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Lorna turned to stare at me incredulously, and I laughed, unable to hold a straight face. “I may have asked Ivy for a little help with this.”
“Ahhh. I should have known.” Snickering, Lorna continued to walk around the room.
“There’s also a full basement that could easily fit storage, as well as a setup for classes, if you ever wanted to expand into a school.”
“Ivy has a big mouth,” Lorna murmured, but her green orbs twinkled with merriment. “She’s the only person I’ve ever told about my idea to open my own school before you.”
I shrugged. “I needed to know as much as possible about what you would want and need for your salon before I bou—um, looked through my properties for one that would work.” I mentally slapped myself upside the head for almost spilling the truth about the building. My guess was that she was much less likely to fight me on it if she thought I’d already owned the building.
Her eyes narrowed, and she looked like she might pounce on my slipup, but to my relief, something caught her attention, and she was distracted enough to forget about my blunder. I hoped.
“What do you think?” I finally asked when she was done oohing and aahing and inspecting every inch of the place.
“You were right, Cole. This is perfect.” Her lips turned down as she glanced around wistfully. “I still don’t feel right about you paying for everything, though.”
Closing the distance between us, I rested my hands on her hips and cocked my head to the side thoughtfully. “Well, consider this. I’m going to turn this place into a salon. If you don’t want it, then I’ll find—”
“What? You wouldn’t dare!”
I grinned smugly, and her lips formed a cute little pout.
“Not fair.”
Shrugging, I admitted, “I told you before, lass. I’m not above any tactic that gets me what I want when it comes to you. Now…about our deal…”
Lorna’s face filled with confusion, and I glared at her until she broke out into a smile and laughed. “Yes. I’ll move in with you, you big cheater.”
11
LORNA
Between speaking Gaelic, his sexy body, and the building that was perfect for my dream salon—the one that I was fairly certain he’d bought just for me—Cole had talked me into moving in with him. He moved quickly after I agreed, and it was only a day later when my things were shifted from the apartment I had shared with Ivy to my new home. But only after Cole assured me that I wasn’t abandoning her to the lease we’d signed. The last thing I wanted was to leave my roommate and friend in a precarious position.
I still saw her at work every day, and there were definite perks to living with Cole—like how he’d woken me up with his mouth on my pussy this morning. But I still found myself missing my friend after only a week.
So there was a huge smile on my face when she called me Friday evening, only a couple of hours after we had last seen each other at work. “Hey, did you change your mind about coming to the game on Sunday? The next one is in Chicago, so you’d have to wait two weeks to join me otherwise.”
“I am so sorry, Lorna.”
My brows drew together at how serious her apology sounded. “Don’t worry. I already told you it’s no big deal that you can’t make it. I’ll just hang out with some of the wives I met last weekend.”
“You may want to reconsider going at all.”
“I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t I attend the game? Are you okay? Do you need me to come over this weekend or something?” I shot Cole a worried look as he strode toward me, his eyes filled with concern.
I put my phone on speaker mode so he could hear her reply. “There’s a story online about the night the two of you met.”
“Gossip is part of the job, unfortunately. Just ignore it, and the vultures will find a juicier story in no time at all,” he assured her, seeming unbothered by what she’d said. “It’s not as though there’s even anything to say about Lorna and me. No scandal since we were both very single until we got together. We didn’t hurt anyone. Their interest should pass quickly.”
“Not with the story Darla sold them.” She heaved a deep sigh. “I swear, I had no idea she would ever do something like this, or I would’ve cut her loose a long time ago. The girl I met in kindergarten is nothing like the woman she’s grown up to become. I just don’t understand why she’d pull crap like this on anyone, let alone one of my closest friends.”
“I’m gonna need you to tell me exactly what happened,” Cole demanded, pulling his phone from his pocket to type our names in the search engine on his web browser.
“Darla told them that you warned that player away from Lorna.”
We dropped down onto the couch as Ivy’s explanation, along with the long list of search results, hit us.
“Holy fuck, she must’ve been close enough to hear exactly what I said,” Cole growled, raking his fingers through his hair.
