Love Redone in Hidden Harbor (Island County Book 2) (7 page)

Divine
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The server came to take our orders, and I got my usual, seafood fettuccini. I noticed Cynthia ordered a side salad with no dressing.

Yum! Nothing like greens to tickle the throat as they go down. At least their food bill will always be low.

“What are you grinning at over there?” Cole whispered, leaning across the table, as Cynthia and Tori chatted about good breakfast places on the island.

My blood froze, and I refused to make eye contact. The email from him was bad enough. He wasn’t supposed to be noticing anything about me. Just like I didn’t notice anything about him besides his…

Amazing body.

Beautiful eyes.

Lush lips.

Gorgeous smile.

Good teeth.

Olive skin.

Thick, dark hair.

“Nothing.”

“I doubt it’s nothing.” His voice combed over me, pleading for me to look at him.

And I did.

“Just the circumstances.”

“They are unusual.” His lip curled slightly. The intensity in his gaze drilled into me, and I wondered if this was just how he looked at everyone? Maybe some people were so charismatic, their mere presence confused the senses. Maybe it was a business tactic. Speaking of—

“So what is it that you do for a living?” I asked him.

Cole’s shoulders relaxed slightly and he sat back in his chair. Nick turned his attention away from Tori and Cynthia’s conversation and involved himself in Cole’s.

“Yeah, what keeps you in LA?” Nick asked.

“I manage my brother’s band.”

“Band?” I didn't know why I staged that as a question.

“You do more than that,” Cynthia laughed, turning her attention back to our end of the table. “He has a PR firm with quite a few high profile clients. It just so happens, that this year, his brother’s band really took off. Coincidence? I think not. Anyway, that’s where we met.”

“A PR firm?” I repeated.

“That’s why I transferred to school in Georgia. That was one of the few colleges that had a program in music management.” His jaw tensed, and I saw him take a deep breath in and not let it out.

“What about you?” she asked Nick and Mason. “What do you two do?”

“I design and build custom furniture,” Nick said smiling.

“I’d love to see your pieces before we leave,” she chortled. The noise wasn’t something I was familiar with. “We will definitely need some furniture when our house gets finished.”

A deep stab of pain shot through my abdomen. Was it indigestion or heartache?

“And I own a construction firm with my father, and my twin brother owns an energy drink company that keeps me going while I’m on the job.” Mason grinned, more proud of his brother than himself, which made no sense considering his firm was one of the largest home remodeling businesses in Seattle and the surrounding area.

“Well, your profession has done good things to your body.” She paused as his sibling revelation slowly crept up on her. “You’re a twin? I can’t imagine seeing two of you. I’d probably fall over.”

Can we say…awkward?

Tori shot her a gaze that would wilt the healthiest of houseplants.

Toes were being stepped on left and right.

Realizing how things came across, Cynthia shook her head and chuckled nervously.

“Looking is okay. Just not touching. Isn’t that right?” She barely glanced at Cole, and I got a sick feeling in my stomach.

Which was ridiculous. I shouldn’t be worrying about the health of my ex-fiancé’s new relationship.

It wasn’t my business. What was my business was getting a deposit from them to hold the date.

 “Okay. So tell me what Cole was like as a kid. Did he always get into trouble?” Her eyes landed on mine and she narrowed them. “Or was he always on his best behavior? He never talks about his past.”

I hadn’t realized my hand had been frozen in position with the butter knife stuck straight toward Cynthia until Nick cupped his hand over mine. I slowly put the knife back on my plate with a clink.

“That’s because I was a boring kid.” Cole smiled.

“Doubtful.” Cynthia turned her attention back to me.

“He, umm.” My eyes flicked to Cole’s, and his lip curled slightly as he waited for my response. “He played soccer so he didn’t have much time to do any real damage.”

There. That was easy. Stick to the facts.

“Did he play any other sports? I can’t imagine him playing soccer,” she asked, bringing her hand to her wine glass. Cynthia was about to marry Cole and she had no idea what sports he played?

“He played lacrosse briefly in high school until his mother made him stop,” I laughed, remembering how unglued she came when he came home with a black eye and a broken wrist.

“Why’s that? Why’d you stop?” she asked Cole.

“I broke my wrist and my mom wasn’t thrilled.”

“Makes sense,” Cynthia said, her gaze lingering a second too long at the bar.

I didn’t even need to turn around to know who had come on duty behind us. One of the few eligible bachelors on the island, Kyle, always managed to snag most women’s attention when he poured drinks.

For Cole’s sake, I didn’t want to believe what Nick said about her, but it wasn’t looking good.

“If Cynthia’s looking for dirt, I’ve got some.” Nick grinned. “Cole did egg my bedroom window in high school, and he toilet papered the house.”

I spun in my seat and stared at Nick. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah. I was in tenth grade, which put you guys in eleventh.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” I asked Nick.

He shrugged his shoulders. “It wasn’t a big deal.”

I glanced at Cole and his brow arched, obviously still proud of his accomplishment.

“What about parties? Who did he date in high school?” Cynthia asked and my heart stopped. “Was it some nerdy girl with no personality?”

“Oh, did Cole not tell you? Cole and Natty went together from first grade until their second year in college.” Tori’s words hovered in the air and I let out a huge sneeze.

Did I forget to mention I was allergic to stress?

 

“Natty…”

“Natty, are you okay?” Nick whispered. His arm circled around my shoulders and he held me tightly. The room still spun as I looked around and saw three sets of eyes staring down at me. I’d somehow managed to slide onto the floor. Did I fall out of my chair? Why didn’t I remember anything from point A to point B?

What a way to make an impression. The pounding in my chest only worsened, and my cheeks felt like they were on fire. This wasn’t a good look.

Hives slowly crawled up from my chest, and any second the red splotches would reveal themselves on my neck and face. The prickle had already started.

“I’m fine,” I whispered, attempting to climb up off the floor. “Everything’s fine.”

“I’m so sorry. I don’t know how in the world that slipped out,” Tori told me. “Well, I kind of do, but still I had no idea you’d have that reaction.”

“It’s not your fault. I doubt I’d be able to handle having someone hit on my boyfriend either. If I were to ever have one.” My gaze fell to the two empty seats across the table as I slid into mine. “I guess Cynthia didn’t take it well?”

Tori handed me two antihistamines, and I swallowed them with a glass of water as our server came over with a bag of ice and handed it to Nick. I wasn’t actually allergic to stress. It just didn’t do good things to me, but I’d gladly take the antihistamines so I could go home and crawl straight into bed.

“How is she doing?” the server asked Nick as if I wasn’t capable of answering for myself.

And maybe since I had to be scooped off the floor, the observation was valid.

“Just a little panic attack,” Nick assured our server. “Happens all the time.”

I shot him a scowl. No, it didn’t.

“Let us know if you need anything else,” our server told us before going back to the bar.

“Where’d Cole and Cynthia go?” I questioned.

“You really don’t remember how you got on the floor?” Tori’s eyes widened.

“The last thing I remember was the look of death that Cynthia shot me.” I looked around nervously, hoping she didn’t reappear anytime soon.

“Actually, it wasn’t all that dramatic. You just slid right out of your seat and plopped on the floor.” Mason smiled. “One minute you were there, the next you were under the table.”

“Great.” I let out a sigh. “How did Cynthia take the news?”

“Not well.” Tori flinched. “She smacked her napkin down so hard, the entire table shook, and then she bolted out of the restaurant with Cole following right behind her.”

“When did I slip under the table?”

“After Cole left.”

“So there is a God.”

This really shouldn’t be a big deal. We’re all adults. We’d been in a kiddie relationship, and now he’d grown up and found someone he wanted to marry.

No.

Big.

Deal.

But if it was no big deal, why was I under full assault with hives dancing along my cheeks.

Oh, yeah, because the kind of love I’d had for Cole didn’t build slowly. It was that kind of love that smacked me in the face and gave me something to daydream about it. Stretch that feeling from first grade until college and it made the end of our love merciless and unforgiving. The love had sunk deep into my bones and had no way out.

The first time Cole came into my life I’d been in the first grade. I was showing off at recess to my friends, and I jumped off the swing. Unfortunately, I didn’t see Cole before jumping, and I accidentally landed on him, tackling him to the ground. He went face first into the dirt, but as soon as I climbed off him and helped him up, he grabbed my hand and didn’t let go until college.

No matter how hard I tried to escape his spell over the years, I couldn’t.

Until today.

Today, I realized my life had stalled. He’d moved on, and I needed to do the same.

These last sensations rolling through my system had been nothing more than the final few withdrawal symptoms.

Simple as that.

“I wonder if they’ll still want to get married on the island,” Tori mused, swirling her wine in the glass.

“I’m guessing no,” Mason said wryly.

“Truthfully, I don’t see them getting married at all,” Nick said.

I let out a groan. “Not again.”

“But not because of this.” Nick slid his phone out and brought up a screen. “Check this out. I found it right before dinner.”

I took the phone from him and right before my eyes was a photo of Cynthia on the beach in a bikini, her head thrown back, laughing.

Exactly the kind of image that made an ex-girlfriend feel really great about themselves.

“What’s this?” I asked, scanning the information.

“A dating website. Well, more like a hookup website,” Nick said, nodding.

“She probably forgot to take down her profile,” I said in Cynthia’s defense, sliding it to Tori.

“Nope,” Tori replied, scrolling through the profile. “She was last on it two days ago.”

“No way.” I reached for the phone again.

“Yup. And she’s had several successful encounters…whatever that means,” Tori muttered, happily handing the phone over.

“I had a friend use one of those sites, and when he showed up to meet her, she was actually a he with a wig and...” Mason wiggled his brows.

“The guilt is suddenly slipping away,” Tori said.

“I’m sure there’s a logical explanation,” I countered.

“You’re absolutely right.” Mason nodded. “The logical explanation is that she wants to get laid.”

My chest tightened at the thought of Cole. Why would she play him like this? Or did he know and not care?

“So she not only looks, she touches.” I stared at her grinning face. “Do you think Cole knows?”

Nick took the phone away from me and slid it back in his pocket.

“Well, I looked to see if he was on the site, and he wasn’t.” He took a bite of his salmon. “And it’s not like her profile pops up on Google. You have to be a member to see it.”

“Wait a second.” My eyes narrowed.

“I have a profile,” he said, in between bites.

“And you never told me?” I laughed.

“Never came up.” His grin deepened.

“Please tell me that’s not where you met Andrea.” I stared at him and he shrugged.

“And the pieces of the puzzle begin to fit.” I took a bite of pasta and shook my head.

“Well, you don’t think it was conversation that held our relationship together do ya?” His brows furrowed.

I rolled up my napkin and smacked him with it.

“I’ve actually only done it twice,” Nick promised.

“It sounds like once is one too many times,” I grumbled.

“So should we warn Cole?” Tori asked.

I shook my head. “He’s a grown man.”

“He didn’t care about Natty’s heart when he broke it all those years ago,” Nick said. “And believe me, I remember it like yesterday. I had to hear about it over and over and over again.”

I rolled my eyes. “It wasn’t that bad.”

But it had been that bad. I’d been a wreck that summer and now I was still a confused ball of emotion unable to cope with anything love-related. And that was when my mind drifted back to Cole and Cynthia.