern. Where they happened to be at that very minute.

Coincidence
, Gretchen had suggested.

More like manipulation
, Sarah thought.

Cole, unaware of Sarah’s internal musings, nodded to himself, answering his own question. “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. You’ve really grown up. I had no idea you were Sarah’s little sister.”

Gretchen avoided looking at Sarah. Instead she kept her smiling face turned toward Cole.

“So how have you been? What are you up to these days?” he asked.

Sarah stared at him for a moment in amazement. What was he doing? Chatting Gretchen up like they were old pals? Then again, she realized, Gretchen had" aGretche been far more receptive to his presence than she had been.

“I’m still in school but I’ll be a senior this fall. I’m majoring in Human Resource Management,” Gretchen admitted with a grin.

Sarah noticed the way Cole’s eyebrows flickered in question. She fought the urge to jump into the conversation, teasing Gretchen as she usually did about her career choice. If there was one thing she knew about her sister, she liked to take charge. Sarah was sure that someday Gretchen would make an excellent HR director.

Gretchen continued to ramble on and Sarah continued to maintain her silence.

“Since I live in the dorms, I come back to Laurel in the summer. Mom lets me get in a few hours at the bakery,” Gretchen told him. “This summer we were lucky enough to have Sarah come home too. For good. I mean, she’ll be living in Laurel.”

Sarah cleared her throat and gave Gretchen a pointed look. “You should probably let Cole get back to whatever he was doing. His drinks are going to get warm.” If she didn’t cut Gretchen off now, her chatty sister might tell Cole things he had no business hearing.

“Actually, only one of them is mine,” he said as he lifted the glasses in his hands. “I’m here with a friend.”

Sarah forced a polite smile. She wondered if the friend was a male or a female. Then she reminded herself that it really didn’t matter.

“It was nice seeing you,” he said.

“You too,” Gretchen chirruped.

Sarah simply gave him a little wave, letting him know he should be on his way.

Chapter Three

Sarah Heath? Back in Laurel? As Cole dropped himself into the vinyl booth the realization slammed into him with the velocity of a falling brick. Sarah. It was crazy how after all this time just the thought of her sent his heartbeat into a chaotic rhythm. That off-kilter heartbeat wasn’t triggered entirely by positive emotions. Sure, he’d loved her once. Even before he’d caught sight of her, he knew he probably could easily love her again. But there were other emotions that were just as strong: Fear that she hated him. Regret over how he’d handled things. And even after all this time, a niggling concern for her safety ate away at him.

That wasn’t all that was eating at him. If he was going to be honest with himself, he’d been thinking about her a lot lately. He attributed that to his move. It was impossible to move back to his hometown and
not
think about Sarah. Everything here reminded him of her. The high school. The bakery her mom owned where they’d spent hours gorging themselves while doing their homework. The movie theater where he’d brought her on what was his first real, proper date. The tangled web of back roads where they’d spent so much time just driving around, getting lost, getting to know one another. Even his old, pathetic, rundown home where they’d spent a lot of time alone together while his mom worked her nightshift had made him think of Sarah more than anything else.  All of his best memories of Laurel starred the girl.

She certainly wasn’t a girl any longer. She’d gone from pretty to flat-out breathtaking.

So many years had passed. So much in his life had changed. He’d accomplished things in his life that back then he’d never thought himself capable of.

When he’d first come back to town, he’d asked around. It had been more out of curiosity than anything. Or so he’d told himself at the time. Now? Now that he’d seen her, he wasn’t so sure he could chalk it up to idle curiosity.

He hadn’t left many friends behind so his inquisitions hadn’t gotten him too far. Alex Keeler, a friend from the old days, had told him the only useful bit of information that he’d managed to scrounge up. Sarah had gone away to school—like most of Laurel’s population did—and she had not returned. Not that Alex had been aware of, anyway.

It had been easy to determine her family was still in town. He’d driven by Suzie’s Sweetshop a time or two. It was located on the same block as his favorite Chinese take-out place and the pawn shop where he’d purchased the majority of his tools. He’d never dared to go inside. He wasn’t sure if Suzie would recognize him. Or what she would say if she did. Most likely, he realized with a pang of regret, he’d be nothing more to her than the loser who had broken her daughter’s heart.
If
she even bothered to remember him at all. Maybe he had been completely forgettable. Maybe he hadn’t meant as much to Sarah as she’d meant to him.

It was possible, he knew. Because she had been the one person on this earth he’d been willing to give up everything for.

And the real kick in the ass of it all?

She had no idea of the lengths he’d been willing to go to while trying to keep her safe. The reason for that was simple. He’d never let her know how much danger she was in simply by being with him.

Worst of all, she made it clear that she hated him back then. But could he blame her? No. Because that had been his plan in the end. After seeing her just now, he realized he might have carried out that plan just a little too well.

He needed to change that.

Now that he’d seen her again, he wasn’t going to let a little old problem like that stop him. Right then and there he made a decision. He was going to find a way to right the wrongs of his past.

“
Cole
.”

He hesitantly pulled his eyes away from Sarah. Her back was to him but he could clearly see that the fingers of one hand were strumming against the table. The fingers of her other hand were wrapped around the base of her glass. In the last few minutes that glass had been making frequent journeys to her mouth. He never would’ve pegged her for a drinker. Maybe she just really liked margaritas because the drink was disappearing fast. Her hair, which had been pulled up into a messy sort concoction on the back of her head, had begun to fall free. He could imagine the way those cinnamon colored strands framed her gorgeous face.

“Yeah,” he said to Alex, letting him know that he’d returned himself to the here and now.

Alex lifted an eyebrow in question. “Is that whoto Is tha I think it is?”

Cole nodded, took a sip of his whisky and then grinned. “Sure is.”

“So what’s her story?” Alex asked.

“I’m not sure yet,” Cole admitted. “But I plan on finding out.”

“Is she back in town for good?” Alex demanded.

Cole nodded again as his gaze zeroed in on Sarah once more. “Sounds like it.”

Her posture was rigid. When he glanced away from her, his eye caught Gretchen’s. She gave him what he thought was a satisfied smirk. He couldn’t help but wonder what
that
was about. He lifted his glass in a small, mock-salute.

She raised her own glass in return. The action snatched up Sarah’s attention. She turned in her seat, briefly locking eyes with him. In that instant, he felt as though he were a teenager again. His heart lurched and the glass became slippery against his palm. He was frozen, thinking he should smile but he wasn’t quite able to pull it off.

And then she turned away again. Her shoulders bounced upward in a huff. He could only imagine she was scowling at her sister. Gretchen, whose face Cole could clearly see, simply smiled unapologetically back at her.

There was a time when Cole had not felt worthy of a girl like Sarah. Yet, she’d wanted him anyway. Now, things were different. Now he
knew
he could be worthy of her and she was looking at him as if he was a piece of arsenic-laced candy she had no intention of eating.

Alex chuckled. “She doesn’t look nearly as happy to see you as you do to see her.”

Alex was one of Cole’s few remaining friends. Hell, if Cole were going to be honest, Alex was his only remaining friend from Laurel. He was just fine with that. For the most part, the crowd he’d hung around with in high school had been nothing but trouble. He was better off without them. Alex hadn’t exactly been part of that crowd. He’d been a little rough around the edges, sure. He and Cole had gotten to be friends when Cole had started working at Keeler’s Lumber. It had been owned by Alex’s dad at the time. It was now owned by Alex, a fact that had come in handy when Cole had returned to town.

Cole knew he’d surprised Alex when he had walked through the door of the back office. Cole had been looking for a job last fall. Just something to tide him over—help pay the bills—until he found something a little more stable. Alex hadn’t had much to offer. Just some part-time work that consisted of mostly menial tasks that could be performed by any high school kid: Unloading shipments, organizing large orders for pick-up and deliveries, keeping the storage area presentable. And in fact, it
had
been Cole’s job when he was in high school.

The job was beneath him now but for the time being, he was forced to take whatever odd jobs he could find.

His lips curved down in disappointment when he realized Sarah was getting ready to leave. He couldn’t help but wonder if that was why she’d been downing her drink so fast. Was she in a hurry to leave because of
him
? He decided not to flatter himself. It wasn’t as if he had any effect on her anymore. Why would he?

It was obvious to him that she was intentionally keeping her eyes averted as she made her way to the door. He unabashedly kept his gaze on her as she walked past his table.

“Bye, Sarah. It was nice bumping into you,” he called across the empty table that stood between them.

She faltered a moment but didn’t come to a complete stop. To his disappointment, she didn’t say anything in response. Her expression flashed from carefully neutral to one of surprise as she gave him a little nod. The next instant she pulled her gaze away and it was as if she hadn’t noticed him at all.

He had hoped for better but realized it could’ve been worse. She could’ve shot an icy glare his way. Still, he’d hoped for a smile. He’d have happily settled for a ‘goodbye’.

“Bye, Cole!” Gretchen chirruped as she waved merrily to him. “Hope we see you around!”

“Yeah,” he said to Gretchen as Sarah pushed the door open and slipped outside, “I hope so too.”

The moment Gretchen slipped out behind her sister he slumped down in his seat and blew out a breath.

The booth began to rumble as Alex chuckled in amusement. “You look like a sad puppy that just got kicked by his owner.”

Ignoring his friend, Cole lifted his glass, finishing off what was left of his drink.

“Don’t tell me she’s the real reason you came back to town,” Alex said.

Cole gave a little shake of his head. “Nah. I had no idea she’d be coming back.”

“Good,” Alex said with a snort. “Because I’d say you really don’t stand a chance with that one.”

On that disappointing—and probably true—note, Cole decided it was time to get going. He left, agreeing to show up at the lumberyard in the morning. By the time he made his way to the parking lot, the Heath girls were long gone.

He slid onto his Harley. It was an older one but in mint condition. He’d emptied out a good chunk of his savings account to buy it.

As he started it up, he couldn’t help but feel pleased by the rumble of the engine. Then his thoughts turned to Sarah again. He immediately imagined how it would feel to have her on the back of this bike. Would she enjoy the ride? He was sure she would. Sweet, straight-laced Sarah hadn’t weah hadnhesitated in going against her parents’ rules back then. She’d ridden on the back of his old, battered, sad excuse for a motorcycle more times than he could count.

She’d clung to him, her body pressed tightly to his. Her—

He cut those memories short as he took off, out of the lot. He had to stop thinking about her. At least for now. At least until he knew what she was doing back in town. Maybe she hadn’t come back to town alone. He’d only had one drink, but that was a sobering thought.

Sarah belonging to someone else. Loving someone else. It wouldn’t be a surprise.

With that realization, he forcefully pushed thoughts of Sarah out of his head.

He had other things that needed more immediate attention.

He easily navigated the familiar streets until he reached the apartment building that he was now calling home. It was his mom’s new home as well.