Cole gently let her leg go and stepped back. He drew in a deep breath through his nose and neatened his hair with his hand. “Okay, then.”
“Sorry.” It had to be physically difficult for him, but she was just as raring to go as he was.
“Don’t apologize, Dani. It was my idea.” Cole snapped up his keys from the kitchen counter. “I don’t think my ego can take you calling me a mistake again.”
Six
Dani’s biggest worry about Jason’s memorial was how Megan was going to handle it. After their time at the firing range the other day, Dani knew pretty well how much all of this was eating her up inside. But she also knew that Megan needed today. She couldn’t move forward with her life until she said goodbye to her brother, as sad as that was.
Cole had called that morning and asked if Dani wanted a ride, and Dani had said yes, mostly because she still felt bad about the way things had ended the other night. He’d put a stop to things, but he’d made it clear it was because of the precedent she’d set with that word—mistake. It didn’t mean that she hadn’t gone to sleep that night, immensely frustrated, thinking about how Cole could’ve been in her bed, weighing her down with his solid frame and sending to her peak over and over again.
He picked her up at her house, and Dani hurried outside as soon as he arrived.
“I was hoping to see the boys today,” Cole said. The disappointment in his voice was heavy, which worried Dani. Did he suspect they were his? She shuttered aside her paranoia by focusing instead on how incredibly hot he looked in a charcoal-gray suit and his black Stetson.
“Oh. I’m sorry. Elena took them to see Aunt Dot.” Cole was getting attached to them and she knew they were getting attached to him. It was dangerous territory that made her wonder about the wisdom of spending more time with him. Still, looking at his face and his soft and tender eyes, she couldn’t deny that there was this pull deep inside her that made her want to be with him.
“Okay then. I guess I’ll see them some other time.”
Dani got settled in the truck and decided she should change the subject. “You’re looking sharp, Sullivan.”
He smiled and pulled out of the driveway. “Thanks. You aren’t looking too shabby yourself. Although I like seeing you in brighter colors. Like red.” He cleared his throat and cast a quick glance at her.
“Yeah. I noticed.”
“Can you blame me?”
Dani just stared out the window, not knowing how to answer. She’d known exactly what she was doing when she went to his house that night. There was just some part of her that wasn’t willing to admit it. At least not out loud.
“Are you going to respond?” Will asked.
“I don’t know what you want me to say, Cole. Did I wear the dress to get your attention? Yes. Absolutely. Did I wear it so you would kiss me? No. That was not the point.”
“Then what was the point?” Cole took the turn into Aaron’s neighborhood.
Dani looked down at her hands, which were folded neatly in her lap. Could she own up to this? Now seemed as good a time as any. “I wanted you to see what you were missing.”
“Well, mission accomplished.”
Dani was ready to put this subject to rest. She had nothing else to add, and she’d already come clean. “Is Will going to be there today?”
“I’m sure he will be. He and Megan have been spending so much time together.”
“They’re in such a weird predicament. Technically still married, needing to pretend like everything is fine.”
“Definitely makes for a situation only the two of them can understand.”
Dani sighed, just thinking about Megan’s lot in life. “I’m glad we’re doing this. I think it will be good for everyone.”
“It was sweet of you to suggest it.” Cole pulled into the driveway on Aaron Phillips’s impressive estate and stopped before the brick mansion standing sentry on the manicured grounds.
They made their way to the grand arched front door, greeted by Kasey Monroe, Aaron’s executive assistant turned nanny, and now, his fiancé. “Thanks you two for coming. Everyone is out back. Savannah is chasing the puppies so she can put them in the mudroom.”
Cole and Dani walked inside. Savannah was indeed running around with one dog tucked under her arm and in hot pursuit of the other, all while wearing a lavender dress with a full skirt and Mary Janes.
“Does she need help?” Cole asked.
“No. She’s the dog whisperer. I just try to not get mad when they eat my shoes.”
