It was like being kicked in the stomach. I fell back a step at his words, shame like I’d never known burying me alive. Kissing Cole had been the most thrilling and wonderful experience of my life. And the look of disdain on his face burnt that to ash.
The way we’d been together just two nights ago had felt so right. If he regretted that… If he blamed that for the loss of his mother…
Then he must have hated me.
I opened my mouth to say something. To apologize. But how do you apologize for that?
Tears of shame clogged my throat. My eyes filled, and through the blur of wetness, I saw Cole’s gaze had fallen to his lap. He looked miserable. Lost.
He didn’t want me to talk to him. He clearly didn’t want me to touch him. So, I did the only thing I could do. The most generous thing I could do for us both.
I ran.
Part II
Chapter 16
Eight years later
ELISE
“So, he bought one of your rings?”
“Yep.”
“TheGray Blakewood? World-famous author?” Alberta’s eyes went wide with wonder, as she held her fork of mac-n-cheese suspended in midair.
I nodded, grinning. “The one and only.”
Alberta dropped her fork and stood up from our second-hand sofa. In the next instant, she attacked me with a hug, and I had to juggle my bowl of macaroni to avoid dropping it.
“Elise, that’s amazing!” She sang in my ear as we hugged.
“I know, right?” I giggled. We untangled ourselves, and I claimed my spot on the couch. “It’s pretty exciting.”
“Damn right, it is.” She plopped down beside me, picked up her bowl, and blew over it. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays were Alberta’s nights to cook. And more often than not, that meant mac-n-cheese.
Personally, I wouldn’t call boiling a box of elbow macaroni and mixing a pouch of cheese powder and milk cooking, but in the three years we’d lived together, I’d learned not to complain.
I took a bite instead. The pasta could have cooked a minute or two longer, and I guessed Alberta had used a little too much milk because the cheese sauce was thin and bland. I chewed with resolve. I could take over the cooking every night, but then I’d have less time to design.
So that was a hardno.
Even though I worked the floor at Buttross Jewelers, my favorite place in the world these days was in the back of the store with the computers and the industrial 3D printer. My boss, Ed, would let me stay after closing and work on my own designs. When I finished one, I’d program the 3D printer to render one in wax, and if Ed liked the prototype, he’d let me build the mold for it and set one in metal. The first year I’d worked for him, he’d only allowed me to use bronze and pewter, but those designs had sold so well, now I was free to use golds and sometimes even platinum — on smaller pieces, of course.
In my nights alone in the back of the store, I could lose hours. And if that meant eating Alberta’s chewy pasta, so be it.
Especially now that I could say a world-famous author had bought one of my engagement rings. The reality of it sunk in.
“Holy shit!” I shouted. “A world-famous author bought one of my engagement rings!”
Alberta tipped her head back and laughed at the ceiling. “You sound so surprised.”
I blinked at her, grinning like a crazy woman. “I guess I am surprised. Kind of.”
She shot me an arched look. “You shouldn’t be, E. Your designs are the real deal, and you know it.”
I mirrored her expression. “And if I didn’t, you and Mama would be quick to school me.”
